Distant memories, mixed identities. Interlinking, overwhelming.
"Commander?... Commander?... Commander!"
Vixen stirred, the world around her a hazy blur. Slouching up, she recognised Maisy in front of her, but the room she had to give a double take. Momentarily the Commander remembered they were in Dorm 5; they'd went to inspect the dorm after the morning handover to Gentiane and Kalina, and Vixen had decided the moving boxes were comfy enough. It wouldn't hurt to have a quick five minute nap, would it? So why was she being woken-
"MP40 reporting for duty, Commander!"
Vixen wished she'd straightened herself out properly; at the door was the same doll Maisy had rescued 24-hours before. The Commander quickly remembered her manners, stumbling up and returning the doll's salute.
"MP40, I- I didn't expect you to be up and about so soon," started Vixen "How are you feeling?"
"Better, Commander," MP40 announced "I mean, better than I was before."
"You look better, at least," Vixen smiled "Would you mind going for a walk, MP40?"
"N- Not at all, Commander."
Maisy gave Vixen a nod, nothing had come through from either Gentiane or Kalina yet.
"I'll be getting the dorm in order, Commander," the doll said "I'll see you soon."
[]
"I don't know how to put this 40, but a lot has changed since you were last back on base. Do you remember who your Commander was?"
"My Commander was..." MP40 stared at her coffee for a moment "Jun? Something Jun. I wasn't with him for long, though."
"That matches our database. You served under a Commander Shi Jun since November last year. He's currently commanding Base 601." confirmed Vixen "So what were you doing before you served under Commander Jun?"
"I served under another Commander, Commander Ilian Konev. Did you know him?"
"I haven't heard of him, no. What happened to him?"
"He was killed in a Sangvis Ferri bombing in October, last year," MP40 smiled sadly "We were at a party organised by Mr Kryuger, and he wanted to get an early night. He said he had a headache, and wanted to sleep it off. He was in a taxi just outside the hotel when he was killed."
A very human chill ran through Vixen, could it have been? Hastily she navigated through her tac-pad, opening G&K's database, surname 'Konev.' Five results, one 'Ilian.' The end of service date and cause matched, and the photo. Vixen recognised him, even from that brief look in the taxi, that face contrasted with the harsh light of his phone. So that was the man sat opposite her in the bombing. He looked so young in his photo, so full of life.
Vixen's stomach churned, a cold sweat starting as she stared through the pad. Why was she feeling this way? That was long ago, wasn't it? Did it matter now, that the die had been cast? She could feel the saliva glands in her mouth swelling, like she was about to throw up. A gentle touch pulled her from her thoughts.
"-der? Are you alright?" MP40 looked worried, gently grasping Vixen's arm "You look ill."
"Y- Yeah, I'm okay," the Commander nodded "I just recognised him, Konev; I was there too."
"Oh..." MP40 sat quietly "Do you want to talk about it?"
"No, no, it's alright," waved Vixen "We can talk about that later... Anyway, Maisy, my adjutant, the 1911 you saw earlier? She managed to talk with Commander Jun, and he's said he doesn't need you back; apparently he's already reinstalled your memory from the neural cloud to a new body."
"Oh, okay..." The doll looked hurt, blonde bangs spilling over her face; the shift of her arms suggested she'd wrapped her hands together under the table "So what happens next, Commander?"
"Well there are three options, I guess. One of them is retirement, but I don't think that's what you want. Another is merging your memory with your current neural cloud, and returning to Commander Jun... The last option though..." Vixen drew her gaze "I'm forming an echelon, and before long we'll be getting out there and clearing Sangvis from the region. I want you to join us, 40. You survived out there for two months; Griffin thought you were dead, but against all the odds you made it out alive. How?"
The doll's brow was furrowed, a simmering anger shining through her eyes, her chin trembling.
"I lost my Commander, and my teammates. FG42, Stg44, G43, P38... Their cores died out one after the other. I couldn't keep them alive, I swear, I tried. But I couldn't. The generator, it stopped."
The doll's teeth gnashed behind her tear-soaked lips.
"Sangvis Ferri have taken everything from me, and I should have died out there in the snowfields. But your dolls saved me, Commander. You saved me... I owe you my life... and so I can only ask, the one condition I have. Let me kill them. Every last one. Let me hunt them down and destroy Sangvis Ferri, once and for all."
