"Another cliffhanger? That's how Season 2 ends?" The Commander remarked as the credits rolled on the screen in front of him and RO635.
"Yep. That's how it ends." RO, who had been sitting next to him on the couch in the Elmo's lounge, replied with a sigh.
"Okay...so where's Season 3, then?" Mayling asked from beside RO.
RO hesitated. "...The show got cancelled after that. There was no Season 3."
"Cancelled?! I thought this show was a huge hit, how did they not get a new season greenlighted after that?" The Commander exclaimed.
"S-some...internal trouble with the network, I think. Yeah, the...producers got into an argument with...the directors, and the whole thing got canned as a result."
"Hey, wait, there was a Season 3, wasn't there?" SOP, who was sitting nearby, interjected.
"Sop!" RO hissed.
"What? Do you not remember? We watched it together! Oh, yeah, and then, when it was done, you spent the whole rest of the week ranting about it to anybody who would listen! I can't believe you forgot that, RO!"
The Commander turned back to RO. "Wait, so then-"
RO's glare shifted between the Commander and SOP-II - a glare that caused the Commander's blood to freeze solid. "There. Is. No. Season. Three."
"...That bad, huh?" The Commander empathized.
"...Why don't you want to see Season 3?" Mayling tilted her head puzzlingly.
"Please don't get her started again." STAR pleaded from a nearby chair. "She was in a bad mood for a whole month after that finale dropped."
"Commander." M4's voice suddenly sounded from behind.
The Commander quickly turned. "M, you've got something?"
M4 nodded quickly. "I've noticed a pattern of activity that I think you'd be interested in."
The Commander quickly rose from the chair. "Alright ladies, break's over." He turned back to M4. "Let's head to the CIC, you can brief us there."
Down in the CIC, the AR Team and the Commander gathered around the tactical map, the terrain of Germany on its display.
Leaning over the map, M4 began. "From the intel reports I've gone over and the things you've told me, Paradeus had something of an extensive operation over in Bremen, didn't they?"
The Commander affirmed with a nod. "The Floral Institute of Bremen was one of their main sources of Ephyllium, they had engineered a strain specifically to release their payload of absorbed radiation on command, without the risk of a delayed or premature dispersal."
"The Iaso's Box..." RO uttered.
The Commander gave another nod. "It's undetectable by all commonly used scanning technologies, highly portable, and highly lethal, as well as being virtually harmless until it is explicitly triggered by the user."
RO's eyes closed solemnly. "...We saw what this stuff was capable of doing back in Bohnsdorf...If this gets into the wrong hands again..."
M4's eyes turned downwards. "It already is...Mangi's been running numerous armored transport convoys out of both Bremen and Berlin, and I'm seeing many more scheduled on the network. Whatever they're up to can't be good."
"Where are they moving to?" The Commander asked.
M4's finger glided across the display as a red line highlighting the convoy route appeared. "Frankfurt, somewhere in the Warehouse district, to a building previously leased by Galatea. I've dug into who owns it now, and it's a fairly obvious shell company."
"Can you dig up the manifests?"
"I did, but they've been fabricated...Unless someone in Frankfurt needs their cheese collection under armed guard."
"So the only way is to check them for ourselves, then..." STAR mused out loud.
"The convoys would be under heavy guard, taking them on with our current strength isn't a good idea, Commander." RO advised.
STAR turned to M4. "You're hacked into their network, M4. Couldn't you do something about their escorts?"
M4 gave a slow nod. "I can trim some people off of the roster, but they'll know something's up if I try to nix everybody. Don't count on it working more than once either, they'll figure out what's going on when every transport that has their escort arrangements altered at the last minute gets hit."
The Commander leaned off the map, scratching his chin in thought. "How much have they moved so far?"
"A considerable amount, from the looks of it." M4 replied.
"So intercepting them won't do very much, anyways. Just one of those boxes out in the wild could kill tens of thousands, and who knows how far Griffin's willing to go in order to get the URNC's detractors to play ball..." After a moment of silent pondering, the Commander leaned back over the map. "We'll need to go for that warehouse."
