The Foundation Must be True

by Tankred

In an attempt to summon the best familiar she could, Louise altered the words of the summoning for maximum power. What she summoned was something that had never before been seen in this world, and now she has an army at her beck and call. Nothing will ever be the same. Tiberium Universe.

6. Aftermath Part I

Well, I got a lot of mixed responses on the last chapter with quite a few compliments but a lot of people commented on how long-winded I wrote the background for Tristania. It was a little excessive, I admit, and I will be avoiding doing a repeat of that, although I'll still be making descriptions and such. Just not as long as that one. I did that mostly because I got really irritated that I couldn't find any good information so I just made shit up and got a little carried away.

I now have access to an excellent source of information supplied to me by balot55 which will aid me greatly, and make everything more accurate!

Similarly some people were happy with Louise getting the hero's kiss instead of Saito, but some people weren't quite as happy. I said it in the end of the last chapter, but I'll repeat it for those who missed it: one kiss does not a relationship make!

The poor girl was still under the effects of whatever drug Mott used to knock her out, and Louise had just rescued her and many others from what was essentially a life of servitude as sex slaves. I felt that this more than warranted some form of affectionate response, and a kiss fit nicely into this niche. That said, I do not have any plans at the moment for any relationships beyond what already existed in canon although that may be subject to change. I don't actually have a problem with same-sex relationships and I am willing to write this, but only if I'm getting a very clear approval from a majority of reviewers!

Regardless of how it turns out, there will still be awkward and occasionally suggestive moments, but this is more because of the fact that most of the cast are female than any actual desire. Also please keep in mind that most are in in their late- to mid-teens and hormones are present, which rarely makes people act with things like foresight and logic in mind.

What else? Oh yeah.

It seems I asked my question about the Staff of Destruction a bit too early, and it won't even feature in this chapter. I seem to be doing that a lot lately; thinking that "I'll put a certain scene in this chapter" and then I blink and before I know it, I'm up to 30 pages without it happening! Oh well, I'll just put the winner up in the chapter when it all goes down!

Now, on with the story.

---

Chapter 6

Aftermath Part I

---

The sun had just peeked over the horizon and was making its way through the windows of the Headmaster's office where once again, two men sat quietly.

Neither Osmond nor Colbert had been to bed after they had been told about the sudden disappearance of Louise de la Vallière, and had thus still been awake when she returned. They were more surprised by the significantly larger force of Black Golems that had followed in her wake, along with six carriages carrying almost two dozen young women. They were all taken directly to the Infirmary and were still being looked over by the hastily awoken nurses, as many were in quite the bad state from being at the late Count's mercy for so long.

A state official had brought them the official report of their findings, as it had been one of the Academy's students that had caused the whole situation. On top of that, the Academy had also been the closest place where the women could receive care that was trusted by the Crown. This report was now lying on the desk in-between where the two men were sitting, having gone over it together.

"What a headache this turned out to be." Jean Colbert groaned as he held his eyeglasses in his left hand while rubbing at his tired eyes with his right. "We should count our lucky stars that Count Mott had so many skeletons in his closet that it overshadowed miss Vallière's actions."

"Luck had nothing to do with it, Professor." Osmond said, sounding just as tired as he looked. "The Count had been under watch for a long time for some very questionable actions." he said, having actually exchanged letters with Cardinal Mazarin about this very thing.

"Miss Vallière just happened to be at the right time at the right place to set this particular powder keg off. In fact, I do almost wish that she had done so sooner."

"Yes," Colbert agreed as he once more picked up the papers holding the report, disgust clear in his voice as he read over what it said. Waste of air didn't even do him justice, it had been well over a decade since he'd wanted to burn a man to cinders as much as he did right now.

Too bad he was already dead, which brought him to another point.

"Is anyone going to press any charges for his death?" he asked, to which the Headmaster immediately shook his head.

"The Count died by the hand of one of his own men, evident by the sword still sticking out of him when they got there. And several eye-witnesses including miss Vallière herself said it was the Captain of the guard, a Mr. Guarinot, who ran him through."

"And it says right here that he admitted he did it before they even had a chance to ask." Colbert remarked before raising an eyebrow. "Actually... he was the only casualty."

Osmond nodded, a small smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. "Yes, once again miss Vallière showed considerable restraint as she had made her golems to use a curious form of soft ammunition against the guards themselves."

Next to the report sat a small cloth bag which was opened to reveal a collection of black shapes that looked just like the bullets that Colbert had recovered after the duel. The man in question picked one up and squeezed it between his fingers, feeling it flex slightly unlike any material he'd ever encountered before.

"Not only that," Colbert continued in agreement with the Headmaster. "but she'd also instructed them only to aim for the body, which probably lowered the chances further. Daresay a lot of them will be quite sore for a few weeks, though."

"I believe her words were, 'I asked them to use something that wouldn't kill them, not something that wouldn't hurt them!'." Old Osmond said with a slight bit of humor before getting serious once more.

"What about the girls she rescued from the manor, Mr. Colbert?"

Colbert frowned a bit as he'd only caught glimpses as the nurses had moved them into the Infirmary, recognizing signs of extreme abuse when he saw them.

"Many of them were in quite a bad state when they got here." he replied with a stony face. "The nurses had to levitate them as they refused to let anyone touch them at first, some of them screaming at the very sight of a man."

Osmond nodded somberly. "Clear signs of sexual abuse, we need to see that they can get back to their families if possible."

"Already arranged for, Headmaster." Colbert said, having taken that into his own hands as soon as he could which got him a respectful nod from the older man. "I sent out word to the families of those that we could recognize, some were women we'd never seen before though."

"Hmm. We'll just keep them here for now." Osmond said while stroking his beard. "What about the other women?"

"They're getting checked over right now, Headmaster. The maid, Siesta, that miss Vallière went to find was mostly fine and should be in bed by now." Colbert replied, a lighter tone in his voice as he too was happy she was fine. "She asked for a hot meal and a long bath first, though."

"Can't blame her." The Headmaster mused out loud. "Did she say anything else?"

Colbert nodded as he hid a yawn with his hand. "She said she'd be happy to work for the Academy once more if she could, although she requested that she get a few days off to recuperate."

"Granted." Osmond agreed immediately. "In fact, give her the rest of the week off! I'll arrange the paperwork to say that she got it in paid leave."

The Professor across from him nodded in confirmation. "I'm sure she'll appreciate it, Headmaster."

"The poor girl deserves it. Actually I believe I'll extend the same for miss Vallière as well, I believe she should get some reward wouldn't you agree?" the elderly Headmaster said before covering a yawn of his own.

"Yes, sir."

"Now, let's both go get some rest."

Colbert nodded and slowly stood up, feeling very tired all of a sudden and his legs were stiff from sitting still for so long. "I just hope this isn't going to become a habit whenever miss Vallière is involved." he groaned.

---

It was well after noon before Siesta managed to get out of bed, feeling much better after she had some sleep. She'd had a few nightmares from the rather intense ordeal the day before, but she'd been exhausted enough that she was out like a light the moment her head hit the pillow.

But thanks to the fact that she'd spent only a single day at the Count's mansion, she didn't really have a whole lot of trouble bouncing back from the ordeal.

As no one came to wake her up, she assumed that her request for some off-time had indeed been accepted. Humming to herself, she'd taken her time putting on a nice, fresh uniform and went off towards the kitchens.

The halls were empty this time of day as all the students were in classes, and Siesta thought that after getting herself something to eat she'd get something for Lady Vallière as well. Giving her breakfast in bed was absolutely nothing compared to the things the young Noble had already done for her!

However, she had forgotten about one thing; this was a school.

And if there was one thing that could outpace even the speed of light, it was the spread of rumors in a school.

The moment she stepped foot into the kitchens, hands seemed to descend upon her from nowhere and in no time flat, she found herself sitting down with what appeared to be the entire serving staff in front of her! She flailed helplessly as she was positively bombarded with questions of how she was doing, how did she escape, was the rumors true and many others.

Luckily, Marteau came to her rescue as he started banging a ladle against an iron pot. "Settle down, people!" he shouted at them. "I know we're all happy to see Siesta's back, but this isn't a competition of who gets to her first!"

"Aww!"

"But Head Chef!"

"No buts!" Marteau said with firm resolution in his voice, his large hands, toughened by years of hard work and heat, resting on his hips as he stared them all down.

Siesta couldn't help but giggle at the sight of so many young men and women cowering before the normally gentle man, causing them all to turn to look at her. "I-it's okay!" she got out between giggles, ending up smiling brightly at them all and getting plenty of smiles in return.

"You sure, Siesta?" the Head Chef said with a more gentle voice, getting a nod in return from the maid.

"It's okay, Head Chef." she said, basking in the love of the people around her who were for all intents and purposes, her second family. "I was just overwhelmed by everyone asking their questions all at once!"

A general mumble of "Sorry, Siesta!" came from the crowd, but she waved it away with another smile. "I'm sure you all have a lot of questions, just ask them one at a time."

Siesta spent almost 30 minutes answering questions that were now coming at a more manageable pace. Yes she was alright, yes the Count was a pervert of the highest caliber, no she didn't get beaten very hard, no the Count never managed to do anything to her beyond locking her up.

Then, finally, came the question she had been waiting for. The one she had prepared herself to answer the moment she realized she was escaping, which she had decided to answer in its entirety.

"What exactly happened over there last night, Siesta?"

The question came from Marteau of all people, who until now had been satisfied to just stand and watch as all other questions were asked and answered. He hadn't told anyone else that la Vallière had come to him just after dinner and asked for Siesta, and was quite curious as to what the little Noble had done after running off like she had.

All heads turned around in surprise to look at the Head Chef, who met their gazes head on with his arms folded, and then they turned back to look at Siesta.

