Trap is set.

I send a message from my phone. An address, leading right here.

"I am in position. Do you think Protea will show up?" Holly asks.

"Probably." I test the modified Honey Badger in my hands, checking once more that the first round is set, the safety's off… I roll my shoulders, the intense weight of the NTW restricting my movement somewhat. I'm truly decked out for war. "She showed up last time I set up a dead drop. Not sure why, maybe she's been tampering with the outbound ones as well?"

"Don't you think she'll be suspicious that the return drop is on the same day you received the incoming drop?"

"Probably." I start to pace, to let out a little bit of my energy. "But us changing our plans should be expected since I know she's interfering, and she also likely knows we're aware. Speeding up the turnaround time is one method to hopefully lose her that you can reasonably expect us to take. At least Noelle should be staying away with the emergency code I put into the message… Protea shouldn't be able to interpret it."

"Hmm."

I glance at the blank portrait Holly's projecting my way to avoid consuming spare resources. She's been unusually emotional…

"Hadwin, what is three-hundred-forty-one times eighteen?'

"Huh?" My brow furrows. How does that trick work again? Just multiply by the largest digit- "Uh… three-hundred times twenty is… six, add a zero onto the end… six thousand? Ish?"

"Hmm."

"What's the matter?"

"While you are generally substandard in the mental department, you seem to have quite a good grasp on low level tactics. I was attempting to verify that your mental acuity had expanded, and I was disappointed."

"Uh huh." I smirk. "So I see that you getting your old body back has you excited."

"...You can tell?"

"Yep. If I knew that's all it took to make you happy, I'd have recovered it a while back."

"I appreciate the sentiment, but I do not believe that's necessary."

"Nonsense." I purse my lips. "Maybe I'll see if I can buy it back from the police for your Hanukkah present."

"I do not believe this form will fit into your apartment."

"We'll figure something out-"

The heavy mechanical door latch clunks, and my internal dialogue with my AI friend ceases immediately.

A set of fiery red eyes peeks in through the door, followed by a pale face.

"I knew this wasn't a real drop." She saunters across the wide open floor, face once more stretching into that rictus grin that sends shivers down my spine. "Well, it seems like the time for games is over."

Her sleeves shred as her arms flex, each finger splitting off into its own weapon with the thumb dangling uselessly from one on each side, for a total of eight spindly appendages.

She got her finger fixed awfully fast, didn't she?

I jam the Badger into the crook of my shoulder, but keep the barrel low down to the ground. "You say that. I'd like to talk a bit first."

"Planning on talking me down?" She snorts. "Or just delaying until your reinforcements arrive?"

"You think I could send a signal through your interference field?" I roll my eyes.

"I suppose not." She turns slightly, so she can start to circle around me.

I respond in kind by circling in the opposite direction. "You are actually right that I'd like to talk you down. I don't even know why you're doing what you're doing, and I'd prefer to talk it out instead of killing you."

"Presumptuous of you, saying you'll kill me." Her eyes narrow.

I flick the Honey Badger to burst fire, the click of the modified selector echoing slightly in the spacious, empty warehouse. "I don't plan on being carried out of here in a body bag."

"Very confident for an old man."

"Okay, no chance of talking then." I stop walking and turn to fully face the center of the room.

"It's because you're a murderer!" Her face suddenly twists in rage, all of her earlier calm demeanor suddenly out the window. "You killed my sister!"

"I've killed a lot of people." I raise my weapon. "I've killed a lot of Nytos too. You'll have to be more specific."

"Achillae." She snarls. "She died when you brought down our stronghold!"

"Yeah… that sounds about right."

"You also killed Father!"

"William was a creep with sister issues." I deadpan. "And yeah, I helped bring him down. Can't take credit for all of it, obviously."

Her fingertips start to glow a bright red. "I will wipe that infuriating smirk off your face! Father will be avenged!"

"It's been a decade, Protea. Let it go."

"NEVER! I will finish my last job, and the world will know the greatness of Father!"

"Last job, huh?"

"Yes." Her rage suddenly collapses away and the overly-wide grin returns. "How have you been dreaming recently?"

"Just fine, thanks." I maintain my bemused expression, eyes half lidded and lips drawn into a line. "Thanks for the new extension, by the way. Very exciting."