"Frankfurt's the Capital of the GDR, Commander - a White Zone. The security levels there are going to be state of the art. The forged identities might not be enough to get us in there without attracting attention." RO interjected.
"We have to try." M4 asserted.
The Commander hung his head thoughtfully over the map as he pondered. "We'll have to pray that Maggie's fixer is a good one if that's the route we want to go on...In the meantime, I'll try to think of a Plan B...You're all dismissed for now, it's too early to commit to anything."
The dolls filed out of the room, the Commander remained in the CIC, silently contemplating what to do.
RO was right, getting inside Frankfurt was going to prove a challenge. The White Zones took security very seriously, and even with a forged identity, wanted fugitives such as themselves were going to have a rough time getting within the walls.
The communication's terminal suddenly chimed. Moving over to the console, He looked down at the number being displayed. "Son of a bitch..." Shaking his head apprehensively, he connected the call over the secure channel.
"Commander..." The familiar voice spoke.
"Kryuger..." The Commander replied, the hostility in his tone manifesting immediately.
"Commander, listen-"
"I've seen the news, Kryuger, about your appointment. Non-Military Forces Administration, is it? You've got a lot of nerve calling me, did The Earl send you to intimidate me?"
"Griffin doesn't know I'm calling you!" Kryuger snapped defensively. "I am taking a very big risk contacting you at all."
"Then what do you want?"
"...Look, Commander, I never wanted things to turn out like this. I wanted you to take that Green Zone card and not have to get involved any deeper, but you did better than anybody could have expected in Berlin. I can only imagine the pressure and stress that you must have been under."
"Get to the point, Kryuger, why are you calling me?"
"Commander, you've crossed The Earl. He's completely cut you off."
"No shit."
"You need to stop what you're doing and come in clean, this isn't helping anybody." Kryuger pleaded.
"Or what? Is Griffin going to execute me harder? Give me two life sentences?"
"I don't know what he'll do, Commander!" Kryuger snapped back. He took a deep breath, and continued. "Look, Commander, you're a good man. You still have a chance to fix this, just turn yourself in to me. We can smooth things over with Griffin, get you off the hook."
"You mean turn M4A1 in." The Commander pressed.
Kryuger sighed on the other end of the line. "...Griffin's going to want her too...There's nothing I can say or do about that, Commander. I know that-"
"Christ, Kryuger, did you really think I was going to do that?!"
"She's not human, Commander. Underneath all of the simulated behaviors, she's still just a machine."
"That machine is the reason I'm still alive."
"It's what she was designed to do, Commander. Her function is to serve humanity - all of humanity. I warned you not to let yourself get attached, but it's clearly fallen on deaf ears. I was willing to overlook it before, but now it's out of my hands."
"Do you really believe that's what she's going to be used for? Serving humanity? Or just serving Griffin?" The Commander accused.
"Commander, I know you disagree with The Earl's methods, but what he wants isn't all that different from you. Look, Paradeus has been crippled beyond measure, if not outright eradicated entirely. Your mission was an astounding success, it's over Commander. You've won."
"Griffin is scooping up their remnants as we speak! He's going to use their technology to terrorize anybody who resists the URNC's insurrection into submission! Things are going to be as just as bad as they have ever been, maybe even worse!"
"I've read the reports of what you've seen in Berlin, Commander. I understand - you're rattled, distrustful, anybody would be after they saw what you did, but we aren't your enemies. Griffin might be extreme at times...But maybe things will turn out better this way. Think of the things that could be accomplished, Commander. Purification of the yellow and red zones, effective treatments, or even a cure for ELID, a stable world that will be spared the horrors of conflict, even just for a few decades."
"Are you even listening to yourself?! You know who he is, Kryuger, don't tell me that you don't have doubts about him!"
"I know it isn't perfect, Commander, but what's the alternative?!...Commander, please, just come in. We can work together, control him, help him see reason if he gets too ahead of himself."
