Only Human (Goddess of Victory NIKKE SI)

[Stove]

Oops, forgot to keep up with this version of the thread

feeling almost as dumb as eunhwa

and also this other thing

family interaction sadly means no new art today (probably)

 

[BakaSmurf]

===
Chapter 28 - Blood in the Water
===

The following day, Joe was woken up by an alert from his phone, and checking it revealed a message from-

[How much?]

Syuen.

That caused the Commander's brow to furrow heavily, to which he replied, [What?]

[How much is she paying you?] Syuen elucidated. [I'll double it.]

Joe paused, blinked, then his brain kicked back into high gear and at once, he was immediately done with this day. Without missing a beat, he sent a message to Ingrid instead of replying to the CEO of Missilis. [Syuen is trying to poach me from you.]

Several moments passed before he got a reply. [Of course the little dumbass is. Wardress apparently gave you a glowing review, attributed driving Chatterbox off to your command instead of reporting on the intervention of the Pilgrim. She tried to buy your 'contract' off of me directly, and I told her to shove it. Tell her off however you see fit.]

Well then…

[I looked into the squad they have assigned to you,] Syuen continued messaging Joe, eliciting a roll of his eyes. ['Counters,' a rag-tag mish-mash of Nikkes from different manufacturers, one of which is an Absolute has-been, some no-name never-will-be fresh out of Elysion boot camp, and a Tetra Line fashion model reject, of all things? Don't you think that's a bit beneath you? With simulation scores and a deployment record like yours, Ingrid can't even have the decency to give you command of Absolute? I think that's pretty insulting. I'll give you limited command of Matis, the best the Ark as to offer. You think you're toppling Tyrants now? Just imagine if you had the might of Matis backing you! You'd be rich and famous in weeks!]

Instead of replying, Joe just set the phone down, rolled over, and growled at the ceiling. Not even because of Syuen, but because mornings should go explode forever.

Eventually, he clambered out of bed and went about the process of getting dressed, checking his phone, then setting it right back down every time he saw it was another message from Syuen.

[Hey! Answer me! I'm a busy woman, you know!]

[Do you have any idea how lucky you are to have me extending this offer to you directly?]

[I know you're reading these! I can see the 'message read' indicator on my end! You'd better not DARE leave me on read you little-]

Silencing his phone, Joe proceeded downstairs for breakfast.

---

"So," a new, prideful and haughty girly voice called out as Joe finally reached the bottom of the stairs, having decided that the exercise of climbing and descending them would be better for his health in the long term. "This is the 'amazing' new Commander I've heard so much about?"

By all the blessings of sweet baby Buddha, Joe was grateful that he had been holding onto the stairwell's guardrail when he looked up and noticed the young woman standing in the hallway of the Command Centre's ground floor. She seemed to be bracing against some unseen force, arms crossed beneath her modestly well-endowed chest. Long, shapely legs spread wide, anchoring her to the ground as though expecting to meet resistance where she stood.

Several things had run through Joe's mind when he laid eyes on the new girl - first and foremost at a glance was 'Hatsune Miku!?'

Second, was Christ alive, she's fucking gorgeous. That pose, that posture, the cocky grin on her face…

Absurdly long pale blue hair was tied up in a pair of high, silken twintails that ended in glamorous drilled curls which reached her knees. That hair framed a pair of large, expressive golden eyes which themselves were bordered with thick, perfectly tailored eyelashes that emphasized the great amount of care she put into her looks. A fair, soft face gently tapered down into a dainty chin, and atop her crown rested a white and black military cap accentuated with gold.

Her full-sleeved one-piece bodysuit was much the same - tightly hugging her figure, the stark whites, blacks, and golds created the impression of a naval uniform - though, most naval uniforms didn't tend to terminate mid-way down the upper thigh, strategically leaving a good four inches of exposed and skin with visible squish between the uniform's integrated shorts and the zip-up oily black leather thigh-high boots with what had to be four-fucking-inch heels. Startlingly, strikingly, gloriously, despite wearing absurd four-inch heels… she had to be three inches shorter than an already teeny-tiny Rapi. Joe would be able to easily rest his chin atop her crown, if he so chose. In fact, if she went barefoot, he'd have to squat to do so!

And her midsection, Jesus fucking Christ, why were so many of the girls Joe met in this world so damned curvaceous?

She was about- or, no, she was literally one step away from being his platonic ideal of a woman, at least in terms of looks, Joe had to admit.

Needless to say, given that he was kind of a dumbass, after getting a good look at her, he just wound up standing there staring for way longer than was probably acceptable. Which made it all the stranger when it occurred to him that she wasn't saying anything either… In fact. She seemed to have the same, exact expression on her face that he did. Staring right back at him, just as dumbly wide-eyed.

Surprisingly, it was Joe that wound up breaking the stalemate. "U-uh…" he started like a total goon.

"P-Privaty!" with a jump, the twin-tailed beauty sharply cried out, eyes somehow widening even further beyond the point they had been. "R-representing Triangle!"

Triangle, and… "Ah, I've heard of you," Joe started, to which Privaty immediately started preening.

"Of course you have!" she declared, gorgeously flipping her hair like a proper anime noblewoman. "Everyone has heard of Triangle. It's difficult to not have heard of the best of the best! And Triangle makes the best look like a mere runner-up!"

…Damn it, overconfidence was cute. "EG mentioned that you had her taking notes on us," Joe noted. "Decided to come and check out the competition yourself, huh?"

"'Competition?'" Privaty looked almost offended, narrowing her eyes at Joe in an accusatory manner. "What 'competition?' What's there to compete with?"

"Rapi?" Joe remarked, crossing his arms and leaning against the landing wall. He remembered EG's unspoken assertion that Privaty apparently had beef with his squad mate.

At that, Privaty pursed her lips, furrowed her brow, and after a moment sharply upturned her nose at the notion. "Rapi may be impressive, but I'm more impressive. The score is tilted in my favour, as is only natural! I'm a full ten points ahead!" She declared with supreme confidence.

Somehow, that only caused Joe to feel as though it was actually Rapi that was winning their apparent competition by a fair amount. "That so?" he asked, admittedly amused by her posturing, if only because of how… cartoonish it came across. She was trying way too hard, but in a way that struck him as more endearing than annoying. Might that have been because she was pushing like, literally all of his buttons? Maybe. Joe had never claimed to be above being influenced by the looks of girls - he was just quick to get over their looks if they were unpleasant bitches, Eunhwa. "So, if you're not here to scope out Rapi's new squad… actually, right, it sounded like you were here for me, right?"

"A-as if!" Privaty… blushed, suddenly looking the part of a cornered rabbit as she recoiled back a step. "W-why would I be interested in you!?"

"So… you're here for Rapi, then?" Joe pressed, detecting blood in the water and wondering if she was teasable.

"W-why would I be here for Rapi? She's second-rate compared to me! I have no reason to feel inferior to her!" Privaty blatantly lied, also showing her hand despite Joe having made no comment suggesting that she would have reason to feel inferior to Rapi in the first place.

Blood and panicked splashing at that. "So… if you aren't here for 'the amazing new Commander you've heard so much about,' and you're not here to check out the squad, or even Rapi… what brings you to our humble outpost? Sightseeing?"

"That's right!" Privaty quite transparently leapt on the first excuse she was presented. "Just… seeing the sights!"

She went quiet at that, and Joe let that quiet percolate for a few moments. He milked the silence, as Privaty looked visibly uncertain, even increasingly worried. Once he'd given her some time to sweat… "So you're really interested in construction, then?" he asked. "Since there's literally nothing else going on around here. No entertainment, no shopping, not even public utilities…"

At once, Privaty was back to looking the part of the cornered bunny. Glancing around in shock and horror, she glowered angrily at him, her cute little button features scrunching up in frustration. "Well, more interesting than you! Like I'd come here just to meet you or anything like that!"

Oh lord, she was making this entirely too easy. "Really? That's a shame, since you're doing a real good job of making me interested in you…" Joe declared, giving her a mildly hurt look.

"W-wha…?" the bluenette looked visibly shocked, wavering and staring wide-eyed at the Commander. "W-what the hell are you talking about!?" she panic-shouted through a rapidly rising blush, the corners of her mouth twinging upwards ever so slightly, which she tried to hide by spinning in place and turning her back to him. "L-like I care! Who even says something like that to someone they've just met!? What are you, some sort of wannabe player? Don't get cocky just because you're some hotshot commander with a reputation for being nice and handsome to Nikkes!"

DON'T STARE, DON'T STARE, DON'T STARE, FOR THE LOVE OF CHRIST DO NOT STARE.

To Joe's delight horror, it turned out that Privaty… Yeah, no, it turned out she was actually his platonic physical ideal of a woman. To not dwell too much on it, her posterior was flawless, and his eyes were in open revolt and rebellion against his commands to not stare.

"And here I came here to touch base with the rising star of the Outpost and find out what sort of Commander that problem Nikke Rapi got herself attached to…" Privaty shook her head, cupping her cheeks as she basically went and word vomited, completely ignorant to just how much spaghetti Joe had started spilling all over her heels the moment she'd presented her backside to him. "Y-you think you're h-hot shit!? Like I'm even impressed or intrigued! What a waste of my time! There isn't even anything impressive around here to do or look at or talk to! Hmph!" She upturned her nose at the open air in front of her again, declaring: "There's clearly nothing of worth here for me to do or whatever! I'm going! And I'm never coming back! Like there's anything worth coming back for anyways!"

Once again, she huffed, immediately moving for the front doors of the building, while Joe's crude and rebellious eyes refused to move from her backside, watching her power-walk the entire way out. He couldn't help but dwell on how she even walked pretty.

Just as the double doors automatically slid open for her, Privaty suddenly stopped just short of crossing the threshold into the street. The pause, mercifully, was enough to shake Joe's focus and let him tear his eyes from her rump… which allowed him to notice that she wasn't wearing a peaked officer's hat, but rather a visor, of all things.

What kind of military distributed military-themed visors to their elite counter-terrorism operatives?

As Joe watched her stand there for a few moments, Privaty peeked back over her shoulder as though attempting to steal a glance at... something, face still beet red and bearing one hell of a nervous pout - which snapped into wide-eyed, open horror upon noticing that he still had eyes on her.

Privaty, at that, seemingly reflexively cried out, "What're you looking at!?" Starkly embarrassed by his gaze.

"You," Joe matter-of-factually replied, owlishly blinking as he spoke without thinking.

While a blush threatened to emerge on his face at the revelation of just how smitten with this idiot woman he'd rapidly become… her blush redoubled, and Joe wondered if she just might start to whistle like a kettle from the attention. "D-don't get the wrong idea! It's not like I'm interested in you or anything, jerk!"

Then she bolted out of the building, leaving a dumbstruck Joe staring after her. Then, over the course of several long moments, he slowly lowered himself onto the stairs, sitting down, then lowered himself yet further onto his back - now staring up at the plain concrete ceiling as he did his level best to recentre himself and recover.

Holy shit, that was not what he was expecting first thing in the morning. Privaty… she was certainly gorgeous, strikingly so, but… was she a Nikke? Probably, given how ridiculously pretty she was, but he didn't actually know, considering how remarkably little information had actually been imparted between them as they'd instead engaged in pure dumbass-to-dumbass communication. Just…

The burly man took a breath. He didn't expect the gut punch of interacting with her as he had. Which had been, actually, thinking about it… genuinely fun, if embarrassing. Joe could tell that she was a fellow idiot already, and found himself low-key genuinely hoping that she'd wind up being a common sight around the Outpost, especially as it was gradually built up over time.

"...But god damn is she pretty," the rookie Commander all but whined into the uncaring roof. "Pretty little dumbass elite counter-terrorism agent… Dangerous, most dangerous…"

What a powerful little woman.

---

"Morning, Commander," Anis greeted Joe when he stepped into the dining area. She was working her way through a large bowl of what looked like off-brand Froot Loops, her phone propped up in front of her on its kickstand. "You look beat. Didn't sleep good?"

"Slept fine," the displaced Canadian replied as he popped open the cupboards and started sifting through the 'real' food they had on hand. Of course, everything was still made from Splendamin or Nutrium at the end of the day, but military rations were designed with longevity in mind over flavour. "Took the stairs to get down here… and also had to entertain our guest."

"Guest? We have a guest? It isn't Syuen, is it!?" the honey blonde immediately shifted into fight or flight mode.

"...Do you mean that blue-haired girl?" Neon spoke up, pausing from rapidly vacuuming up her dinosaur Nutrium nuggets. "I noticed her standing out there next to the entrance like, an hour ago. How long did you have to talk to her, Commander?"

That gave Joe pause. "...Like, three, maybe four minutes?" he blinked in confusion. "Hold on, are you saying she was milling about there for damn near an entire hour before I ran into her?"

"...Well, that's assuming she'd just arrived when I spotted her in there," Neon noted. "I didn't feel like talking before I had my dino nuggies, so I used my super spy skills to slip away without being seen!"

"...It took you nearly an hour to prepare dinosaur nuggets?" Joe asked, genuinely befuddled.

"I couldn't figure out how to turn on the oven!" Neon protested. "And Anis wouldn't help me either!"

"It was really funny watching her put her nuggets in the dishwasher first," Anis said with a shit-eating grin. "That being said, a microwave, toaster oven, or air frier would be nice to have here."

Shaking his head, Joe pulled back before Anis and Neon distracted him further. "-Anyways, Privaty was seriously just standing around in the foyer for at least an hour before I showed up?"

"Wait, Privaty? As in, the Princess of First Squad!?" Anis all but jumped in her seat. "What would she be doing here!? Is Neon being subpoenaed for being a spy or something!?"

"What!? Who squealed about me being a spy!?" Neon demanded, sounding genuinely taken aback and betrayed. "It was you, wasn't it, Anis? I knew there was something deceitful about you from day one!"

"Says the spy! The self-proclaimed spy that goes around constantly telling everyone she meets that she's a spy at that!" Anis countered harshly, glowering an aghast Neon's way. "But, uh, seriously, why was Privaty here? I can't imagine what a human would be doing hanging around the Outpost unless they had to…"

That caused Joe to blink owlishly. "Wait, she isn't a Nikke?" he asked, genuinely taken aback.

"...What- are you being serious right now?" Anis looked at him like he was stupid. "Nikkes aren't allowed to serve in high-ranking governmental positions. She's the second-in-command of Triangle. Plus, if she was a Nikke, what worth would she be to a counter-terrorism unit?"

"Triangle mostly winds up fighting humans; lethally." Neon added. "A Nikke wouldn't be able to contribute to operations against them, since the NIMPH would prevent them from trying to harm a human in the first place!"

"Yeah, what she said," Anis gestured Neon's way with a nod. "Seriously, why did you just assume that she was a Nikke?"

"...Uh, she's really, really pretty?" Joe answered, realizing how dumb that sounded now that he said it aloud. "I've, uh, kinda started just assuming that any unreasonably beautiful woman I meet is a Nikke…"

"...You assume that every beautiful woman you meet is a Nikke?" Anis repeated the declaration as she gave Joe just about the most dubious look he ever did see.

Neon, meanwhile, looked for a moment like she was doing advanced trigonometry in her head before piping up with an inquiry of her own. "Wait a minute... Did the Commander just call us 'unreasonably beautiful?'"

While Anis started, for lack of a better term, pogging at the suggestion, Joe immediately grabbed a Tetra Line ration and beat a hasty retreat to escape from the danger zone without uttering another word. Anis called out after him with a declaration of: "Coward! Face us!"

He saw little reason to subject himself to the embarrassment of Anis and Neon pressing him for details on that matter. Privaty had already (unintentionally) given him a mild heart attack and that was more than enough for one day so far as he was concerned.

Still though… curious as he was about the twintailed beauty, he supposed it would have to wait-

Joe jumped when his phone buzzed in his pocket - he must have just silenced Syuen's messages in particular, and upon unlocking it he had found… several hundred new alerts from the pint-sized CEO, many of which were displayed as [MESSAGE REDACTED FOR EXCESSIVELY CRUDE LANGUAGE], along with one from a new contact.

[YOU DIDN'T EVEN INTRODUCE YOURSELF TO ME YOU JERK!] Privaty all-caps'd at him with the white-hot fury of a thousand burning suns. [AFTER MAKING ME WAIT SO LONG TO MEET YOU TOO! I HAD TO GET YOUR CONTACT INFO FROM INGRID! AND YOU CALL YOURSELF A GENTLEMAN COMMANDER!?]

Joe blinked dumbly. Did… did she just admit in all-caps that she'd been waiting in the foyer specifically to meet him after making a point to deny having been there for him to begin with? [I thought you weren't here for me.] he replied matter-of-factually.

For like, three minutes 'Privaty is typing…' periodically appeared and disappeared for long periods between each other, though nothing was actually sent.