At some point, someone had set down a cup of tea for her and she raised to her lips and took a long sip of the fragrant, amber liquid within, and spent another few seconds looking down into it before responding.

"After I got to the Count's manor, everything seemed to be in order until he asked me to have tea with him. He must have put some manner of drug in the tea as I soon found the cup slipping from my fingers, and then everything just went black."

Siesta touched her hand to the side of her face where a slight bruise was still faintly visible, most of it gone thanks to the water magic of the healers. "I guess I must have hit something as I collapsed, as I woke up with a bruise on my cheek."

The entire kitchen was silent as they listened to her retelling of the events, all eyes were on her and not on the doorway as Louise peeked her head in. Marteau did, and he put a finger to his lips as his eyes met that of the Noble, who nodded in understanding and ducked back out.

Unaware of what was going on, Siesta continued. "When I came to, I was lying on a pile of straw in a small cell that was no wider than that I could reach out and touch the sides in both directions. "Around my neck" she rubbed her hand over her throat "the Count had put a thick iron collar and chained me to a ring attached to the floor."

"That's horrible!" one of the maids, Alaina, gasped. "Why would he do that?"

Siesta shrugged helplessly. "I don't know, maybe he was worried that I'd somehow break the bars to the cell?"

Marteau frowned, a little older and more knowledgeable about the world than most working underneath him. "You do that to keep prisoners from attacking you and/or trying to escape when you open the door to their cell." When all eyes turned on him once more, he simply shrugged. "The big prison in the capital city, La Santé, sometimes does that to their most dangerous criminals. I worked there for a while preparing the food for the guards."

Mutters of horrified disgust came from the collected crowd of people, Siesta nodded her head. "Yes, that would make sense. Mott was a sick, sick man." she said, spitting his name and foregoing the usual title-honorific.

"Then what happened?" one of the kitchen boys, Benjamin, asked from where he was sitting backwards on a chair. "Were you the only one there?"

Siesta shook her head. "There were a twenty-something number of other women in the cells next to and across the corridor from my own. Some of them I recognize from having worked here, others I didn't." she shuddered slightly. "A few of the girls looked like they'd been down there for years, their skin pale and sickly."

Alaina shook her head. "I can't believe you had to go through that, I'm so sorry."

"It was a very bad situation to be in" Siesta said, folding her hands in her lap. "I started crying when I thought I'd never get out of there again and never see you guys or my family." she took a deep breath to keep herself from crying as she recalled the despair she had felt at that time, instead focusing on the fact that she was free now. Allowing her to smile as she recalled the next part. "Just as I was trying to come to terms with my new life, I heard the door at the end of the hall creak open and footsteps on the flagstones."

"I thought to myself that the Count had come to start doing horrible things to me. Sure enough, when I looked up from where I was sitting I did indeed see him standing there. But he was not alone, there with him stood none other than Lady Vallière herself!"

"Our Shield?" Marteau asked, a grin on his face even though he knew that it was coming.

"Yes!" Siesta exclaimed, feeling her spirits lift once more just like they had at that time. "You should have seen her, she was livid in a way I'd never seen her or anyone else in this Academy before!"

Marteau grinned even wider, nodding in pride as Their Shield once more proved to him that he had been right when he started calling her that.

"She must have fooled him into thinking that she wanted to buy me as a slave or something, as he looked surprised when she started screaming at him." the whole room was watching excitedly as the maid really got into her story telling, her eyes shining as she recalled Louise's words. "She told him he was a founder-damned monster, and demanded to know how he could do this to another human being!"

"Wow!" another maid standing off to her side exclaimed, her name was Christine, Siesta recalled. "What did the Count respond to that?"

"He responded in kind, saying that we were 'just commoners' and that he was just taking his just payments for imposing 'order' on us." Siesta said with disgust in her voice, a sentiment shared by everyone around her. "He even went as far as to compare us to livestock, for Brimir's sake!"

She shook her head violently to dispel his voice in her mind before continuing once more. "Lady Vallière called him mad and promised to call down the Crown on him, which was when I noticed he had his wand in his hand."

The whole crowd winced as one, that was never good!

"Before I could even open my mouth to warn her, these barrels that had been standing in the middle of the corridor between the cells exploded as a torrent of water shot out of them. I could only watch helplessly as Lady Vallière was trapped in a magical water-prison of some kind, and Mott gloated that he'd caught the daughter of Duchess Vallière." Siesta's eyes narrowed. "Even more, he said he was going to break her like he'd done to other women, and use her to usurp the Crown!"

A cry of "EEEEEEEHHHHHHHHH!?" echoed through the kitchen, and the maid nodded her confirmation. "That's what he said!"

"But didn't miss Vallière save you?" Benjamin asked confusedly, not understanding how anyone could have gotten out of something like that. "Trapped without magic that far underground, how in Brimir's name did you manage?"

Siesta nodded. "Mott said the same thing, taunting her that no one would ever find her there. But can you guess what Lady Vallière did?"

Everyone shook their heads no.

"She just stared him right in the eye," she said, pointing her middle and index fingers straight towards her own eyes. "Told him that she was going to allow him to surrender himself, but that she now had no more mercy left to give! Mott wasn't very impressed though, and asked her what a powerless girl like her could possibly do to him at that point."

"Then what happened" Marteau asked, also quite drawn into her story.

"Lady Vallière did something odd." Siesta said as she narrowed her brows in a frown. "She raised her head and just shouted straight out in the air something about a legion commencing the operation."

"Legion?" Alaina and Christine asked at the same time, shooting each other an annoyed glance for a brief moment before turning back to Siesta.

"She had an entire army sitting in the shadows!?" Benjamin asked exitedly, only to have Siesta shake her head.

"It was so strange, no one jumped out after she said that and Mott even asked if she'd lost her mind, talking to things that weren't there." she explained to them. "But then it happened."

They all leaned in as Siesta took a deep breath in preparation. "There was this loud, thundering explosion from above causing dust and sand to leak from the ceiling. The Count started cursing in fear, demanding to know how she had managed to call the army there when she didn't even know what was going to happen!"

Benjamin was practically vibrating in his seat from excitement. "Oh wow! I didn't know miss Vallière was this amazing! She must have been some kind of tactical genius to pull that off!"

Siesta blinked at this, suddenly giggling to everyone's surprise as a mental image came to mind. She imagined Lady Vallière as a grown woman in all her glory, standing with her hands resting on a blade with a large coat over her shoulders as it blew in the wind. A large, smoking cigar clamped in her mouth as she grinned at a perfectly executed, flanking assault against a numerously superior enemy.

"Tactical genius, hurr!"

"No, no!" she giggled. "Nothing like that! Or, well..." Siesta grew quiet for a moment as she did ponder just how Lady Vallière had pulled that off. "I don't know." she admitted. "Anyway!"

"Lady Vallière just smirked at the Count and went, 'Who knows?' and just when he was about to ask her more questions, a man later identified as the Captain of the guards at the mansion ran in."

"The man was white as a sheet! Telling the Count that they'd suddenly gotten attacked by an unknown force and that they couldn't seem to stop them." Siesta recalled, causing smiles and smirks to break out among the audience. "Mott cursed and told him to lead the way, saying that he'd help fight them off in person and they ran towards the exit, Lady Vallière floating after them in tow within her water prison."

"Wow." Alaina breathed. "Weren't you scared, Siesta?"

"Out of my mind." the maid admitted, before setting her face in a resolute smile. "But I never once doubted that Lady Vallière would set things right!" she said with conviction. "Even when the other women down there tried telling me we'd never be free, my resolve never wavered!"

Marteau spoke up again, a smile on his grizzled features. "You know, Our Shield came and asked me about you earlier last night, and the look she had in her eyes when I had to tell her you were no longer with us here at the Academy..."

"Lady Vallière did?" Siesta asked, a small smile on her lips.

"Yes." he nodded to her in confirmation. "She never said why since the moment I told her that, it was like a fire had lit in her eyes. She just turned on her heel and started sprinting towards the stables like a woman possessed! It sure was a sight to see!" he grinned.

Siesta smiled wider, feeling a little warm inside at the thought of her Savior getting so worked up for her sake. "I'd been wondering how she knew I was there."

"Come on, what happened next?" Christine asked, her impatience finally getting to her. "How did you finally escape?"

Siesta blinked and shook her head, she'd totally forgotten about her story! "Sorry!" she apologized and took another deep breath.

"I managed to convince them all that we were all going to be rescued, as we were also hearing the sound of rapid musket fire along with the explosions. Therefore I knew that Lady Vallière's Thunder Warriors were there as well, and I told them as such."

"Of course! Her Thunder Warriors!" Benjamin almost shouted, only to be silenced by several of the others in the crowd, hissing at him to be quiet.

"Yes, and no more than a minute after that, we heard footsteps once more as a group of people were coming down the stairs." Siesta blew out a sigh and then smiled. "I'd never been so happy to see those black golems in my life! I shouted and waved for them to come over, and they quickly did."

"And they shot the locks off?" someone asked, but she didn't bother trying to recognize them anymore.

Siesta shook her head. "I thought they were going to, but instead the one in front of my cell put his musket away and spoke: 'Stand clear!'." she explained, doing her best to imitate the deep, unearthly voices that came from Louise's golems. "Once I had, it just reached out and grabbed the bars of the door, and tore it off its hinges as easily as you would a wet piece of paper!"

She mimicked the motion of grabbing a pair of bars, pulled towars her and then make a throwing motion to the left.

"It then reached down and grabbed the chain in one hand, and just tore it right out from where it had been attached to the floor!"

"Whoa." Alaina and Christine breathed together once more, captivated by the story of her heroic rescue.