"He's already there, Kryuger! Your agency exists to make sure that Mangi Security Services doesn't have any competition in the region, and right now, he is using them to move the same Bioweapons I was dealing with in Berlin down to Frankfurt! God only knows what he's planning to do with them!"
"Paradeus made more than just weapons, Commander. Unless you can show me definitive proof that he's planning an attack, then you need to let go of your distrust. I know you Americans have inherent reservations about this sort of system, but this is what's best for everyone right now. Your duty is not just about your dolls, it's about being the shining beacon in a brave new world. M4 will understand this."
"Fuck your brave new world, and fuck you too, Kryuger! I went to Berlin to take down Paradeus, not just shuffle their leadership!"
"Commander, this isn't a Hollywood Movie! You can't just run around shooting everything that moves and expect everything to turn out okay! There are consequences to behavior like that in the real world!"
"Try me."
"Commander, you are making a mistake!"
"Yeah, well, it's a mistake I'll be able to live with. You go ahead and keep sitting behind that desk, keep telling yourself that it's hopeless, that there was nothing you could have done, that it was 'fate'. You're a coward, Kryuger, I can't believe that I ever looked up to you."
"Commander! You'll only-"
CLICK
The console went blank. Letting out a sigh as he released his finger from the disconnect button, the Commander leaned over the desk as he gathered his thoughts...
Proof...Alright Kryuger, I'll get you your proof...
The Commander reached out to the discarded communicator and pulled it back to his person.
"M4...when's the next transport leaving Bremen?"
Yellow Zones north of Frankfurt, a few days later...
The three vehicles rolled along the cracked pavement stretching across the sunbaked wasteland, the sun's rays blaring oppressively as they reflected off the sand. A single armored car sat between two blacked out SUVs, gunners protruding out of the top scanning their surroundings diligently as they clung to the handles of their M134s.
"What the fuck is going on with this GPS? I've driven this route before, we're going off course." The driver of the armored car complained.
"Something probably happened on the other route, Pierre, now give it a rest." The co-driver dismissed.
"I'm telling you, Jean, I don't like this at all. We're supposed to have four escorts with us, why the fuck are there only two this time? Why is this route giving us the runaround to our next checkpoint?"
"Because HQ said so, that's all we need to care about. Just follow the route and put a lid on it. This cargo is priority one, HQ will have our ass if we end up late for the drop-off because you thought you knew better than them."
Meanwhile, on a rooftop a distance away, the lenses of a pair of binoculars peered from a small gap in a parapet. Seeing the group of vehicles encroaching on the border of the bombed out town, M4 lowered her binoculars. "They're buying it. Everyone get ready."
"Everything's set." M16 relayed, her hand tensing readily on the steering wheel of the tow-truck they had "borrowed" from a salvage yard.
STAR sat in the passenger seat next to her, taking a clacker into her hands as she waited anticipatingly.
M4 gave the M136 slung over her shoulder one last check. "They're almost here. Fifteen, touch off on my mark."
The vehicles followed their GPS route into the town and onto the narrow street. Destroyed buildings lined the sides of the road, rubble and debris dotted the pavement in front of them. "Jesus Christ, look at this place! It's ambush central, why the fuck are we going through here?!" Pierre ranted tensely
"Relax Pierre, we have an agreement with the Varajagers in this sector. Nobody's going to touch us." Jean reassured.
"No, no...This isn't right. Get the lead vehicle on the line and tell them tha-"
BOOM
A pile of trash suddenly detonated underneath the lead vehicle in an ear-rupturing blast. A powerful shockwave rocked the earth as the SUV in front of them disappeared in an infernal blaze.
"Holy fuck! Back up! Back up!" Jean shouted frantically.
Before the driver could even shift into reverse, something suddenly whizzed straight over their vehicle on a collision course with their tail. The projectile slammed straight through the windshield of the trailing vehicle, sending both the SUV and its occupants up in another fiery blast and thunderous rumble, as well as trapping the transport between the two heaps of smoldering wreckage.