Now ascending the stairs leading back up to his room, Joe blinked and realized something. [Oh, and Commander Joseph Pholus. Most people just call me Joe. Sorry for not introducing myself properly earlier, I really wasn't expecting someone famous to show up at the Outpost like that.] He gave her an excuse. Halfway expecting her to blow him off regardless, given how temperamental she seemed to be-

[Well I suppose I can hardly hold that against you,] she immediately replied without missing a beat. [But you'd better be more respectful next time I take time out of my day to go and see you!]

After a few moments, Joe once again replied, [So you were here specifically because you wanted to meet me, then? And I thought you said you were never coming back here again.]

Two minutes of 'Privaty is typing…' later, and Joe rolled his eyes, though with no small amount of endeared amusement. This really isn't what he'd been expecting out of what he'd understood to be basically the local equivalent of Rainbow Six's ace. But he certainly appreciated her vibes, if nothing else.

[Are you always this frustrating to deal with!?] she eventually demanded. [I was expecting like, a big teddy bear or something going off of what I was told about you!]

[Is that a roundabout way of asking me for a hug?] Joe had to immediately ask, since she set up and ran face first right into that wall herself anyways.

'Privaty is typing…'

Joe wasn't entirely sure why she, of all people, seemed interested in him, but hey, if being in contact with her would be this entertaining all the time, he wasn't about to complain.

At least the day seemed to be starting a lot better than he thought it had been, if nothing else.

 

[Stove]

ah yes i keep forgetting

just like joe

 

[Stove]

...Dorothy, I'm pretty sure the idiom is a Silver spoon. Gold is a terrible metal for cutlery

Click to shrink...

fun fact-- you can look it up, even, it's kinda interesting-- gold(-plated) spoons provide the best flavor experience. the atomic properties of metal affect the way the spoon reacts with our saliva, so copper (for example) is more bitter than stainless steel, while good old aurum is unfailingly neutral; its tasting profile, pristine. thus, the gold spoon... will ruin him for other spoons.
what did dorothy mean by this???

anyway, speaking of people doing monstrous things:

forgiveness is a place i can no longer reach

 

[Stove]

this shit is really getting out of hand

 

[BakaSmurf]

===
Chapter 29 - Beneath the Mask
===

For once, there didn't seem to be anything immediately pressing to tend to. So, once Joe had finished his breakfast and Privaty had to stop messaging him to work ([I'm not talking to you ever again, you heartless jerk!]) , he turtled up in his Command Centre suite at his computer. While he'd have liked to do something altogether self-centred, if not self-indulgent like spending his free time playing video games, it would be far and away better if he spent his time researching new equipment to replace and supplement what was used against Chatterbox.

A few hours into that, the door to the room slid open, revealing a heretofore unaccounted for Rapi. "Commander," she began as she stepped inside. "Ingrid instructed me to inform you that the iDolls Mustang arranged to be assigned to Counters will arrive by the end of the day."

Rapi spoke to Joe. Her words were clear and concise. She talked as plainly as a woman possibly could. This should help establish just how significant it was that Joe heard not a word she uttered, staring blankly at her like a starstruck baboon.

It was one thing to see somewhat blurry old photos, her hair and eyes literally aglow with an unnatural light as Red Hood, dressed so absurdly boldly and wearing such exaggerated expressions that she simply didn't look like the same person. It was another thing entirely to see Rapi stride in, face entirely bereft of makeup in person. It was… like night and day. Where every time Joe had set eyes on her before, the sight of the little Nikke had triggered an uncanny valley effect which had given him no small amount of unsettled pause, given how she looked like a literal person-sized porcelain doll which was up and walking about. It did a lot to distract one from Rapi's… various assets.

Now? Though she was still strikingly curvaceous - even while not landing in the absurd extremes of say, Emma, or even Anis, with her face no longer caked in starkly distracting amounts of garish makeup - Rapi was, to be as classy as was possible for a smitten dumbass, a walking testament to the mantra of 'medium is premium.'

Grumpy. Pretty. Grumpy-pretty, she had such a pretty little grumpy frown plastered on a decidedly feminine, mature face. Though her features were soft, there was a sharp, womanly aspect to her countenance that sharply contrasted with Privaty's more wide-eyed, youthful visage.

Though there was a degree of a cold, distant harshness in her almost withering gaze, Rapi was a striking natural beauty. Her eyelashes, previously overdone, were now naturally perfectly formed without any manner of overt adornment. Her almond-shaped ruby eyes, like lightly glowing embers which yet sparkled like diamonds, seemed to pierce the Commander's soul from across the room…

Holy mother of all that is good and holy, Rapi was drop-dead gorgeous.

Two jaw-dropping beauties in one day, damn near back-to-back. It was almost too much for the Commander's delicate sensibilities to handle. In fact, one could easily argue that it was too much, given how he'd all but blue-screened and, aside from staring… "...Beautiful…" he all but whimpered in dumbstruck, smitten awe, very clearly failing to notice that he'd spoken that aloud.

Joe wasn't sure how long he had gone and stared. But eventually, some distant part of his brain cried out and fought to be released from this prison it had been trapped in. Crying out for freedom, to be released from the tyranny of hormones and to stop leering at a visibly uncomfortable Rapi.

With a jump and something damn near approximating a yelp, Joe actually smacked himself and let out a wheeze. He all but launched to his feet, declaring: "I-I apologize! I'm afraid I didn't catch that, could you please repeat what you said, Rapi?" he asked, wide-eyed and doubtlessly blushing like the complete nincompoop that he demonstrably was.

"...Ingrid asked me to tell you that the iDolls you requisitioned from Mustang should be arriving by the end of the day," the black-bedecked Nikke reiterated her earlier point. "I came straight here without stopping to… re-outfit myself first." She reached up and the tips of her gloved fingers lightly brushed against one of her bare, beautifully naturalistic cheeks bearing all the hallmarks of a woman's skin - the micro imperfections that only served to highlight her own individual character a flawless doll simply lacked. Yet, she was visibly self-conscious about her strikingly apparent lack of makeup, however.

Though Joe was, honestly, a little upset by the notion that Rapi lacked the self-confidence to go bare-faced, she was trying to be professional about delivering him an official message. So he'd damn well get his shit together and behave respectfully.

After taking a moment to recentre himself, he mused on how it certainly took long enough to have their new forces actually assigned to them. But, bureaucratic incompetence seemed to be the Central Government's bread and butter, so Joe couldn't say that he was all that surprised. "Okay, great, fantastic," he remarked as he clapped his hands, stepping around the desk to face Rapi more properly. "I suppose you've been at Elysion HQ since yesterday, then?" he asked, given that the little strawberry blonde was missing since they'd landed back at the Ark.

"Undergoing… special maintenance, yes," she answered him, eyes drifting aside suspiciously for but an instant. "There are no lasting damages to report from our encounter with Chatterbox. I will be ready and able to be deployed the next time we must sortie on an operation."

As per usual, she was attempting to be unfailingly professional, all business. While Joe understood where she was coming from, he still didn't exactly want Rapi making such a conscious effort to hold him at arm's length. Especially since…

Looking at her, long and hard… with the heavy makeup gone, he could see quite plainly that this was indeed Red Hood - a former friend, which Andersen had provided a startling amount of evidence of the night previous.

While Joe believed Andersen when he'd warned the so-called Legendary Commander that there was a possibility of Rapi experiencing a Mind Switch if she was confronted over that fact… What had happened had to be addressed. Rapi was standing right in front of him when Snow White recognized both of them, and declared as much aloud. Doubly so considering that Rapi must have also heard Joe address Snow White as he had too.

As convenient as it would be if he could just… not address that, Rapi wasn't stupid, and he didn't want to blatantly disrespect her like that. So, as awkward as it could wind up getting… "Rapi…" he trailed off, wondering how exactly he'd-

"...I don't know how that Pilgrim recognized me, Commander," she seemed to predict, at least to an extent, what he intended to ask. Her gaze was diverted, making a point to not make eye contact with him now.

There was a beat as Joe waited, and got nothing more.

"...Um," the rookie Commander rubbed at his beard- God damn, he'd let his whiskers get away from him, hadn't he? Nearly had a full moustache at this point. He should go and shave after this. But, to not lose focus…

"Or-" Rapi started up again, visibly uncertain, internally debating with herself as she hesitated heavily. "Or… I met her at some point prior to my Mind Switch."

…Oh. Well. Joe hadn't been expecting her to reveal this much to him, that she knew she'd previously experienced a Mind Switch…

"If that's the case, Commander, then there's nothing more that I can tell you," Rapi continued. still not quite meeting his gaze. "I don't have any memories of my life from before. She might have known me from before. But I'm not that person anymore. I don't know her."

…That, was a fucking heartbreaking statement to hear someone so earnestly and bluntly say in person, right to you. Doubly so when you knew that… you should have been someone they'd recognize as well.

What a horrible affliction.

Rapi, at that, remained silent.

…

She kept her eyes off of him, and the air was rapidly growing incredibly uncomfortable.

It was likely that she was avoiding bringing up the matter of… well, the fact that Snow White had recognized him first, and even actually said his name aloud.

Joe didn't much care for the thought of Rapi being so closed off. It wasn't common for Nikkes and Commanders to remain in constant contact like this, or even for Commanders to treat the Nikkes under their command well at all, but… "Rapi," he started. "I understand if you're still uncomfortable around me. Most Commanders aren't like me, most would take offence to you speaking your mind or opening up about much of anything. But we're permanently assigned to each other, and so far, you've given me no reason to not respect and trust you. I hope that, even if you aren't there yet, you'll be able to trust me enough to know that you can ask me anything someday soon."

At that, silence once more reigned between them.

After a few long moments, however, Rapi gradually met his gaze, a deeply forlorn expression on her features. "Commander," she started warily. "You are kind. Shockingly, unreasonably so. But I… I don't think you would be, if you actually knew me. Who I am, what I've done… Your kindness is wasted on… something as broken as I am." One more, her gaze was averted, shame writ large on her features. "You should spend it on the others… not misallocate it to me."

All the while, Joe did his level best to not lose his temper upon hearing Rapi refer to herself using such deliberately dehumanizing language. "...No," he firmly declared, rejecting the notion out of hand. "Give me cause, a good fucking reason, and only then will I even begin to consider writing you off - and even then, only if whatever crime you've apparently committed is truly something worthy of damnation."

Rapi looked tired. At that, she looked truly and terribly tired. Suddenly, she appeared a woman more than twice her apparent age, seemingly outright refusing to look in Joe's direction now. She didn't reply at first, just letting out a singular, full-body sigh. When she did eventually reply… "I killed a human," she stated with a bone-deep resignation.

Once more, a long quiet followed. Once it became clear that Rapi thought that was enough… "Elaborate," Joe outright commanded her.

Eyes snapping to him, Rapi looked dumbstruck, confused, and somewhat offended, even. "...What?"

"Context. Matters." Joe very forcefully, albeit slowly declared. "So elaborate."

She seemed unsettled, but, eventually, turned aside, seeming to stare out the window overlooking the Outpost as she did so. "...It was back when I was still with Absolute. We were in a firefight. In order to clear out hostiles, I threw a grenade… the explosion threw a person back. A human that had been blown in half from the waist-down by the explosive I'd tossed. They were still alive, made eye contact with me. They were in shock, but I could still make out the terror, confusion, the pleading glint in their eyes, before they just… died. And I didn't care."

That… actually caught Joe off-guard. Yet…

"I was just annoyed," Rapi continued, pointedly not looking Joe's way. "'I'm going to have to write up an entire report about this.' That, that is what went through my mind as I watched that person die, as that person looked into my eyes, as I watched the life fade from their face. Not… horror. Not guilt. Annoyance, because I felt like it would be a waste of my time to have to write up a report on this… murder I'd committed." She fell into something barely registering as a whisper. "That's… that's when I realized that I'm broken. That there's something fundamentally wrong with me. People… even humans shouldn't think like that, and that is anathema to what a Nikke should be. We exist to serve humans, to protect them, to fight for them and their future. We shouldn't even be capable of considering harming a human, and yet, when I killed one, I… I felt no shame. I felt no regret, no guilt. Just… annoyance."

She went quiet for several long moments, looking like she wanted to cry, but couldn't.

Joe was no mental health expert, but he knew exactly what he was looking at. "How long have you been serving? Before, with, and after Absolute," he asked.

That visibly disquieted Rapi. It wasn't the reply she'd been expecting, and she didn't like it, that much was clear. "...Too long," was all she said in response.

"And you haven't spoken to anybody about any of this," Joe stated, because he, again, had figured out where the pieces were falling into place. "You've quietly shouldered your burden, kept your mouth shut, and did what you were told this entire time. Am I right?"

"...Yes," Rapi answered matter-of-factually.

"So you've spent all this time," Joe continued. "As a Nikke of demonstrably higher calibre than most, being doubtlessly given mankind's greatest and most daunting battles, for years upon years upon years, just soldiering on, never saying anything, never asking for anything in return."

"...That is what it means to be a Nikke," she said, as if attempting to justify something to herself.

"Meaning that you've been bearing a burden greater than what even most other Nikkes would experience because of your capabilities. Unending combat. Rarely, if ever resting. Fighting, fighting without end. Against the greatest threat that has ever existed on planet Earth, always forced to be ready to fling yourself into what could be the last battle you ever fight."

Rapi did not respond. She'd weakly crossed her arms over her waist, almost daintily holding onto her own forearms. That wasn't a sign of defiance or stubbornness. That was an unconscious attempt at a self-hug. She was trying to comfort herself.

"Rapi. All throughout history, soldiers that have gone through less than you have developed worse coping mechanisms to deal with the stresses associated with combat. Blunted empathy… it's more common than you probably think it is-"

"So you're saying that it's normal that I didn't care when I killed a human!?" She snapped at him, almost snarling as she glowered openly.

"No," he firmly replied. "It's tragically unsurprising that the weight of your actions didn't hit you as it should have, when it should have. Being forced to fight for so long, being put in a combatant's mindset for so long, without support… that's what happens, Rapi. People cannot handle that. Something has to give. If it hadn't been your empathy, it would have been something else. Maybe even your sanity. I understand that it doesn't feel right, that you feel like you must be broken and can't be fixed… but that's only because you've been isolated, and haven't seen that it's not necessarily a one-way road you've gone down."

The little Nikke had gone quiet again, now staring at the floor, she didn't reply immediately to that. "...I'm a monster, Commander," was the eventual reply she did provide, however. "The fact that you believe otherwise is evidence of that. All that makeup… did its job too well."

Joe's brow furrowed in confusion, he didn't quite know what to make of that. "...What do you mean by that?" he asked.

"I can see mirrors just fine," she declared. "I can see… how hollow my eyes are. How inhumanly blank my face is. I saw it with my own two eyes… That's why I tried to cover it up. To hide it. To stop everyone from recognizing what I myself do whenever I look in a mirror. I don't have a soul. It's so obvious that I'm just a killing machine, but I didn't want anyone else to realize it. And… it worked, it worked because you think there's a person to be helped here. Not a…" she reached up, and again, the tips of her gloved fingers brushed against her deceptively soft cheeks. "...A tool. A weapon."

That… certainly explained the terrifying makeup. Rapi was in such a terrible head space, that she started to see something horrible in her own reflection; something that wasn't reflected in reality. She'd been trying to cover it up, to hide her shame. It worked in the wrong way - Joe hadn't noticed until it was gone, just how wildly apparent it was that Rapi was in pain. She… it was like she was seeing the inverse of what was actually in the mirror, wasn't it? She saw that porcelain doll without the makeup, even though she was just another person bearing her unaddressed, outright ignored trauma.

Fucking hell, even in the future, soldiers were emotionally neglected and just allowed to gradually break instead of being given the help they needed. Same shit, different day. Goddamned worthless fucking governments, no matter the time or place.

"...I can't cry, Commander," Rapi declared. "No matter what, no matter how much I try, no matter how much I think about what I've done, what I'm supposed to be… I don't cry." Her voice trailed off quietly, even as another few large chunks of the puzzle slammed into place for Joe. "People… humans cry. They cry when they make mistakes. They cry when they hurt others. But I don't."

She was trying to convince him, and in so doing, receive validation. How long had she been dealing with this trauma, to be at the point where she struggled to let it go, to be at the point where she clung to it like a safety blanket, like she needed it?

"There was a time when I couldn't cry too, Rapi," Joe asserted. "When life had become so hard, that I too, had to become uncaring, develop an edge, a wall just to make it through. It took a long time, it took a good deal of painful self-reflection… but eventually, I broke down those walls I'd once built up to protect myself. It sucked. Every minute of it, but eventually, I managed it, and I let myself feel again. The evidence of those walls may still be present, even readily apparent at times… but they don't dictate how I behave, how I treat others. Not entirely. Not anymore."

Stepping over to her, Rapi leaned away, but she didn't outright move to create distance. Joe reached out, and gently set a hand on her shoulder.