"It was amazing to see!" Siesta gushed happily. "I got out of the cell as fast as I could, and I could see the same thing being done for the other women, as well. Afterwards, we were all led back up and outside, where we waited until the state officials arrived." she said, taking another sip of tea now that she was finally finished with her retelling.

Everyone sat in silence for a few moments, thinking of the amazing story they'd just been told. All until Marteau suddenly started laughing loudly in the way he often did.

"BWAHAHAHA! I knew it all along!" as the Head Chief started doing a silly dance between the rows of sinks, stoves and cutting boards, waxing lyric about "Our Shield and Defender!" the others tuned him out and turned back to Siesta.

"Hey, hey. So what happened to Count Mott?" Benjamin asked, his chin leaning on the arms he'd crossed over the back of the chair.

Siesta briefly hummed thoughtfully, trying to remember what had been said through the haze that was the rest of the night. "I think he died, actually. Stabbed in the back by the guard Captain when he refused to surrender even though the Thunder Warriors had him surrounded."

"Huh." the boy blinked. "So miss Vallière didn't kill him?"

The maid shook her head. "No. I thought it was a little odd too when I heard it, too."

"Well, as long as it got done." he mumbled. "What about the mansion guards?"

"Oh!" Siesta exclaimed slightly. "Apparently Lady Vallière had her Thunder Warriors load their repeating muskets with something so they wouldn't kill them when they shot them. I have no idea what it was, but it was very effective. There was guards lying everywhere with their steel chest plates dented as if a giant had just swept them away with a single blow of its club!"

"Defender of the small ones, greatest among heroes!" Marteau sang in the background.

"Wonder why she didn't use that against Gramont that first time?" Christine wondered, to which Alaina immediately responded with: "Maybe she wanted to spare him from your cooking?"

"Hey! My there's nothing wrong with my cooking!"

"Yeah, if you want to kill yourself!"

As the two girls bickered and the Head Chef continued with his not-so impressive singing, Benjamin just face-palmed. "Not again, you guys." he groaned.

Siesta just giggled at the familiar scene, happy to be among them again and happy no one had asked if anything else happened. She'd been a little loopy at the end and she'd like to think it was because of her being drugged that she did what she had at the end. She blushed faintly as she recalled leaning forward, and...

Gaining some surprised looks from the mostly dispersed crowd as she slapped her cheeks, she refused to even think the word! However, as if summoned by the slaps, she recalled something else in relation to Louise.

"Ah! I was going to bring breakfast to Lady Vallière!"

---

Louise had actually woken up slightly before Siesta did, also having slept like the dead due to pure exhaustion from the emotional roller-coaster she'd been through the long day before. She however had stayed in bed for a while before finally getting up and getting herself ready for today. Unaware of what the maid had planned, she had gone to fetch something from the kitchens when she almost walked right into the detailed re-telling of the event she'd started calling the 'Flight of the Maid'.

She'd been thankful that the Head Chef hadn't mentioned to anyone that he'd seen her, and she spent a while listening to the story. She hadn't known Siesta had such faith in her, and she couldn't help but smile slightly as she let her head rest against the stone wall behind her.

She had won the battle, she had achieved her goal to protect the innocent.

She had not failed.

That more than anything else made her feel giddy inside and she decided that she could probably bother the cooks later. Humming softly to herself, she ignored the story (she knew it already, anyway!) being told and walked out of the Alvíss Dining Hall with a slight skip in her step.

Maybe she'd go see if she could find Professor Colbert, she thought to herself. It hadn't been much of an issue before, but with her number of Militants grown from four to thirty-two she needed to find a new source of resources.

"How much Tiberium do we have left?" she asked the empty hallway, not too worried about being overheard.

"2400 units, Master."

"Hmm?" Louise raised an eyebrow as she walked. "Didn't you say we had 2600 left?"

"Yes Master. 200 units was needed to manufacture the rubber bullets you requested in sufficient quantities."

Oh yeah! "I see." she said at length. "Will 400 be enough to seed the ground as you told me before?"

"Normally, 500 units is needed to perform the action of seeding Tiberium. This is due to the fact that it is launched by means of ballistic missile to avoid unnecessary exposure, which has a cost in itself."

"Right." Louise nodded, not having forgotten about the dangers of Tiberium. "But since we're using purely mechanical troops, that shouldn't be as much of an issue."

"You are correct, Master. 400 units worth of Liquid Tiberium will more than sufficient to begin the formation of a patch, while still having enough to begin the construction of a Refinery."

"The cost of one of those was 2000 units, right?" she recalled him telling her once before, didn't he?

"Correct. Do you wish me to begin construction, Master?"

She nodded as she walked out into the southern courtyard where Colbert spent most of his time, having constructed a laboratory there for his experiments. This had been demanded of him from several members of the staff and quite a few students as some of said experiments had been quite loud. "Do so while I talk to Professor Colbert about setting up some kind of confinement for the Tiberium."

"Acknowledged, building in progress."

Satisfied that it would take a while for him to construct the buildings, however he did that, she raised her hand and knocked on the door to Colbert's laboratory.

"Coming!" she heard him call faintly from inside, the door opening a few moments later. He looked a little tired, but seemed pleased to see her. "Miss Vallière!"

"Good afternoon, Professor." she greeted him. "Do you have a moment?"

"Yes, of course! Come in!" he said, stepping back to allow her to enter. "We were just talking about you."

"We?" she asked in confusion, but it soon turned into surprise when she laid eyes on the young man sitting inside.

"Guiche?"

"La Vallière!?"

---

A few minutes later once they'd both had a moment to calm down, the two of them along with Colbert were sitting around the table he had in there. His laboratory was a rather cramped place, filled with all sorts of inventions, tools and nick-knacks on benches, tables, chairs and even lying on the floor near the walls. It smelled slightly of oil and wood chips with a faint undertone of smoke, although she couldn't tell if it was from the explosions or if he'd just accidentally burnt some toast.

As it turned out, Guiche had been there to ask him on how to best approach her after the duel, although it had turned into a discussion about her golems when she suddenly knocked on the door.

Louise looked at the boy sitting across from her with some suspicion, as if she didn't trust him nor the teacup he was holding, identical to the one sitting in front of her.

"What do you mean you're not angry at me?" she asked him in confusion.

"Exactly what it sounds like. When you beat me in that duel, you got me thinking about things I hadn't considered before." he explained, sounding more honest and direct than she'd ever heard him.

This really wasn't what she'd expected, which had been more along the lines of him desiring bitter revenge against her. Although she found she really preferred this outcome, mostly since that meant she didn't have to worry about getting randomly assassinated!

"That there's more things in life than girls?" she couldn't help but ask, earning her a look from Colbert.

"Miss Vallière..."

Oddly enough, Guiche didn't seem to mind. "No, it's alright Professor." he said to both their surprise. "I deserved that."

"Okay." Louise said slowly, drawing out the a with a raised eyebrow. "What was it you hadn't considered, then?"

Guiche folded his hands on the table, resting his thumbs against each other. "That I have been completely wrong about you all this time, miss Vallière, and I wish to give you my heartfelt apology."

It was met with a stunned silence, which he took as an invitation to continue.

"And if I'd been wrong about you and your magic, what else have I been wrong about?" he asked rhetorically, repeating the same thing he'd said to Montmorency in the Infirmary.

Colbert looked quite pleased at this. "Well Mr. Gramont," he said approvingly, making the young man look up at him. "You certainly seem to have matured as a result of this event."

"Thank you, Professor." Guiche said with a faint smile, which Louise noticed pulled slightly on the scars she now noticed he had on the lower right side of his face.

"Guiche, those scars..."

He blinked and chuckled a little as he touched the side of his face. "I got them when your Thunder Warriors blew my golems apart and some pieces of bronze hit me." at her worried look, he gave her a small wave with his hands. "Don't worry, the damage was just cosmetic."

"But..." Louise faltered, having never even intended to hurt him in person. "Why haven't you gotten them removed? The healers in the Infirmary could easily do that with their water magic."

He laughed a little, rubbing the back of his head with one hand. "I've decided to keep them. Girls like men with battle scars, or so I've been told!"

Louise sighed, of course that was his reason. "Guiche..."

"And also..." she looked up at him again, surprised at the serious expression he suddenly wore. "I want them as a reminder. A reminder of my own stupidity, where it led me and to never judge a book by its cover."

She didn't know what to say to that. How would she even respond to such a thing? Luckily, Colbert was there to come to her rescue.

"A noble sentiment, Mr. Gramont." the Professor praised him again, earning a nod and a smile in return. He then turned to Louise who straightened a little as his gaze passed over her.

"Miss Vallière, he is obviously ready to bury the hatchet. Won't you accept his apology?" he asked her gently.

Well damn. She couldn't really deny him that after such an apology combined with his willingness to bear the mark that she'd inadvertently put on him. Taking a deep breath, Louise looked Guiche straight in the eye, and nodded. "Apology accepted."

Guiche grinned in a way more like the one she knew and stuck his hand out to her over the table. "Friends?" he asked.

Louise raised an eyebrow, they had never been friends! But oh what the heck. Taking his hand she gave it a firm shake. "Friends."

Colbert clapped his hands together once in appreciation, jolting the two out of their moment and causing them to pull their hands back so fast, they almost sent their teacups flying! "Wonderful! Now that we got that out of the way, you said you wanted to ask me about something miss Vallière?"

"Huh?" Louise blinked before remembering the reason she came here. "Oh yeah, I wanted to ask you if you know any good ways of setting up a magical containment?"

"A magical containment?" Colbert asked in a puzzled voice. "What for?"

"Well, um, you see..." she hedged, looking over at Guiche who was now looking at her with curiosity clear on his face. "Um..."

"Come now, miss Vallière." the Professor said evenly. "We're all friends here, aren't we? Who knows, Mr. Gramont might be able to help you, as well."

