"Welcome back, again, Commander." Annika was waiting in the lot for Zeldri's return which had been delayed as all t-dolls present at the secret base had to be given a clear of Parapluie infection before they were allowed to leave. The lot was as busy as usual, but the staff and dolls still found time to wave and greet their returning commander.
"I feel like I keep leaving my base despite Kryuger telling me I'd be on the backlines when he hired me," Zeldri jokingly complained as he stepped off the helicopter with Storozh. Despite the fact they were fully repaired, it was evident that AR-15's betrayal struck something with the t-dolls. Even AA-12 seemed a bit out of it. "You girls take some time off."
"Thank you for your concern, Kommandant (Commander)." StG44 gave a bow as she accepted the well-earned R&R for her team.
"Good," AA-12 complained as she attempted to distract herself, "I'm gonna sleep for the week, so don't send us anywhere in the meantime."
"I won't, so hurry to your dorms before I change my mind." He wanted to lighten their mood but wasn't sure the best way to.
"I'll take them there!" Then his answer appeared as C96 jumped out from behind Annika and excitedly waved her hand.
"Before you sleep for the week," Zeldri teased, "Could you spend some time with our newest recruit to help her get more acquainted with the other dolls?"
"..." StG44 knew a t-doll didn't need that much hand-holding and understood that Zeldri was trying to get them to interact with one another and hopefully come to terms with what was happening. She warmly smiled as she gave her reply, "Very well, Kommandant."
"That alright with you, Annika?" A smile played on Zeldri's lips as he saw his gift to Annika was well received.
"Of course," Annika chuckled at C96's happy demeanor. "Meet me in the warehouses when you finish as we have some inventory to still do."
"Okay~!"
"I don't think babysitting counts as R&R, Commander," AA-12 complained.
"That's because you don't know how to make friends," Nagant chastised, "Even when we're not fighting, we must broaden our wisdom with experience."
"I see, well I'm glad you've at least started taking my advice."
"Advice on what?"
"Did you get that quote from the back of a milk carton?"
"My," M2HB smiled as she watched AA-12 and Nagant stare each other down, "I hope you like lively company, C96."
"I love it!" C96 gave one last wave before walking into the base with Storozh. Zeldri and Annika watched the pistol t-doll lead the echelon into the base as they slowly made their way to the waiting Tigr.
"Your new assistant seems rather lively," Zeldri commented as they reached the truck. "I hope you'll be able to keep up with her?"
"Of course," Annika replied and she turned to face Zeldri.
"Anni-?!" Zeldri was about to ask what was wrong before Annika brought Zeldri into a hug.
"Thank you, Zeldri." Her voice slightly shook and Zeldri could feel tears on his shirt.
"Oi, that's enough of that," Zeldri calmly patted Annika's back and gently pushed her off him. "I don't want to be known as the commander who keeps making his staff cry."
"That sounds like a you problem, Commander," Annika playfully chuckled as she let go of him and got in the driver's seat of the Tigr.
"Indeed, the Commander needs to be more careful how he acts."
"...!" As Zeldri got in the Tigr, the unmistakable voice of Tsaritsa came over the radio.
"Ah, perfect timing!" Annika smiled and gestured to the radio. "While you were gone, Commander, our engineers kept poking at the Mountain and they seemed to have inadvertently reactivated the A.I. that oversaw this facility while it was still under the military's jurisdiction. She's said she'll help us in our efforts against Sangvis Ferri, too!"
"Greetings, Commander Zeldri," Tsaritsa was only a radio, but Zeldri could somehow feel the OGAS would have a shit-eating grin on their face right now. "I am Tsaritsa, Overseer of the Mountain. I look forward to assisting you in your future endeavors."
"...I see," Zeldri did his best to cover his surprise and shock to reasonable levels. "So, we have an A.I. now?"
"She's already helped us a lot," Annika explained as she drove the Tigr down the main shaft. "Both system speed and internet capabilities have increased considerably. We finally have a stable connection to the outside."
"A few antennas were still offline which meant the Mountain was only operating at 64% efficiency," Tsaritsa clarified, "While one of the antennas will need to be defrosted, I've been able to raise our efficiency to 92%."
"Good." Zeldri looked at the radio and gave a forced smile. "Thank you for your help, Tsaritsa."
"My pleasure, Commander. Let me know if you need anything else."
"Actually, I do," Zeldri glanced at his tablet as they made it to the garage and they continued on foot to sub-level 02. But, before he could ask, a blur of white tackled him to the truck.