"You're a Nikke. According to the Ark, you're supposed to be a hero, unbending, unbreaking against all odds and hardships. But, it doesn't matter if most of you has been replaced with steel. A monster wouldn't feel shame, or guilt. A weapon wouldn't be disgusted by its own reflection. A tool wouldn't question its own humanity. You still have a soul, and it's so terribly clearly not made of stone. If it's your job to protect me, then it's my job to support you, Rapi. And I'm going to. No matter how long it takes. You are a person, you've been through Hell, and you've made terrible mistakes. But nothing you've said has done anything to convince me that you're anything less than human. Only that you've been failed by those around you up until this point. A mistake I swear that I'm not going to repeat like those that came before me."

After a moment of silence, Rapi just… staring into the void, her expression one of agonized confusion, Joe said fuck it and pulled her into a light hug, eliciting a small, uncharacteristically girlish chirp of surprise.

"You're stuck with me Rapi. And I refuse to not care. I'm sorry, but I'm too much of a stubborn fool to not stick to my guns, and I've made up my mind."

"...You shouldn't care," the little strawberry blonde protested weakly.

"But I do," Joe countered.

"...Idiot," she declared in naked exasperation.

"You catch on quick," he replied with a small grin. "Don't worry; you'll get used to it."

At that, Rapi just sighed in exhausted resignation.

He would make sure that she would get used to it.

 

[BakaSmurf]

===
Chapter 30 - Pioneer
===

"There," with a smile, Joe secured his trusty olive drab fatigue jacket on the little Nikke's shoulders, creating an image not unlike a cloak wrapped around her figure. "You know how much this means to me."

"...I do," she replied, reaching across her chest to grip the coat's collar. "But-"

"But nothing," he declared, reaching up and cupping her cheeks, as though lightly attempting to set a smile on her face regardless of the general mood. "I'm not giving this to you. I'm asking you to hold onto it for me, just the same as the rest of the squad," he asserted, gesturing in the direction of the rest of the gathered girls. "I'm coming back. For these," he tugged at the jacket's collar, ensuring it was standing as was good and proper. "And for all of you. Soon as I can shake the claws of those brass pricks off, I'll be right back here. Alright?"

"But…!" she continued to protest, wearing her anxiety plain on her sleeve.

Joe gave her a mildly reproachful look everyone knew full well was toothless. "But what? You don't trust me, Dorothy?"

"Of course I do!" the pink-haired young woman declared forcefully, reaching up and taking hold of the Commander's wrists, sapphire blue eyes sparkling in the sunlight as she stared up at Joe worriedly, her angelic beauty standing out all the more against the ravaged, blasted grey hellscape the Ark's entrance had been reduced to over the course of Operation Ark Guardian. "But what if…"

"I'm not going to let them keep me any longer than is absolutely necessary," Joe asserted, giving Dorothy his best disarming smile. "As quickly as I possibly can, I'll be back. Hell, don't be surprised if I'm only gone for a few hours! Okay? Nothing's going to happen in such a short window of time."

Clenching her eyes shut, shaking her head and causing her pink tresses to cascade about her figure almost mesmerizingly, she began to protest again. "But-!"

"Enough," Snow White interjected, hand locked firmly around the Commander's favoured sword, the paired blades secured in place at her hip. "Dorothy, the Commander has given his word. He says he means to return to us as quickly as possible. Continuing to hold him here only delays the inevitable, and will earn him the ire of the Central Government for not responding to their summons in a timely manner. Don't let him go."

"You see?" Joe asserted, nobody acknowledging the last four words of her statement. "Snow gets it. If I'm punctual, the eggheads up top will be a bunch of happy clams and let me return to my duties right away, versus keeping me there to chew me out for a 'lack of discipline' or whatever bullshit they'll make up."

"They're going to kill him," Snow White cried, raged, screamed as loudly as she could - but her lips would not obey her. All she did was stand there, watching, watching and- "The Commander has to respect the chain of command, just the same as us. Don't listen to me. I'm wrong. We'll never see him again. He may be a living legend, but he must still obey the orders given to him. Keep him here, with us, where he'll be safe. The Ark is a trap, the gates a maw which will never open again! Don't let him go! Dorothy! Don't let him go!"

"...You swear that you'll be back soon?" Dorothy asked, allowing her grip on Joe's wrists to slacken. "As quickly as you can?"

"I swear," Joe assured her gently. "And I'll be expecting you to take good care of the squad while I'm gone - however briefly that'll wind up being, Alright, Dory?"

"Forever," Snow White cried, she cried as desperately as she could despite her body's refusal to obey her. "It will be forever, a forever she cannot bear. A forever that will break her. Commander, please, stay with us!"

"...You know I hate that nickname, Commander," Dorothy dangerously intoned as she pouted up at Joe, reaching up and pinching his cheek as he chortled and winced in equal measure, waving his hands in defeat. "I won't forgive you if you think you can start pulling from Red Hood's ratty little playbook without consequences…"

"Ow ow ow, yikes, c'mon, I get it, I get it! Lay off, why am I always surrounded by mean ladies? I'm just trying to be all affectionate and junk!" Joe openly whined.

"Your boorishness disappoints me, Commander," Dorothy tutted, tugging at the much larger man's cheek in a disciplinary manner. "And you were doing so well there too…"

"Stop it," Snow White cried out to nobody, everybody, nothing and everything at once, to no avail. "Stop it! Please! Don't do this! Don't take him away, don't take her away, don't take them away!"

"Do relent, Dorothy," a white-clad swordswoman suggested off to the side, adjusting the Commander's aviators, resting on her nose as they were. "You are well aware that such idle chicanery comes naturally to the Commander. He can scarcely help himself."

"And it comes naturally to dogs to piddle on the carpet," Dorothy countered, pulling Joe's cheek just a tad harder as he pitifully protested utterly ineffectually. "Yet I don't see you rushing to enable that sort of behaviour, Scarlie."

"Attempt to provoke me not, Dorothy," Scarlet breezily waved off the equally-disliked nickname. "You know I speak naught but truth: regret shall be thy companion should ye not relent in your corporal punishments upon our Commander's tender visage afore he departs to answer his summons."

"You shouldn't have taunted her, though, Joe," a white and black-clad nun stepped forth, the tallest member of Goddess—if only because she was the only one of average height at 5'5"/165cm barefoot. Her golden blonde hair was drawn back in a singular gargantuan braid which trailed down to her heels. "Of all the habits to have picked up from Red Hood, I think you should reconsider this one," Rapunzel suggested as she ambled over, taking Dorothy's hand and removing her fingers from Joe's cheeks, which were going red from her continued assault.

With that done, she stepped back, reaching up and across her chest and making sure the Commander's pocket watch looped around her neck remained secured in place. "My outfit isn't really designed with accessorizing in mind, so… while I'm sure the Lord will guide you right back to us safe and sound, hurry back yourself too, Joe."

"Like a light shining in darkness!" Joe asserted as he rubbed the back of his neck, "Don't worry, like I said, I'll be taking all my junk back as soon as I'm back," he asserted, turning to Scarlet in particular.

The swordswoman pushed the aviators up her nose with a finger, giving Joe a diabolical look. "If you want it," she started, adjusting the sunglasses for emphasis. "You'll have to take it. But you already knew that, didn't you?" she quoted a certain specific Devil at him.

With a heavy, exasperated sigh, Joe rubbed his forehead. "How many times do I have to tell you that I don't actually know how to use my swords, Scarlet…?"

"How many times must I reiterate that your ceaseless fibs shall fool me not?" Scarlet asserted with a confident grin. "I shall have my duel, Commander. And it shall be legendary."

Slumping in defeat where he stood, Joe pinched the bridge of his brow, unknowingly placing himself in perfect attacking range of the last present member of Goddess.

Stepping forth, and jumping on him, the Commander of Goddess, rather than buckling and crying out in pain, only swayed in place before recentering himself with the newfound weight dangling from his neck. "Aha, come on," he cried out, wrapping his arms around the silver-haired Nikke clad in a figure-hugging silvery-blue bodysuit, and hoisting her up with a chuckle as he returned to his full height with utter ease. "I just told you that I'm gonna be right back, you don't gotta act like I'm going across the country, Ellie."

Cinderella let out a huffing whine, clinging to the Commander tightly - a situation which would have once left him a stammering, neon red mess given her comely figure, had he not eventually gotten used his situation and usual company. "Dad said the same thing two weeks ago…"

"Show off," Dorothy huffed, glowering lightly at the twintailed rookie of Goddess.

"Cease thy hollow simpering, Dorothy," Scarlet shot at the pinkette past lidded eyes. "Act not as though thy wouldst not do just the same, were thy as nigh-on weightless as she is."

Had any other Nikke attempted to jump onto the Commander as she had, Joe would have likely broken something. Cinderella, on the other hand, had been built to be capable of flight - and thus, as a next-generation featherweight Nikke, was a fraction of the weight of the average cybernetic super soldier. In fact, she was only somewhat heavier than a human woman her size should have been.

She loved milking this fact for all that it was worth.

Joe, regardless, didn't acknowledge Dorothy and Scarlet's bickering, instead giving Cinderella a squeeze as he defended himself. "Yeah, but your old man is an unreliable dumbass. He probably got caught up handing out autographs and has been camping out on the streets, sleeping on public benches to bask in as much public attention as he possibly can before he returns to his duties."

There was a beat before the twintailed Nikke huffed into Joe's shoulder, and he could hear her annoyed pout. "That sounds like him, yeah. Stupid, vain old geezer…"

"Andersen's positively decrepit, isn't he?" Joe chuckled, adjusting his grip on the white-clad Nikke, visibly moving to set her down on her feet again. "A vainglorious old man with delusions of grandeur."

"Don't let go Cinderella," Snow White tried to plead with the young woman, again, despite her lips refusing to obey her. "Never let him go, hold onto him! Cling! They took your father from us already, don't let them take the Commander too!"

Despite Cinderella's toes touching the ground once again, she refused to release Joe, even lightly whining when the Commander unwrapped his arms from around her form.

After a few long moments of that, she finally began to pull back - only to forcefully pull him down and plant a firm kiss on his cheek - specifically the cheek Dorothy had been pinching.

Having long since learned his lesson, Joe let it happen despite the embarrassment clear on his face. when she finally pulled back properly. Cinderella looked him firmly in a singular eye, given her long bangs which completely blocked off her own right eye, and gave him a simple directive. "There, I kissed the hurt away… in return, bop my father on the head when you meet him in the Ark, okay," her voice took on a mild, sadistic tone, "Jojo?"

Cringing, Joe averted his gaze with a pained wince.

"What's the matter, Commander?" Dorothy levelled an icy, sadistic smile his way, revelling in the tables having turned. "Do you not care for that particular nickname?"

"Our adventure has been one most bizarre, has it not, Commander?" Scarlet leaned into the joke, grinning cattily at Joe.

"This place is full of mean ladies…" the long-haired Commander complained, Cinderella finally letting him go. "Anyways… What'd the old man do to earn a bonk this time, then?"

"Aside from being late after he promised to be back right away?" Cinderella grumpily growled, the effect wasted given her sugary sweet voice. "I'm sure he's done something to earn it since he left."

"That does sound like the High Commander," Dorothy declared matter-of-factually.

"In truth, the man's boorish, self-aggrandizing nature does often generate absurd and altogether foolish circumstances around him," Scarlet reached up, adjusting her absurdly over-sized kasa hat. "I must admit, I do not doubt he has engaged in some manner of tomfoolery since his departure."

"I don't want to be mean," Rapunzel pursed her lips in open reticence, already visibly guilty. "But… Andersen does tend towards being very… impulsive, yes."

"He's probably stealing food from everyone in the Ark as we speak," Snow White asserted grimly.

Joe gave Snow White an amused grimace. "You're never going to forgive him for that, are you?" he inquired.

"He ate my potato," the golden-eyed Nikke asserted, her expression stony and dead serious. "I was looking forward to eating that potato."

"There wasn't even anything on it, Snow…" Joe remarked. "It was just a plain, microwaved potato…"

"He. Ate. My. Potato," Snow White forcefully reiterated her point for emphasis.

Letting out a sigh, Joe reached up and scratched at his bearded chin. "Okay, okay, I'm sure he's done something stupid, and I'll give him shit for it, okay…" Looking around, he saw the mass-produced Nikkes operating the ashen perimeter. He'd said that he wanted to address them as well, but everyone that could guard the Ark's entrance perimeter at every minute of the day, had to. So, Goddess had taken a few minutes to see their Commander off, the MP's holding the fort for them to grant them that brief grace period.

Besides that, his gaze lingered on a particular spot next to Snow White, conspicuously empty of the squad's infamous redheaded dumbass…

"I'll find her, Commander," Snow White assured Joe, her expression firm and resolute. "I promise."

Smiling, he nodded, "If anyone could, it would be you," Joe nodded. "Alright, I'd better get going now," he noted, taking a few steps back towards the Ark's main gates. "Y'all be chill while I'm gone, alright?" He shot the group a genial smile, giving them a salute. "Back in a jiffy-!" He paused at the sound of a digital shutter going off, giving Cinderella a tired grin as she took a picture of him departing with the camera of his own phone, peeking almost shyly over the rim of the device he'd entrusted to her as an assurance of his intent to return, just the same as the rest of those belongings given to the other members of Goddess.

"Don't go," Snow White cried desperately. "Please, Commander, don't go! Don't leave us!"

"We'll be right here," Dorothy said, adjusting his jacket hanging from her slim shoulders, smiling beatifically at Joe as he stepped through the threshold of the Ark's main entry elevator. "As soon as you're back, we'll be right here, waiting, as long as it takes."

"Don't," Snow White cried uselessly. "Please, Commander, don't!"

"I know," Joe replied to Dorothy's assurance, grinning widely as the Ark's main gate started vertically closing, steel grinding on steel, metres upon metres of concrete about to entomb him forever. The Commander watched the group as the first blast door gradually lowered itself…

And Joe crouched low to keep waving at the squad, presenting them a toothy grin - then dropped onto his side outright and shot finger guns at them up until the gate fully closed with a deafening clang. The last time the Ark's main entrance would ever accept an entrant. The last time any of them would see their Commander in their-

---

"Snow!" the ivory-haired Nikke jumped, throat dry, a lump heavily hanging within as she gasped heavily, a moment of panic rushing through her artificial veins until she recognized the bright blue eyes of Rapunzel gazing down upon her, kneeling and stroking the shorter Nikke's forehead gently as she was framed by the sun hanging high in the sky above. "It's okay, you're awake, you're awake, it was just a bad dream."

Almost a hundred years later, Snow White found herself laying where she'd settled down to sleep for the night: at the meeting grounds of the remnants of Goddess. Where what remained of the squad would meet up every month to discuss what discoveries and progress they'd made in their efforts to reclaim the surface.

Almost a hundred years later, and she was still afflicted by that nightmare - that memory. The last time they'd set eyes on their Commander. The last time they'd failed him when he needed them the most.

…Or so, they'd all thought.

Sitting up, Snow White caught her breath, her poncho which she was using as an improvised blanket slipping from her chest. She noticed Cinderella peering over Rapunzel's shoulder worriedly. "Are you well, Snow?" the silvery Nikke asked, and a wondrous smell hit Snow White's nose, scrumptious, mouth watering…

Looking over, she could see Scarlet tending to a large pot they kept stored away in the area, set over a bed of hot coals, something audibly bubbling within, an ancient, yet reliable synthetic bag overflowing with freshly grown vegetables, fruits, and herbs sitting alongside her. "I would have swiftly crowded you just the same as our compatriots," the grey-haired Nikke started as she stirred the food cooking within the pot. "However, I clearly recall how you reacted when last we left food in preparation unattended to worry over you as a group…"

Snow White leapt to her feet instantly, her eyes wide and her breath hitching in her lungs for a moment as her brain jump-started into full power.

"Snow, calm down, the soup will be done soon!" Rapunzel started, also rising to her feet and hastily moving as if to block Snow White from rushing the pot. Any other day, the concern would have been warranted, however, food was genuinely the last thing on her mind right then.

"The Commander and Red Hood are alive," Snow White declared forcefully, projecting her voice over the small, lightly wooded campsite to Pioneer - the remnants of Goddess.

Silence fell over the gathered squad, only wind, rustling leaves and grass, as well as the crackle of the hot coals and bubbling soup audible for a few moments. Rapunzel and Cinderella stared blankly at Snow White, uncomprehending, visibly struggling to process what they'd heard.

"Snow White," Scarlet hooked the hand-carved wooden ladle on the rim of the simmering soup pot, rising to her feet and, still in command of her faculties, firmly commanded her squadmate, "Elucidate."

 

[Stove]

pictured: legendary commander consulting local construction grandma (partially colorized, 21XX)

 

[Stove]

wait shit i forgot to post Sword Idiot (affectionate)

 

[BakaSmurf]

===
Chapter 31 - Forsaken Goddesses
===

"Joe and Red Hood are alive," Snow White reiterated her point, a fervency in her voice normally not present unless she was destroying Raptures. "They were battling the Tyrant-class Chatterbox in Vancouver, accompanied by a number of Ark Nikkes. He recognized me, called out to me by name…" After closing her eyes and taking a deep, bracing breath, she continued. "Chatterbox threatened them, and I- Lost control of myself. I pursued the abomination in a blind frenzy, and by the time I'd realized my mistake after it escaped from me, they were long gone when I returned to the battlefield. Surely back to the Ark."