"I thought you'd like it."

"I learned that I can share my dreams too. That's a feature I didn't expect."

"Ah, that's because it wouldn't do any good if it couldn't be shared!" Her arms continue to undulate, fingers growing brighter and brighter as they continue to charge slowly. "I need to spread the word of Father, and I can't do that if the message is trapped inside the head of idiots!"

"I know William didn't like me much, but I'm pretty sure he didn't hate me enough to want to spread images of me killing my friends and family to the world."

"No, that's just me having some fun, revenge for the past decade of pain and suffering you've forced on me. No, I'll swap out the message and soon all of the infected dolls throughout Europe will start to broadcast his message on my command!"

"So it is a broadcast method." I frown. "Is hijacking doll neural clouds really the most efficient way to do this?"

"Of course. Everyone needs dolls to function, from civilians to the top militaries. They're everywhere, so when all of them are infected there will be nowhere to hide!"

Well… I can't say I haven't heard worse plans. If you asked Rose, all of my plans sound horrible, so most of mine could fall under that. Propaganda is pretty effective after all.

"I don't suppose I'll be able to convince you that actually continuing with that plan isn't in your best interests?"

"What are you talking about?" She sets her feet apart as if getting ready to run, arms splaying out, and starting to glow almost painfully bright in the dim warehouse. "As long as I get to torture you by taking away your loved ones again and again and again, my interests are right here."

The red tips of her fingers suddenly spike in intensity, and beams stab through the air.

I barely manage to twist out of the way of a few of them, and two of the beams cut right into my arm and leg, searing pain shooting throughout both limbs.

My own weapon spits fire, three rounds soaring just under the speed of sound towards Nyto.

She's already ducking before the bullets reach her, superhuman reflexes kicking in.

I brace myself against the pain and start charging in an arc, not directly toward her but still closing the distance to not get caught in her laser blasts again.

"Holly, can't you predict those lasers? I almost got cut in half!"

"I apologize, but I'm unable to do fast, complex calculations without using the spare space inside your monkey brain."

"..."

She's having way too much fun in her old body.

The fingers begin to glow once more, and I twist around without stopping to fire a few rounds at the wiggling appendages, but at this ten meter plus distance I can't exactly hit the thin tendrils, bullets whistling past my target.

Protea's next volley of laser attacks comes swiftly, demonstrating a whole new ability: Each laser fires off in sequence, instead of all at once.

I'm forced to focus on moving erratically, leaping about like I'm trying to dodge a bee with a particularly strong agenda. Behind me, the sheet metal wall starts to glow in places where the beams had impacted, the energy absorbed into the steel and turned into heat and light.

"You're slow today, Hadwin." Protea calls out, her voice a sing-song as she voices her taunt. "I suppose a weak lifeform like you can't help but age out of usefulness."

"You're human too." I call back, digging my heels in just before a beam punches through where I would have been, her last beam before they all need to recharge. I bring my gun up and fire a burst with one hand, aiming more for suppression than damage. "More human than I am, at least."

"I don't care if you have a doll core stuffed into your brain." She doesn't even attempt to dodge my volley, instead letting the one round on target scrape along her ribcage's skin sending a trail of blood through the air. "I will crush you."

Since she hadn't retreated from my attempted suppression, her next volley is ready to go. I duck and roll as the next few blasts fire out, making sure to roll on my feet again so I can keep moving. At least, that was the idea…

My foot hits the concrete floor at an odd angle and my ankle suddenly bursts with the fire of a thousand suns.

Shit.

I fall to the ground unceremoniously, the Nyto's next attacks failing to anticipate my erratic movement and impacting harmlessly on the wall.

The wall's starting to look like swiss cheese now, what with all the melting holes.

I try to scramble to my feet, but the new spike of pain stops me from properly recovering.

Protea notices this, and she starts to walk toward me, fingers already glowing again.

I start to scramble backwards, firing wildly in an effort to delay her, but she once more continues to advance steadily, not even flinching as one lucky round punches right into her leg, causing a stream of blood to cover her thigh.

Before long, the Honey Badger clicks empty.

"Aw, what's the matter?" Proteas voice climbs. "Run out of bullets?"