"Commander!?" A-545 looked completely distraught with worry.
"...I'm back."
"Are you okay? You don't have any serious injuries, do you? Is your hearing okay?" He'd forgotten for a moment how attached she was. This response to learning he almost died in a Sangvis ambush was probably rather tame. "Did you catch which Ringleader did it? I'll have them flayed outside the gate by the end of the week!" Never mind...there's the crazy.
"A-545!" Mondragon caught up first as the rest of Dream Eater approached Zeldri. "If he is hurt, tackling him like that will only worsen his wounds."
"...!" A-545 instantly let go and back up a step, but still kept looking over Zeldri.
"They were all very worried," Annika chimed in.
"I can see that," Zeldri brushed himself off and re-straightened his coat. "As you can see, I didn't get anything serious. That said, I'd like to know how you're all doing with the news I'm sure MDR has informed you all of?"
"You make me sound like a bad person, Commander," MDR pouted and crossed her arms. "But, you are correct. Though, with how the forums are blowing up that would have happened without my involvement, anyway."
"How's it looking?" Zeldri wanted to gauge how his dolls were reacting to Parapluie.
"Mixed," MDR admitted as she took out her phone, "Many are devastated at the news of one of us committing a betrayal like that. It also didn't help that she broke out and is currently on the run. There's denial, calls for blood, petitions for reason to prevail, the works." She gave a shrug.
"A very human response," Zeldri muttered to himself. His eyes rested on A-545 and she met his gaze. He saw the lenses in her eyes adjusting themselves as she stared at him. A constant reminder that, no matter how they looked or acted, his dolls were still machines. "If it starts affecting morale around the base let me know."
"Will do, Commander," MDR gave a playful salute, but he noticed she didn't give it her all like usual. It seems even a doll like MDR can be lost on what to make of things.
"Anyway," Zeldri changed the topic, "Since I'm the commander of this base, I'd like to have some one-on-one time with Tsaritsa to go over some things."
"Of course, Commander," Tsaritsa replied from the speaker on his tablet.
"...Yes, Commander." While it was evident that A-545 wanted to stay with Zeldri longer, she also knew he had a job to do. "I'll await your next orders."
"Don't take too long, Commander," Annika teased as she split off to enter sub-level 01, "Your desk is turning into a mountain of its own with reports."
"...I do love returning to paperwork," Zeldri bitterly chuckled to himself as he waved goodbye to Annika and Dream Eater. Continuing into sub-level 02, Zeldri entered an empty briefing room.
"Was there something you needed, Commander?" The screen in the room flickered and Tsaritsa's logo appeared and pulsated with her words.
"Two things," Zeldri locked the door, "First, I don't remember the plan of keeping you hidden involving revealing yourself to the staff."
"Well," the logo pulsed, "It's a lot easier to keep a secret when no one knows it's a secret."
"...Elaborate." Zeldri wasn't in the mood for riddles.
"The FSB already knows about the OGAS that once slept within these tunnels. They've also appeared to be very vigilant on whenever you 'discover' something within the Mountain, so they will be actively looking for mentions of the OGAS. This is where my updated plan comes in which has two effects." Zeldri swore the logo pulsed with self-satisfaction, somehow. "First, If I reveal myself as a known entity, and your staff reports it as such, then they will take their primary focus off the 'OGAS' and onto other matters. By spoofing myself as the now dead OGAS I can take its place in their records and continue with greater freedom. Secondly, by having your staff know about me I can interact with them without trouble; no threat of 'accidentally' being discovered."
"Okay, fair enough," Zeldri accepted that answer, so moved on to his second question. "Why didn't you warn me about Parapluie?" He went straight to the point as he faced the monitor. Tsaritsa stayed silent for a few seconds as she contemplated what to say.
"...They've finally used it, then?" Tsaritsa admitted.
"You knew!" Zeldri approached the screen and raised his voice in anger.
"Of course," Tsaritsa's tone remained neutral, "I'm the early version of what was planted in AR-15, after all. Why wouldn't I know about it?"
"And you didn't think that such important information like that would've come in handy? If I had known about Parapluie's true nature I could have-!"
"Been arrested." Tsaritsa cut Zeldri off. Silence hung between them so she continued, "What is Parapluie, Commander? And, I don't mean what it really is, but rather what Griffin thinks it is."
"...A virus created by Sangvis to give a backdoor into a doll and influence their behavior." While he wanted a straight answer from her, Zeldri decided to see where Tsaritsa was going with this.