The rest of Pioneer stared at Snow White silently. Cinderella slowly rose to her feet as Rapunzel took several attempts at calming breaths.

"Your visor," Cinderella started, large blue eye staring past her parted bangs in wary uncertainty. "It has a recorder built into it, right? You- you'd have pictures, or video, right?"

Reaching up and fiddling with her visor, once little more than a ballistic mask that doubled as digital goggles, Snow White adjusted a few of the additions she'd since added herself—and a hologram, somewhat fuzzy and out-of-focus due to crude maintenance at best, was projected from the blackened armoured mask.

A round of gasps followed when the video recording played back, and even as Chatterbox writhed in pain before the White Reaper, the Commander's voice suddenly called out to Snow White. The camera spun in place, and with a pause, there they were.

Joe, their Commander, and Red Hood, their sister. Both were dressed… Not as they once would have, and Red Hood did not have her Exceed active, but, it was obviously them. Then-

They heard Chatterbox's declaration, and immediately understood why Snow White had lost her cool. Nobody would hold her reaction against her, however.

"Commander," Rapunzel almost immediately sobbed. "Red Hood…!"

"Truly, a man of miracles, to persist into the modern day even despite all which has occurred," Scarlet mused through a small, but powerful smile of relief. "And the crimson fool as well, no less. Despite thyself, even you failed in thine attempts to shirk thy duty, Red Hood."

"How?" Cinderella wondered aloud, even as her eyes visibly began to shine with heavily building moisture. "Let me be clear: I am happy. I am more happy than I ever thought I'd be again. But, how?" the twintailed Nikke asked, reaching out as if to stroke at the non-corporeal hologram, her hand stopping just before the projection of their Commander's face. "It has been almost a century. He looks just as he did that day he left," to emphasize her point, she withdrew a smart device from a holster on her hip.

Not Joe's own phone, that had perished and been left in memoriam of him with Dorothy many decades ago, the quality of that original device having been seemingly built to fail after a point. The memories, the data and information that had been stored on it, however, had long since been transferred to this new device meant to weather the apocalypse.

The last picture she'd taken of Joe, in the moments before he'd descended into the Ark. The older photo was more clear, not being a still from a video, and having been captured using a device still well within its intended shelf life and in good maintenance. But it was clearly him.

Even quickly going through the saved digital pictures, Cinderella found another of Red Hood and him together. It was undeniable - it was them, and Joe hadn't aged a day. "Joe shouldn't be… He ought be elderly. He ought be on death's door from old age, even with the Ark's widespread life extension technology. He's just a man, he's not a Nikke, he should have aged so much since then."

"And Red Hood," Rapunzel noted, wiping away the tears that streamed down her cheeks, for all that it did to stem the tide. "She went missing two weeks before Joe descended into the Ark, only a few days after Andersen was recalled there himself. How, how could she have possibly gotten into the Ark, if not through the entrance? We had it covered at all hours of the day and night—surely, one of us would have noticed her if she'd gone to use it, right?"

"Most certainly, to say little of the matter of how she would have made a point to boorishly as ever announce her presence if she had gone through the main entrance besides," Scarlet set a hand on her chin, eyes narrowing in deep thought. "However, one must consider the serpentine nature of the Central Government. Should they have managed to finish but a single of the many smaller secondary elevators in extensive use today by that time..."

"I thought just the same," Snow White agreed with Scarlet. "As far as we knew, the main entrance to the Ark was the only entrance to the Ark back then. It would have been but one of many more lies the Central Government told us by the end. And it is hardly as though any of us would have had the means or incentive to prove otherwise, until it was too late," she asserted firmly.

"You're suggesting that Red Hood went behind our backs to sneak into the Ark, after telling us she was going out scouting?" Cinderella inquired, gazing forlornly, uncertainly at the picture of their long-lost squad mate.

"Or she was taken there," Snow White added. "If there was another functioning elevator hidden away nearby, it stands to reason that the Central Government may have had agents using it to access the surface covertly. Red Hood was, if nothing else, trusting. Earnest. Uncritical. Foolish. Andersen and the Commander were summoned into the Ark before the main entrance was collapsed behind them. How do we know they did not simply circumvent our communications, and do the same to Red Hood while she was out scouting? Call her to the side-entrance, bring her in, and seal it behind her."

A long quiet fell over the squad, the low, consistent bubbling of the soup in the background accompanying the gentle wind. "But, why?" Rapunzel asked. "Why would they have done that? You, you heard Oswald. We were obsolete to the Ark. We'd 'outlived our usefulness.' Why reclaim Red Hood, and just Red Hood if that was true?"

"The Exceed system," Cinderella noted darkly. "Between all of us, my ability to fly, and the Glass Slippers," she reached out, running a gloved hand down the length of one of her great, bulky shield-like 'wings' which hovered around her, as though tethered to her body by some unseen force. "Were championed as the most advanced developments out of all the Grimms models. Yet Exceed allowed her to almost perform on-par with Lilith. When sparring, if she used it, pushed it, she could catch me, and overwhelm me through sheer direct might."

"It would seem that when we were dubbed 'obsolete,' Oswald was referring to all but one of us," Scarlet mused grimly. "I see little fault in this supposition. Though Red Hood did not carry or present herself as the veritable demi-god she truly was, I think there is a genuine argument to be made that she had, at least the potential, if not the predilection to be the most powerful among us."

"That," Rapunzel lightly wiped at her nose, sniffling, "makes sense, I suppose. Though that doesn't address the other elephant in the room: Joe. Him being alive isn't impossible—it isn't even improbable given how long the average Ark inhabitant apparently lives. How does he look so young, though? He would be well over one-hundred years old now, if I'm remembering correctly, wouldn't he?"

"I have no idea," Snow White bluntly declared, focusing firmly on Rapunzel. "If anyone would have been aware of any irregularities that would account for his apparent agelessness, it would be you, given that you were most familiar with his medical records at the time."

"That's the thing," Rapunzel started, "aside from his Hoplite implant, he was a baseline human. Just a man. And that one implant wouldn't impact his aging given what it is," the techno-nun mused, even as she gingerly wiped at her reddening eyes. "Whatever it is that seemingly stopped his aging must have been done to him after he entered the Ark. I don't know what it could be, but, Splendamin supposedly slows down aging, but it doesn't stop it entirely. It shouldn't, at least."

After a few moments of silence, nobody having anything even approximating an explanation for this irregularity, it seemed that it was just time to move on.

"Oswald lied to us," Cinderella noted darkly, staring at the image of the Commander from just a scant few days ago now—evidence that he'd been on the surface, actively fighting the Raptures into the modern day, just like them. "Joe… he said they had killed him, that just like us, he'd outlived his usefulness too."

"And the way he uttered Snow White's name, with such shock, as though settling his eyes upon a spectre," Scarlet added with a low hum.

"Everyone in the Ark was told that we'd died sealing the Ark from the outside," Cinderella continued. "The Nikkes we've encountered and spoken with over the years, it's always the same thing: 'Goddess perished holding the line, giving their everything to ensure mankind's survival. Each of them, a Goddess of Victory shielding the human race with their radiant wings and their very souls one last time.'"

"The Central Government lied to them," Snow White surmised, brow furrowing heavily and nostrils flaring. "The Commander and Red Hood must have been led to believe that we'd all died while they were inside the Ark. That answer makes the most sense out of any other possibility."

"...Do you think they told my father the same thing?" Cinderella wondered aloud, voice becoming forlorn and soft. "That after he promised to be back soon, with 'souvenirs,' 'gifts,' and 'party favours' that, that I died, just out of reach, just out of view?"

"Certainly and without doubt," Snow White bluntly replied. "The Commander, Red Hood, and the High Commander, they wouldn't have abandoned us. They would have fought tooth and nail for our sake. The Central Government lied to them, just the same as they lied to us. They must have. Otherwise, they'd have come searching for us. If not immediately, then as soon as they were able to return to the surface. They wouldn't have stopped until they found us."

An awkward silence permeated the group after Snow White's lack of tact left everyone feeling more than a little uncomfortable.

"Well," Rapunzel let out a shuddering breath, electing to be the one to move it along. "What now?"

"'What-'" Snow White looked at the nun as though she'd grown a second head. "'What now?' We correct the mistake we made almost one-hundred years ago! We proceed to the Ark, and we rescue our Commander and sister from the claws of the Central Government that lied to them! That lied to us!"

"Snow," Rapunzel's brow furrowed heavily with clear and present worry. "You need to stop and reconsider-"

"There's nothing to reconsider!" Snow White forcefully declared. "After all they've done, how even now, we must ward ourselves away from the Ark lest the Central Government target us again!? Are you even considering what they've been doing to the Commander and Red Hood!? They aren't safe there-!"

"So your intention is for us to deliver him unto Dorothy?" Scarlet interjected with a critical eye.

Snow White looked downright furious for a moment, actually glowering openly at the swordswoman. "Absolutely not! Dorothy cannot be trusted! She-!"

"Then the plan is instead to have the Commander perish from exposure to the elements, if not gradual starvation on the unforgiving surface, then?" Scarlet pressed, giving Snow White a deeply unimpressed look. "Scarcely have we managed to sustain ourselves this past century, to reconstitute thy memory, Snow White. And we need not partake anywhere near as much as the average human, let alone a man as burly as the Commander. Dost thou sincerely believe that we would manage anything beyond our own mutual deaths via starvation, should we attempt to care for him ourselves here upon the surface?"

"Don't underestimate the Commander!" Snow White demanded of the grey-haired woman. "It was him that taught me to use a bow! It was him that taught me to track prey! It was him that taught me to dress game! It was him that taught me how to build a survival shelter, what wood burns clean for warmth and cooking, what would produce acrid smoke that would attract unwanted attention and foul food! How to preserve meat, how to produce the pemmican that sustained us through our hardest days in this no-man's-land! If any human could survive, thrive on the surface, it would be him!"

"The surface was recognizable once upon a time, Snow White. Now?" Scarlet asserted pointedly. "The Commander honed his capabilities with the knowledge that help would rush to his aid should all go wrong, professional aid backed by an entire nation naught but a phone or radio call away. He earned these accolades without the constant threat of Raptures descending upon his person at a moment's notice. He learned the ways of his people in the distant forsaken north—where today, winters would be unsurvivable without modern infrastructure to rely upon. I am not underestimating the Commander. Thou are overestimating him to a dangerous degree. And moreover, I understand why."

While Rapunzel looked ready to interject, her brow furrowed in building worry, she seemed mollified by the softening of Scarlet's tone, while Cinderella remained quiet, looking between the two arguing Nikkes warily, seeming to want to let them work through it on their own if possible.

"I have longed for his company just the same as thyself, Snow White," Scarlet asserted gently. "The notion that our dearest Commander has been without us this entire time, that he has been venturing to the surface to uphold our duty to cast down the Raptures for who knows how long, only Red Hood to ward off our mortal enemies all the while. I wish to stand with him again just the same. Yet I urge you, Snow White. Close thy eyes, and open them not 'till thou have heard thy own words and pondered the consequences of thy suggestion."

The white-clad Nikke did as instructed, closing her eyes and taking several long, meditative breaths. After a few moments, she let out a heavy sigh. "If we did not entrust him to Eden, removing him from the Ark would ultimately kill him with absolute certainty."

"And he's healthy, Snow," Rapunzel noted, pointing to the still shot of the Commander next to Red Hood. "He looks just as he did the last time we set eyes on him, just as Cinderella said. He hasn't been starved, he isn't missing any parts. Whatever life is like in the Ark, he's at least safe there."

"Then what are we supposed to do!?" Snow White demanded, brow furrowing in mounting dismay. "Just, just pretend this never happened!? That he hasn't been fighting without us this entire time!? That-" She was cut off by Cinderella approaching and taking a hold of her shoulders.

"Nobody is saying that we should abandon Joe. All of us want to return to him. All of us have missed him," Cinderella assured her senior, releasing her with a squeeze. "I would advise that a few of us remain near the Ark—not so close as to be spotted by them, but enough that we may notice further deploying teams. Joe is being sent into the field alongside Red Hood, we know it's happening now. So, we wait. We follow deploying squads until it's them. We could even take the chance to approach Nikkes left to do guard duty, or sent ahead of their Commanders to scout to ask if they know anything about them. We need to get a better idea of what's happening, what the actual situation around them is."

"Cinderella has the right of it," Scarlet asserted, adjusting Fleetly Fading where the sword hung from her waist. "We cannot discharge half-cocked. Not when doing so may yet actually endanger the Commander and Red Hood."

At that, Snow White's brow furrowed heavily. "Speaking of threats to the Commander and Red Hood," she tracked back through the video, stopping it on Chatterbox. "This thing is a clear and present danger to them. It must be eliminated with extreme prejudice as soon as possible. I will pursue it and destroy it as soon as we are finished here. I abandoned its trail to await everyone here. There is no reason I cannot pick it back up shortly."

With a nod, she looked to everyone else. "Cinderella, you are the only one among us capable of flight. You keep watch over the Ark. Your capacity to follow and catch deploying teams far and away outstrips the rest of us, given how common it is for Commanders and Nikke squads to be deployed from the coast to travel inland via aircraft across great distances."

"I would advise that Rapunzel accompany her," Scarlet suggested in turn. "She is as outwardly threatening as a teddy bear," she ignored the small, somewhat offended protesting 'hey' the taller blonde projected, "and rather fortuitously, has a stellar track record in achieving fruitful and open dialogues with Ark Nikkes as a consequence."

"What will you do then, Scarlet?" Rapunzel inquired, "Do you intend to go tell-"

"We are not informing Dorothy of this," Snow White firmly declared, nostrils flaring. "She cannot be trusted."

"Snow! How can you be so cruel?" Rapunzel, in response, gave her younger comrade a deeply reproachful look. "She was affected by what happened more so than anyone-"

"She has turned her back on mankind!" Snow White pressed firmly, almost furiously. "Human beings are nothing but tools to her! I will not allow her to endanger the Commander with her wretched, near-Heretical behaviour!"

"Dorothy isn't a Heretic!" Rapunzel forcefully asserted in turn, actually getting upset herself. "She's just heartbroken-"

"She may as well be!" Snow White angrily shot back, eyes widening and pupils constricting as she cut the blonde off.

"Cease this buffoonery at once! Each of you!" Scarlet interjected, metaphorically cutting the two off at the knees. "My intent is to accompany Snow White in her pursuit of Chatterbox, and I shall brook no arguments to the contrary. In fact, the only reason I am not pressing for all of us to hunt down this Rapture altogether is because making contact with the Commander is just as important, if not more so. We shall destroy Chatterbox, and matters of personal pride shall not be considered in matters of Joe's well-being. Am I clear?"

"I agree, Scarlet," Cinderella nodded in turn. "Both of you, leave a trail for me to follow if need be. I'll track you both down if we make contact with Joe and Red Hood before you return."

Snow White released a heavy breath. "Very well. You're correct: the Commander's safety is of paramount importance. We will hunt down and reduce the Tyrant to ashes, then return to the general vicinity of the Ark to await…" yet another long breath, this one shuddering, escaped her lips. "Our reunion with our Commander and sister."

"We've waited nearly a century up to now," Cinderella asserted with determination. "A few weeks, even a few months now, will be nothing in comparison."

"So you say, yet somehow, it feels like time has slowed to a standstill to me," Snow White made no attempt to mask her frustration with the need to wait.

"There is little else to be done. We know they are still with us, and we shall be reunited with them in due time," Scarlet asserted, before looking between Snow White and Rapunzel pointedly. "Now, to leave little room for misconstruance: I would have it known that I see where each of you are coming from in regards to Dorothy, and my own considerations fall squarely in the midst of either. Dorothy has previously declared that her allegiances no longer lay in mankind's best interests. She has demonstrated that human beings are little other than tools to be used to advance her ambitions now."

"However," Scarlet continued. "I defy you to tell me that the Ark has not gone out of its way to push her to take up this sword, that she has made clear she does as she does so both for us, and for him. I defy you to assert that we have not felt the same temptation in turn, and only fight for the Ark even as it would see us hunted down and destroyed as we do out of duty, because protecting the Ark and the humans within it is the right thing to do, not necessarily what is deserved."

While Cinderella remained quiet, allowing everyone to work through their issues, Rapunzel looked despondent, as Snow White looked deeply frustrated.

Scarlet continued on regardless. "I recall clearly that day. The moment it happened, when, in retrospect, we lost both of our remaining leaders. Do you, Snow White? Do you recall what Dorothy said?"

Snow White didn't reply, averting her gaze in visible discomfort.

"What of you, Rapunzel? Do you recall the words Dorothy spoke?" Scarlet addressed the group's tallest member next.