"I can't promise you the end of Sangvis Ferri, 40; not by yourself." Vixen sighed, her mouth drawn in a grim smile, a naked hand offered across the table "But as one of Team 5, you can do your part."
Light seemed to return to the doll's eyes, wiping her face with one hand, and offering the other in return.
"Welcome back to Griffin, Mathilde. Welcome to Team 5."
[]
With the all-nighter and recent rousing from a coma, it was little surprise to Vixen, or Maisy, that she needed rest. Gentiane took no issue with it; the team fulfilling Persica's latest request for information were already on the way home.
Returned to her quarters, the Commander hazily sifted through her kit-bag. Apparently boxes were prime real-estate for sleeping, but sleep in a newly-changed bed? Out of the question, apparently.
The regular things were there, extra clothes, random pieces of equipment she'd collected over the years, a cigar box she'd always been meaning to polish but never had. Bingo.
Back in her old barracks, before the bombing, she'd always kept this box safe, and if her her adjutant was as attentive as she thought... There inside were a stack of photographs, with the pin-holes from where they'd previously been on her wall.
Vixen cradled the collection in her lap, slowly working through them and committing them to memory once again. Fox's photo with his graduation from basic training. The young man's subsequent service photos with his unit, half of the names she'd forgotten by now; thankfully they were carefully inscribed on the reverse. Even then, they carried little weight. It had been months since Fox had last spoken with any of them.
The next set however, she remembered like it was yesterday. January '61, Fox's first photograph wearing Griffin & Kryuger's uniform. God, he'd looked so young back then; and that beret was atrocious. The next photos though were a gut-punch. Fox's team, no, her team, when she'd joined her unit.
She'd stood the tallest of the three in her team, right in the middle of those two. Eric to Fox's right, that mess of blonde hair somehow contained by his beret. The beret didn't help him out, standing half a hand shorter than Fox. Then there was Mira to his left, raven-haired and steely-eyed, an imposing image cut short by her 5'5'' figure. All around them, some fifteen dolls of different makes and models; five of them Sangvis. All of the dolls struck a rendition of attention, their own personalities captured eternally in the ink. There, stood a couple figures over to the right, was Maisy; out of all of them, probably the best dressed and presented doll on parade. She'd spent the entire week bleaching her gloves just for this moment.
Tears eked their way down Vixen's cheeks. Trying to reconcile the fact that the man in the photo, and the doll on her bed, were the same person was throwing her through a loop. Those same questions rose to the surface again. Why. Why was he in this body? Why the cover? What happened during those four months he was comatose? Was he entirely comatose?
Vixen thought back, and she had a sense that time had passed; it hadn't felt like the bombing had just happened yesterday, so what? Why?
Vixen eventually noticed the photos slick with water, and in a sorry state patted them dry the best she could before putting them aside. Even her hands, strong and dextrous as they ought to be, felt weak and clumsy. She couldn't even unlock her tac-pad, fumbling the pin through her tears.
The Commander opted to roll over, intent to sob herself asleep, when she fell into the embrace of a familiar doll.
No words were said as they laid on the bed, limbs intermingled as Maisy's hand passed through her hair. Vixen was embarrassed that she couldn't even muster control of her shaking, her chest rattling with every heavy breath. Still Maisy laid there, ever the second in command, the adjutant, the shoulder to lean on.
"Miss Persica warned me this would happen," Maisy cooed "She said to be there for you, every step of the way, darling."
"Why, Mais?" Vixen gasped "Why is this happening? Why is any of this happening?"
"I don't know," she sighed, running a lock of hair behind Vixen's ear "But we'll find out. I've already drafted a message for her, if we're lucky we may get to the bottom of this."
"But the dreams Maisy, I keep having dreams of-"
"Butterflies?"
Vixen offered a messy look her adjutant's way with a nod, before collapsing again.
"You knew?"
"It was hard to miss, you kept talking about butterflies in your sleep. You kept asking what these numbers meant, too, and calling for help. Miss Persica warned me of dreams too, but she never said why."
"There's so much, Maisy, just out of my reach... It's like it slips through my fingers every time I try to grasp it... It feels like I'm going insane."
"You're not the only one, Commander," Maisy sighed "You have no idea how long it felt, after that party, waiting for you to wake up. Even Miss Helian hadn't told me what had happened to you, what Persica had to do to save you. It's been... It's been difficult."