"We're trapped! Out! Out! Out!"
Between the deafening explosions and the frantic shout of the driver, nobody inside the truck heard the sound of a roaring engine drawing nearer until it was too late...
The cab of a tow-truck suddenly smashed through the wall besides them. Bricks were torn from the mortar and sent raining in every direction as the truck zipped through the cloud of dust, and slammed directly into the side of the transport. The occupants were thrown from their seats, weapons flung from their grasp as they were all but hurled into one another as the impact sent the armored car tumbling over to its side, grinding against the pavement as it skidded across the road to a steady halt.
The doors of the tow-truck swung open, 16 and STAR dismounted in an instant, raising their weapons as they filed towards the overturned transport.
Tossing the used launcher tube aside, M4 hitched a rope to a beam and speedily rappelled down to rejoin her squad.
"M4, the call just went out. Start the timer." The Commander informed over her Zener.
"We're on the clock, people. QRF in three minutes." M4 relayed. "Fifteen, get that charge framed."
STAR briskly moved to the back of the truck, mounting the charge in place with practiced efficiency. "Set! Get clear!"
At STAR's call, the team filed to the undercarriage of the truck.
"We're clear, do it." M4 ordered.
STAR hit the clacker.
BOOM
The van shook as a focused blast sheered a hole straight through the center of the doors, a cloud of dust was launched asunder as the shockwave blasted through the air.
The team rapidly swung behind the van, STAR and M4 trained their rifles on the opening as M16 quickly pulled the doors open and dashed aside.
M4's flashlight beamed inside, illuminating the guards sprawled out on the floor.
"Everybody out! Let's go!" STAR yelled.
One of the guards' hands clambered over to the grip of a shotgun laying on the floor.
BANG
The flash of STAR's muzzle lit up the inside as the guard fell limp. Her sights immediately shifted to the other guard. "Don't fucking try it! Put your hands behind your head...Put your hands behind your fucking head!"
As M4's light shined on the second guard, she got a glimpse of the trail of blood streaming from his ear. "Cool it, Fifteen. He can't hear you."
M4 stepped into the truck, forcefully seizing the guard and tossing him out to STAR. Continuing into the transport, she ripped the door to the cab open, where the drivers laid in a heap before her. She quickly dragged one out, shoving him outside into STAR's grasp. Grabbing the other driver, she dragged him outside to where M16 was holding the others as STAR hopped into the back.
STAR quickly made her way to the deposit cabinets, she gripped the handle and forcefully tore it open with enough force to sheer the deadbolt. As soon as the cabinet slid open, however, she was greeted with the sight of a pile of cheese-wheels. "Are you for fucking real?..."
"What's happening in there, AR-15?" M4 called out.
"Goddamn French and their fucking cheese!" STAR yelled back.
"Do you have any idea what you're doing, you clanker bitch?! That is property of Sir Louis Dubois! He will have you guillotined for this!" Pierre cried out.
"Shut it." M4 growled.
Back inside, STAR continued to frantically rip open the cabinets, only to be met with the same sight of cheese-wheels spilling out onto the floor.
M4's hands tensed on the grips of her rifle as she scanned the perimeter. "Ninety seconds, Fifteen!"
"Ngh...Come on, gotta be something!" STAR grumbled under her breath as she continued. The cabinets clattered to the floor as they were torn off their rails, cheese flooded the truck up to the doll's knees.
Finally, she was greeted with the sight of a silver orb, an ornate turquoise pattern adorning the surface - An Iaso's Box.
"Commander, I've found one." STAR relayed as the Commander brought her ocular feed to the forefront.
"Good work, Star." The Commander acknowledged.
Pulling open the remaining drawers, she wasted no time grabbing the rest and dividing them between three duffel bags. "That's everything, Commander."
"Fantastic. Time to make yourselves scarce."
"Hope it's enough to convince Kryuger..." STAR remarked.
"The old man's stubborn and naïve, but he isn't blind. Proof that Griffin's stockpiling bioweapons should get through to him." The Commander replied.