She sighed, seeing no other option. "When my familiar was summoned here, he brought with him a special type of mineral."

"Oh?" Guiche asked, as an earth mage he'd always been interested in rocks and minerals, turning his curiosity into interest. "I might have heard of it, is it not native to Tristain?"

Louise chewed on her lip for a moment, debating with herself how much she should tell him. The fact that she was running extremely low was a deciding factor, however. "It's called Tiberium." she finally said.

"Tibi...rium?" he repeated the unfamiliar word, unknowingly doing the same thing as she had the night before the duel, to her slight amusement.

"Tiberium, with an e." she corrected him, feeling quite smug over something so insignificant as correct pronunciation.

Guiche rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "No, I don't believe I have."

"Neither have I." Colbert said, adding his own two cents to the conversation. "Do you wish my aid to find or replicate it?"

"And containment magic to... store it safely?" Guiche asked her, not understanding why she needed something like that for a mineral.

Louise ran her hand through her hair a few times as she tried to think of a good way to put it. "No, Tiberium is a type of mineral that exists as, um..." dammit! What was it Legion had said again?

"Dynamic proton lattice."

"...a dynamic pro-proton lattice, that then grows into a form of, er..." she continued, stumbling over the unfamiliar words. What the hell did it even mean!?

"Fractal-heuristic replicating crystal."

"...frac-fractal-heu-uristic rep-replicating crystal..."

"As it leeches metals and other heavy minerals out of the soil."

"...as it leeches metals and other heavy minerals out of the soul." Colbert raised an eyebrow. "Soil!" she hurried to correct herself, blushing in embarrassment. "Out of the soil!"

Both of the two others just sat and stared at her with nearly identical, blank looks on their faces. "What?" they said simultaneously, making her groan slightly.

"I have no idea what you just said, Vallière. And why were you talking like that?" Guiche asked in confusion before turning to the Professor.

"I think I caught some of it, but much evaded even my understanding." Colbert admitted. "Were you... repeating after your familiar, miss Vallière?"

Louise just nodded, red like a tomato as she stared straight down at the floor between her feet as Guiche looked between them as if they had just said they were actually dragons in disguise.

"She appears to have some form of telepathic link-" Colbert started explaining, but when Guiche looked even more confused, he revised it slightly. "-a mental connection with her familiar that lets it speak to her even though no one else can hear it."

Guiche's eyes lit up in understanding. "Oh I see, like the one I have with my own golems!" he looked over at Louise. "But aren't those usually just feelings and images and such, Professor? I know I don't get much more beyond the feeling that they're actually listening to me."

Colbert nodded, folding his arms as he once more went into lecture mode. "Normally yes, but miss Vallière appears to have a very strong link to her familiar. Stronger than any I've ever heard of before, which lets them have detailed conversations much like the one we're having right now. In fact, she even appears capable of hearing it play music to her!" he said excitedly, much to Louise's chargain.

"Professor!" she cried out in embarrassment. "Don't to tell him everything about it!"

"Ahaha..." Colbert laughed sheepishly even as Guiche looked at her with great interest. "It seems a got a little carried away, I'm sorry miss Vallière."

While Louise looked like you could probably crack an egg and fry it on her head, Guiche had a thoughtful look on his face. "Vallière if this is true..."

"It is true!" she shouted at him, but he didn't seem to mind.

"Then what you have summoned could very well be the find of the century!" he said, dispelling her embarrassed indignation as he seemed to channel the Professor next to him.

Louise looked at the two, now having almost the exact same expression on their faces.

"Don't you understand, Vallière? If we could figure out how to make all mage-golem bonds as strong as yours it would revolutionize the world as we know it!" Guiche said excitedly, earning a few nods from Colbert.

"Well, maybe." she said, a little uneasy about it somehow. "But that doesn't change the fact that it happened almost entirely on accident, and I have absolutely no idea how it works or why!"

That seemed to do it as both men, younger and older, frowned and sat back down from where they had stood up in their excitement. "This is true, miss Vallière..."

She breathed out a sigh of relief before trying to steer the conversation back on track. "Anyway, back to the subject of Tiberium."

"Ah, yes!" Colbert said and Guiche nodded as well, Louise continuing once she was sure she had gotten their attention again. "If I understood it correctly, it's a type of mineral that grows and spreads on its own, converting other materials into more of itself. It also leeches useful things out of the ground which then manifests into these large, green crystals that can then be easily harvested." she explained, proud of having recalled the gist of what Legion had told her.

"I see!" Conbert said, leaning back in his chair with a faint creak of aged wood as he thought about such a strange material. His mind whirled with questions, as Louise had in a single paragraph taken a sledgehammer to everything he thought he knew about geology and mining. "Amazing."

Guiche, on the other hand, had a different reaction.

"That's not possible!" he cried out, eyes wide as this knowledge stuck a spoke in the wheels of his mind, being of much greater impact to him as he was an earth mage. He knew how minerals and metals worked, how to mine them and how to refine them. "Such a material cannot exist!" he hissed in alarm, his eyes going wide as his mind fought desperately to cope with what was for all intents and purposes, forbidden knowledge.

Louise blinked in confusion as the other two seemed like they were physically hurt by her description, Professor Colbert was stroking his chin with a look so far away on his face he was probably watching Romalia by now. Guiche had started hyperventilating as he gripped his head in both hands, muttering things like "Material density not less or equal!", "It just doesn't work like that!" and eventually he just wrapped his arms around his knees and started rocking back and forth, mumbling "Why? How? Why? How?" over and over to himself.

"Um... Legion?" she whispered under her breath.

"Yes, master?"

"Is this... normal?"

"I have never seen this reaction myself, Master. But my records state that it was common for people to exhibit signs similar to shock when exposed to the knowledge of Tiberium and its uses when it first appeared on Earth."

She frowned. "Then why didn't you warn me?!"

"I speculated that since you did not express any symptoms of Tiberium Mania, as it was called, that perhaps humans in this world were mentally more adept at assimilating new information. It appears that this theory was faulty."

Louise looked back at the two, where Colbert had now taking to scribbling in his notebook so fast she thought it might set itself on fire, and Guiche had curled up in a ball on the floor. Still muttering the same things over and over. "That's the understatement of the decade. So how do I cure them?"

"Mild to heavy sedatives is normally recommended."

"I can't just go raid the Infirmary, Legion!"

"Then I suggest using some manner of alcohol, Master. Repeated studies show that despite the side-effects, it is highly effective at combating the effects of shock."

Louise nodded at this, wine was the traditional go-getter for whenever you needed to calm down. She could tell right away that there was no chance of getting it out of Colbert where he kept his wine, since he was in no state to respond at the moment. Instead, she instead started looking around in his workshop on her own.

Ten minutes later, she was pretty sure she had checked the entire room and all she had to show for it was the detailed knowledge of where everything was in the room and a pile of empty bottles. She was just about to go and try slap some sense into them when a knock came at the door.

She paused to look over to the Professor, but he had apparently filled one notebook which was now lying in front of him, and had started on another. He made absolutely no reaction to the knocking, so she figured with a sigh that she had to do it herself.

Walking over to the door she pulled it open, bowing her head slightly as she did. "I'm sorry, but the Professor is indisposed at the-"

"Vallière?"

Louise's head snapped up to look at Kirche and Tabitha standing in the doorway, both looking at her in confusion. "Zerbst!" she cried out in surprise and irritation. "What are you doing here?"

Of course, Kirche had other ideas than giving her a straight answer. "Why Louise, I didn't think you'd be the one to steal his heart before I could!" she said, a smirk on her ruby-painted lips as she looked down on the shorter girl. "I'm so proud of you!"

Louise gaped like a fish out of water for a moment before shaking herself out of it, she had a task that needed doing. "Dammit, Zerbst! I don't have time for your jokes right now, I'm busy in here!"

The curvy Germanian smiled coyly, resting her left hand on her hip while her right index finger came to a rest on her cheekbone. "Oh don't be so greedy, Vallière! I'm sure Jean wouldn't mind a threesome!" she chirped.

Kirche blinked as Louise suddenly started beating her head against the door frame in frustration. "La Vallière?" she asked, a little uncertain now. Louise in turn gave her a very irritated look before grabbing her by the wrist and pulling her inside. "Come with me!"

"Eh?" Was all Kirche got out before she was pulled into the door and set so she could see Colbert and Guiche in all their maddened glory. "Does this look like I'm having FUN to you?" Louise growled, her patience growing thin.

The dark-skinned Germanian blinked owlishly at Guiche, who was now sitting in a corner with tears flowing down his cheeks, and Colbert who had run out of books and was now writing formulas on the table. "What in the world is going on here?"

"Madness." Tabitha said in a serious tone, both heads turning to look at the serious bluenette who had now put her book away and was coming over to check on the Professor. "Dementia of some kind." she looked at Louise, who blinked at the somewhat accusing look she was getting.

"Poison?" she asked gravelly.

"Um.." Louise blinked before shaking her head. "No, we all drank of the same tea and I'm alright. I think they're suffering from information overload, or... something." she finished lamely.

The two other girls turned to look at her oddly, and she found she was getting really tired of that look. Throwing her arms up in frustration, she just told them straight out. "I was talking to them about something my familiar took with him from his world, and they completely lost it."

"Must have been some serious business, then." Kirche said, raising an eyebrow at the sight before her.

"Information can be... dangerous." Tabitha said quietly enough that Louise barely heard her, before turning to look at the strawberry blonde noble once more. "Avenues of treatment?"

"I was, uh, looking for some wine." Louise said slowly. She'd never talked much with Tabitha despite their shared love for books, she often found the spectacled girl a little off-putting. Still, she seemed to know some things about insanity so she kept talking. "I thought the alcohol might help them calm down."