"'Give him back,'" Rapunzel all but sobbed. "Screaming, crying, until her voice gave out. For the first time since any of us had met her, unbreakable, unbending Dorothy. We couldn't console her. Nothing we said mattered. 'Give him back! Give him back! Joe… Give back my Commander! Give me back my wings! Goddess- he called me his Goddess of Victory! Don't take my wings! Give them back!' Then, she just kept apologizing. To him, obviously to Joe. Begging him for forgiveness, even though all of us know that he would never hold her responsible."

Silence permeated the group, Scarlet making a point to allow that reminder to marinade before she spoke up again. "Thou art correct, Snow White. Dorothy is dangerous. We simply cannot blindly entrust the Commander to her at present. Not when we know not what she would do, how she might react. However, I would strongly advise that rather than demonize her as a monster, thou recall that the Ark did this to her."

Scarlet's brow furrowed. "Do not act as though her feelings are not justified, even if we ultimately parted ways because we can not walk the same path she has chosen. And ever more: blind thyself not to the fact that should we need to remove Joe from the Ark, there is no other place he can reasonably be considered to be safe for him to inhabit. We would need to leave him with Dorothy, and to argue otherwise would be the height of folly."

Silence reigned once more, and looking between the other gathered members of Pioneer, Scarlet let out a bone-deep sigh once it was clear nobody else had anything to say on the matter.

"Well then, now that I have once more been forced to play the role of diplomat between thyselves," she reached across her waist opposite her sword, and with practised ease, popped open a large flask, immediately tipping her head all the way back and downing it.

"Scarlet!" Rapunzel cried out. "Really!? It's not even mid-day yet!"

"There she goes," Cinderella pinched her brow as Snow White remained silent, closing the hologram and inching forward while everyone else seemed distracted.

Releasing the flask from her lips, from which a dribble of liquid fell, past already rapidly reddening cheeks, Scarlet declared: "I shan't be denied my reward for playing the part of the mediating adult! An adult's treat, for an adult's part played!" she asserted before she raised the flask to her lips and continued morning drinking shamelessly.

"Scarlet, please-" Cinderella started, letting her hand fall and looking up at her squad mate, to which her one visible eye became unto a dinner plate and she cried out: "Snow White, no!"

Rapunzel and Scarlet's attention snapped to the group's engineer, and the remnants of Goddess practically tripped over a Scarlet who lunged into an immediate face plant, on account of her instant inebriation attempting to stop Snow White. The white-maned woman had taken the distraction as an opportunity to go for, and begin chugging the entire pot of still-hot vegetable soup before anyone could stop her.

If nothing else, the forsaken Goddesses of Victory had rediscovered a path thought long since lost, and though warily, they would dutifully take it once again.

 

[Stove]

give me back my wings.
give me back my wings. give me back my wings. give me back my wings. give me back my wings. give me back my wings. give me back my wings.

 

[BakaSmurf]

===
Chapter 32 - A Woman Scorned
===

Stepping out into the open air (or as open as the air could be in a cave) of the Outpost, Joe took a deep breath and-

"HELLO!"

-Let out a squeal, jumping in place and sharply turning to the auditory assailant.

A long-haired blonde, hair parted down the middle, athletic in her form, bedecked in form-fitting greys and blacks accented in oranges - her outfit looked the part of a combination of work wear and athletic wear, well-fitted and bearing iconic athlete stripes - she was, as most of the women Joe wound up interacting with regularly were, gorgeous. She was staring at him with wide, sky blue eyes, a wide, open-mouth smile gracing her-

"Hi! I'm Centi!" she cried out, demonstrating that she, like Ingrid, likely had no indoor voice - though her outstretched hand indicated that she was probably a good deal more personable than Ingrid. "You must be the Commander, right?"

"Uh," Joe was in a half-stupor, so caught off-guard that his usual runaway internal monologue that had to slave over every detail of a beautiful woman was derailed, and he didn't make a complete ass of himself in front of a pretty girl for once. "Y-yeah," he reached out and took her extended hand, "wha-"

"Liter told me to come find you!" Centi declared, immediately about-facing and dragging Joe along despite him having thought she'd been going for a handshake, pretty cleanly revealing that she was a Nikke, given how damned strong she was despite her figure being what it was. "We need some directions for where some stuff's getting put up and stuff!"

Joe had just been going out to clear his head after that whole thing with Rapi. But, as ever, it seemed that there was no rest for the wicked.

---

"Liter! I found him!" Centi proclaimed as she bodily dragged Joe into the ongoing construction zone. Notably, she stopped, drew him aside, and set a hardhat and high-visibility vest on him with a declaration of "Safety first!" before pulling him deeper into the noisy area.

Getting a close-up view of everything for once, notably, there was no wood in sight. That made sense. It just wasn't worth the risk to send forces up to the surface to fell and gather trees. Instead, everything seemed to be built from what looked to Joe's layman eyes like plastic, stone, metal, and concrete. He was sure the plastic was some wacky turbo-future-tech construction material that did everything wood did, but better, though he wasn't going to get caught up on it regardless.

Looming over a table improvised out of a pile of cinder blocks with a board set over the lot, was a teeny-tiny little lady. She was blonde, her short hair tied up in a little girlish sidetail, a prototypical hardhat adorned with an LED headlamp and rimmed with what looked like communications antennas set atop her crown. She wore a hooded leather jacket over a bright yellow jumpsuit, a tool belt set across her hips - correction: the jacket wasn't hooded, she was simply wearing a hooded shrug beneath the jacket and over the jumpsuit.

The tiny little woman, shockingly tiny even, looked up from a series of documents that seemed to relate to their construction duties. While Centi presented Joe to… he supposed Liter was probably the foreman, the tiny little blonde…

Stared up at Joe. Her expression was blank - after a few moments, evidently deliberately so. Joe recognized that look. It was one he himself wore often since he'd awoken in that hospital bed. For some reason, Liter set eyes on Joe, processed his face, and immediately put on that 'this is beyond my paygrade' expression.

Joe was… perplexed by that. He was building a reputation, yes, but was it so negative?

"...So, yeah," Joe began, stepping up and presenting a hand to the little lady. "Commander Joseph Pholus, pleasure to meet you."

The yellow-clad woman's expression redoubled upon the mention of his name. That bad, huh?

Taking his hand with a terrible, bone-deep exhaustion, she replied in turn. "Foreman Liter, Mighty Tools," she somewhat brusquely declared. "We shouldn't need to take up too much of your time. Just need an idea of what you want done and where to put stuff, since we're wrapping up building all the stuff that was already zoned out when you arrived. Where you'd put the armoury, additional housing, commercial and entertainment districts, that sort of thing."

"Ah, well, uh…" Joe trailed off, looking around the worksite and beyond its borders. He… had no idea of how to actually zone stuff out. Like, he played no small amount of Tropico in his day, but that was a video game, and hardly transferred over to reality. "I'm not sure how much help I'd be with that," he admitted.

"Well then I'll just drag you around the place and point out what would probably be best to set where, and you can just sign off on it as we go then," Liter asserted as she stepped off the solid metal stool she'd been standing on, immediately moving back for the main gate Centi had led Joe in through. "Centi, you supervise everyone while I'm sorting this out with the Commander!"

With a cheerful half-scream of "Sure thing, boss!" Centi bounded off excitedly to the other actively working Nikkes, a bundle of energy that one - and Liter continued onwards.

"Well, come on then, the sooner we have this all sorted, the faster the whole process of officially zoning everything out and getting work started will be," the very tiny little lady, small enough to be mistaken for a child, declared. Every word uttered was backed by a sort of weighty exhaustion usually only found in the elderly. That reminded Joe that Nikkes, by the accounts he'd heard, were technically immortal; thus, it was entirely possible for Nikkes to look incredibly young while being surprisingly advanced in their actual age.

Hoofing along to keep up with the industrious little lady, the displaced Canuck couldn't help but wonder just how old Liter herself must have been, to carry herself with that sort of-

Joe's thoughts were interrupted by the sounds of barking, and a blitz of yellow streaking past the entryway to the construction site. Blinking at that, Joe's lips parted before-

"That'd be Volt," Liter answered the question before he asked it. "My robo-dog. Fancy Missilis tech. I set him loose around the Outpost so he doesn't get in trouble around the construction site. Hope that's not an issue."

"...As long as he doesn't just get into trouble elsewhere," Joe warily noted, craning his head around to see if he could catch a glimpse of the apparent mecha-hound. He wasn't all that surprised to hear that the Ark could build fully mechanical animals given that Nikkes existed, but he'd yet to set eyes on anything like that himself.

"Don't think there's anything for him to get in trouble with just yet," Liter asserted as the duo passed into the street proper, Joe taking the hardhat and vest, tossing them on a nearby pile of personal protection equipment before they slipped past the construction site's boundary. "Don't worry, I'll keep him leashed once the Outpost has things of worth he could barrel into and risk damaging."

"Alright, appreciate it," Joe declared as the pair continued on. Joe had been knocked a little off-kilter, and so wasn't up to making small talk. Ergo, Liter just led him on… quietly. Notably quietly. Quiet to the point of being awkward even. She seemed nervous, for some reason. He could only assume that it was because he was a Commander with a burgeoning reputation. His 'peers' were noted for generally being shit-stains, so he couldn't blame Liter for being wary, even obviously uncomfortable around him.

Best to just keep it professional for now, then.

Liter, meanwhile, did her level best to remain calm about that fact that a ghost from a century prior, the Legendary goddamned Commander himself was just casually following her around the Outpost. She distinctly recalled how all of that business with his 'second coming,' the New Hope, had gone down and the resulting suppression of information about both of them in the aftermath. How so many people that made the mistake of being open about remembering the both of them got… Disappeared before the general populace learned to stop openly remembering the Legendary Commander and Goddess in general sixty years ago… The New Hope was too recent to be wiped from the memories of the younger generations of the Ark, entirely, at least. But only the oldest in the Ark still knew the true details of them all, even if they couldn't risk ever bringing it up, ever.

Liter had just assumed that it was a coincidence, him having the same name when Mighty Tools was assigned to the Outpost. But he had the same face, hair, everything from all that old propaganda that had been recalled, redacted and suppressed after the New Hope's so-called 'treason' after claiming that he'd taken everything he was famous for from the Legendary Commander in the first place…

The Foreman of Mighty Tools had no idea what to make of this development. What it meant, how this would affect things, the Ark, the war going forth. But… she knew for damned sure that she was old. Old, tired, and entirely too familiar with how things worked in the Ark. She wouldn't call attention to the fact that she knew who he was, she wouldn't rock the boat. Doubly so when she wasn't sure what was going on. She did know one thing for certain, however.

The curse of interesting times had befallen the Ark, and she had just been assigned a front row seat to bear witness to what was surely bound to be the epicentre of the coming boom, whether she liked it or not.

The foreman of Mighty Tools was way too goddamned old for this shit.

---

Goddess Squad, their Commander and the High Commander as well, all gathered together, all smiles, all joy. A beaming Red Hood with a pouting Snow White held in a headlock; Rapunzel smiling broadly at the camera as beatifically as always; Scarlet with her shoulder turned to the camera, attempting to look disengaged and uninterested despite the small, satisfied smile on her harsh yet lovely features; Andersen with Liliweiss, the couple lovingly embraced as the High Commander dangerously glowered at Joe from over the rim of his sunglasses; Cinderella with her arms wrapped around the Commander's neck, drawing herself in close to the ever-exasperated man as she vied for his attention as ever; and dutifully at her Commander's side, old parasol set over her shoulder… was Dorothy herself.

A low, repeated series of distant thumps and booms went seemingly unnoticed. Fingers gently stroking the old image, as atop the cliff upon which she stood, the wind caught her silken pink hair and the hem of her cherished first Commander's jacket, worn over and secured upon her shoulders like a trusty old cloak, Dorothy was lost in the picture captured during that time when the squad was all together, taken on the main deck of the Avenger; that old helicarrier they'd operated off of in the midst of the Initial Rapture Invasion. Back when everything was better, back when everything was right. When they were a whole squad - a team - a family. All of this, this wonderful sight, this beautiful sight they'd taken from her. Robbed her of. They'd been heroes then, respected, venerated. As was proper, as was right, as they deserved.

This is what it should have been. This picture is how it should have always remained. And yet… yet… They were all gone now. Liliweiss, Andersen, Red Hood, Joe… all gone. Taken from them. And her sisters… they didn't understand, they failed to understand, they refused to understand. Those bastards, those ungrateful wretches in the Ark didn't deserve their service. Every minute they spent defending them was a minute they all denigrated themselves. Denigrated, degraded themselves and spat on the memories of Liliweiss, Andersen, Red Hood and Joe.

While here, Dorothy was working to make things right. To take back what was rightfully theirs to begin with. To avenge their fallen comrades. Her cause was right, it was just. The Central Government was corrupt, it was evil. All the information she'd been able to gather about the Ark, all the knowledge she'd obtained from the Nikkes they pointlessly sent out into the field to die, from turncoats like Johan, who had himself been betrayed and scapegoated because they felt like he threatened their power, because of his apparent resemblance to Joe - or at least the image of Joe they'd concocted since they took him from her…

Just as before, Dorothy was the hero here. She was working towards what was best for everyone. How could her old squad mates not see that? How was it they failed to understand? Whatever steps they had to take to secure the Ark from the grip of the Central Government were inherently justified. Whatever sacrifices had to be made, whoever they needed to extract intelligence from, whoever needed to die, be removed from the play field like the pawns they were… The wretched humans in the Ark did not deserve salvation, yet still, Dorothy sought to deliver it unto them. Despite how they'd sinned against their saviours, still, Dorothy was working to tear out the corruption that choked out the Ark from the roots, for the betterment of all, but most especially, to finally reward the truly deserving: herself, and her remaining sisters.

What about this was so difficult to understand? It wasn't as though she sought to destroy the Ark - she wouldn't burn what was rightfully theirs. She would simply take it back. Reclaim it, remind all those within of what they owed to those who had given them their future in the first place. For herself and all her sisters, and in honour of their lost loved ones.

That was perhaps the worst part of all of this. The fact that Snow White, Rapunzel, Scarlet and Cinderella just… seemed content with living like dogs. Surviving off of scraps, sleeping in the wilderness, repairing themselves using scrap metal… all the while, being hunted by the very ungrateful Ark they proclaimed to protect. Despite the fact that they all had rooms in Eden - despite the fact that they would all be welcome back there, welcomed with open arms, if only they'd reject the Central Government's fascist dogma to work towards taking back what had always been theirs-

Pausing, Dorothy noticed that the rhythmic thumping and booming ceased, and looking up from her picture… Ah, yes, just as she'd calculated. The Raptures were all dead - just the same as the Nikkes, leaving a lone, panicked Commander, gazing around in horror upon the realization that he was alone, in the wilderness of the surface. No backup coming…

Quickly depositing the picture into her trusty little bag, Dorothy smiled broadly as she stepped off the edge of the cliff - dipping forth into a momentary free-fall before her momentum shifted along with a flash of light. At once, a pair of glorious wings encircled the starkly-clad Nikke's form before flaring out, Valkyric armour of the purest white gilded in gold shielded her from the assault of their extraterrestrial enemies. Soaring along, riding the wind with ease, Dorothy flew towards the lone Ark Commander, watching as he pitifully scrambled to-and-fro, trying and failing to flip over the dead Nikkes that had been shielding his unworthy visage. He was avoiding the wrecked Raptures as though they were an ongoing threat to him, even dead as they were.

As she neared him, she could hear him crying in an open panic - the fool had made the Nikkes under his command carry the emergency high-powered communications equipment, and now he couldn't find it - Alva Particle density was high enough here that he couldn't simply use the simpler radio integrated in his personal protection equipment. He was isolated, alone. Desperate. Perfect.

With a deliberately heavy flap of her technological wings, backwards-engineered from the technology that had gone into Cinderella's creation, Dorothy announced her presence to the lone Commander as her forward momentum was arrested, ensuring that the sun was at her back. He jumped, shrieked, screamed - a sound most pleasing to her ears, she had to admit. A low pleasure which elicited a wide, closed-lip smile, but one she'd allow herself these days, given the amount of work she put into fulfilling her long-term plans - to say nothing of the frequency with which she was forced to interact with these curs.

Regardless, the Commander, after taking a moment to take in her angelic form, her broad, now gleaming smile… chortled. He rose to his feet, clapping his hands once as he took in her sun-backed visage.

"Hey! Nikke!" He called out, brazen and lacking a solitary ounce of the wonder, awe, and respect his tone should have been dripping in. "Contact the Ark! Tell them that my mission was successful and get me a ride out of here! And be quick about it!" He jabbed an impatient finger out at her. Presuming to command her.

As per usual, the arrogance of the typical Ark Commander was boundless. Regardless of how many she met, regardless of whether they were man or woman, each and every one was ultimately the same: a presumptuous snake that cared nothing for the lives spent around them - thinking of nothing but themselves, what was good and best for them, and how they could get what they wanted out of those they considered their lessers.