STAR rushed out of the van, handing the other two bags off to M4 and M16.
"Move out, get to the scramblers!" M4 commanded.
"What are we going to do with them?" M16 raised, motioning to the remnants of the crew.
The guards tensed up at M16's words, their breathing growing heavy as M4's attention shifted to them. The guard her gaze fell upon shrunk back against the truck, squeezing his eyes shut as he hyperventilated.
After what felt like an eternity to them, M4 finally spoke.
"You humans forget a thousand things every day. Why don't you make sure this is one of them?" She advised sternly.
The dolls filed back towards the smashed wall, disappearing into the cloud of lingering dust and smoke.
As the team moved through the alleys towards their escape vehicles, the rumbling of helicopter blades faded in from the distance.
"They've got air, let's hustle!" M4 commanded.
Reaching the stash point, the dolls threw themselves onto their dirt-bikes, their boots slammed onto the kickstarters and revved them to life.
"On me, let's hit it!" M4's bike took off in front, leading the team as they raced down the narrow alleyways.
Unfortunately, the alley only went so far before it opened up onto what used to be an arterial road, and as luck would have it - right when the circling Blackhawk made a pass in their direction.
STAR felt a jolt of panic surge through her as the chopper diverted from its course, and began to turn around towards them. "Shit! They've made us!"
"Damn!" M4 cursed under her breath. "There's only one of them! Split up and stick to the alleys, use the buildings as cover and break line of sight!"
The three bikes diverged, breaking off into separate courses and slipping into side-passages. Ignoring the other two bikes for now, the chopper affixed its attention onto M4A1, the door gunner spooled up the M134's barrels as she neared the entrance to an alley.
The M134 opened fire with a terrifying roar. M4 zipped into the alleyway just as a shower of high-velocity gunfire smashed into the road behind her, blasting chunks of concrete off of the sidewalk and buildings into dust.
The Blackhawk continued its pursuit overhead as it tried to keep pace with her. Another deafening rumble bellowed out from the gunner-port. M4 wrenched her bike from side to side as more shots rained from above. Sparks, chunks of rock, and shards of glass flew around her as she sped through the narrow passage.
The end of the alley approached, M4 immediately veered onto the sidewalk, passing behind the rows of long abandoned car parked on the roadside. The chopper's gun roared with fury once again, the Mercs inside the Blackhawk's bay joining in with their rifles. M4 ducked against the handlebars as the torrential flurry of impacts surrounded her. The cars were cut to ribbons, the faces of the townhouses lining the road vanished under clouds of smoke and debris.
The helicopter sped ahead, lowering itself over the road in front just as M4 reached a crossroads. The doll practically threw the bike to the side just in time for a raging torrent of bullets to whiz past her as she turned onto the adjacent road.
It only took the sight of the town's edge in front of her to realize the game her pursuers were playing, but it was too late to go anywhere but forward. Sure enough, as soon as she turned onto the road running parallel to the town, the pursuing chopper was waiting. The road in front of her erupted in a shower of chunked asphalt, forcing her to veer off further outside the town.
Her bike launched off the downwards slope, and she found herself plummeting into a dried up lakebed. Frantically searching for some kind of cover, she immediately caught side of a heap of rusted, overturned barges. She raced for them at top speed as the menacing rumble of the helicopter blades grew closer.
Another roar of the chaingun made M4's heart kick into overdrive, pumping coolant to her systems overheating from the stress. She had only barely reached the barge when the typhoon of bullets rained down behind her.
A sense of dread filled M4 as she rode through the impromptu ship graveyard. The moment she cleared the barges, there was nothing but open ground.
Her pursuers were acutely aware of this. It was time to finish their little chase, the chopper swung over the passage that she was set to emerge from, hovering low as every single gun was focused on that opening, leaving none to catch sight of the other one...
STAR raced towards the hovering chopper, the block of C4 clutched against the handlebars as she aligned the bike with a barge's overturned hull. She kept the throttle pinned as the bike lurched onto the slope, the engine screaming at max RPM as it accelerated up the hull. Her nerves steeled as the hovering chopper came back into view - she was committed now.