I try to reach for the NTW, but her arm collapses back in on itself and she grabs me, only to hurl me towards the nearest wall.

I roll to a stop only a meter or two away from the melted metal.

"You really shouldn't have invited me here to play, Hadwin. I've been working on defeating you for a decade. I've studied footage of you fighting. I've stolen reports of your battles, I've hunted down every scrap of info I could gather to make sure that I'd be able to kill you whenever I wanted." She launches another half-round from her still prepared arm, the beams scorching my skin, intentionally aiming to inflict pain rather than a crippling injury. "I found out who you contact, who your friends are… who your family members are…"

I bite my tongue.

She strides up to me, towering over me with that maniacal grin. "Meanwhile, you've lost your touch. This has been almost boring, I wanted to stretch it out for at least another few minutes." She points four fingers right at my face. "I suppose that this is all you can offer though."

"Got at least one more trick." I bare my teeth through the pain. "Want to guess?"

"Hmm?"

"Holly."

The horrible screech of rending metal drowns out all other sounds as a military grade Manticore, known as a Hydra, smashes through the partially destroyed wall, large foreleg already aimed squarely at the Nyto.

She barely manages to twist out of the way as the heavy appendage cracks the concrete floor, and Unit И1704 steps over my prone form into the warehouse, once more on the battlefield that had birthed her.

"Pfeh." Protea spits. "An outdated Military mech? That's all you have?"

The two boxes on Holly's back rotate, the missile pods long since replaced with a weapon that is readily apparent to the Nyto. Four red spots appear, two per pod, courtesy of four dead Rodeleros and Sophia's ingenuity.

Protea's eyes widen as suddenly she's on the defensive as Holly fires laser cannons several times more powerful than her own without stopping her march toward the smaller woman.

I struggle to my feet, babying my twisted ankle even as I try to unshoulder the NTW. Damned thing is so heavy, I really should invest in a lighter Anti-Tank rifle…

I brace myself against the destroyed wall as I lift the veritable cannon up, motors permanently affixed to my arms allowing me to be able to steady the massive weapon without issue.

Protea is still busy dodging Holly's attacks, her own lasers leaving little more than pockmarks on the armor specially designed to absorb incoming laser fire.

The earth shakes with every stab Holly takes with her giant forelegs, shaking my aim slightly, but it's in a predictable cadence…

I watch Protea's movements as she dances around, make a prediction, and-

The NTW bucks, sending me off balance and I have to hop to recover without landing on my sprained ankle.

The round soars past Unit И1704 and through Protea's arm, severing the limb at the shoulder. There's still a scrap of metal reinforcement holding the rest of the arm to her, but it's functionally useless.

"You… YOU!" She screams. "ACTIVATE HERMES PROTOCOL!"

Hermes? What the fuck is-

"Heya, Haddy!"

I stop in my tracks, turning to the grinning girl in front of me…

The world goes black as the round enters my head, and all of my senses dull.

I know what comes next.

I don't know how I know, it's just… Maybe it's Deja Vu, but I know I'm going to do something I will regret.

Light returns to my world, and I find myself sitting on my stoop once more, though someone has cleaned up G11's corpse.

Instead, my kids who had just run away at gunpoint are cuddling with me. Farah sits to my left, her arms wrapping my arm in a hug. Oliver sits to my other side, looking up at the stars wistfully. Gertrude, little Gerty, looks up at me from under the blanket on my lap.

"See Daddy? It's a great night!"

I find I can't speak.

"Oh yeah, I should probably tell you that everything that just happened was a dream. Eva told me it takes over your head kinda, and you can't resist it. You don't have to worry about it, it's alllll fake!"

I try to say something, tell her that no, as much as I wish I hadn't actually just killed her mother I had, with my own two hands-"

"You told me that my Mommy thought I was perfect." She continues. "I think if i was perfect I would have been able to erase all of the bad dreams, but I was only able to replace the last one." Her tiny hands curl. "I hope this makes you feel better when you wake up. I hate seeing you so worried all the time."

Ollie and Farah nod in agreement.

I want to pull them all into a hug, but I can't move.

Instead, all three of tem grab onto me and hug me as tight as they can, and I can't do anything but watch with blurry eyes.

"I love you, daddy." Gerty mumbles into my chest.