Tabitha rubbed her chin thoughtfully. Such a thing would never work if it was a poison, but if it was just a case of light psychosis...

Finally, and to Louise's surprise, she nodded. "Could work. Should be some in here."

"Yes, about that." Louise frowned as the red- and bluenette looked at her. "I was just giving up my search when you two showed up, all I could find were empty bottles."

"Well then!" Kirche smirked. "Let's go find some! I'm sure there are some in the kitchens!"

"This would have been a lot easier if I'd just brought Siesta with me." Louise thought grimly as she opened the door, only to find the subject of her thoughts standing right there!

Siesta looked a lot better than when Louise had last seen her. Although she could still faintly see the bruise on her cheek, she'd had a chance to wash herself and was once more wearing a clean uniform like she always had. In her left hand she was holding a large basket of the kind you normally bring to a picnic, having just raised her right hand to knock. As their eyes met, the maid blinked owlishly with a faint blush spreading over her cheeks. But it was gone just as fast as she noticed the other two and forced it back down, instead smiling at them in greeting.

"Siesta!"

"Lady Vallière! And miss Zerbst and miss Tabitha!" Siesta greeted them all in turn, and was just about to say something else when Louise cut her off.

"No time for talk, Siesta!" she said hurriedly, to the maid's slight confusion. "We have a situation in here and we need some wine!"

To her credit, Siesta simply nodded in confirmation to her request. Lady Vallière had a task for her, questions could be asked later!

"I do have some with me." she said as she opened the basket. "Any specific preferences?"

"No, just the strongest you have!" Louise said before turning to Kirche who had been watching the two with an interested look in her eye. "Zerbst! Go find something to drink from!"

Kirche was a little taken back by the commanding voice from the younger noble, but quickly got her act together and moved back into the room. She took a quick look around and wrinkled her nose at the sort of organized chaos that Colbert kept in his lab. She hadn't had the time to actually look around when Louise dragged her in there, but there was no way she was going to find anything in here that wasn't filled with something nasty! Luckily, she was able to abandon that idea when she spotted the tea cups on the table where Louise and the two others had been sitting previously. She quickly walked over to the table in a few long strides and just emptied what was left in the cups on the floor, she could clean it up later!

"Valliére!" she called out over her shoulder. "Over here, I found some!"

Louise arrived a moment later with Siesta in tow as Tabitha stood off to the side, staff in hand as she prepared to cast magic should the two men somehow grow violent. Long experience had taught her to always be ready for anything when insanity was involved, and she'd better be safe than sorry.

She watched as Siesta expertly poured wine into the tea cups after unsealing the bottle, and how Louise and Kirche worked together to pour it down the throats of Professor Colbert and Guiche.

"Not a bad show of teamwork." she mused silently to herself as she watched Kirche grab Guiche in a half-Nelson while Siesta kept his mouth open long enough for Louise to pour the wine in. "Still needs work, though."

Colbert was a little harder since he was a fully grown man, as none of them were actually strong enough to hold him down on their own. Kirche and Tabitha were discussing how to best tie him down while Louise watched with no small amount of worry as he kept writing and writing. In the end, it was Siesta who found the solution.

Without saying anything, she took a tea cup of wine, put it on a small serving tray and walked over to the manic professor with it in her hands.

"What are you doing?" Louise half-shouted in alarm at the maid, who only shook her head. "It's alright Lady Valliére, I've had to bring him things like food and drink before when he got so caught up in his work he'd forget to eat. Just watch."

Sure enough, as soon as she got close enough, Colbert's hand whipped out without looking to grab hold of the tea cup and drained it in one go. One of the few constants throughout the ages was the development of the "Caffeine Reflex" among researchers, as they instinctually reached for the easy stimulant to keep their brains working just a bit longer. Coffee was still mostly unknown to all but the highest ranking nobles in Halkeginia, but tea had been traded for from the lands in the east for nearly a millennium.

Eventually they all got enough wine in the two ranting nobles to snap them out of it, although in Guiche's case just made him pass out. Legion had been correct in his assessment that they had gone into something akin to neural shock as their minds ground to a halt, unable to cope with what they'd heard. Alcohol was very effective in treating the automatic tightening of the blood vessels that came with shock, although at a price.

Not wanting to leave him on the floor, putting Guiche in a chair was not an option so they ended up carrying him over to the Professor's own bed. Once they had him settled in, the remaining four nobles sat down at the table even though it was a bit of a tight fit. Siesta had gotten directions by Colbert where to find his tea supplies, and was brewing a fresh pot while the others started talking again.

"Thank you for the quick response, miss Vallière." Colbert said with a very slight slur in his voice as he slowly rubbed his temples. "That was... unpleasant, to say the least."

"You too, miss Zerbst and miss Tabitha." He said, looking at them each in turn as he said their names. Tabitha simply nodded in return, while Kirche gave him a flirtatious smile.

"No problem, darling!" Kirche said, blowing him a kiss.

Colbert sighed slightly at this, deciding to simply ignore the attempts of flirting from his student he finally turned to Siesta, who was just coming over with the pot. "And thank you, as well miss Siesta. Without your timely arrival, this mess would have taken a lot longer."

"I am happy to help, my Lord." she said with a smile and a respectful bow of her head as she started pouring tea into clean teacups, of which she'd thankfully brought some with her in the basket.

Louise has been quiet since they'd managed to get the two calm again, having been thinking over and over on how she could have made it easier for them to handle.

"I'm sorry, Professor." she finally spoke up in a quiet tone, making all heads turn to her. "If I had known you'd react like that..."

Colbert nodded his understanding, and then hissed faintly as the movement seemed to aggravate his headache. "I can't fault you for trying to be as thorough as possible when you gave us the information, it's how you normally do it after all." he smiled weakly. "This just wasn't a good time to do that, I think. Perhaps you can give it in smaller doses in the future?"

Louise nodded solemnly, not wanting to cause this kind of thing again. "I will do my best, Professor."

"What was the information about, anyway?" Kirche asked curiously, earning her a hard look from Tabitha who sat next to her.

"Bad idea." came the clipped remark.

"Aw c'mon, Tabitha!" the Germanian whined at her. "Aren't you curious?"

"Is curious." she admitted before giving a few, short shakes of her head. "Not enough to risk dementia."

"Bawww." Kirche pouted, giving the bluenette her best puppy-dog eyes. "Pleeeeease?"

Tabitha turned a page. "No."

"As much as this amuses me," Colbert interjected, making his two students look over at him. "but as both me and Mr. Gramont had some pretty serious reactions to it, I would advise caution."

Kirche turned to Louise this time, who recoiled slightly from the sheer force of her puppy eyes. "Urk!"

"Pleeeeeeeeease? With cherry on top?"

"Didn't you see what it did to them?" Louise demanded, only getting a shrug from Kirche in return. "I bet they were just overreacting."

Louise gave her a long, suffering look before shrugging her shoulders. "If you really want to know it that bad, fine!" she finally said irritably. "But don't come whining to me if-"

Kirche interrupted her with a loud exclaimation of "Yahoo!" and threw her arms up in victory, causing her assets to bounce which just served to increase Louise's irritation. "Let me finish, Zerbst!"

Once the bronze-skinned Germanian had settled back down, Louise continued. "I'm going to give you the abridged version, not for your sake Zerbst but for theirs." she said with a huff, even as Kirche grinned in victory. That cow!

"I have to admit I'm also a little curious, Lady Vallière." Siesta admitted from where she sat.

"Going outside." Tabitha said as she snapped her book shut and stood up, walking out the door and closing it shut after her.

Louise blinked at the sudden move, but as she had said that she didn't want to know, it wasn't that surprising. Instead, she set out explaining it once more and this time only told them the bare basics of it; what it was called, how it worked and what it was used for. Stunned silence met them as both Kirche and Siesta blinked owlishly at her and as one, picked up their teacups and drained them.

"Wow, I can see why that upset them so much. I think I might need some wine of my own" Kirche muttered afterwards, actually feeling a slight headache coming on. "I'm not earth mage, but even I can tell that's pretty serious."

Louise raised an eyebrow at the older girl. "It's not that amazing, Zerbst." she said, raising her hands up in front of her with the palms up in a gesture of indifference before letting them fall back in her lap. "It'll make it really easy to mine for metals and such, so what?" She understood the basics of it herself, but saw it more as a thing of convenience than anything else.

"Lady Vallière, you don't seem to understand how important this find is." Siesta said seriously as she poured about half of what was left of the wine into her teacup before handing the bottle over to Kirche. "A lot of towns have mining as their only income and metal is always in great demand. With Tibirium-"

"Tiberium."

"Tiberium," Siesta corrected herself, taking a moment to empty her teacup of wine. "you would revolutionize all forms of mining in all of Halkeginia!"

Louise blinked, she hadn't through of it like that. "But it's so much more dangerous than ordinary mining!"

"Siesta is right, miss Vallière." Colbert said seriously. "And as you are currently the only person with access to it, you'd have a monopoly on all Tiberium-based resources."

It was starting to really dawn on Louise how important the green mineral was and without a word, she picked up and held her teacup out to Siesta. She had already forseen this and was already in the process of unsealing a second bottle, quickly pouring some into Louise's cup who took only a moment to drain about half of it.

"I can see that now, huh." Louise muttered as she held what was now her wine cup in both hands. "But Professor, wouldn't all of that fall to the Academy since I'd essentially be mining on their property?"

Colbert rubbed his chin for a moment as he went over the lands the Academy owned, finally shaking his head. "No, I believe your familiar set itself up too far away from the grounds for the Academy to have any claim on it. Nevertheless someone else might own those lands, but I can check and see who owns it when I go visit Osmond about setting up a containment circle."

"The Headmaster?" Louise asked curiously. "I thought you were setting it up yourself."