Reaching the apex of the hull, she shifted her weight and launched the bike off the barge. The world went into slow motion as she soared through the air, canting her bike to the side on a collision course with the open bay doors. The Mercs inside turned to face her, scrambling into a panic as they saw the bike flying towards them.
The bike collided with the one poor bastard who couldn't move in time, sending him flying over the edge, clambering and clawing as he plummeted helplessly to the earth below. STAR let go of the C4 block, sending careening to the inside of the far wall, arcing off of it and landing squarely at the gunner's feet as the doll and her bike passed through the opposite door.
She ripped out her clacker, gazing back upon the chopper as she slammed the ignition.
A blinding light beamed from every opening for a split second before the Blackhawk was ripped asunder by an infernal blast. A shockwave ripped through the air as pieces of metal were launched every which way, the flaming halves of the chopper drooped downwards as they plunged to the ground, joining the other rusted heaps of scrap in their final resting place.
STAR didn't have time to admire her handiwork, however, as she was shifted back to her senses by the ground coming right at her. Her bike slammed into the ground, the suspension giving out and sending pieces flying in every direction, as well as its rider. STAR yelped as she was hurled into the dirt, tumbling and rolling along the sand before skidding to a halt, noise once again filling her senses as she lay motionless on the ground.
The sound of a dirtbike's engine rapidly drew near, and then the sound of skidding tires.
"Fifteen!" M4's voice yelled out.
M4 rapidly dismounted and rushed over to her teammate. "Fifteen! Are you alright?! Can you move?!"
STAR groaned in pain, struggling to form words. "...Tell...Tell..."
"Shut up!" M4 cried out. "Don't talk like that! Don't you dare give up on me, Fifteen! You tell them yourself, you hear me?!"
STAR coughed out the dust her filters had taken in, shaking her head as she turned to meet M4's gaze. "...Tell me...you recorded that..."
MBV Elmo, a short while later...
"The gel layer absorbed most of the impact, some connections got knocked loose, but that was an easy fix. Star's going to be just fine." The Commander relayed to M4 after stepping out of the repair bay.
M4 sighed into her hands as she shook her head. "Why does this keep happening?...People are getting hurt because of me again..."
"Knowing Star, you were probably only half of the reason she took that jump."
"Commander! This isn't a joke!" M4 snapped.
The Commander exhaled as his expression softened. "Our work's dangerous, M...sometimes things happen that aren't anybody's fault."
M4 shook her head again. "I don't believe that, Commander. Everything we do is a decision in one way or another..."
"You're not always the one who gets to make the decision."
"Commander...I...I'm sorry, I know you're just trying to make me feel better...but I don't want to hear it, not now...AR-15's in the repair bay because of a situation I got myself into...She always has to go and risk herself over my mistakes..."
"So, order her not to." The Commander deadpanned jokingly.
"Pfff..." M4 snorted. "If I ordered AR-15 not to jump off a bridge, she'd throw in a flip just to spite me."
"See? You're not a magnet for disaster. Berlin wasn't all sunshine and roses with you gone. Hell, if you hadn't shown up when you did, we probably wouldn't have made it."
M4 nodded with a deep breath. "I know...I'm not how I used to be. I know that me...disappearing won't solve anything. That's why I'm here now."
The Commander's communicator suddenly clicked. "Commander." Groza's voice began. "There's a communications request for you in the CIC."
"Understood." The Commander acknowledged. "I'm on my way, get ready to patch it through. Let's go, M."
A short trek through the Elmo later, they stepped into the CIC, the call waiting on the terminal. Patching it through on the secure-channel, Kryuger's face appeared on the screen.
"Commander..."
"Kryuger...I take it you received the data packet?"
Kryuger nodded solemnly.
The Commander turned, motioning to Groza to bring one of the silver orbs to the table in front.
"Iaso's boxes, Kryuger. Mangi's been moving them from the Floral Institute down to Frankfurt, conveniently where they are planning to headquarter the new Relic Agency."
