RDS I-V
The second part to this story arch, and personally it was joy to write so I hope you enjoy it as well as give some objective thought to the subject presented.
As always, review and discuss, and don't feel hesitant to PM me with any questions you may have.
HeliumFilaments this one's for you.
Chimerical Truth Pt.2
The warmth of another body against yours was one of life's greatest untold treasures. He couldn't quite put it into words, but Raj knew that this was one of the highlights of his day. Waking up to his exo lady was nothing short of euphoric. The sensual curves of her metallic body, the soft whirr of her internal components, the almost mind numbing feeling of her lower half pressed up against his.
The Warlock could preach chivalry and romanticism until his voice was hoarse, but at the end of the day he burned for her. He needed her touch and she knew it. That's why she continued to push herself, much to his concern. She seeks to change herself for their pleasure and it's most certainly a step he's not willing to risk.
But nestled in the deepest, darkest corners of his mind, he wanted it. He wants to make mechanical love to his exo goddess. He wants to know what she sounds like, what she feels like when they're truly together. Even when they fell asleep, just feeling the soft curves of her skin is-
Skin?
The Warlock's eyes flew open, which was enough of a mistake. He hissed softly in pain as the sun light stabbed his early morning irises. But he was quick to recover as he focused on the predicament at hand.
The body cuddled up next to him was not the one expected, but in some horrifying way was still familiar.
There was seamless skin in the place of metallic plates, flowing hair where there should of been a barren skull, shoulder blades instead of heat sinks...
Human instead of exo.
Raj slowly propped himself up to better gaze at the woman before him. He gentle tucked back the fiery red hair that obscured her features as he took in the slight of her pale, freckled face.
She seemed so comfortable, so serene as she slept. And try as he might, the Warlock couldn't deny that she was beautiful.
But who was she? And more importantly, why was she here?
The idea of betraying Nilanna made him sick to his stomach, but there had to be explanation to all of this.
A chill crawled up his spine as a new thought cross his mind. If she was here, where was Nila? He knew they both fell asleep in the same bed.
He needed answers, and he needed them now.
"Excuse me." he whispered as he gently placed a hand on the woman's shoulder. Only a slight shake was needed to stir the red head, as her eyes began to flutter open.
She stretched once, and let loose some odd combination of a yawn and a purr. When she leaned over to find him, she froze. The concerned look of bewilderment he was giving her was disturbing to say the least.
The woman frowned when the scrutiny did not cease, prompting the Warlock to speak.
"Hello," he started nervously, "um, this may sound odd but who are you?" he offered a weak smile.
"Isn't it a bit early for jokes Raj?" came the low silky smooth voice he come to know and love. A musically feminine sound that wouldn't have second thoughts about punching you to get a point across.
It was a voice he loved to hear no matter how it was aimed at him. A voice he loved to hear sigh when he hugged her just right. It was unmistakable and one of a kind because she had showed him the audio filter she had used to make it.
The voice of the exo Huntress, Nilanna.
Raj sat on the foot of his bed, alone, confused, and whether he would admit it or not: afraid. As "Nilanna" showered, he practically tore apart the room, searching for anything out of place. Anything to differentiate fact from fiction, to validate or reveal what the hell was going on.
Nilanna wasn't human, that he was one hundred percent sure of; he was also completely certain that he fell asleep last night next to an exo.
"Gato!" Raj spoke as he held out his hand. The ghost appeared before him but almost instantly shrunk back when he caught sight of the frantic look on the Warlock's face.
"What's wrong?" were Gato's concerned words.
The male looked around apprehensively before he whispered to the tiny machine.
"Is anything...strange to you?"
"Only that we're whispering sir."
He narrowed his eyes at the ghost, "So nothing at all, nothing you want to tell me?"
The ghost swayed back and forth as if shaking its head, "No, have you noticed something strange going on?"
"Er, no...just curious if anything seemed off." Raj replied sheepishly.
Gato threw him another sideways glance before he floated off to do whatever it was he did, replacing him was a very crisp, very clean, and very nude Nila.
The Warlock's entire body went painfully rigid as the sensual form of the Huntress moved toward him. With nothing but a towel around her hips and one to dry her hair, the Warlock wasn't actually sure what to make of this development.
