A/N: Extra Bit 2: Eleonora visits a banged up Lila, back when New Los Angeles was first being established. We're no longer worrying about continuity or sequence from here on out.

Indulgent head canon, full game spoilers as well as J-bodies, not too heavy in the swears department. This really belongs back between Ch2 & 3, but it severely spoils the other chapters. I could write it as an entire flashback, but I've done enough of that.

All mind-bendingly good things belong to MONOLITH SOFT. Gosh, I love Eleonora. Someone get John LeCarre to write her a fanfic!

(Day 13 on Mira.)

So the annoyance had survived. Just when Eleonora had started to put her original plan back into action (mercifully that other asset had survived, not that she too couldn't be replaced), this thing crawls into New Los Angeles. Literally. Crawls on all fours.

The blonde administrator looked into the tube containing Lila Brown, one in a row of cylindrical pods dedicatedly restoring the health of their contents. Lila's eyes were closed, her face pale and sour, her hair more than a little draggly. She looked a wreck, even after being scrubbed clean by the Maintenance Center. The subdued lighting wasn't helping much either. The center was dim, with the whisper of pumps and hushed footsteps. Visiting it always reminded Eleonora of an aquarium in a small town zoo, with disappointing displays of sulky fish that never moved past a slow drift.

The team had told Eleonora that Lila'd be fine in a day. Her injuries weren't anything much, especially when compared to the wounded BLADEs pouring into the city. From the moment they'd set foot on Mira, the ECP teams had been attacked by the most outrageous and raging creatures. Even the city itself had come in for its share of attacks, with packs assaulting the gates, a few even managing to rampage inside the city. Lila hadn't been touched by all that. A world full of vicious indigen, and Lila's biggest problems were dehydration and skinned knees.

Well shoot, honey. Days before, Eleonora had passed on the information, oh so gently, that several pods had already been found, detached from the original unit that included Lila, all sadly destroyed. She'd watched carefully and casually as the Commander had grunted and went on his business. He hadn't asked about it to begin with. He wouldn't ever ask, she was fairly certain. She had already started to maneuver Nina closer to him. What was it about that ox and short women with names ending in 'a'? It looked ridiculous, but they seemed to be his type.

And now this. Again. Well, really, if she needed something to remind her not to raise her hopes, not to assume that her expectations were to be met, this was fairly minor. No real danger to New LA.

A technician passed by, glancing at her. Eleonora modified her smile, making it more gentle. She had to be so careful around this one. Probably because she had been so thoroughly mistaken and disappointed at the start. Who sends in a resume, carefully referencing the kind of job she'd had in San Diego, and then point blank refuses to continue that very job? Eleonora had read Lila's file, the real one, well, as real as she could get, and she knew exactly what Lila's role in the gravitational propulsion research project had been, and it had not been as an engineer and it had certainly not been to make coffee. Hideous coffee, she'd had the pleasure of experiencing it on the White Whale campus. Lila'd been eyes and ears, and a certain amount of poison for the original project leader. For Vandham she was supposed to be a very direct amount of honey.

Back then, Eleonora had really wanted something to stick on him. Vandham needed a leash, or better yet, a muzzle. His dedication and loyalty to Nagi were not good enough. People changed. Influence didn't. Even after six years of experience with him, she still wasn't completely convinced. On the Project campus, she'd been eager for something to control him. She had Nagi settled, she had Chaussen's number, she would have loved to have the Commander too.

So she'd been almost as pleased as the man himself to welcome the little scorpion into the fold. Except then Lila had made it very clear that she'd walk away from the project if Eleonora asked anything like that from her. You would think this was the proverbial offer you couldn't refuse. "Hello, the Earth is scheduled for demolition, I've got a ticket for the last train out, but you'll need to keep doing your job, okay?" Nothing that direct, dear heavens, no, not by a light year. All very polite, and then Lila had rejected it clearly if equally obliquely. Eleonora had assumed that the job was merely incomplete in San Diego, a matter of lack of time and focus. Alas, no. Too late to reject the application she had all but publically blessed.

Fine, fine. She'd had Nina even back then, although one look at the two of them, the ox and the scorpion, had pretty much put that idea to bed. They smiled at each other, for goodness sake. Who did Vandham smile at, beside Little Miss Genius, Lin Lee Koo? Perfectly correct, nothing but respectful colleagues, but obviously blocking any other options.