"Normally I would." Colbert replied. "But Tiberium sounds powerful enough that it might overpower anything I set up. The Headmaster on the other hand is a powerful square-class earth mage, he'll be able to do it much better than I ever could." he explained with a nod.

"That makes sense." Louise agreed and went to stand up. She was a little irritated that things turned out to be more complicated than she expected, but at least she got somewhere, right? With that in mind, she was just about to head out and over to her own room to maybe sit down with a book, or talk with Legion until dinnertime, when Colbert called out to her.

"One moment, miss Vallière!"

She paused mid-step and mid-thought, turning around to look at the Professor who seeing he had her attention once more, asked his question. "I have to ask, would it be possible for me to get a sample Tiberium?"

She raised an eyebrow at his question. "I suppose a small sample wouldn't be out of the question, but what for?"

Colbert stood up and walked over to where she was standing. "I'd like some in order to perform small-scale experiments to see how we'd best go about to contain it."

"But Professor, didn't you just say that it would overcome anything you'd set up?" she asked, raising an eyebrow up at the balding man. Hadn't he said just two minutes ago that he'd need the Headmaster's help for that?

"It would most certainly do that if I tried containing a whole field of it, which is why this would be a small scale experiment." he explained, putting emphasis on the term small. "I am confident that I should be able to hold it in if all I did was put a tiny bit in a bucket filled with dirt, etched with runes of protection on it while standing inside a second circle of protection."

Louise wasn't entirely convinced however, and decided to consult her expert on the matter.

"Legion," she said in a normal tone, causing Siesta who had been gathering up the cups, snap her head over to her, and Kirche to just look at her strangely. "would this work?"

"Possibly, my Master. There is insuficcient data to say whether these runes and circles of protection will stop the spread or not, but allowing Tiberium to grow from such a small amount will nevertheless take time."

"Who is she talking to, Professor?" Kirche asked quietly, and Colbert once more explained to the two girls the nature of Louise's familiar.

"So it's feasible, then?" Louise asked, ignoring the whispered conversation they were having.

"Calculating Tiberium growth. One moment."

She folded her arms as she waited, the other three occupants of the room watching her quietly as they waited for her to relay the words of her familiar to them.

"At optimal conditions, it would take between thirty-six to fourty-eight hours for ten milliliters of Liquid Tiberium it to multiply in sufficient quantities to fill a standard ten-liter steel bucket."

"But that's optimal conditions." Louise murmured to herself. "What about the current conditions?"

"As this world lacks the ambient, microcrystalline Tiberium in the atmosphere that would normally accelerate its growth, it would in theory grow at rates similar to what it did it was originally discovered. However, it has evolved significantly since that time. Counting in these factors would put the growth rate at roughly half of the standard estimation, Master."

"Hm. So seven to eight days, then?" Louise finished for him. That wasn't too bad, actually.

"Correct Master. I will however point out that Tiberium is hazardous no matter the quantity, as even the smallest amount could cause Tiberium Toxemia in a human without protective gear, which will be terminal unless treated in time. Even more-so with Tiberium in its denser, liquid form."

"What did you familiar have to say on the matter, Miss Vallière?" Colbert asked once Louise's eyes refocused once more from the far-away look she always had when listening to the voice in her mind.

"Legion said that you should be fine in about a week even without the protective runes and such, Professor." he started to smile but paused as he noticed the serious expression on her face. "He also stressed how dangerous it is to human beings that get exposed to it without protection, so you must promise me that you'll be careful!"

Colbert nodded and held up his hands in a placating manner. "I will take every possible precaution, Miss Vallière. I swear it on Brimir and my honor as a scholar!"

"Good." Louise said with relief, satisfied with his answer and happy to get it over with. "Let's head over to where my familiar is then, Professor."

"OOOH! I also want to come!" Kirche shouted exitedly from just nearby. "I bet Tabitha would like to see it too!"

Louise shot a hard look at the Germanian, her gaze moving to the still-closed door and the quiet girl who was waiting just outside. "Then you're going to have to go ask her yourself, Zerbst!"

"I'd... also like to come, if that's alright with you Lady Vallière." Siesta said in a respectful tone. "I'd like to thank Sir Legion for helping to save me and the other girls."

Louise rubbed the bridge of her nose in irritation. "We're going to miss dinner because of this, aren't we?" she muttered, causing Colbert to chuckle slightly as Kirched passed by him in order to reach the door. "Not to mention what to with Guiche."

"Don't worry miss Vallière, I think I have some ideas as to how to solve most of our problems."

---

As it turns out, Louise had to admit that the Professor's solutions were pretty good ones all things considered. They sent Siesta to get someone to move Guiche to his room and get another picnic basket with more than just wine and sandwiches. Kirche managed to convince Tabitha to go with them to check out Louise's familiar, mostly through sheer force of excitement. Sylphid groaned a little under the weight of five passengers plus basket, but they still made there much faster than they had by foot.

It wasn't long until the five people and one dragon stood on the hill overlooking the Nod Construction Yard, the changes quite apparent for those who had been there before.

All the grass around the Construction Yard and the two new buildings was gone and in its stead was a perfectly flat, light grey surface of some kind that extended all the way around the buildings. Possibly underneath them, as well.

While Kirche and Siesta gaped at the alien structures with all their glowing and sometimes moving parts, Louise and Colbert took a moment to examine the two additions to her base more in detail.

The Hand of Nod had the same oblong, rounded shape to it like the Construction Yard had, although it was considerably less insect-like. Several spike-like decorations swept up from the sides and towards the back, with patches of pink in the middle and crossing in dotted lines across the roof. At the very back was a large, black hand clutching an orb, which both of them correctly assumed to be a representation of some kind.

The Power Plant was what appeared to be a very wide wheel of some kind with a pink glow shining from within, pulsing in a way reminiscent of a heartbeat. It had a somewhat redundant covering sweeping up from the front and over the top of it, which was once more segmented in a very insectoid fashion.

The moment was broken with the faint, scratchy sound of a page being turned.

"Ta-Ta-Tabitha!" Kirche stuttered out at the petite girl who was sitting with her back against Sylphid, reading as if it was the most ordinary thing in the world. "Have you seen anything like this before? Aren't you surprised?"

Tabitha briefly looked up at the older girl who was almost shaking in surprise and amazement at what they had expected to just be a big, black bug thing but turned out to be so much more.

"No."

In truth, Tabitha had originally spotted the location the other day while out flying with Sylphid. It had disturbed her to the core that Louise had managed to somehow raise buildings of metal that glowed in the dark, seemingly on her own. She simply chose not to tell anybody about it, although she was forced to note it down in her weekly report to her uncle in Gallia. She did however downplay it considerably, as she feared that he might decide to invade just to get it for another one of his bizarre collections.

"T-this is amazing!" Siesta breathed, having finally found her tongue after staring at the location for several minutes straight. "Where did you even get the materials to build all of this? The workforce?"

"Er, well..." Louise said a little hesitantly. "Legion sort of did it all, I think."

"Sir Legion did? On his own!?" Siesta blurted out, mind completely blown as to how a single person could build this much in three days' time. It took her entire family four days to raise a single barn for Brimir's sake!

"It is very impressive, miss Vallière." Colbert said, he himself trying to come to terms as to how this was possible even though he knew more about her familiar than the others. "What are those other two buildings, though? They were not here when we first visited a few days ago."

Louise nodded and first pointed out the Power Plant. "That's the Power Plant, Legion told me that it was necessary to build the other one." she explained, as she'd never asked exactly what it did. Turning her hand over to the Hand of Nod, she continued. "That's the Hand of Nod, which is where my Golems were summoned from."

Even Tabitha had put away her book as Louise had started talking, and she looked only slightly less confused than the other two girls. It was a plant that gave power? Well, the Hand of Nod was self-evident in the large protrusion shaped like a hand coming up from the back, but it was all so very strange.

"I... guess if you look at it from the side, it looks kind of like a flower?" Siesta hedged while pointing at the Power Plant, her head tilted slightly to one side. Earning nods and muttered agreements from the others.

"Well, um..." Louise muttered, frowning a little to herself. "Give me a moment and I'll ask him. Legion?"

"Yes Master?"

"What exactly does the, uh, Power Plant do?" she wondered out loud.

"It supplies the power necessary for the function of all Nod buildings, with the exception of the Construction Yard that produces its own."

"Yes, yes. But what do you mean by 'power', exactly?"

By now, the others had turned to watch and listen to the side of the conversation they could hear, waiting for the explanation.

"This is so odd." Siesta muttered as Louise started gesticulating at thin air. "Normally, you'd consider someone fit for the madhouse if they started talking to themselves and recieving answers no one else could hear."

"I know." Colbert agreed. "Had I not seen miss Vallière's familiar with my own eyes, I would be quite worried about her mental health as well."

"Well, the la Vallières have always been a little bit weird." Kirche said with a shrug. "Although not quite this weird." she thought to herself, narrowing her brows slightly even as Louise turned back to them with a similar expression.

"Miss Vallière?"

"He said it supplies power to the other buildings, somehow." Louise said slowly, puzzlement in her voice and visible on her face. "When I asked what kind of power, he started using terms and words which I didn't understand at all most of the time."

"Well, that's to be expected." Colbert mused loudly. "Which parts did you understand, miss Vallière?"

"I think..." Louise began thoughtfully as she walked back over to look at the buildings. "I think he said they're all powered by lightning, somehow."

She got a lot of raised eyebrows by that statement, even from Siesta who wouldn't even pretend to know anything about magic. Anyone who'd ever seen a bolt of lightning from a mage or from up high knew that it contained amazing amounts of power, to control it in such a fashion was inconceivable.

"That's... impressive." Kirche said a little numbly, was this really the same Louise who she'd teased a week ago?