By the gods she was gorgeous, her curvaceous frame alone could redefine the term 'sex appeal', and if he had to guess, even her dimensions matched that of her mechanical counterpart. She was attractive yes, but Raj couldn't help but feel a pang of guilt.
Was she more alluring than her exo version? If he were to go by his initial reaction, the answer would be yes. Even now he had to bite back the carnal instincts that bubbled within him.
But he couldn't help that right? Mankind evolved with the need to propagate, his body's reaction to a human Nilanna would be far more...assertive...right?
A brisk snap of the Huntress's finger lifted the trance away from Raj as she commanded him to prepare for the days rounds in the Crucible. And of course he obliged, even an organic Nila had him wrapped around her finger.
Raj was quick to learn that even as a human, Nilanna was no stranger to dominating the battlefield, although what bothered the Warlock was his ability to fall in line with this new Nila.
Their tactics, moves, and interactions where all the same, this huntress didn't just seem to be an average duplication, she was a prefect copy.
It was that very observation that stuck a terrifying cord with Raj. So much so that as soon as they were Tower side again the Warlock bolted. He made a b-line for the archives, chasing a ghost of a theory.
Perhaps the Patrols on Venus and Mars were beginning to take their toll and that prolonged exposure to Vex technology did have psychological effects. Perhaps an even more radical idea, what if he was trapped in some sort of space-time anomaly? But that seemed extremely unlikely, when or how could that have even happened?
But what other feasible explanation would there be? Everything else, people, places, the Traveler, even the Titan that always seemed to be hanging around Eris, it was all identical.
Expect for Nilanna. Should he just summon his courage and mention the oddity to his girlfriend?
That thought caused him to freeze for a moment. How would she process that information? Would she be upset, or more likely she would probably assume he was crazy. It was obvious that this reality was the one she was familiar with.
The Warlock once again stopped to consider a rather unmethodical idea. There was in fact one place that could definitely put at least one idea to rest.
The Vault of Glass.
With a fresh hop in his step Raj scurried as quietly as he could out the upper archives, trying do to disturb any of the patrons that were there as he made his way back to the Tower's main plaza. This plan, this off shoot of an idea could work, and he wouldn't even need to be inside for any extended length of time.
When Atheon was finished, the guardians, scholars, crytarks, everyone was able to enter and study the Vault as much as they could. It wasn't long after they theorized that the Vault was actually stuck in this reality. It no longer existed in any other timeline or dimension, a rational that was reinforced when the Vex network was rescanned and decoded.
There was no doubt in anyone's mind that Atheon had, for all intents and purposes, "saved" a backup of himself. Instructions for the Vex mind to reconstruct a new body of comparable power and ability. But to reassert himself as Time's Conflux, he would have to be reintroduced to Vault. Luckily that was probably a long was off, given the speculation of how long it took to build Atheon the first time, especially since it acted as the Vex's central management system.
Granted most of this information was inconsequential; all he needed to do is simply see for himself if the Vault of Glass was still active there. Easy enough, the difficult part-
"What are you reading Raj?" the Huntresses voice pierced his thoughts, surprising him enough to drop the journal that was in his hands.
Nilanna couldn't help but smirk as the Warlock fumbled with the scholastic writing, he certainly was more on edge than usual today.
"I, uh, was curious about something so I went to go do some research." he answered after he regained a bit of his composure, although he found it difficult to maintain eye contact with her.
"Just being your typical Warlock huh?" she said with a sly smile.
"Yeah.." he laughed uneasily, "Um, I going to head out actually, thought I'd do some patrol sweeps on Venus."
"Well then, I'll join you."
"Uh..." the Warlock mind moved at a blistering pace. Should she come? Would this somehow ruin something, or reveal untold information? Would it even matter if she accompanied him?
"Yeah, that'd be great" he lied, maybe it wouldn't make a difference whether she came or not, and if it did, hopefully he could come up with a clever way of explaining things when they got there.
The Huntress only cocked an eyebrow at his response, he knew she could sense something was off but to his relief had not yet decided to bring it up.