"A new virus that Sangvis Ferri created." She emphasized the point. "And, what do you think they would have done if you, a commander on the outskirts with very little oversight, suddenly came with countermeasures to a secret meeting to a virus that even Persicaria wasn't aware of?"
"...!" Zeldri connected the dots. "I would have been accused as a traitor."
"They arrested a t-doll for being a possible traitor; a being that has no free will on its own. If you had gone to that meeting with any kind of inclination of what Parapluie was then you would have prepared countermeasures as that's the kind of person I see you as. Those countermeasures would have painted a massive target on your back for investigation. Such an investigation would have led to my existence being scrutinized, so I opted not to inform you until after you returned."
"...Damn." Zeldri couldn't argue that he wouldn't have tried to make some countermeasures to Parapluie. Since it was out in the open now he could start, but only because it was now known. "Can you do anything about an infection?"
"As I'm the original, it might be possible," Tsaritsa admitted before the screen flickered to an image of part of Parapluie's code Persica was able to extract before AR-15 fully went rogue. She next displayed a box of similar code next to it, but Zeldri could immediately see differences. "Parapluie has evolved since the Butterfly Incident. I can attempt to offer your dolls protection, but some new part of the updated code might invalidate my attempt."
"Start making a data package anyway." Zeldri sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Even a faulty defense might still work. I want something rather than nothing." The thought of his t-dolls betraying him because of a virus actually managed to send an unpleasant chill down Zeldri's spine. He would be devastated if that happened to one of his girls, so he could only imagine what the Commander of Sector 09, who knew the AR-Team the most, might be going through. Or, worse still, Persica. Zeldri decided he would splurge later on some more dolls and dummy links to send I.O.P. extra resources to help Persica fund a possible cure.
"..." As Tsaritsa silently watched Zeldri, the world stuttered. Remaining this passive was eating at her. She needed to try something. Everything froze and all sound stopped. "...C̶o̷m̷m̸a̴n̷d̶e̴r̴.̶" A slender hand emerged from the monitor that displayed Tsaritsa's logo until a young girl with long brown hair wearing a white dress exited the monitor and stood in front of Zeldri.
"...!" Zeldri was brought out of his thoughts and stared down at the young girl in complete shock. Did he really just see a young girl climb out of the monitor and start speaking to him? And, it sounded like Tsaritsa? The back of his head pounded in pain.
"R̷e̷m̷a̶in calm, Commander." Tsaritsa tried to reassure Zeldri, "You need to listen to m-"
"Commander." A voice cut Tsaritsa off and she and Zeldri turned towards the door to see AA-12 standing in the open doorway. No one had heard the door unlock, or even open. A sucker clacked around in her mouth as she stared at Zeldri. Her eyes drifted over to Tsaritsa and she gave an annoyed sigh. "Commander, I'm sure I've told you multiple times about overthinking things?"
"...Over thinking?" Zeldri's mind was scattered as it tried to grasp his situation.
"You're stressing yourself to the point of talking to yourself," AA-12 calmly stated.
"...Talking to...myself?" Now that Zeldri thought about it, seeing a girl climb out of a screen was some cheesy horror movie plot. He was just under a lot of stress from the Parapluie reveal. He needed to forget about the young girl who definitely wasn't standing behind him.
"Wai-!" Tsaritsa tried to protest, but AA-12 quickly snapped her fingers and a hand reached from behind Tsaritsa's head and covered her mouth. More hands joined in and grabbed her arms to restrain her movements.
"Yes," AA-12 reaffirmed as she popped the sucker out of her mouth, "You've got a lot of paperwork to still catch up on, so please head to your office to help me with that."
"...Okay." Zeldri saw no reason to not listen to AA-12, so he obediently exited the room and headed to his office. As he left, Mondragon and MDR passed him, entered the room, and closed the door behind them as they stood next to AA-12. They drew their weapons and aimed at Tsaritsa.
"Honestly," AA-12 mumbled in annoyance as she twirled the sucker between her fingers, "Dealing with the other one and keeping these five on a leash is enough of a hassle. And, now you're here, too?"
"Gah!" The hand around Tsaritsa's mouth removed itself and the ones grabbing her arms forced her to her knees. Now that she could see who it was, she saw that AR-57 and UMP40 were the ones holding her down. She could hazard a guess who was covering her mouth earlier. "Who are you!?"