Kryugers eyes turned downwards after he laid eyes on the dormant bioweapon. "This is an alarming development..."
"There were only a few boxes inside the transport we hit, but there are more on the schedule, and who knows how many they've moved since before we started tracking them. Griffin's stockpiling these things, Kryuger."
Kryuger exhaled. "Maybe...they're just for study..."
"Then why were the detonators armed? When Dandelion first discovered how to brick these things back in Berlin, we forwarded the algorithm to every Counter-Terror Agency on the continent - against The Earl's wishes, by the way. Now, we disarmed the one here because I'm not bringing these aboard my ship if there's a chance that they'll go off, but you can see in the recordings I attached that they were armed when Star pulled them out of that transport."
Kryuger rested his elbows on the desk, clasping his hands together as he leaned his forehead against them.
The Commander continued. "You must have heard the whispers coming out of Prague by now, Kryuger. The Czechs begrudgingly accepted the NSU because they were largely left to their own devices, but with the URNC trying to clamp down on the ideology, sentiment from the Velvet Revolution is beginning to reawaken. Don't think Griffin won't sink to the Obersteins' level to terrorize them into submission - 'Those who cause division must be punished', that was what he laid out to me the first time we met."
"My God..." Kryuger uttered direly.
M4 stepped forward. "The boxes are just the beginning, Mister Kryuger. If Griffin is allowed to continue William's research, there will be much worse in store for all of us. Weaponizing Collapse Radiation is only scratch the surface."
"You can't just sit there and keep denying what's in front of you, Kryuger. Is it really going to take people to start dying for you to come to your senses?"
Kryuger silently tapped his fingers contemplatively. "...Can you stop him?"
"You have my word, Mister Kryuger. I will do everything in my power to make sure that Paradeus' research stays buried for good." M4 resolved.
Kryuger let out a long breath. "What do you need from me?..."
"I need to get into Frankfurt." The Commander answered.
"...Alright...I need to make a few calls."
"...Thank you."
The call disconnected.
"Looks like we've got a way into Frankfurt, now." M4 remarked.
The Commander nodded, turning to M4. "Hey, M...just now, you mentioned that the Collapse attacks were just the beginning...what did you mean by that?"
M4's eyes solemnly turned downwards.
"...Does this have to do with what you saw in Zion?"
"Yeah...I don't even know how to describe what I faced...If we're lucky, all Griffin's recovered is the Nyto's..." M4 sighed out a deep breath. "I'm sorry, Commander. I'm being cryptic again, I just..." She squeezed her eyes shut, turning away and leaning over the handrail behind her. "It's not just about what I saw when I was away, Commander...It's about what I did..."
"What you did?" The Commander echoed interrogatively.
M4 gave a slow nod. "I wasn't...floating in space looking at the future, Commander...I was in a future...Bad things had happened, I thought I had lost everything, and for a time...I didn't think anything of doing bad things..."
The Commander shook his head. "I don't believe that. You're a good person, M4."
M4 took a deep breath. "I don't know, Commander...I want to be...I try to be...but, sometimes I get angry, and then it's like some kind of monster comes out..."
"That's normal, M. We can't be perfect all the time."
The doll shook her head. "You don't even know what it was."
"No, but I know you. I'm sure you did what you thought you had to. It's a fucked up world, M."
M4 nodded slowly in agreement. "...Yeah...it is..."
Another short silence.
"M...you can talk to me."
M4 took another deep breath. "...I'm sorry, Commander...It's a painful memory...all of it. You have a right to know what happened, and I promise that I will tell you everything soon - nothing held back...I just need some more time..." She leaned off the rail, turning and gazing contritely at the Commander. "...And then you can decide how you feel after that..."
Silence once again hung heavily in the air between them.
M4 finally spoke again. "...I'm going to go check on AR-15. We'll talk later, Commander, okay?"
The Commander nodded slowly, silently watching her exit the CIC, the door whirring shut behind her.