Gracefully lowering herself to the grassy Earth, Dorothy continued to smile at the Commander, bedecked in his uniform which was a hollow facsimile of that which the High Commander, Andersen, had once worn. Even their attire seemingly tailor-made to stab at her heart, to infuriate her, to remind her of what the Ark took from her - to remind her of how little respect they had for those they had taken.

Dorothy advanced upon him - saying nothing, but smiling brightly. The Commander's expression fell, his messy head of black hair betraying the ragged, unkempt wretch so barely hidden beneath the cheap uniform he wore. "Hey! Are you deaf!? I'm a Commander, you're a Nikke! That means you have to obey me! Now do what I say before I-" He paused at the same time that Dorothy did.

Looking down, her foot had struck something - the very object he'd been searching for, the corpse of a mass-produced Nikke partially obscuring it. Dorothy leaned down, lifted the Nikke, setting her aside to reveal the communications set.

"Ah! There it is!" The Commander set his hands on his hips, pridefully, as though he'd done anything to be proud of. "Now, take that and- wait, what are you-!?"

Having returned to her full height, Dorothy set her heel atop the device, and in an instant, crushed it underfoot as though the steel and aluminum-encased equipment was made of paper mache. A terrible ruckus was momentarily projected out, before silence fell over the pair.

"Oops," Dorothy airily declared with a beatific smile directed the Commander's way - contrasting heavily with the way she'd so obviously deliberately destroyed the Commander's lifeline to the Ark.

"W-what the fuck do you think you're doing you stupid Nikke-!" the brown-bedecked officer started, taking a few threatening steps towards the violet-eyed pinkette, before he paused once she'd stepped towards him in turn, expression as angelic and lovely as ever. It was at this point that he began to suspect that something was amiss, finally starting to think about the situation, "...Wait, Nikkes can't fly...! Who are you!? W-what manufacturer made you!? What are you doing out here on your own anyways!? What-" Eyes going wide, fear began to take hold on his features. "W-wait, wait, wait! Who are you!? Where's your Commander!? Wh-"

"My Commander?" Dorothy replied, her voice, in contrast to her beautiful smile, was immediately icy and sharp. "My Commander… the man whose legacy you besmirch every day, every minute of every hour you call yourself a Commander. The man who you dare to compare yourself to, whose memory you degrade so frivolously?"

"Wha-what the Hell-!?" The Commander cried out, slipping and falling flat on his rear, now moving to scramble away from an increasingly threatening Dorothy. "S-stay back-!"

At once, Dorothy surged forth, lunging out and knocking the Commander's hat from his head, her fingers entangling in his curly black locks as she took a hold of his hair. Still smiling, broadly, angelically, even. The Commander's eyes went wide, breath hitching in his throat…

Then, his heart all but stopped as Dorothy reached up, and with her free hand, plucked the hearing protectors handed out to Ark Commanders as standard issue from his ears. With both of the devices that served as radio transmitters, his last-ditch connection to the Ark in hand, Dorothy crushed each in her hand, metal, plastic, and rubber falling to the ground unceremoniously as the Commander let out a pitiful whine. "H-Heretic…" he started, pupils becoming unto pinpricks. "Y-you're a Heretic…!"

"Now that is simply rude," Dorothy noted sternly, tutting as she wagged her finger in the Commander's face disapprovingly. "You shouldn't make such assumptions about people you've just met, you know. Especially given how much time and effort I've put into fighting and defeating as many Heretics in my time as possible. I have done more for mankind, continue to do more than you ever will. I'd advise that you not presume to know me when you clearly know so little in general."

There was a pregnant pause before the Commander let out a small huff, no small amount of resolve seeming to return to his sneering features. "I-if you aren't a Heretic, then you're just another Nikke, which means you can't hurt me, no matter how much of this stupid intimidation play you lean into!" he cried out, reaching out and firmly grasping at the arm whose hand was still entangled in his hair. "So get your hands off of me, you bitch-!"

He was silenced when, with her free hand, Dorothy reached out, took a hold of the Commander's hand, and a sickening crack sounded out, followed by a scream of agony.

Releasing the single mangled finger she'd broken to make a point, Dorothy set a deceptively dainty little finger of her own over the typical arrogant Commander's lips, letting out a gentle, almost motherly "Ssshh," as if to hush a mewling child. The fear of God once more returned to the man, Dorothy smiled broadly again, patting his cheek. "Now, have you learned your lesson?" She asked simply.

Whatever pride he'd clung to was broken, the Commander nodded through the tears that rapidly built up in the corners of his eyes, realizing just how terribly precarious his situation really was.

"Good!" Dorothy cheerfully chirped, seeming pleased as punch by the development. "Now that you've learned your place, I have a few questions for you. In particular, regarding the Ark - recent events, any interesting news you may have about new going-ons. If you cooperate, I promise not to hurt you. If you don't… Well, you've seen how short my temper can be. Understood?"

Dorothy had her contacts in the Ark as it was - but sometimes, when information was a bit slow to reach her ears, it was best to simply take information gathering into one's own hands.

And Dorothy was far and away beyond being above getting her hands dirty to further her goals.

 

[BakaSmurf]

===
Chapter 33 - The New Girls
===

To Joe's shock, the Outpost, which he'd expected to be little more than a forward operating base, was set to receive all the accoutrements of a proper settlement - housing, entertainment, commercial districts, even industry. By all appearances, the place was set to become something of a mini-Ark in its own right, intended to be capable of supporting a population of at least two-thousand autonomously. And that was assuming they didn't default to high-density housing too!

That worried the shit out of the so-called Legendary Commander, given that it sounded like he was effectively expected to be every administrative official a small town would have, all at once. His ass wasn't trained for this sort of shit! Hell, he wasn't even trained for all the other shit he was expected to do either! What the fuck!?

At any rate, Liter had an idea of how everything would come together, and so would get back to Joe for the green light otherwise…

As he ambled along the sidewalk lining the narrow, European-esque streets, Joe's phone buzzed in his pocket. Withdrawing the gaudy, golden abomination, a quick swipe revealed a message from Rapi. [Commander,] she started. [The iDolls have arrived at the Command Centre. It would be wise for you to return and meet them.]

[I'll be right there,] the Commander declared matter-of-factually, immediately moving back to the tower that was their home, such as it was. He didn't know precisely what to expect, but going off of how things had gone with EG while she'd been filling in for Anis, he didn't imagine it'd go terribly.

---

"Commander!" Three brand-new Nikkes all turned and saluted at once - shockingly, shockingly I say, all three were heckin' cuties at minimum - kind of a punch to the kidneys at maximum. Two blondes - one platinum and the other golden - and one ginger-toned redhead. Joe was a little worried; at this rate, being surrounded by mostly blonde Nikkes? He was going to develop a reputation for being a fiend for blondes. Which, while just about 2000% accurate, didn't seem like the sort of reputation he needed as a fledgling Commander.

The platinum blonde was bedecked in mostly dark navy blues and greys - a helmet-like visor set atop her crown, her hair was long and silken straight. Notably, after a moment, it registered that she was wearing a short, transparent cloak over her simple zippered jacket. Even with her eyes hidden, it was clear to see that she was pretty. "Sir, iDoll Ocean, reporting for duty!"

The ginger had her hair tied back in a ponytail. Her outfit was one of the most overtly Cyberpunk get-ups Joe had yet seen by far. Covering her torso was what Joe had to assume was some sort of soft, orange-tinted gelatinous armour. Otherwise, she was adorned in oranges and blacks, proudly emblazoned with the Tetra Line logo. Her headgear was just as militaristic as Ocean's. "I'm an iDoll Flower, ready for orders, sir," she declared.

The golden blonde, meanwhile… ooh boy. Her hair was tied into a pair of lovely twintails, and her headgear, a visor adorned with what looked like robotic cat ears, of all things. Beyond that, she was bedecked in one of the other singularly most Cyberpunk outfits Joe had seen so far. She was decently well-endowed and curvaceous, and her top which seemed to be designed to emphasize that with its appearance as a techno-studded gambeson - padded cloth armour - with proper magazine pouches resting under her chest. Unexpectedly, she was wearing an honest-to-God bevor and gorget - a metal collar meant to armour the throat and clavicle. Bulky pauldrons - shoulder plates - adorned her shoulders, another short, transparent cloak was attached to said pauldrons. She wore a very high-legged leotard under her top and tiny short shorts, going further down her legs revealed tight thigh high leggings, which lead into simple short boots resting atop tall high heels. "IDoll Sun," she wearily started. "Orders?"

Notably, where the other two MP Nikkes had more neutral expressions, Sun was more overtly frowning, a grumpy little downturn of her lips. Joe had to admit - if he hadn't known any better, he'd have just thought that she was a gorgeous little Cyberpunk mercenary, a striking one at that.

The Commander may have been just a bit smitten by her looks alone. That was unexpected, given that to his understanding, MP Nikkes were all physical clones of each other, meaning that there were likely hundreds, if not thousands or even tens of thousands of girls that were Sun, Flower, and Ocean's exact doppelgangers in the Ark. Which was… strange to consider. Like, intellectually, he was aware that MP Nikkes were literally churned out of factories, but actually being confronted with that eventually was going to be… weird.

Though he supposed he'd get there when he'd get there. Luckily, while he'd normally spill a fair bit of spaghetti all over Sun's high-heeled feet, he was just so damned tired by the day already that he didn't have the energy to devolve into a horny bonobo.

Rapi stood off to the side, taking in the sight before her - Neon and Anis were nowhere to be seen. Doubtless they were just doing their best to enjoy their day off, and he wouldn't hold that against them. They'd have all the time in the world to meet and get to know their new team mates while milling about the Command Centre until their next mission.

Nodding to the new Nikkes, Joe stepped up towards them. "Welcome to Counters, ladies," he declared matter-of-factually. "Here's to a long and fruitful career together… and, before anything else to get everything right out of the way - don't bother giving me your serial numbers, I don't care what the Central Government says: you aren't weapons, you're people, and people have names. So we're stopping this 'Ocean, Sun, and Flower number 20XX' business right here and now."

The silence that followed was palpable. The iDolls stared at Joe as though he'd just sprouted a second head, Sun in particular obviously glowering at him.

When that continued on for a fair while, Joe spoke up again. "I suppose I'm going to need to prompt you then. 'Ocean,'" he focused on the platinum blonde Nikke, who jumped and looked the part of a frightened rabbit. "You were converted into a Nikke, meaning you had a name before the Central Government started dehumanizing you. What was it?"

In response, the little platinum blonde went very, very still, lips parting as she looked as though she wanted to shrink on herself. A continued bout of silence before…

"...You can trust the Commander," Rapi interjected somewhat hesitantly, causing the MP Nikkes to look at her in dumbstruck surprise. "He's… not like the others. I think that's why he's being assigned permanent subordinates under his command. He genuinely cares… he even saved the life of my partner when he didn't need to during our first deployment together. Anis. You can ask her yourself when you meet her. She's usually in the recreation room using the television or the computer."

While Ocean and Flower looked absolutely dumbstruck, Sun… just seemed all the more wary.

After a few moments, Ocean looked to Joe, deeply uncertain, before eventually replying: "...Mia," she finally, visibly and audibly on-edge despite Rapi's backing him up. "My name was Mia."

"Your name is Mia," Joe dictated, hands set on his hips. "And it always has been. Understood?"

After a few moments, Mia let out a low, shuddering sigh, breath audibly hitching in her throat. "...Yes, sir."

After a few moments, Joe added: "Why are you wearing that headgear?" All three of the Nikkes were wearing eye-masking equipment. All of which looked like combat gear. The equivalent to someone walking around wearing night vision goggles and a ballistic helmet in a dorm room. "We aren't in the field. There should be no need for you to be kitted out as you are."

After a few moments, she answered: "...A-a previous Commander got mad whenever she saw my eyes, and told me to keep them covered up all the time… and that kept happening with every Commander…" she admitted with no small amount of hesitation.

It didn't take a genius to figure out why. The eyes were the gateway to the soul. These Commanders were upset to see that Mia had eyes as human as theirs, and rather than looking inwards and considering why that got to them, they made the poor girl cover them up at all times. Fucking cowards. "You are not required to wear those unless we are in the field, and only if not wearing them would affect your performance in the field at that. That goes for all of you."

After a pregnant pause, Mia's hand drifted up to her headgear with no small amount of uncertainty, but she ultimately allowed her hand to fall again without revealing her eyes. Unsurprisingly, that was a step too far for someone who had been conditioned to cover her face for… Lord only knew how long. She'd eventually get that conditioning worked out of her, and Joe didn't feel the need to press the poor girl before she was ready on her own terms.

Thus, he shifted his attention to the next MP over, Flower. "And you. Your name?" he asked.

The iDoll was quiet, shifting about uncomfortably atop her flat-footed shoes, letting out a low sigh. "...I don't know, sir," she admitted. "I don't remember anything from before I was converted. I'm sor-"

"There's nothing to apologize for," Joe cut her off pointedly. "Just… think about it. What you'd like to be called, then. Names are important, and if you don't have one, then it's better late than never. Simple as that. Understood?"

The currently-nameless Nikke looked absolutely dumbstruck, seeming to avert her gaze in uncertainty with a small nod.

To that point, Joe turned to the twintailed Nikke-

"iDoll Sun," the golden blonde forcefully declared, frowning straight at Joe. "I'm not playing into this little game."

That caught Joe off-guard, and got Rapi staring at the golden blonde Nikke. It took him a few moments to recover, but he did with no small amount of wariness. "What are you talking about?" he asked simply.

"Commanders are all the same, whether you're men or women," she declared pointedly and with what Joe knew was a glower, despite her eyes being hidden. "Give me my orders, and don't pretend that we're anything but disposable tools to you." Her body language was stiff as a board, and had been since Joe had set eyes on her.

Man, sunny disposition on this one, huh?

It didn't feel good, but it wasn't particularly surprising either. Joe distinctly recalled a time when he would have flat-out refused to believe it if something had attempted to extend a hand to him as well - a dog that's been abused enough will reflexively snap at the first hand that comes near it, after all. So too, Joe wouldn't press her. If it took a while for her to internalize that this wasn't going to be like all the rest of her previous assignments… then so be it. So long as she followed orders in the interim, that would simply have to do.

"Then go do what you will until you are called upon," Joe declared rather shortly. "Dismissed, Sunny," he couldn't help but be a little snide, however. Joe was only human, and couldn't be expected to be perfect in all instances. Least of all in the midst of a continued bout of being allowed no fucking breaks to speak of. Doubly so as he'd just had his attempt to show someone basic human decency decried as bullshit for little apparent reason.

The golden blonde iDoll, needless to say, was visibly annoyed by his reply, but was quick to take her leave, stomping off deeper into the Command Centre without missing a beat or giving him or anyone else a second look.

Mia and Flower remained where they were, understandably wary until Joe spoke up to them again, a good deal less harsh than he was with Sunny. "All Nikkes have free reign of the Outpost during off-hours. There isn't much to do for now aside from bumming around in the rec room, but according to Liter, commercial and entertainment districts are in the queue following more proper residential units. Ask whoever for help if you need it, but really, I don't expect y'all will need directions too much, given that the barracks are right next to the rec room, which is right next to the kitchen. There anything either of you have to ask about for now?"

After a few moments, Mia stepped towards Joe with a bracing breath. "C-Commander-"

"When we aren't in the field, you can just call me Joe, or Pholus," the long-haired brunet informed the little lady.

At that, she took another breath, a long, hitching breath. "...J-Joe," she started, hand balling into a fist over her chest, staring up at the Commander as her voice audibly warbled. "Thank you. Thank you," she almost whined, lips trembling. Though he couldn't see her eyes, there was little doubt that she was on the verge of tears.

…Yeah. Mia seemed to be the type that wanted to have the opportunity to be trusting, and having the misfortune of being a Mass-produced Nikke in the Ark, had unsurprisingly, found herself in the midst of an ongoing deficit of half-decent fucking human beings during her service spent towards mankind's ongoing survival as a species.

"...Pholus," Flower, meanwhile, stepped forward as well, looking in the direction Sunny had departed in. "I don't know what her problem is. I'll-"

Cutting her off with a pointedly heavy breath, Joe made a halting motion at the orange-clad Nikke. "I understand where she's coming from. Just let her have her space. She'll come around eventually."

Flower and Mia looked at Joe… with expressions he couldn't quite make out, given that both were still wearing their partially face-obscuring headgear, but he could tell that they were taken aback, to say the least.

"If there's nothing else, y'all take a load off and relax. I don't know when we'll get our next mission, but going off of our current track record, there's a non-zero chance that we'll be loaded into a comically large catapult, and launched directly at the Rapture Queen with six sticks and a rock - and we'll probably have to share the rock," he noted, only half-joking because Jesus fucking Christ, Blacksmith, then Gravedigger, then goddamned Chatterbox… the string of extreme high-intensity missions seemed to set a precedent to him. He had every expectation that being put up against stupidly extreme odds was just going to be the norm for Counters. "Seriously, appreciate the time off we have. Our missions tend to be demanding."

