Disclaimer: See Chapter 1

Word Count: 1,717 (5 of 18)

Brittany had a secret. It was a huge one. Not even Santana knew it. But it was just the way her life was. What was her secret? The people she lived with weren't her parents. In fact, they weren't people at all, but smart robots in disguise. This isn't to say that they were just machines. No, they were what some people called AI, artificial intelligences.

But in some ways her guardians were very parental. They made sure she was fed, had clothes to wear, and went to school. And she loved them, though she suspected as she grew older that they didn't really understand her.

How could she have android guardians and Santana never find out? It was so simple. They looked human. They even behaved like humans, if a bit more eccentric than most. Her parents had been aliens who died in an accident leaving her in the care of her guardians until someone came for her. And they took the responsibility seriously.

One of the things they did was train her in ways above and beyond what human schools could provide. Before she was ten she could speak a dozen different languages, alien and human. No, she couldn't read minds, the human brain just wasn't designed for that ability, and she was oh so very human. But she did become adept at reading body language and understanding how the people in her life thought.

And they made sure she could defend herself. Before she was fifteen, she was proficient in several alien martial art forms as well as judo and kickboxing.

Her school didn't have a gymnastics team but they did have cheerleaders led by a fanatically obsessive coach, which gave her much of the same kind of training, though not as single minded, and more socially oriented. And her guardians let her take dance classes, they weren't heartless. They had access to a millennia of information on how the minds and bodies of their humans developed and made use of it.

Her parents had been advanced scouts for a spacefaring race, one of a multitude scattered across the galaxy. But her guardians had never explained what brought her parents to Earth. She'd been raised as human, which she was, if slightly more advanced. But she didn't mind. It was just how things were.

And then, one day, she was kidnapped by unfamiliar aliens with an agenda. She could have easily escaped, once she had time to calm down. But that would have meant leaving the others behind, something she couldn't do. Not only because one of them was her girlfriend, but because she found the alien's goals to be interesting, much more interesting than school, even if they hadn't told her what the real goal was. And her friends would actually learn things as a result, even if they didn't know it.

One of the things she did manage to do was convince the alien AI that had kidnapped them that she didn't need to follow their complete training. She told them she was useful the way she was, and could learn in her own unique way without being completely immersed in their training. And learning a new language? No big. And, amazingly, they believed her.

"Why won't you let me tell Santana the truth?" she asked for what felt like the millionth time, after talking with her girlfriend. Santana didn't know that it was all in her head, not just when she sat in the chair. She wasn't actually living in her own room, but was in some alien learning device.

"Because it would interfere with her training," the Voice said. "You have already interfered with her initial programming."

"San isn't as independent as she likes to think," Brittany said. "She needed to know I was safe," she protested.

"Her protectiveness is a useful trait," the Voice said. "She will make an excellent Fleet Protector."

"Why her and not Quinn?" Brittany asked, curious, since the Voice was in an overly talkative mood.

"The Quinn has her place," the Voice said. "Her abilities are far more suited for the training she is being given. She is being molded into a weapon. Your Santana is a shield."

Brittany shuddered. She'd peeked at some of Quinn's training. She wondered if her friend would still be herself when they finished with her. The whole blocking her memory seemed very heavy handed to her.

Santana, on the other hand, thanks to her interference, would still be herself at her very core when they finished.

"And Rachel? You told her she's the Memory," Brittany said. "And stuffed her head full of stories and songs. Did you really need to do that?"

"Her mind was already trained for the task," it said. "And we have found that the People of the Tribes prefer their own ways of remembering. The Memory has a very important role. Which she will fulfill."

"When will they be done?" Brittany asked.

"Soon."

"And then?" she asked.

"The next stage will commence," it said.

"Which is what?" Brittany asked.

"You shall see it with them," it said.

"You're no fun!" Brittany protested, pouting.

"You are late for your own lessons," the voice said.

"I'm going," Brittany grumbled. She really didn't like their learning pods, even if they seemed to work. But she had an agreement with their AI. As long as she learned, she would have some freedom. Of course, since their training methods could not completely override her own anti-mind tampering, it wasn't quite the same experience as it was for Santana and the others.

Continuing to grumble under her breath, she stripped off her skin tight overalls, leaving them in a pile on the deck, next to her personal pod. Punching buttons, she watched as the pod opened. Grimacing, she climbed in. She really hated this step, she decided, as a gloopy fluid completely covered her. She knew better than to hold her breath, but she always gagged as the gloop invaded her lungs. It was not the most pleasant feeling.

Before she could get used to the feeling, everything faded around her and she found herself in her own training place. Stretching, she prepared herself for it to begin.

Brittany wasn't sure how Santana would take her new skills but she was having fun. She alternated between hour long sessions with the training androids, improving her fighting skills, and the rest of her time learning how to be a spy.

Fortunately, her self defense skills were already very well developed, so they mostly had to be honed, as she was taught how to use them in a very deadly fashion. The aliens had very specific plans for her, that they'd shared parts of, once she'd made it clear that her cooperation had a price. They started by teaching her all of the skills of one of their dreaded assassins from the Order of the Black Mask, who made ninjas look like weak amateurs.

Observing Quinn's training more than once, she wondered who would win in a fight. Herself with all of her sneaky alien ninja skills or Quinn, who'd been trained to the absolute limits of her physical ability in a number of alien martial arts. She would never tell Santana this, but as fierce as she could be, and as deadly she was becoming with her space ships, she wouldn't have a chance against either of them. The AI had explained that Rachel was trained to defend herself, but Brittany hadn't been able to peek in on any of her training, so she wasn't sure how it compared to her own or Quinn's.

One of the reasons they gave her so much freedom, though she was sure it was mainly an illusion, was that part of her training involved breaking and entering both physical structures and alien computer systems. By the end of her training, there wasn't any alien computer she'd been exposed to that she couldn't hack. The exceptions being the systems jealously guarded by the AI in charge of their training.

As her training progressed, and she compared it to what the others were going through, she suspected they were training her to run an intelligence gathering operation of some sort. She not only had deadly skills but she could teach them to others. She did wonder what they were going to do with her once she was trained. She'd been dangerous, if she said so herself, before they'd been kidnapped, but now she was like one of those super spies - James Bond or the Black Widow or even Sidney from that TV show. Except she could build her own organization if needed, so maybe she was also becoming M, who she'd always thought was hot in an older woman kind of way.

She also wondered if the aliens had kidnapped anyone else. That there didn't seem to be any guys involved was puzzling, though she wasn't upset about that. Brittany could feel something important was being hidden from her but she wasn't able to figure out what that was with what little she knew. But her intuition was trying to tell her something was wrong.

In some ways, learning in the alien training pods was a relief. Like she'd told Santana, it was like being in the Matrix, only better. She could focus on learning everything they were trying to teach her and not worry about things like eating or sleeping. Sure, Santana, Quinn, and Rachel ate and slept and did all sorts of other things in their pods but that was because they thought it was the real world.

The times she was able to be with Santana helped but she really missed physical, real contact with her girlfriend. It might feel real in the training pods but she knew better.

She also wondered how they were dealing with the strange way time moved in the pods. It had only been six months in real time, but in subjective pod time… It had been three years for Santana, two for Rachel, and over four for Quinn. Her own training had actually taken a lot longer in pod time, almost five years. Years in her head where she only talked with Santana every few months and spent less than a month of personal, subjective time with her.

Next: A little get-together with Brittany, Santana, Rachel, and Quinn.