Unfortunately it did make for a somewhat quiet, and very awkward warp into Venusian space. As their ghost's tranmat put them planet side, Nila's typically even demeanor had become a little restless. That shouldn't have been a surprise to him, even as an exo Nilanna had an almost visible upper limit to how much tension she could tolerate between them, and that limit lowered drastically when he was the source of said tension.
"We're not here on patrol are we?" the human Hunter asked as the summoned their sparrows.
"No." Raj sighed as he lead them through what was now the fastest route to the Vault.
"Then why are we here Raj?" she asked rather sternly.
"It's not so much a hunch I have as it is a possible answer to a poorly defined question."
"And what question would that be?"
"That depends on the answer"
"Raj, you're being far more difficult that I ever recall you being. What's the problem?" Nila growled.
"I'm honestly not sure if you would believe me even I told you."
"Yes, and you being this cryptic has been oh so pleasant as well."
"Fair enough, there's something I need to find out, and I think the best way to do it is in the Vault of Glass."
"The Vault?" she said as they slide past the spiraling shots of a Fallen Vandal.
"Yes, I need to see it for myself."
"I thought you already had, didn't you go with a research team?"
"I did, but the circumstances are different now." he replied as they sailed past a trio of Harpies, signifying their entrance into Vex territory.
"Circumstances...wait." Raj cringed internally as he heard the Huntress's brakes flare. He stopped and turned to find the Nilanna looking back at him, no doubt wearing an expression of shock and concern at what the Warlock was attempting to discover.
"You...do you think you're not in the correct dimension or something?" she asked. His silent was the only answer she need.
"How is this even possible?" she exclaimed, "I thought the whole "Vault being grounded in this Reality" theory was just some old crytark exaggerating he findings.
"Well he wasn't" Raj replied grimly.
"How would you even know, how can you be sure?"
"The confluxes, if we activate a sync-plate inside the Vault and no confluxes appear, then it is extremely likely that I'm in the wrong dimension, because I know for an absolute fact it was the guardians of my timeline that killed Atheon."
"But so did we." Nila retorted, "You were with me when the announcement was made, that should be proof enough."
"Not necessarily" the Warlock said as he turned to complete their journey. The Huntress followed suite, curious to see this expedition to the end as well.
"Atheon is a central mechanism in space-time." Raj explained as the rounded the last corner that lead up to the Vault's entrance.
"As far as were aware only one of him exists, so regardless of how many realities he was projected across, when "one" died, they all fell" he continued as they slid to a stop at the Vault's circular gate.
Dodging the very few, but quite enraged Vex that were wondering the area, the duo slipped in. Traversing the rough terrain at a reasonable clip, they made their way deeper into the machine like depths of the cave.
As they progressed on their decent the Huntress felt that Raj's justification that the fire team destined to face Atheon was engaging all of his projections simultaneously in all realities seem flimsy at best. But what bothered her was the fact that he refused to tell her why he thought he was in the wrong dimension to begin with.
Nilanna's patience on the subject reached a breaking point as they descended a series of raised platforms.
"Raj!" she called, as she turned back to find the Warlock struggling to make his way down without breaking a limb.
"Hold on, this is far more difficult than I remember." he shouted as he rather ungracefully climbed down a nearby ledge.
"Obviously." she smirked before jumping down to the finally platform. A much larger area littered with lifeless Vex bodies, a grim reminder that this section had seen quite a prolonged battle.
"Oh crap!" the Warlock cried as he hit the platform with a thud, he rolled several feet and down a set of stairs before coming to rest on his back.
"Wow, that was...something" the Huntress chuckled as she strolled up to him, offering a hand to help pick himself up.
"You know, I've never actually been down here." she continued as she began to wander around taking in the sights. Supposedly the fire teams that made it down this far had to combat the fabled Templar.
But Raj only nodded as he looked over some of the research equipment that was left, anything really to avoid entering the actual Vault.
"Raj." she called, the change in her tone enough to make him flinch, before he slowly stood up to match her gaze.
"Why are we really here?" she asked sternly.
"Well, er, it's sort of..."
"What is so different Raj?" she growled.
The Warlock looked away for a moment, he wasn't ready for this. How would she react? It was a parameter he was not yet able to gauge. But perhaps it was time, he'd certainly keep her in the dark long enough, especially since they were this far down.