"I did not know that such a thing was even possible." Colbert admitted, before his eyes widened in excitement. "Could you imagine the wonderful things this could mean for all of Tristain, if it would be possible to apply elsewhere? It could change everything!"

"I don't see how that would even work, Professor." Siesta admitted hesitantly, getting a nod from Kirche. "Yeah, I mean... how would you even use it? I'd rather not get shocked by lightning whenever I turn a door handle." she joked in a light, teasing tone.

"Dangerous." Tabitha noted insightfully.

Louise sighed, unable to come with any counter-arguments at all. "Let's just go down there and fetch what we came for, alright?"

As the corridors were far too cramped for even a young dragon, Sylphid was forced to wait outside as the small group of people journeyed down into the dark building Louise called a Construction Yard. Down at the door which she had first thought was a dead end however, they ran into a slight snag.

"What do you mean you can't let them in!?" Louise shouted at the door when it wouldn't open even after she put her hand on it.

"Master, I cannot allow access to sensitive equipment and information to a person unauthorized to do so."

"Odd." Colbert reflected, unaware of Legion's words. "This worked without problem last time, did it not?"

The others just looked helplessly at each other as Louise made a sound not unlike a growling wolf. "Then why did you let us through the last time?"

"The first time you and your teacher came here, I was still in the process of initializing the system start-ups and as a result, only the most rudimentary door protocols were active."

Louise let her head impact against the solid metal door with a faint thunk. "And now?"

"All systems are functioning at optimal capacity, access denied to all unauthorized personnel."

She let out a loud sigh and turned around to look at the group, who had been amusing themselves with following the many glowing lines in the floor and ceiling. "So here's the deal." she called out in order to get their attention.

"We're listening, miss Vallière." Colbert said.

"Legion said that we were let in last time because he wasn't fully awake, I think."

"You think?" the Germanian mumbled, earning her a glare from Louise.

"Shut up, Zerbst." it wasn't her fault her familiar kept using a lot of strange words!

Colbert put himself between the two girls, holding his hands up. "Now, now. This isn't the time for arguments. What needs to be done, miss Vallière?"

"Hmph." she snorted, sticking her tongue out at Kirche and getting the same in return. "In order to get access, Legion said you all needed to be..." she paused for a moment as she recalled his words. "registered in the Nod database as.. authorized personnel."

"Joining Nod, in other words." the Professor summarized, earning a nod from Louise and uncertain looks from the others. "And how do we do that, miss Vallière?"

Louise held her index finger up in the air, opening her mouth for a moment before closing it and rubbing her chin. "He didn't say." she said a little awkwardly. "Legion?"

"Normally a blood oath is required to swear fealty to the Prophet of Nod."

"What!? That's barbaric! I'm not gonna have them do that!" she hissed, no longer bothered by the odd looks she was getting.

"Acknowledged. In order for the most basic system registration, I require a palm print and voice sample. To do this, they need only place their hands flat on the Symbol of Nod and speak their names."

Once she relayed this to the others, they looked at each other briefly as they tried to figure out who would go first.

"Do you want to do it, miss Zerbst?" Colbert asked in the same way he'd ask someone to demonstrate something in class.

"No way, Professor." Kirche shook her head. "Why don't you go first? Age before beauty!"

In the end, it was Siesta who with her head raised, bravely stepped forward to the wall and placed her hand on the large, triangular sigil on the wall.

"Siesta of Tarbes!" She declared loudly, the sigil outlining her to the others in bright red for a moment before the wall split along the middle with a faint hiss.

"Registered; Tarbes, Siesta as: Guest of the Prophet." Legion's voice rumbled in Louise's head, although she felt it would have been more fitting to let the others hear it as well.

Siesta stood with her hand extended for a moment before blinking at the glow coming from within the structure. Coming from the rows upon rows of monitors and switches, once more resembling nothing she had ever seen before.

"Huh, that was easy." she said half to herself before stepping inside with a small smile, the door hissing shut behind her.

A few moments passed as the others looked on in silence, broken by Louise clearing her throat. "Anyone else?"

The rest followed after that, copying the maid who had gone ahead of them, and before long they were all standing inside the command center. Although Louise and Colbert had seen it before, they all spent a few minutes just looking around in awe at the glowing walls with their scrolling symbols, the pipes running below the floor and everything else.

Suddenly, Kirche started chuckling to herself, making the others turn to her in confusion.

"What's so funny, Zerbst?" Louise demanded to the Germanian, who just grinned at her in return.

"Hehe... I was just thinking of how Guiche would have been really interested to see this."

Colbert smiled slightly, having forgotten all about the boy at this point. "Mr. Gramont will get his chance I'm sure." turning to Louise who were still giving Kirche irritated looks, he spoke up to her. "Do you mind if we look around a little, miss Vallière?"

"No, not really." she blinked. "Actually I'd like to do that myself since I was so overwhelmed the last time, I didn't see much of it."

"Alright!" Kirche shouted, pulling Tabitha, who had been studying one of the displays, to her in her usual fashion. "Time to go exploring! Maybe we'll find something cool, Tabitha!"

Louise rounded on them immediately, pointing her finger at her in frustration at her even being in here. "Don't you dare touch a single thing with those sticky fingers of yours, Kirche!"

"Let's all gather here in ten minutes, miss Zerbst and miss Tabitha!" Colbert called out after the duo.

"Yeah, yeah." the busty Germanian waved them off, interested in the prospect of exploring this new place. The fact that it belonged to a la Vallière just made it more fun! "C'mon, Tabitha! Let's go!"

They all spent a lot longer than ten minutes examining as much as they could of this new place with all its eye-catching details and dim lighting. They found several other doors, some of which would open as they approached, others required Louise's touch to unlock and even then many refused to open with the others nearby.

"These chairs are amazing." Colbert breathed as he sat in one of the office chairs that sat by one of the many work stations within the command center. "How were these made? What are they made out of? How is it possible that they can move and turn like this?" he asked rapidly.

Siesta had also sat down in one of the chairs and found the function to lean the seat back, and were sitting quite comfortably with her legs crossed as Louise tried to relay Legion's answers to the Professor.

"They're made out of an Al-Aluminion, er, Aluminium frame and, um, poly-polycarbonate foam covered with..."

Honestly, the maid couldn't care less what they were made of, but Professor Colbert was well-known for his interest in odd things and was almost breathing fire from everything around him. Siesta wiggled a bit into the soft stuffing and sighed contently as its supportive, ergonomic shape made a few things pop in her back. She was almost starting to doze off when Louise finally had enough.

"Arrrrgh!" she cried, startling Colbert out of his stream of questions as she ground her palms into her eye sockets. "I wish there was a way you could just ask all these questions to Legion directly!"

"There may be a way to achieve this, Master."

Louise immediately bolted upright in her seat, having also picked out one of the chairs to sit down in. "What?!"

"What is he saying, miss Vallière?" Colbert asked as he watched the emotions play over his student's face. She ignored him however, focusing on Legion's voice as he suddenly offered her the solution to one of her biggest issues.

"I cannot copy the way I am currently speaking to you Master, as I do not fully comprehend how it works. However, field orders are often communicated through the use of comlinks, which should still function as intended. These are kept in stock within the Combat Information Center in which you are currently standing at all times."

She had no idea what a comlink was, but at the moment she couldn't have possibly cared less! "Then bring them out at once!" she commanded, almost giddy at the thought of no longer having to be the go-between!

"Acknowledged."

All three looked over as a panel of one of the walls clicked open to reveal a small drawer which slid out on its own on quiet, well-oiled bearings. Inside was a padded section containing several rows of little devices that looked vaguely like black, uneven semi-circles.

"What's this?" Colbert asked as he gingerly reached down into the soft foam padding and pulled one out to look at it. Louise and Siesta both stood up and walked over to look as well, both equally puzzled.

"They look a little like the sea shells you sometimes find at the beach." Siesta remarked as she too took one out to study it more closely. "What's this little thing sticking out in the middle?"

"Legion called them com-links." Louise said with a raised eyebrow. "But he didn't say exactly what they were or how you use them, just that they'd let you talk with him directly."

"Maybe they're amulets of some kind?" Colbert suggested. "I know there's a wind spell that allows you to talk with someone from a long distance, they sometimes use it for important messages for the Royalty and the military. It's quite taxing to use, though."

"These are communication devices designed to be worn on the ear and provide an easy way for Commanders to issue orders to troops on the battlefield."

"But how do you use them?" Louise asked in confusion.

Instead of responding, the screen closest to the trio flickered to show an image of a human head seen from the front before turning slightly to the side so that the ear became visible. A representation of the device appeared next to it, and a short animation showed how it went into the ear and then twisted as the curved outer part locked behind it.

With it thus explained, it didn't take long for Colbert and Siesta to figure out how to slide it into place, although with some difficulty and a bit of discomfort at having something stuck inside their ears.

"Hello?" Colbert asked, and both he and Siesta both jumped slightly as a deep, metallic baritone resonated into their ears.

"Greetings Professor Jean Colbert. I am LEGION, Voice of Nod and Right Hand of the Prophet."

"W-well, um..." he stuttered as Siesta was at a complete lack for words, her hand held up to her mouth. Was this really what Louise had heard all this time, straight from day one? "Just... Professor is fine." he finally added once he got his wits back.

"As you wish, Professor."

"That's the first time you've called yourself that." Louise remarked, raising an eyebrow at the two titles he suddenly gave himself, but quite pleased she wasn't alone in hearing him anymore.

"I did not consider it relevant information, as you seemed quiet upset when I first introduced myself to you, Master."

"Hmm." she muttered, rubbing her chin. "You have a point."

"Is... does he always speak like this, miss Vallière?" Colbert asked her as he held one hand up to the comlink in his ear, Louise shook her head.