"I love you daddy!" Farah announces loud enough to wake the neighbors.

Ollie leans on my shoulder hard. "I love you, dad."

I squeeze my eyes shut.

"A dream to fight the nightmares." Gerty says solemnly. "But daddy, you have to wake up, okay?"

My eyes open.

I'm dangling from something, darkened asphalt rushing by mere centimeters from my fingertips. Whatever's moving me around is really jerky too, like driving off road.

"Hadwin." Holly's voice cuts through my confusion. "The Nyto is escaping."

I wipe my eyes with my sleeve. "R-right. What's going on?"

"I'm chasing after her. I am also carrying you."

I look around to realize I'm currently draped across the underbelly cannon that the Hydra platform sports. Her four legs are moving almost fast enough to blur as she chases after Protea. "T-Thanks. How long was I out?"

"One minute, ten seconds, and eight-hundred-ninety-one milliseconds." She reports. "We are both lucky I was able to remain inside my main body to defend you while Protea escaped."

"Yes, we are." I reach back, realizing that somehow the NTW has returned to my back. "How-?"

"I can control your exoskeleton. Recall this is my primary function this past decade. Only your brain was trapped in the broadcast."

"...What would I do without you?"

"Die."

I can't help but bark out a laugh. "Fair. Okay, I'm going to climb on top of you, alright?"

"I will not break stride."

"Didn't ask you too."

Using grip strength beyond what a normal person is capable of, I manage to clamber onto the top of the main body and straddle it tightly so the movement of the legs doesn't throw me off even as I once more draw the NTW.

Protea is still sprinting away, the dangling bits of her left arm held in her right to avoid dragging it behind herself. Her powerful legs propel her away from us, headed for the border wall. More specifically, she's headed for the gate.

The guards leap out of the way as they see the three of us charging toward them.

I lift the Anti-Material rifle up, the scope dancing around as Holly's footing shifts. All I need is one clear shot-

Protea's right arm splits into four once again, and while one continues to hold her detached left arm to herself, the other three fire at the small human scale door leading out into the wilderness outside Sector 3.

"Going up." Holly reports, before leaping upward. Her powerful legs find purchase on the steep wall, and she climbs all the way to the top in record time.

Once at the peak, I don't hesitate to flick my eyes around to see where Protea is escaping to.

She's quickly spotted, her bright eyes a dead giveaway.

I level my rifle her way, information about the wind, bullet drop, and her speed at her current angle relative to me all flow through my mind like water, and I adjust almost instinctively before pulling the trigger.

For a brief, interminable second, the round is in the air, the boom of the NTW-20 roaring through the night. It moves so fast, and at this distance it really shouldn't be perceptible…

But, I swear I saw Protea look back and leap sideways, the round carving a crater half a meter deep where it impacts.

I cycle the gun to load the next round, but before I can try to fire again, the Nyto slips out of sight among the buildings.

Holly's legs move, pulling me closer to the outside edge of the wall.

"Wait."

Holly pauses. "Are we not going after her?"

I close my eyes. A vision of my kids passes through my head. "I made a promise to return to my family."

"You did. Regardless, I would like to mention that right now is the best time to hunt her down as she is severely damaged."

"...Yeah." I sigh. "But, let's return home for now."

"As you wish."

Holly expertly clambers back down the wall, hardly stopping to avoid the terrified gate guards as we head back to my place.

"Hey Holly?"

The lights on the front of the sensor suite change colors. "Yes, Hadwin?"

"Thank you."

"My pleasure."

A short, incomplete reference for those who haven't read all of the Field Agent Canon - Extended (FACE):

AR Team:
Rose - RO635
Star - ST AR-15
Emily/Em - M16
Sophia - SOPMOD
Madison - M4A1

Team 404:
Reina - UMP 9
Hannah - UMP 45
Adele - HK 416
Heidi - G11

Echelon 11:
Esvie - SV-98
Noelle - Mk23
Belle - S.A.T.8
Kaya - NTW-20 (Deceased)

Other:
Holly - И1704
Chloe - OGAS P90

DEFY (Same as Canon):
Antia/Antja - AN-94
Lucia - AK-12 (Deceased)
Renate - RPK-16
Erwin - AK-15

I'll list others should they come up.