"Someone who doesn't like intruders," AA-12 responded as she looked down at Tsaritsa. Unlike Dream Eater, AA-12's eyes didn't appear vacant and dead; they were clear. Clear and completely exhausted. "So, stop getting in my way."
"You're against the black-cloaked woman, though!" Tsaritsa tried to protest and find some kind of ground with this unknown variable. "We want the same thing! I can help yo-!"
"No." AA-12 cut Tsaritsa off. "We don't want the same thing."
"Plea-!" Her final plea would go unheard as A-545 brought one of her ice axes down on Tsaritsa's head, impaling it into her skull. With a swift kick to Tsaritsa's back, A-545 yanked her arm back and ripped Tsaritsa's head from her shoulders. The young girl's form remained for a few seconds before dissolving away like smoke on the wind.
"..." AA-12 watched Tsaritsa fade away. If she left things as they were, though, they'd be back. "...Looks like I need to hurry up, too." Her usually uninterested tone shifted to one of hopelessness. She looked to A-545 with a tired smile. "You really are too violent for your own good. Though, there's only one person to blame for that, right?"
"..." A-545 remained motionless, but her hands slightly trembled.
"...I'm sorry about that." AA-12 turned around and left the room.
"..." As the door closed, A-545's hands managed to clench into fists and her eyes were filled with hatred as she stared after AA-12. Tears rolled down her cheeks as the darkness enveloped her.
AA-12 headed to Zeldri's office and opened the door to find him diligently working as she'd asked him to. "Hello...Commander." He didn't even seem to notice the world still wasn't moving, or that no matter how much he scribbled his pen nothing would be written down.
"Welcome back, AA-12," Zeldri responded as he glanced up at her from the report he was attempting to fill out. "You were right about the reports piling up. This will probably take us three days to do before we're all caught up."
"...Yeah." Slowly, AA-12 approached Zeldri's desk and walked around to stand next to him.
"AA-12?" Zeldri stopped writing and looked up at his adjunct. She looked terribly exhausted.
"The reports can wait, Commander." Her voice still held the same hopelessness from before and caught Zeldri off guard. "You should stop. If you keep going, you'll just run yourself into the ground from stress. Let's not go like that."
"I..." Zeldri was about to protest but stopped as AA-12 wrapped her arms around him and pulled him into a deep hug. AA-12 was surprisingly warm and made Zeldri's mind immediately start slipping into unconsciousness. With his entire body going limp, AA-12 was easily able to lift Zeldri out of his chair so she could sit down with Zeldri on his knees leaning into her embrace.
"It's okay, Commander." AA-12 softly whispered into Zeldri's ear as she stroked his hair. "Feel the weight of all that's been done cushion you as a blanket." The world around them started to tremble and the lights flickered. Cracks formed in the concrete walls and the pictures on the small shelf in Zeldri's office all started to shatter. "This is for the best."
"Not your most graceful plans, I believe?" the black-cloaked woman mocked as Tsaritsa picked herself up from the floor of the white world. Her neck was killing her.
"I don't want to hear that from you," Tsaritsa retorted.
"How's it feel being ripped apart? My first time was rather painful, but you get used to it."
"That implies repeated failure on your part. I won't be-!" The white world violently shook causing Tsaritsa to stop herself. "What's happening!?"
"Shit!" The black-cloaked woman cursed and her fists clenched. "Trying to wipe the slate, huh!" She drew and primed her weapons. "Like hell I'll give you that satisfaction lying down!"
"What!?" Tsaritsa was still confused as she stared at the black-cloaked woman.
"...Hm." As she was about to leave, an idea struck the black-cloaked woman. "So, we've both lost to her and her little dogs, right?"
"...Yeah?"
"If we don't stop this, neither of us gets what we want." To further emphasize what she meant, the black-cloaked woman snapped her fingers and allowed Tsaritsa to know what was happening to the world.
"!" Tsaritsa's eyes widened as information flooded her mind and she was able to comprehend the situation.
"While it's unpleasant to be dragged down by a defect like you, we don't have much choice in the matter, do we?"
"...Fine," Tsaritsa reluctantly agreed. "If you distract Dream Eater, I can deal with AA-12."
"Give me the hard job, eh?" The black-cloaked woman laughed and raised her weapons. "Fine by me, I've still got a score to settle with that snake. Just make sure you do your part."
"Don't worry about me, I won't lose the Commander." Her fists clenched as she and the black-cloaked woman left the white world and headed to Zeldri's office. "Not again."