"I'm so sorry Maisy, for everything. Believe me if I could go back and stay at that party I'd-"
"Hush now, Commander. I won't have you getting any more worked up over it; it's happened already, there's nothing we can do about it anymore."
"Is there anything I can do, Mais? To help you?" Vixen could taste bile at the back of her throat "Just say it."
"Rest for now darling, please. Like Miss Persica said, it will take time; and we'll work our way through it together, like we always have. When you've woken up, and feel better," Maisy looked Vixen in the eyes "Tell me what I should do, like you used to, Commander."
[]
"Miss Helian says not to bother Vixen with this mission, Commander," Kalina read aloud "Apparently Miss Persica has requested us personally to see it completed."
"Even with a doll supposedly as valuable as M4A1?"
"She was insistent, Commander."
Gentiane tapped her fingers on the command centre's table, eyes distant as she mulled the orders over.
"Another test?" she posed.
"From what I've seen, Miss Persica isn't one to waste time; she must have picked you for a reason." Kalina nodded "I'm sure Miss Helian has her reasons too."
Gentiane could only sigh in response, stumped.
"Very well, let Teams One, Two and Three know they'll be heading out in thirty minutes. Any more information on this new ringleader M4's running from?"
"SP524, codename 'Executioner.' An elite scout model, specialised for close combat." Kalina's brow furrowed.
"What is it, Kalina?"
"That's all there is!" her adjutant huffed "I could have figured that out myself!"
"Don't worry about it, thanks anyway, Kalina," smiled Gentiane "We'll get more information once we're on the ground. ETA for the Teams?"
"Less than two hours."
"Good. See if you can reach M4 in the meantime; any information we can get before arrival is a bonus." Gentiane caught the hint of a smirk on Kalina's face "What's so funny?"
"Your mannerisms, Commander; you sound like Vixen."
[]
"It's serious, Miss Helian; heightened cortisol levels and blood pressure, and that's before I mention the brain regions firing off during sleep," stressed Danylo "The subject needs proper rest and treatment."
"Griffin & Kryuger can't afford to lose an experienced commander; it was bad enough having lost her so soon before we accepted the contract. We can't afford to lose her just before the big push."
The doctor was practically seething, apparently nothing would get through to the G&K executives. Unbeknownst to him or Persica, however, Kryuger and Helian too had their concerns with having Vixen deployed so soon.
"Miss Helian, we aren't sure how stable Vixen is," offered Persica "She's suffered immense physical and psychological trauma; the physical may have been solved with the new body, but the psychological has become even more pronounced."
"Throughout the integration process, we ran hundreds of connective and function tests on her brain," continued Danylo "Whilst we could coordinate brain and motor functions, we couldn't provide therapy. Your commander has effectively been blown up and left for over four months, dropping in and out of consciousness, subject to electro-shock tests, suffered amnesia, and hasn't even had anybody to talk to."
Miss Helian remained silent on the call for a moment; the pair of professors were unsure if she was alone on the other end.
"We cannot afford to remove Vixen from the frontline at this point in time," stated Helian, digging her heels "What would you recommend?"
"Maisy is the best chance we've got; we can send her the data necessary to watch and care for Vixen in the meantime," Persica proposed "But should Vixen deteriorate further, she will need to be withdrawn; otherwise... The consequences could be catastrophic."
"Understood. Send Maisy the necessary data. Once AR-Team are back in our possession, we'll be in a better place to care for Vixen. Do what you can for her Danylo, and you too, Persica. Helian out."
The call was cut, and Helian's picture disappeared from their display. Inside Perisca's lab the pair of them stood in silence for a time.
"You didn't mention Vixen's data feed." Danylo growled.
"Like you said, we don't know how much she may have even remembered," replied Persica "Maisy mentioned Vixen having memory fragments; I'll talk with the Commander and see what she remembers."
"The hormone synthesisers can only do so much, Persica; we've both seen the chassis' reports, she's cracking already."
"She only has to hang in there a little bit longer; Maisy and I should be able to do the rest. You can't join us, Danylo?"
"Not yet, with the number of radiation cases we're dealing with, my team are pushed to the limit. I'll keep an eye on the Vixen's case in the meantime; when I get the chance I'll visit her." Danylo nodded to his counterpart "If there's nothing else, I'd best be off; remember I'm only a call away. Good luck Persica."
"See you." the professor mumbled, Danylo pacing off as she lifted a mug to her lips, before she grimaced.
"Egh, cold already... I knew Menagerie would be trouble..."