"It's...you." he mumbled, his voice barely audible over the her comms.
"Raj." she growled again, demanding that he speak up.
"It's you!" he shouted, fists clenched.
"What?" she replied, taken aback.
"It's you." he sighed, "You're what's different."
"...how so?" she asked hesitantly.
As he took a breath, the Warlock once again found it hard to look the Huntress in the eye.
"The Nilanna I know...she's...she's not human."
The femme guardian opened her mouth to respond but stopped short. How exactly was she supposed to anyway, she'd been the source his almost manic distress the entire day. And to make matters worse, this wasn't the Raj that said he loved her all those months ago.
"So I'm not the Nila you like am I?" she stated more so than asked.
"No, no, I like you!" he said nearly stumbling over his words, "It's just...it's just you're not the version of her I feel in love with."
The Huntress stayed quiet for a moment before something dawned on her.
"Should it even matter?" the commanding edge ever so slightly returning to her voice.
That question shot the Warlock down for a moment. Should it have mattered? Would he have fallen for Nilanna had she not been an exo? This Nila was the exact same in every way expect her species, so it's fair to say he would have come to love this version as well.
But the fact of the matter was that he didn't. He was in a relationship with Nilanna-26, not just Nilanna.
This uncomfortable knot that now grew in his stomach, was it because of his now contradictory principles, or was it because he now had two Nilas to choose between?
"Even if it did, that doesn't change the fact that I maybe in the wrong reality." Raj replied, putting on a very poor bravado.
He could feel her glare though her helmet as she brushed past him, making her way towards the circular gate at the back of the platform.
"Don't think this is over yet" she told him. Despite his deflection of the question, if he was in fact trapped in a time that was not his own she knew that she would want her version of Raj back if their roles had been reversed. For better or worse this mission needed to be seen through to its end.
The descent into the rocky labyrinth now became a silent one as duo continued their trek. Raj knew he had stuck a cord; he just wasn't sure how big it was. But what was he supposed to say exactly?
'Sorry for being in love with another you, humans just don't do it for me'
Okay so maybe his words wouldn't have been so crass, but the idea was the same. It was obvious she was used to a human Raj, what if this whole ordeal changed her opinion of him? He didn't want to drive a wedge in between that Raj and her.
And he certainly would have devoted more thought to the matter if it wasn't for those goddamn disappearing pillars. Who's idea was this? Did the Vex think this was funny? Luckily one of the research teams that went in was able to stabilize some of them, but still this was freaking nightmare. Gato had rebuilt the Warlock's battered body 5 times before he made it to the other side of the chasm. At least Nila was in a better mood now since she found the whole ordeal fairly entertaining.
But once they were past the massive triangular doors, Raj was like a new man, dashing about the area while Nilanna was left to her own devices.
It was quite something to behold, a wide variety of devices and equipment was scattered everywhere, giving a good impression of just how busy a research cell site this had been. There were even some old turrets still set up ward off any Vex that tried to interfere.
"So Raj, humor me. What's my awoken version like?" Nilanna asked as she found a comfortable seat on a ledge nearby."
The Warlock paused for a moment, but didn't immediately turn to address her, as if weighting the options in telling her the truth. Unfortunately that hesitation was all the time the Huntress needed to connect the dots.
"Your Nilanna is an exo?" she asked carefully, not sure what answer he was actually going to give her.
But Raj remained silent as flipped the switch on a nearby conduit, activating the equipment nearby. Soon a bright checker like pattern began to rise from the rings that where situated on opposite ends of the Vault. There was a low hum in the air as the conflux in the middle of the room began to glow, causing the tech surrounding it to respond to the anomaly.
"Yes she is." Raj sighed as he sat down next to Huntress, who looked first toward the obviously active conflux then back to the Warlock.
"Raj..."
"I sort of had a hunch something different was going on when we landed on Venus," he began, but this time he made sure to look at her directly.
"Some things weren't adding up, sure I could attribute that to being in the wrong dimension. But it was when we entered the Vault that thing started to change."
"Change? How?" she asked.