She'd still almost managed to get something out of it. Her smile became more truly serene as she remembered it. Chausson had actually given her the idea. He'd been concerned about reports of bad synchronizations. Worried that there were underlying problems. He'd asked for a quick overview. Eleonora already was well aware of it, and wasn't too put out. The numbers were fairly small, the effect fairly minor, and most could be tweaked until they were acceptable. If they cared to do so. They already were going to need to make some cuts and this was just nature's way of helping the selection. Nature and man.

And woman.

What could happen by bad luck could happen by design. The mimeosome team was all too helpful, almost sickeningly so. Silly kids, their jobs at least were safe. Mostly. Construction and ship design? Rather less so. But the mims would need to be maintained during the whole journey and beyond. To put it mildly. So their eager assistance had been unnecessary if gratifying. Lila's synch was supposed to go spectacularly wrong, and she'd either be out and Nina would be in, or Vandham would have to buy her protection somehow. In which case, Eleonora's help would be the price. Perfect.

She'd waited for the official report. And waited. Days passed, nothing. The reject should have been screaming in the mimeosome wing within hours.

The only hint was a sudden move to the skell department, under Vandham's direction. Perfectly acceptable, but nonetheless sudden. Not the marker of a problem, but still something. She'd decided to wait a week before dropping by, only to be cut off by Lila. Lila had made an appointment to see her, formally. She walked in, her face full of guilt. In the next ten minutes, Lila had explained the whole problem and solution. Had stated that she'd thought about it and decided that she didn't want to be any danger to the project. If Eleonora felt she should leave, she would. At once.

Eleonora's smile slipped, reestablished itself, and then returned, this time a true smile. One born of submission to a completely unreliable world. Lila had very neatly destroyed any use she might be. And the best part of it? Eleonora was half convinced Lila was doing it for exactly the reasons she had said. Out of loyalty to the project and concern that she was a liability. What could you do with someone like that, short of shooting her?

She'd decided to keep Lila around, as a reminder of just how stupid people could be, including herself, and just how much they needed managing. Really, so much managing. Better to start from scratch than rely on the messy connections people brought with them. A much better idea, but not always possible.

Besides, Vandham hadn't known about their little conversation, and she could always try to approach him directly, much though she'd prefer to avoid it.

Eleonora had to admit, it wasn't actually a loss. Lila was as competent a team member as most others, even if she was limited. Actually, once they were on the Whale, Lila had been extraordinary. Eleonora had to grant her that. Her heart almost softened, remembering. If Eleonora gave the least hint, Lila tore the problem up. Too well sometimes. For example, she was NOT actually supposed to reach the Lifehold. No one was. But she had tested the defenses until she had really done it, and then spent the next few months looking as nauseous as a drunken pig on a roller coaster (now that was a nice image for you). As scared as a rat in a research lab. Eleonora was afraid that Lila had broken and would need to be put in an air lock for permanent safe keeping, but no, she'd smoothed out. Had loyally given a weekly report, and had swallowed Eleonora's weekly reassurances greedily. Never stopped working, just with a certain feverish twitchiness and increased silence.

No one else noticed, since the dear little scorpion had been one of the many crewmembers that had gone all silent and twitchy after the destruction of Earth anyway. Not even Vandham noticed. Well, he himself had gone as skittish as his bulldozer nature would allow, who'd have suspected he'd take it as hard as he had. Two very unlike peas in a pod, those two.

Eleonora officially gave up, released all plans to the wind, and decided to wait and see. She'd still love to have a hold on Vandham, but maybe his loyalty to Nagi would be enough. That and professional pride. This city was something he was building, and he wouldn't want to endanger it.

As it was, she'd spent as much time as she dared away for the Mission Board. The other projects at the Mim Center were far from ready and didn't require her attention. She headed out towards the light and bustle of the administrative corridor. Her most cheery, hopeful smile reestablished itself. At the very least, she'd be highly disappointed in herself if she didn't manage some kind of bounce when she passed the news on to the Commander. Nothing ever really was wasted.

a/n: I'm getting farther and farther away from the main story of Lila & Jack, but the next one, wow, I went WAY off the regular story. I was doing bad math in my head and realized that, if we're thinking 2017, it means that Jack is about 10 years old (depending on how we count aging & birthdays for mimeosomes), and Lila is 4 or 5, on a good day. I started to wonder what they were like. Why? Why?! We're here for the giant robots, not this lunacy! Well, I'll give you robots, see if I don't. Therefore, let me present...

Next up: EX03: Back to the present, but with giant robots.

Warning: EX04 is totally off-canon, and based off the AU of Green-Piggy's story, "I see signs now [all the time]". Go read that and now, because it is hilarious (L finds a soul mate, oh help me) and full of feels (Dougy! send help).