"No, he was quite a bit louder at the start." she replied with a small smile. "I had such trouble sleeping with him booming in my head like that."

"The Master was quite displeased with the vocal settings I had been originally issued by the Maker, I altered them on her request."

"You're talking about the bald man, right?" Louise wondered out loud, remembering the man in her dream. "I remember you calling him that back when we were in the capitol, but then you distracted me with that beautiful music." she said with a smile. She really needed to ask him to play that to her again sometime.

"Yes Master. As I can no longer pronounce his name, I chose Maker as a substitute as he did indeed create me."

"Wait, wait!" Colbert suddenly shouted with a wave of his free hand. "Who are you, or rather what are you? Where did you come from?" he asked, suddenly remembering the questions that Louise had not been able to answer properly.

"My full designation is the Logarithmically Engineered Govering Intelligence of Nod, and I am an Artificial Intelligence created of the planet Earth in 2034."

"Artificial... Intelligence?" Colbert asked in confusion.

"Your world is named dirt?" Siesta asked tentatively, having finally mustered enough courage to speak.

Louise smiled a little at the familiar question from the maid. "I actually asked him the exact same question, he said they named it Earth since that's what they had always stood on."

"Oh." She said in understanding, nodding slightly. "That makes sense."

"An Artificial Intelligence refers to a machine or computer systemcapable of perceiving its environment and performing independent choices and actions that maximize its chances of success."

"How does it differ from a regular intelligence?" Colbert asked, not quite understanding what he meant by artificial. It was still made from the same basic materials from nature, right?

"A Natural Intelligence present in humans and animals exist due to evolutionary factors that have slowly grown on its own through trial and error over the course of millions of years. An Artificial Intelligence was created through diligent research done by hundreds of thousands of individuals over the course of mere decades, and for a specific purpose."

It was while the three were sitting there, quietly mulling over this new information that Kirche and Tabith a returned.

"Phew, I almost thought we got lost there for a second!" Kirche said loudly as they approached, frowning a little as they got no response from them as they all seemed intent on staring holes in the floor.

"Tristain to la Vallière? Hello!" she called as she waved her hand in front of Louise's face, succeeding in snapping her out of it.

"Get your dirty hands out of my face, Zerbst!" she shouted irritably, pulling the other two out of their musings as well. "Miss Zerbst, miss Tabitha!" Colbert said, blinking at them. "When did you get back?"

"Just now." Tabitha responded, narrowing her eyes at the black thing stuck in the Professor's ear. For a moment she was afraid this bizarre place had infected him with some kind of mind-control parasite, although he still DID act like he normally did...

"Ah, yes!" he said, suddenly recalling that he'd told them to be back in ten minutes. "Has it been ten minutes already?"

"It has been 23 minutes and 49 seconds since they split from you and the Master, Professor Colbert."

He raised an eyebrow, looking at the two girls with a bit of irritation. "Thank you Legion." to them, he then said. "You two are late!"

"Professor?" Kirche said, taken aback as he was acting just like Louise had before they left.

"You hear Legion's voice?" Tabitha asked suspiciously, making him blink slightly at the question before nodding at her.

"Yes! It's quite amazing really, he gave us these devices" he tapped the comlink on his ear. "that lets us hear his voice the same way miss Vallière has all this time!"

"Ooh!" Kirche said, her eyes lighting up at the prospect of unraveling the mystery of the mysterious voice! "Gimme one!"

However, as she tried going forward to get one, she was stopped as Tabitha held her staff out to bar her way. "Hey, don't block me Tabitha! I'm sure there's enough for both of us."

"Dangerous." the petite girl said, having never taken her eyes off of the Professor. "Could be mind-control device."

"Um," Siesta piped up, shrinking back a little as the bluenette turned her penetrating gaze on her. "I think I'm still acting on my own free will. It's a little uncomfortable, but it just lets us hear what Mr. Legion is saying instead of Lady Vallière acting as interpreter." she said, hesitant at first but with increasing conviction.

"Few even know when they are controlled." came the blunt response from the bespecled Gallian as she glared suspiciously at the drawer. "Don't trust it."

"Oh c'mon Tabitha." Kirche sighed at the paranoia her friend was exhibiting. "What do you want to do, check it for magical spells?"

Tabitha nodded, her hand gripping her staff a little harder in preparation.

"As amused as I am at seeing a Zerbst irritated, if you want to check them go right ahead." Louise said smugly, ignoring the raspberry that Kirche blew her.

She and the others watched as Tabitha stepped forward and waved the gnarled end of her staff over the entire drawer of comlinks, muttering spells under her breath. She kept doing this for quite a few minutes and Colbert blinked as he recognized some pretty advanced incantations for detecting harmful magics and substances.

"I should probably ask her about that some other time." he thought to himself as the petite Gallian finally finished, although she didn't look happy at all when she let the end of her staff rest against the floor once again.

"So, did you find any strange magic on them?" Kirche asked patiently, having folded her arms over her chest as she waited to Louise's great irritation.

Tabitha shook her head. "Did not find any magic or harmful substances. Could be something undetectable."

The Germanian smirked at the victory and stepped past her and over to the drawer, picking one of the comlinks out for herself. "Well in that case, I'll grab one for myself and you can't stop me." she said in a haughty tone.

After being showed by the others how to put it on, she twisted it into place with her tongue peeking out from between her lips. Once she was satisfied it was sitting nice and snug and wasn't going to fall off anytime soon, she turned around and grinned at Tabitha, her hands on her hips.

"Ha! My mind is still my own!"

"Greetings, Kirche von Anhalt Zerbst."

Just like all the others had, Kirche jumped at the sound of Legion's voice and ended up losing her balance only to try and halt herself on Louise's chair. Of course, she did not know that it had wheels and both of them went screaming into a wall with Louise ending up crushed under Kirche's greater mass.

And accompanying assets.

"Get your monstrous mammaries out of my face, Zerbst!" Louise shouted furiously as she tried in vain to get out from the Germanian, who was still dazed from the surprise and impact. It was only when the strawberry blonde girl started hitting her wildly in the sides with both hands that she finally extracted herself.

"Ow! Ow!" Kirche yelped as she scrambled to get away from the irate Noble. "You don't have to get violent about it!" she sniffed. "Typical la Vallière reaction to everything!"

"Well I wouldn't have to if you could actually try not to trip over your own feet!" Louise yelled at her.

"I can't help it if you insist in getting in my way without taking into account that you're no bigger than a grain of rice!" came the snide reply.

"Not again." Colbert sighed, a sentiment agreed on by Siesta.

The shouted insults continued back and forth for a little while, progressively getting shorter and shorter as it became more about quick insults than smart ones.

"Flea-size Louise!"

"Whale-chest Kirche!"

"Flat-as-a-board Louise!"

"Barbarian Zerbst!"

"Pea-brain Vallière!"

"Maneater!"

"WILL YOU TWO SHUT UP!?"

Both Kirche and Louise snapped over to where the voice came from, pausing when they found that they were both looking at...

"Tabitha!?"

The Gallian in question looked at them with an expression as if saying 'are you stupid or something?' before side-stepping to reveal the sword Louise had bought the day before. The quillon covering the upper section of the blade was moving like a mouth, and the voice who had shouted at them came right from it.

"Can't a sword get some rest around here without you two harpies shouting the place up?" it paused for a second. "Wait, this isn't the shop! Did either one of you buy me?"

Everyone just stared at the sword for a few moments, it was one thing that this familiar from another world could talk, but a sword bought locally?

"Interesting, a native form of Artificial Intelligence?" Came Legion's remark.

"A TALKING SWORD!" came the shout of everyone present, except for Tabitha who really couldn't care less, but had to cover her ears from the sheer volume of it.

"Too loud."

---

Hmm, I didn't actually plan on having Tabitha be this suspicious of Legion and his technology when I set out to start writing this, but it's not that out of place is it? Considering her family I'd say it's in all likelihood what's allowed her to survive for as long as she has. Probably.

In case any if you were going to tell me off that there is no caffeine in tea, I did my research on it and it does in fact contain a reasonable amount of it. The amount of caffeine in both tea and coffee varies a lot depending on how it's prepared, but it appears that it's roughly twice the amount in coffee compared to tea. At least according to what I was looking at that puts tea (any type, steeped for 3 min) at 124–418 mg/L, while percolated coffee (which at least, is the most common one over here) sat at 386–652 mg/L. Tea also contains small amounts of Theobromine and Theophylline, which are stimulants and Xanthines with effects similar to caffeine.

Some of you have also noticed that I've been putting in references from other forms of media like movies and games and such, which I've seen and enjoyed in many fics I've read myself. I didn't think anyone would mind it if I did that, and so far everyone seems to enjoy it, but because I'm the kind of author that listens, I'd like to ask what you all think about it.

Oh all my precious readers from all corners of the world, would you like me to continue to put in references to other works that I deem fitting in this setting?

Just to be absolutely clear, this is and remains a pure ZnT/C&C crossover!

But as a fan of movies, anime and a lot of video games, I can't help but be inspired by those with stories that feature transhumanism, empowerment and winning against impossible odds. As Legion does possess the sum of human knowledge, a lot of these will appear at some point in the story in form of entertainment media made available to her. These include books, film, TV-shows and video games and probably a cached copy of the Internet. Some things won't be possible to reproduce even with Nod technology, like a Lightsaber or a Portal Gun, but many concepts are still quite applicable.

Actually come think of it, does anyone have any suggestions for Earth media you'd like Louise to discover? I figured that the entertainment business probably wouldn't have slowed down significantly until maybe the Second Tiberium War which happened in the late 2030's, so all the entertainment of today would in all likelihood be present in Legion's database. I've been trying myself to come up with what Louise would be interested in watching/playing. But as I'm sure you all know, sometimes it's really hard to know if you like something until you've tried it.