There was a beat, wherein Mia was recentring herself, while Flower, meanwhile, mused to herself, "...Well, I've been wanting to catch up on this anime I've been watching…"

"The communal TV is hooked up to the Ark proper, so you should be able to use it for that - or the communal computer if Anis is using it." Joe motioned towards the rec room. "So… y'all have fun then." He might've been all about making the girls under his command feel welcome and appreciated - but he was an introvert being forced to person for extended periods of time now. He was running on fumes, and every ongoing interaction was redlining his social energy reserves more than they already had been. He needed time to himself before he started getting actively crabby and standoffish.

"...Understood," Flower replied. "I suppose we'll speak to you later, sir." Reaching out, she set a hand on Mia's shoulder to guide her away. Though Mia was hesitant, she followed with echoing footsteps, quickly leaving just Joe alone with Rapi in the Command Centre's overly quiet entrance hall.

After Joe took a deep breath, there was a beat. Rapi was the first to break the silence.

"You look like you need to rest, Commander," the little strawberry blonde observed, standing with her hips cocked as she usually did. "I would advise that you retreat to your quarters, and not engage in any affairs relating to your duties as a military officer for the time being."

…Yes, it would be wise for him to just waste a few hours. Maybe even the rest of the day, if he could get away with it. "Yeah, that'd probably be a good idea… thanks," Joe nodded, pausing before he set off and… noting that she was still bare-faced. It was wild to Joe how Rapi was one of those girls whose RBF only added to her appeal, rather than being inherently detrimental. Having a naturally grumpy face sometimes worked in a lady's favour.

He was still too tired to gonk out over it, though, so he just said, tiredly, but genuinely, "You really do look a lot better without all that awful caked-on makeup, Rapi. I like you much better without it."

At that, Rapi sheepishly averted her gaze, responding with an intoned "...I see." And little else. Joe… almost thought he saw her cheeks reddening a bit, but it was just as likely to be a trick of the light than anything.

So, waving at the little black-bedecked blonde, Joe moved for the elevator, intent on just sitting around on his ass for a bit as Rapi quietly watched him depart.

---

Towards the end of the day, in the midst of Joe's rapturous enjoyment of his alone time, he received an alert on his phone, and checking it raised his eyebrows, to say the least.

From Andersen, it read: [Meeting tomorrow with Ingrid and Mustang. My office, 1430 hours sharp.]

There was a beat in which Joe stared at the phone for a few moments blankly, his lips down turning as his brow knitted in-

[That's 2:30 PM, to clarify.] Andersen quickly followed up.

Thank fucking Christ it occurred to Andersen that Joe had all the experience of a goddamned civvie and had no fucking idea how to read military time.

No rest for the wicked, at any rate. Hopefully his first meeting with the CEO of Tetra Line would be fruitful, if nothing else.

 

[BakaSmurf]

===
Chapter 34 - The Truth Will Out
===

The following day, little of note occurred. Counters was milling about the Command Centre, and while Anis looked deeply wary when Joe informed everyone that he was going to a meeting with Andersen in the Ark proper, he was allowed to depart without any fanfare.

The trip was a long one. Not quite as long as the elevator straight to the surface, but the Outpost was closer to the surface than it was the Ark. Going back through the Ark again, honestly, left Joe more than a little put-off by just how… uncanny it was, all dressed and dolled up to look pretty, like the ideal future-tech city. A brightly lit Cyberpunk metropolis, clean, orderly, conspicuously lacking in apparent criminal elements, everyone traipsing about, cheerily, living seemingly ordinary lives. This, despite the situation being what it was.

Joe was aware that this was, on the surface, preferable to the alternative of the average citizen being on a hair trigger, at least. But…

The rot was palpable, now that he wasn't… distracted by Marian's balming presence, and had the time to not have her dominate his thoughts in their entirety. There was an uncomfortable, unspoken desperation saturating the air.

The Ark was a deeply unpleasant place to live. That much was clear. Joe found that more than a little upsetting, given the amount of young people for whom this was their entire life. This was what it always was, how it always would be to them. There was nowhere else to go - genuinely, truly, there was no out from the Ark. The rest of the world was gone.

And looking up, the source of it all was clearly in view. The Central Government headquarters. This was what they wanted. They had no interest in recapturing the surface, empowering the Nikkes being misled into thinking they were making the ultimate sacrifice in the interest of taking their world back from the Raptures, in making things better. This was exactly that life should be, to them. Because it meant the CG was King Shit of Turd Island. They'd march mankind into extinction, if it meant they'd get to rule over the forsaken ashes for just a few moments longer.

And this was all Joe could see just based on what little he'd seen so far. Lord in Heaven forbid he caught wind of what the actual underbelly of the Ark was like. What it was like where people had it rough in the Ark.

Andersen was right. The Central Government was their enemy, and had to be toppled, for the sake of all mankind.

With a newfound resolve, Joe moved to enter the CG HQ, and towards Andersen's office.

---

"Ah, Pholus," Andersen looked up as Joe stepped into his office, the door closing and locking behind him. "You're-"

"Mon Cheri!" Joe, meanwhile, was fucking flash banged by the figure that spun in place, gesticulating wildly at him as he glimmered and shone in numerous shades of gold and diamond. "There! Finally, there he is! The man! The myth! The legend! Le Commandant Légendaire!"

Ingrid pinched her brow, exhaling deeply from her seat across from Andersen's desk.

Meanwhile, the man that could only be Mustang, the CEO of Tetra Line, visually assaulted Joe.

He was, simply put? Built like a Greek God. Tall, tanned, dark hair… and dressed like the wealthiest court jester Joe had ever set eyes upon in his life. The man was wearing a black and golden skin-tight leotard, the Tetra Line logo proudly emblazoned over his crotch. Every detail of his abs were visible through the outfit, yet the cartoonishly overblown ruff adorned with pearls worn around his neck actually somehow managed to distract from how precious little his leotard left to the imagination. His hair was cut high, yet worn loose and swept over to one side. The sides of his scalp were shaved down to a deeply photogenic stubble, his facial hair carefully trimmed down to a pencil line. Were it not for his gold-rimmed, mirrored aviators, Joe was sure the man's eyes would have been as striking as the purest gold just the same.

Strangest yet, however, was the… Golden, diamond-studded… techno… peacock… tail… thing hanging off of his ass. It flared off a solid metre out around him, framing the man in glimmering, shining gold and silver.

It took Joe a moment to realize that he'd actually jumped back into the now-locked door leading out of Andersen's office. Joe wasn't expecting someone low-key, but holy shit, this was far and away beyond what he was expecting out of Tetra Line's CEO.

"Ah, fantastique, to see even the Legendary Commander himself bedazzled and sidéré by la magnificence of Tetra Line!" Mustang leaned back, far, very far, arching his figure wildly, causing his rippling muscles to visibly constrict and strain against the metallic fabric which seemed to struggle for its life to contain his figure. "This is the merveille of Tetra Line! Even living legends are left in sputtering awe! Magnificent!"

Mustang then snapped back, pointing dramatically at Joe and declaring: "My little Anis, her Commander is her l'amour! She says how kind, how beau and fit he is! And his rump! She will not cease remarking upon la figure of this man who treats her right! I dare say, I wonder if I may even have felt somewhat menacer! And yet…" he shifted his pose with a flourish, daintily resting a hand upon his chin. "Was I right to be préoccupé, I wonder?"

There was a beat in which Joe blinked, then he felt something twig in the back of his mind. Was he… being challenged? Was Mustang challenging him?

Joe was built like a soldier - a man that was in shape because his life damn well depended on it, while Mustang was built like a body builder. The gold-bedecked CEO looked more outwardly impressive by no small margin, but how much of that was functional strength, he wondered?

As if Joe was going to let some showboating pencil pusher talk shit without consequences. Joe hadn't touched a bow in probably at least a century, but he was an archer that hunted animals in the frigid, unforgiving Canadian wilderness with arrows. He knew what to show off. Thus, casting his jacket aside onto a side table, Joe spun on his heel, and bringing his arms up, flexed those muscles used for archery.

At that, Mustang crooned, clapping his hands in rapturous glee, bouncing on the balls of his feet.

In the midst of that, with a heavy sigh, Andersen rose from his seat, walking around to the front of his desk, and staring at a still-flexing Joe… Tore off his own coat, and dropped to a knee pull off a showboating variant of The Thinker, his well-fitted button-down straining against his taut form, a wide, cocky grin in place on his features as he flexed and bulged his own muscles as he interjected himself and made this duel a proper battle.

To that, Joe only had a single thought in his head: bring it.

The three men, at that, began posing dramatically at each other - a battle with no words spoken, no hands thrown. Mustang somehow continued to outstrip the more conventional men by sheer virtue of how freakishly limber and flexible he was. Andersen and Joe both seemed to come to some manner of mutual understanding: this was a duel for second place, and neither was willing to surrender to the other…

Until the clock on Andersen's wall came into view, and Joe realized they'd been engaging in this idiocy for ten whole fucking minutes.

With a jump and a small yelp, Andersen seemed to notice as well, snapping to his feet as he and Joe spun to face Ingrid, who was doubtlessly fuming over the rampant stupidly on display-

Yet, instead, there was a satisfied grin on Ingrid's face as she practically lounged in her seat, seemingly watching the proceedings in rapt enjoyment… "...Oh, you're already done?" the CEO asked, visibly disappointed. "Well, I suppose it can't be helped, we do have business to tend to…"

Mustang laughed and laughed and laughed melodically, while Andersen sheepishly put his coat back on, adjusting his tie and clearing his throat as he returned to his seat.

…Ingrid had been just sitting there, watching the three grown-ass men act like complete idiots for ten fucking minutes, and just let them. And if anything, seemed to have enjoyed the goon show. Joe wasn't sure what to make of that.

Joe followed Andersen's example, putting the jacket Marian had gifted him back on, and claiming a seat across from his direct superior. Mustang, meanwhile, grabbed a chair lacking in armrests… and spun it around with a dramatic flourish to sit on it backwards - his weird techno-peacock tail thing necessitating that he be a bit more creative with his seating.

"Ahem, anyways, to get things back on track…" Andersen made an effort to shift back to serious mode. "Pholus: as you might imagine, we're here to discuss the plan at large. That and your… or rather, our history together."

Nodding once, Joe figured. It was evident that Mustang knew who he was, and Ingrid obviously would too. So… there was little to do but actually sort out their plans for the time being. "Lay it on me, then," he declared.

"Ah, swift to aller au vif, just as I remember! It's as though he never left!" Mustang cried out in joy.

That caught Joe off-guard, looking between him and Andersen in clear and present confusion.

"Mustang was present during the Initial Rapture Invasion, just the same as us," Andersen noted. "All three of us knew each other back then."

At that, Joe blinked, looked at Mustang, then at Andersen, and took a deep breath. "How in the name of all that is good and holy are we not decrepit old men?"

"Aside from Splendamin having life extension properties?" Andersen began. "I'm on a series of other assorted life extension programs, the recipient of a number of experimental implants and gene therapies. It's… oftentimes uncomfortable, yet here I am. Still kicking, despite my time having come and gone ages past," the once High Commander of Goddess noted somewhat wistfully. "I have it the roughest of the three of us, by a fair margin, in terms of just… persisting. But such is the cost of damn well ensuring that I can be here to set things right. It's a weight I will continue to bear as long as I must. Until my duty is done, the reaper shall not take me."

Joe nodded. That tracked. He'd seen how crazy the technologies at the disposal of the Ark were. It only made sense that it would be possible to find ways to keep certain individuals around, even if it might not be a fun process.

"...And us?" Joe motioned towards Mustang.

"You've been in cryogenic stasis for many decades," Andersen declared matter-of-factually. "You've also been subject to life extension alterations as a benefit of your role as the Legendary Commander of Goddess, but… you've been on ice since the Ark was sealed, and that moment you woke up in the hospital. You aren't actually as old as many would think, considering that. Though you'll find in time that you are aging slower than most would, even relative to the average Ark citizen."

…Yeah, that tracked. Though Joe had questions about that in particular, he looked aside at a broadly-smiling Mustang, asking, "I suppose Mustang's in the same boat as you, then?"

"Oh, no," Andersen shook his head. "Not at all. Mustang's an Adonis."

Joe just… stared blankly at Andersen, who himself took a moment to realize that there was a lack of understanding. "Ah, apologies, 'Adonis' is the male gendered term for a Nikke."

There was a beat before Joe recoiled as if struck, snapping between Andersen and Mustang with wide-

"He's a what!?" Ingrid, however, loudly interjected, back going ramrod straight in her seat as her eyes became unto saucers.

Well, at least Joe wasn't the only one that was being bushwhacked here…

Mustang laughed and chortled cheerfully at the two's reaction, setting a hand on his perfectly-formed pecs as he leaned back in his seat dramatically. "Do not act so surpris, fair mademoiselle Ingrid! Does it not explain much? You yourself surely attempted to look into my past, only to find that what you found did not add up under scrutiny?"

"...I thought that it was impossible to make male Nikkes," Joe remarked, staring at Mustang with as much shock as Ingrid.

"No, no, not impossible," Mustang shook his head, waggling his finger in Joe's direction. "Simply invraisemblable to obscene degrees! Improbable to the point that yours truly is yet the only successful example of a true, full conversion in human history! I would never have considered putting my girls through what I myself would not go through first!"

That… "...Does that mean you predate all Tetra Line Nikkes?" Joe asked.

"Correct!" Mustang declared with a cheer. "The first, and only of my kind! Oh, the only regret I have is the wave of renewed attempts to create more Adonii in my wake which followed! That month was… not bon for my would-be fellows, to say the least."

…Well, that was… unpleasant to hear. "...I can see how that would renew attempts to redouble the forces mankind could effectively throw against the Raptures, until everyone realized it was a one-in-a-million jackpot situation…"

"Indeed," Andersen nodded grimly. "It actually set us back in a few theatres. Male Nikkes - Adonii periodically going berserk in production facilities did not do the big three any favours in production efficiency until the notion of converting men was abandoned yet again."

Ingrid, meanwhile, had just slumped back in her seat, rubbing her forehead in deep-seated exasperation.

Mood.

Not seeing the need or point in dwelling on the subject, given that men and women doubtlessly far more intelligent than Joe could ever hope to be had surely already asked every question and did everything they could to determine what it was that allowed Mustang to successfully undergo conversion where every other man had immediately gone violently insane afterwards… Joe just decided to prod the conversation along.

"Well, anyways," pinching his brow, Joe nodded. "The Central Government, and Snow White…"

"Yes…" Andersen adjusted the cuffs of his coat, humming quietly as he considered the situation. "Our long term plan is to eventually overthrow the Central Government, as we've previously discussed. They are fascists with no intention of recapturing the surface, perfectly content with humanity's situation as it is, purely because it means they get to rule over these lingering remnants. This alone is cause to declare them to be enemies of mankind: though we need more of a secure power base to risk doing so. Enikk is certainly not willing to back an attempt at a revolution as it is. Her goal is first and foremost: mankind's ongoing survival as a species. Her calculations point to an attempted revolution backfiring and damning our species as it is."

"To be honest, I'm not entirely sure what there is to discuss on this matter right now," Ingrid piped up, arms crossed and brow set at a down-turned angle. "We need to bide our time, and continue to build power to leverage against the Central Government and Missilis. Being able to point to having the Legendary Commander himself on our side when the time comes will do much to bring the general populace to our side, to say nothing of all the Nikkes that won't be willing to stand against him, just on account of his legend… What else can Pholus do besides hold steady and build up the Outpost?"

"Firstly, not just the Legendary Commander," Andersen started. "Remember, Pholus encountered Snow White on the surface. We don't know if the rest of Goddess is still alive, but even having one member of Goddess-"

"Deux," Mustang corrected the far less ostentatious brunet.

Taking a deep breath, Andersen shook his head. "Mustang, we can't-"

"John," Mustang interjected. "Regardless of your feelings on the matter, Snow White knows that both her Le commandant and Red Hood are alive and active in the Ark. Do not be so stupide as to convince yourself that she will simply and conveniently not drive to reunite with the woman she considered a sister as well. Your concerns about the possibility of Rapi undergoing another Mind Switch are valide: but they cannot take precedence over our need to secure as many powerful allies as we possibly can. That will mean, à la longue, reminding Rapi of who she is. Better that she be given the chance to acclimatize to that fact before she's faced with a dear old friend that surely remembers her clearly."

"...What lead to Rapi's Mind Switch in the first place," Joe inquired, "And how does she still know that she's Red Hood, even if she doesn't know what that means?"

