Eudico watched on the children played with their toys. It was nice, seeing them so happy.
The gifts had been a joint work by all of the Tenno in the system, plus the new one - Commander Flame. Funny name, she thought, and she'd been told her name was funny sounding by a couple of people. Eh, to each their own.
That, of course, was besides the point - the children had gotten toys, and Anyo couldn't do a thing to stop it -Tennobaum was a holiday even the Board recognized, and any interference on it for, well, anyone, was met with stiff resistance.
Fortuna wasn't the only place getting tons of toys - Cetus had also received them, as had all the other colonies in the system. Everyone had been affected by this miracle, and they were enjoying it to their fullest.
Sighing in relief, Eudico turned her attention to the floor, where a ball was rolling toward her. Smiling, she lifted it up and threw it back to the kinds playing with it - might as well have some fun!
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Melissa tumbled backwards, landing deep within the snow. Shaking herself dry, she glared at her pawn, before curling up another snow ball and returning fire.
The snowball fight was between her forces and Flame's, and so far, she was losing. Apparently, chivalry was alien to him...that, or he didn't care about extending chivalry to her.
Well, maybe she wasn't all that ladylike, but still, the thought counted!
Worse still, Etran and Cyreesia had sided with the commander, leaving her forces grossly outnumbered. Really, could you show a lady such unfairness.
You really don't act like a lady, even if your are royalty by birth.
….Her pawn really needed ot learn when not to make his thoughts vocal.
You make it too easy.
Groaning in annoyance, Melissa focused her attention in front of her, then, using her powers, generated a giant snowball and hurled it forwards, burying her foes in its fluffy whiteness. As they clawed their way out of the snow pile, Melissa smirked: at last, victory!
Then Cyreesia vanished...and in her place, came a Frost Warframe.
Immediately, the smile vanished from Melissa's face. A moment later, and she was trying to dig her way out of the recently arrived avalanche.
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After the snow war finally ended, the group played board and video games, watched one of her pawn's Christmas movies, then, at last, bid each other adieu. Now, she was invoking one last favor with her commander: tour her around his ship.
Admittedly, this was a rather tedious task, seeing how the ship was far bigger on the inside than it was on the outside - in fact, it was so large that it had an onboard zoo, factories, and even a few farms. And that failed to account for all of the computer nexuses scattered throughout the vessel. All in all, the ship could be considered a space city, and she was only going to see a fraction of it.
Of course, her request for the tour was merely a distraction - she needed something for him to focus on so that she could hack into his computer network. Not that she couldn't do that from outside the ship, but with her powers dampened by her superior, she found it easier to do the hack from within. Plus, she could disguise her erratic eye movements during the hack as taking in the sights of the ship.
It took only moments to break into the dtabanks. Form their, she fished around, trying to see if there was any good blackmail material. It was always nice to have that kind of stuff.
….Why did she feel absolutely horrible about that?
As she perused the files, she soon found, among other things, a list of people to give Christmas gifts to. That, she wanted to see - maybe she could find some people who received embarrassing gifts.
….Wait, he gave them gifts?!
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Hidden deep in the reservoir, Ballas coiled up on the pedestal, silently whimpering in pain from his forced transformation. Gone was his magnificent beauty, replaced with this twisted form.
He had been a fool to trust Natah - she was a wolf dressed as a sheep, luring him in for the slaughter. He had fallen for her charms, and paid the price. Now, he could only hope that the Tenno devils would see her brought to ruin.
As he continued to rest on the pedestal slab, though, he heard a strange noise grow closer. Turning toward it, he found himself staring at a strange looking machine, one very similar to the ones used by the false Tenno.
"What do you want?" he questioned, annoyed to be stirred from his self pity.
The drone said nothing, instead scanning him. Then, it opened up, and charged. After that, all he knew was pain.
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Ten minutes later, the pain dulled, and Ballas was disgorged from the machine. Disoriented, he attempted to stand...and noticed how odd his legs felt. Confused, he looked down, and found that the legs he stood on were his own, not the twisted facsimiles that the Lotus' Mother had given him.
Confused, he turned his attention to the drone. "Why? Why did you heal me?"
At last, the drone spoke. "Because, when I found you twisted into a chimera, even you proved to be pitiable. Consider it a gift." Then, the machine's expression changed, becoming harsher. "Do not think that you are forgiven for your past crimes, however. Your treatment of the one who became Umbra was...unacceptable. Not now, not ever."