"Given a lack of information, the subconscious will fabricate an answer it thinks is correct in order to maintain a sense of stability or object awareness."
"You assume that you're not trapped in the wrong reality, but stuck inside your own mind?"
Raj only nodded in response.
"Then what the hell does that make me?" Nila fumed.
"I don't know, I realized that you were a figment of my imagination just a little while ago."
"Prove it" she challenged.
"Well, it's any number of things really, general movement, how you pilot your Sparrow, the fact that you're wearing armor more tailored to an exo."
The Huntress looked like she wanted to retort but simply couldn't.
"The fact that you don't have reason to justify this, because I don't." he continued, "What bothers me is that in my mind the depiction of Nila is human."
"Oh, really, it's not that you're stuck here in the first place?" she jeered.
"Well yeah, that's an alarming concern. But what can I really do about it?"
"Be hopelessly optimistic as usual."
"I think I have to be. I have to trust that whatever going on in the real world that Nilanna, my Nilanna, is finding a way to revive me."
"You trust her that much?"
"No, I love her that much."
"Well, for what's its worth, I believe she loves you too." Nilanna said she gave him a small pat on the shoulder.
"That is sort of funny, coming from you." he chuckled.
"Then you know it's true."
Raj gave the Huntress a sort of sideways smile as he thought about what he was really doing. That and the one issue, the one discrepancy that kept turning up, aside from the fact that he was more or less talking to himself. It was that his mind's rendition of Nilanna was human, why was this occurring?
Did he wish for her to be so?
Now that was an alarming thought, despite his adoration for her, was he still so insecure about her inhumanity. No, no, that couldn't be it; he wasn't so shallow as to want such a thing. But it had to be symbolic in some way right? Perhaps an internal conflict that was presenting itself before him.
He loved Nila the exo, but perhaps he liked Nila the human more...a very notable change since they could-
"No!" Raj shouted as he jumped off the ledge onto the platform below.
"I wouldn't do that...I couldn't" he mumbled.
"Raaaaj, you're talking to yourself, in what you assume is your own head." she warned.
"Sorry, sorry, I know." he turned to the Huntress. "It's just, I'm bothered by the fact that you're human."
"I know I mentioned it before, but why? Am I not still technically the one you love?"
"I...don't know, I just don't know anymore."
"Well clearly "you're" Nila won't be summoning you for some time." the Huntress smirked. "Let's take it one step at a time."
But the Warlock only looked at her skeptically.
"I've been called overly rational by some," she continued, bringing a small grin to the man's face. "So this doesn't make any damn sense, expect for one thing: you love me. I know because you've made it abundantly clear."
"I know, but how could I not?
"Because now the perception of your emotional attachment has been challenged."
"Your being human?"
"You tell me. Do you find your Nila to be less attractive than me?"
"...I think I do." Raj replied in defeat.
"Would you leave her for me?"
"No! Never, I couldn't betray her like that."
"Why not? According to you I'm the better version of her in anyway."
The Warlock peered back at the Huntress, a frown beginning to crawl across his face.
"You're certainly not sounding like her." he grumbled.
"Well, by your calculations I'm not Nilanna, I'm your abstraction of her."
"And I love her with everything thing I have, so why would I make her human!?" Raj cried.
"Clearly you don't love all of her, or can't-"
"No! We're not bringing this up again." Raj snapped. "Sex has nothing to do with this."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes!"
"Okay, okay! But it's has to be something..."
The Huntress was silent for moment before she posed another question to the Warlock.
"What is it that you love about your Nilanna?"
"She's kind yet commanding..." Raj started slowly. "Compassionate yet fierce, open yet-"
"Okay, you like her because she's an overall nice person, and enjoyable to be around." Nila interrupted. "I get that, is there anything else that drew you to her?"
Raj began to open his mouth but stopped, unable to respond.
"Your Nilanna couldn't have been the only straight forward and friendly-ish woman in the Tower."
The Warlock silently shook his head.
"My hope is that your attraction to her has evolved beyond, 'you're a great person, we should go out.'"
"It has...I know it has." the male finally spoke.
"I'm not so sure." the Huntress shook her head skeptically.
"No, we've stood together thought everything; we've grown closer during good times and bad." Raj argued.