With that, the drone left, though not before depositing a small box behind it, which Ballas found to contain food and water. "Do not try to follow me, Executor, or you I will ensure that you reunite with Margulis sooner rather than later."
And with that, the drone vanished.
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Still stewing over his loss, Zen'hurros watched quietly as Hunhow's shards traveled across Lua, trying to determine how best he could defeat the Commander when they next met. He had lost twice already, and he could not tolerate a third defeat. He had suffered too much at the hands of the Progenitors, especially in regards to the temple-esque building upon his back. WHAT DID IT EVEN DO?!
As he continued to rage, however, a new contact appeared hear him - an orbital fabber, followed by two omegas. Emerging from FTL, they held position just outside the effective range of his weapons.
What did they want?
A moment later, he received an answer: a signal went out, directed toward the temple on his back. Only a second passed before the temple reacted, causing Zen'hurros to recoil in pain as the blades and implements retracted, whilst the chains eleased their grip on him. Soon, the structure was floating harmlessly in space, at least until the Omegas flew over to it, attached tow cables, and jumped away. As for the fabber, it approached the raw flesh on his back and began healing it. Once it had repaired the damage, the drone left. Before it did, it sent him a message: 'For Tennobaum'.
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The micronoids sensed the ship landing, followed by its doors opening. Confused, they approached it, only for the nearest ones to be sucked into some kind of machine and injected into something.
A moment later, a strange biped walked out of the ship, examining its hands and feet, as if just now becoming accustomed to its body.
For a moment, it was unsure what to do, but then it smiled, and made gestures that caused the Micronoids to approach it.
True, they were still stuck on this prison world...but now, they could bare it just a little more easily.
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….Hmph. Perhaps her pawn was more caring than he let on.
As she continued to peruse the files, Melissa noticed one last one that interested her - a video file related to her Christmas present. It was dated to the night before. Melissa looked at it for a moment, then hit play.
The video depicted her pawn with his three AI companions, busy working on...something.
"Are you sure about this?" asked Synais. "I mean, she did put you in this mess."
"Yeah, but she's been nice to me so far, so I feel obligated to do so," was her pawn's response.
The one known as Kathikon looked nonplussed at that statement. "Commander, you owe her nothing. She is responsible for all hardships you have endured so far, directly or otherwise."
"Yeah, but she's also helped me through quite a few of them. I think that balances things out."
"It most certainly does not."
"Yeah, well, I didn't ask for your opinion on this topic-argh!"
As her pawn yelped, his three subordinates instantly clumped around him, trying to search his hands for an signs of injury. All they found was a tiny cut, which the commander swiftly healed. Given the number of recently healed injuries on his scan, this evidently wasn't the first wound.
Fide merely looked at him one more time, before finally speaking. "Why are you doing this for your ROB? Do you see her as, well, a friend?"
For a moment, her pawn did not react, before eventually making a gesture to the affirmative. "I guess so."
Then the video ended.
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Melissa only realized she'd frozen up when the Commander tapped her on the back. Apologizing, she claimed she had just received a request from Celm, then opened up a portal to meet with him. As she exited the aperture, she found her coworkers busy playing around with their gifts, uncaring of her presence. Hastily, she ran up to a computer an began typing, only stopping when her fingers burned. From there, she printed out what she had typed and darted back into the main room, where she first determined where Celm was, then gave tried to hand him the paper.
"What's this?" he asked, busy playing a crossword Tau had gotten him.
"Just read it," was her response.
"My, my, aren't you overstepping your bounds, ordering our leader," spat out Tau, smirking all the while.
"Indeed," intoned Zeta, "even you should know better than this. Aren't you worried that you will lose your position as head of the commander project?"
"...No."
That shut everyone up, if only for a moment. "W..ww..What?!" croaked out Tau.
"But why?!" That was Zeta.
"Because.." began Melissa, only for Celm to interrupt her.
"...You're resigning?"
"As head of the Commander Project, yes."
"If I may ask, why?"
Melissa sighed. "Because I'm tired of treating the one person who I could reasonably call a friend like a pawn."
"So, what, you want someone else to take charge over him?" asked Zeta, still somewhat confused.
"No! When he is finished with his actions in this universe, he is done. We find a new candidate, scrub the commander's databanks, and pick a new candidate to work with...Is that acceptable, sir?"
"Only if you answer me one question."
"And that is?"
"What will you do with the boy?"
"...I'm going to send him home. Back to his home universe."
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AN: We've finished the last interlude before the endgame. Everything from here on out will really shake up the story, so get ready for a bumpy ride.
Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!