"And yet despite braving both of your insecurities, incompatibility, and ridicule, your love is no stronger than when the relationship began." the Huntress replied.
"That not true and you know it." Raj pointed an accusing finger at the woman.
"And yet here we are." she said, trying to stifle a laugh.
"You can have that justification, nothing will ever overpower what I feel for the woman I love."
This time a chuckle did escape the Huntress's lips, she gave herself a moment before addressing the Warlock again.
"I'm not sure how to tell you this, but you're not in love with a woman."
"Huh? What does that even mean?" Raj snarled.
"Exactly what I said." she answered.
"And that entails what exactly?"
"You're not in love with a woman Raj, you're in love with a machine."
The normal outburst he would provide got caught in his throat as the words repeated in his head.
'You're in love with a machine'
Well...obviously...Nilanna-26 was an exo, and by all definitions a machine. Not a single part of her was carbon based. She was just a mass of wires, metal, electricity, and an impossible to comprehend Golden Age mind. She had a serial number, on the base of her neck, to denote the model specification and time of assembly. She wasn't unique, she was one of a thousand identical war machines to be ejected from a production line.
Like the exos before and after her, she was the prefect soldier, a relentless force with no need to eat or sleep, with no pesky hormones or libido to cloud their judgment. They were one of mankind's ultimate weapons forged to combat an enemy who's identity was lost to time.
This revelation was not new, yet somehow it was different to the Warlock.
He wasn't in love with a woman that happened to be a machine, an android if you will. He was in love with a machine that happened to be woman, or identified as female. But was there a difference between the two?
"Despite what we've been through, you don't think I love all of her, do you?" the Warlock asked.
"Only you know that answer to that question." the Huntress answered.
"Then what must I do to prove it?"
"I don't know. But I can only assume it is also something your Nilanna must have come to terms with."
"That she's an exo and I'm a human?"
"You already know that."
"Then am I not loving her for the right reasons anymore?"
"Knowing you, I doubt that."
"I accept the fact that she's and exo, I did long before I confessed to her."
"As I'm sure you accepted the fact that I was human long before you asked me to be with you."
"I don't understand." the Warlock cried as he fell to his knees. "I love her so much, yet you continue to plague me."
"I don't want you to be a human." he whimpered as his body sort of slumped in daze.
"I'm sorry Nila, I love that you're so powerful and kind, I love that you're an exo, I love-"
And that was the last word that echoed about the chamber as it dawned on the Warlock what he was saying.
"Hey! Are you starting to see thing from different angle now?" the Huntress called.
He wasn't just in love with a woman, he was in love with a machine, a wondrous, metallic, blood red gynoid. Being an exo shaped who she was and I why she did what she did. The human Nilanna was a thorn in his side not because he wished she was human, but because I deep dark part of him never truly accepted that she wasn't.
He continued to hide behind the excuse that he didn't need a concrete reason to love her. Nor could he recall ever saying "I love you because you're an exo." And if he did he didn't truly meant it.
And to him that was wrong. He dared to delude himself into thinking that her race was just novelty. This wasn't like the arbitrary ethnic variations within humanity; she was a completely different form of life. Why didn't he love that about her?
Why was her inhumanity not something he could love? Well he certainly knew the answer know.
She wasn't the most beautiful woman he'd ever laid eyes on, she was the most beautiful exo. And he wouldn't change that for the world.
"You know, I might just-" but as soon as he was back at attention, he stopped. The Huntress, the human Nilanna was gone.
He jumped up to the platform for a closer look, but found nothing. Not a single trace that she'd even been there.
In retrospect this must have been a good thing, correct? She was a somewhat malicious figment of his imagination. But he had to hand it to her...himself? Whatever.
A little introspection was just what he needed. To fully embrace the ideal with open arms, to love the woman as it was and the machine as it is, to change nothing and yet somehow everything.
Had anything really shifted within him? He certainly didn't feel any different. He still loved Nilanna-26, and not just the parts his subconscious picked and choose. He loved all of her, from the top of her hairless head all the down to her left little toe that constantly seized up due to an aging solder job.
She was 110% machine, made from pure, sexy, awe inspiring woman. What's not to love about that?