It was Ingrid that answered him. "Simply put? As Andersen tells it: Some time after the Ark was sealed, Red Hood went on a rampage here in the CG Headquarters. Slaughtered a great many Central Government officers and security… and even a fair few actual Councilmen. She collapsed at some point in the midst of it, and was pronounced dead and disposed of. A lie, obviously. Andersen and Enikk apparently colluded with Elysion's at the time CEO to hide her away in stasis, until such a time that it was deemed safe to bring her out of it and put the only remaining Grimms Nikke back to work, with the CG none the wiser. She was informed that she had undergone a memory wipe, and that it was her duty to make up for the massacre she had went on, with no specifics provided to her." She rolled her shoulders as she finished. "So, believe me when I say that I understand Andersen's reticence to remind Rapi of exactly who and what she is. But Mustang has a point: we can't hide from the fact that Snow White will seek her out, and open Pandora's box in an uncontrolled manner, if they were truly as close as they both say."

Jesus fucking Christ. And Rapi thought herself as a monster for accidentally killing a single human as it was…

Regardless of Joe's internal musings, at that, Andersen closed his eyes. He took a deep, centring breath, and let out a heavy sigh. "I suppose we'll have to cross that bridge when we come to it…" shaking his head, he looked over to Ingrid. "To address your other point: Pholus is also here so we can go over his- or rather, our history. We can't dance around his amnesia anymore - not when we know that Snow White will be bee-lining for him, and him being one step away from being in the dark could and would make that eventual meeting… Difficult."

"Indeed," Mustang agreed. "While I was not present to anywhere near the same degree as you were, Andersen, us three had our des moments together. This most recent incident being but the latest instance of déchaîné tomfoolery!" The Adonis chortled in a high-pitched tone cheerily. "As I said, it was as though I'd been flung back in time! The only thing missing was Red Hood catcalling us all the while!"

…Man, Mustang knew exactly how to get Joe gooning. Yeah, they knew each other. Of all the people in the world, Joe had never expected that Andersen, Mustang, and himself had been the boys a century prior.

"...Well then," Ingrid looked between the three men, arms and legs crossed where she sat. "Pholus, I'm sure you have questions. Go ahead and ask: it seems that it will be a learning experience for the both of us."

Fingers thrumming the armrest of his seat, Joe considered where to start. He had a number of inquiries: especially involving Mustang, and the fact that Enikk, the Ark's central AI was apparently in direct contact with Andersen, and only didn't back the revolution because doing so put humanity's continued survival at too much risk at present…

Yet there was something which had been nagging at Joe ever since he'd woken up in that hospital, and Andersen had kept avoiding. "You said that I was on ice since the Ark was sealed," the burly man started, looking at his superior officer seriously. "But, moreover… I was almost dead the instant I was removed from stasis. From severe blood loss. Given everything that's been said about the Central Government, would I be incorrect in assuming that they attempted to assassinate me for my perceived danger to their power?"

Any and all cheer had left Mustang's face, while Andersen looked deeply resigned, and Ingrid just watched the proceedings with rapt interest, as in the dark about Joe's past as the man in question himself was.

"...No," Andersen answered pointedly. "It was not an assassination attempt. It was self-defence."

Joe cocked his head at that, somewhat confused. "...I don't- so I was injured defending myself from the Central Government? I don't understand, it seems like you're splitting hairs here-"

"Joe," Mustang seriously interjected, actually dropping his tendency to randomly shift to and back out of French as he elucidated. "The Central Government informed you of their intent to take the girls you had come to cherish, and tear them apart limb-from-limb, shamelessly killing them in the process 'for the betterment of mankind' despite all they'd done to give our species a fighting chance. You knew well enough to see it as a tyrant's ill-conceived smokescreen. You knew the moment the words left their collective mouths: they only sought to slaughter those who might challenge them, and in so doing learn how to empower themselves in the process with technology which had already been lost along with the surface. And their intent to use you as a propaganda-spewing puppet in the aftermath."

Not allowing Joe the chance to react, even as something was twigged in the back of Joe's mind, and something began to emerge from the grey, Mustang continued.

"Then, as you departed from that fateful meeting, assumed to have been brought to heel like a good guard dog by those fools, doubtlessly driven beyond the point of reason to do something altogether fruitlessly foolish… you found none other than Red Hood, the Central Government's sheer arrogance and incompetence taking no issue with allowing her off the leash until the very moment they decided to dissect her. Then, alongside your equally vengeful subordinate, you discovered the sheer, boundless arrogance of those haughty fools in the fact that they had not thought to revoke your Hoplon access privileges, while the Central Government's Headquarters had been built directly atop, and was still directly connected to the Ark's primary military garage."

"You weren't defending yourself from the Central Government. In your abject fury, they were defending themselves from you."

 

[BakaSmurf]

===
Chapter 35 - The Rebel Path
===

The elevator rumbled around them, steadily ferrying the pair up towards the main building, the air between them charged unlike anything ever before.

There was nothing more to say between them - they'd gone over the plan, simple as it was. They'd both agreed to no theatrics, no bullshit, no fucking around. They had a job to do, and they'd do it as efficiently, quickly, viciously as possible. And moreover, they were being given the opportunity to make the attempt in the first place, by that most unexpected of allies…

"I will time a district-wide electric and communications blackout shortly after you emerge from the elevator," Enikk intoned into Joe's comms equipment. "Along with a structure-wide system short-out to ensure the Council cannot escape the building by any efficient means. You will both need to brute force your way through the building's security gates as you progress to your ultimate objective."

"Fine by me," Red Hood declared in a low intone as she adjusted Wolf's Bane, the massive anti-material rifle chambered in .50 Ultra at rest upon her deceptively slim shoulder. "Won't even slow us down." The Nikke's long, wild hair was blazing red, her almond-shaped eyes like golden beacons in the dim light of the Central Government HQ's main cargo elevator. Her normally breezy, lackadaisical features drawn back into an uncharacteristic frown.

"Any common Nikke would be slowed by such barriers. However, yes, your incredible strength should grant you more than enough raw physical power to overwhelm and muscle through what they could not," Enikk declared. "Commander: I would advise that you allow Red Hood to force open all oncoming security gates. The Hoplon you've commandeered may be able to manage the task as well, but with nowhere near as much efficiency that she can."

Standing tall, nearly twice the height of the average man, looming outright alongside the red-and-black bedecked Grimms Nikke was a bulky, bipedal machine. Its hull, both angled and rounded, was a dull monotone grey, the shoulders adorned with white stripes marred only by a newly applied coat of paint to announce the intimidating machine's newfound purpose: ACPU RIOT CONTROL.

These machines dubbed Hoplons, once hopefully the shells for the next generation of Nikkes, then reduced to emergency last-ditch mechanized armours that would allow the unaugmented and unaugmentable, dubbed Hoplites, mere cannon fodder next to the Goddesses of Victory, to directly take up arms against the Raptures… For as briefly as they'd survive direct conflict with those extraterrestrial horrors even with the aid of such seemingly mighty armour.

Even man-sized high-mobility exoskeletons served the common human better against Raptures. But after a point, when no more production facilities existed, you had to make do with what you already had on hand.

Because of course, what other purpose would a looming mecha serve than as an anti-riot vehicle? Not that Joe was surprised in the least, given how the Central Government had just tipped its hand to him. They were fascists. Fascism ruled through fear. Terrify the populace so that they would never think to risk fighting back in the first place, and the best place to start with that? Militarizing the police, of course. Arm the average officer like a soldier, make it clear to all civilians that the men and women that should have been their protectors were, in fact, an occupying force ready and willing to engage in overwhelming force to bend and control them.

Hence the belt-fed machine cannon slung under the Hoplon's arm. A weapon that would have reduced a main battle tank into a glorified cheese grater, was, of course, the perfect peacekeeping tool for a police officer and not at all gross and shameless overkill in every conceivable way.

But, it would serve their purpose well enough. Where these machines had proven far and away but a step away from worthless against the Raptures when piloted by mere humans, it would carry Joe far enough through the hailfire the CG's blackshirts would throw their way in their feeble attempts to defend themselves from their righteous retribution.

"Understood," Joe answered matter-of-factually, adjusting his position in the cockpit of the machine. The Hoplon itself moving with deceptive, almost human-like grace as it adjusted its footing, owing to his man-machine neural interface implant implanted at the base of his head, where the spine met the skull, physically tethering his nervous system into the control systems of the machine - the robot was effectively an extension of his own body while piloting it. A grim necessity for a front line Commander in the war against the Raptures: no sane military would ever deploy unaugmented humans into battle against the Raptures without some form of mechanical support, after all. Even this titan did little beyond mitigate a human's chances of instant death under those conditions, and only because of the sheer increase in traversal adaptability and speed they provided. Never could their chances of death be reduced to anything even approximately approaching zero.

But against weapons meant to be used against other humans? Against bare flesh, perhaps armoured in little more than a centimetre or two of ballistic plates rated for no more than a single bullet? Inches of steel and titanium would make him effectively invulnerable, if only for a short while.

And what few of the otherwise untrusted Nikkes the Central Government would have allowed to protect them over baseline men and women, Red Hood would handle with contemptuous ease.

"Just to reiterate, so we're all on the same page," Red Hood started, turning to face the glowing, slit eyes of the Hoplon towering over her. "No prisoners, all of them die today, yeah?"

"Do unto others as you would have done unto yourself," Joe's voice projected from the bulky machine's speakers, nodding in affirmation once. "As they would destroy Goddess: so too, shall we destroy them in turn."

"Fuckin' A," came the young woman's forceful reply, the reminder of their purpose visibly renewing her fire and anger.

"Anyone that gets in our way, is an enemy of mankind defending those who would compromise the survival of our species for their own short-term gain," Joe declared as the elevator gradually neared the main promenade of the CG HQ. "They have forsaken the purpose of the Ark to instead use it instead as a gilded cage. This alone, would have been enough to earn them righteous damnation…"

"Then, they made it personal when they decided to fuck with our squad," Red Hood snarled, nose wrinkling as she she snarled as a wolf might. "We gut these bastards like fish and hang them up to dry as an example to all would-be-tyrants, then we bring the rest of Goddess down here to fix this shit. Clean up the mess and set it all right."

"Should you succeed at this juncture, I estimate mankind's long-term chances of survival increasing by a factor of no less than twelve times," Enikk asserted. "The Central Government's current planned policies critically diminish the species' survival rates, and will allow the Rapture threat to fester and grow effectively unimpeded. The hydra's head must be decapitated at once, to create an opportunity to remove those allied with the Council's will with minimal danger posed to the Ark's stability as a whole. Furthermore: I will reiterate that all men and women present and accounted for within the confines of the Headquarters have sworn oaths of devotion to the Central Government. For the greater good, you both must assume that any you encounter who present resistance are hostiles and ongoing risks to mankind's ongoing survival."

"Message received," Red Hood darkly replied as she worked the charging handle of her veritable shoulder cannon, loading a round into the chamber as she prepared herself. "I'm ready. How 'bout you?" She asked, turning to face Joe.

In response, as the elevator finally came to a jerking stop, Joe replied, motioning to the opening gates: "Come on. Let's remind these fucks just who it was that won them this Ark in the first fucking place."

The Central Government Headquarters was as lavish and ostentatious, yet soullessly corporate as ever. It was taller, wider, more spacious than it needed to be across the board. So spacious that they wound up having to incorporate one of the military garages' cargo elevators into the fucking thing's design where it wasn't supposed to link directly into the main building before. A testament to the wasteful lack of forethought these fuckers operated with. So large was the interior of the building, that a goddamned battlefield mech intended to be deployed into open fields could comfortably step into and and move around generally unimpeded.

But not so spacious as to allow one to go unnoticed in so doing. The guards wearing those obscenely ostentatious black uniforms with their emblazoned armbands - visual evidence that they were die-hard loyalists - had noticed the machine stepping into the promenade, and were immediately on-edge.

Notably, it was just armed and uniformed men present. No civilians to speak of. All 'non-officials' were required by law to attend the Sealing Celebration - to be proper 'patriots' and celebrate the Central Government's 'glorious victory.' The proceedings of which were being broadcast on the televisions lining the hall.

Joe wouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth. It would make what came next far easier and cleaner.

"H-hey, the Hell is this?" The nearest man started, well within arm's reach of Joe, jumping in place and staring up at the Hoplon with widened eyes, his peaked cap looking about ready to slip off of his over-greased back hair. "The fuck is going on here!? Identify yourself!"

"General comms are out," Enikk informed Joe. "Electrical blackout to follow shortly…"

Gazing down at the man through the glowering green slits that made this mech's eyes, Joe bid for time by speaking up with a question of his own. "You'd do anything for the Central Government, right, soldier?"

Pausing, the guardsman blinked, cocking his head in some measure of recognition. "...Commander Pholus?" he started, clearly recognizing Joe's voice. "I- yes, of course! The Central Government is justice, it knows what is right, and what is best for all."

"And if the general populace protested the Central Government? If the Central Government commanded you to remove the dissidents?" Joe further asked.

The elite guardsman looked confused, as though he was being asked the most obvious question in the world. "We give terrorists what they deserve. What are you getting at, Commander-" Brows furrowing, he noticed Red Hood standing alongside the Hoplon, and asked, "What the Hell is that thing doing off its leash-?"

At that moment, the Headquarters went dark. Emergency lighting kicking on, barely providing enough dim red light by which to see with the naked eye.

"A power outage?" another guardsman cried out in naked annoyance. "Seriously? First we gotta miss the party, now this-?"

Stepping forth, unimpeded by the dark on account of the Hoplon's night vision systems, Joe just casually remarked to the nearest guard, responded to the casual discrimination towards one of the women that had given him and his ilk a chance of survival, "Well, that makes this next part a lot easier, at least," as the Hoplon's free arm tensed up before it, and lashed out to strike the blackshirt with a terrible backhand - a meaty crash from the nearby wall announcing the man's fate to all.

Scrambling, with startled cries of "traitor!" and "terrorists!" the remaining guardsmen lifted their rifles and opened fire without hesitation, even as Joe levelled the barrel of his auto-cannon on one, firing off a single shot which turned the man into a mess of gore. Red Hood brought Wolf's Bane on target, not even bothering to avoid the rounds fired off her way in a blind panic, responding too with a single report which turned her attacker into a red mist along with a horrible thunderclap; a bullet hole the size of a basketball left in the metal-plated reinforced concrete wall the guard had been standing in front of.

Screams could be heard coming from deeper in the building. Comms and electricity blackout or no - their monstrously over-powered weapons had been heard, and from here on out, it would be a running battle against every individual that took up arms in defence of the treacherous fascists seeking to place all that remained of humanity under their thumb.

Reaching up, the Nikke used her crimson jacket sleeve to wipe away the metallic residue from where a bullet harmlessly struck and deflected off of her cheek. "Best get started for the Council chambers, then," she grimly declared as she marched on, taking the lead as her hair and eyes very literally glowed in the dark like a burning torch.

With thunderous steps which tore up the fine flooring of the promenade, the Hoplon followed shortly behind, striding past the mutilated remains of the CG HQ's front most guards. "And thus, shall we walk the rebel path," Joe declared as he further steeled himself for the bloodshed to come.

"And pay the Devils in charge their due," Red Hood replied, chambering the next round of Wolf's Bane for emphasis as her heels click-clacked onward, bathed in a dark red hue as the building's emergency lights painted their battlefield in a poetically appropriate light for their grim work.

The Central Government had bit the hand. And so, it would receive the stick.

---

Hands firmly set on his forehead, Joe's eyes had gone wide, his breathing uneven and ragged.

"Pholus?" Andersen started with audible worry, leaning forward in his seat. "Joe? What's wrong?"

While Ingrid had risen to her feet and taken a step towards the Commander, Mustang had pivoted in his seat and brought a hand up to lower his aviators, critically staring Joe's way.

After a moment, coming back into the present, Joe's hand slowly traced around his skull, eventually settling on the spot where he had been physically plugged into the Hoplon nearly a hundred years prior… and there, he found skin - but skin that felt wrong. Like scar tissue, a scar he knew didn't belong there, so precisely placed…

"...I remember," Joe declared quietly. "That… my and Red Hood's attack on the Central Government." A declaration which caused Ingrid's eyebrow to quirk noticeably. Meanwhile, Andersen and Mustang each simply looked resigned. "...My implant," he started. "What happened to it?"

There was a beat before Andersen responded. "I had it covered in a layer of pseudoskin, when you were brought out of stasis. Only a precious few people in the Ark are cleared to have Hoplite implants in this day and age… I'd wager that you could guess that you are the reason why."

With a shallow nod, Joe acknowledged the statement.

"Then I'm sure that you understand why it was important for you to not have a visible illegal implant which would have called all sorts of unwanted attention onto you," Andersen added. "You still have it - it's just… inaccessible, for the time being. And no, we won't be able to arrange to have you 'acquire' a Hoplite implant either. Commanders are strictly barred from the means to operate Hoplons. While the Central Government would assert that it's for their own safety, because 'piloting them onto the surface alongside their Nikkes only decreases their chances of survival…' again, I'm sure that you could reasonably surmise that, no, it's actually simply to minimize the potential for any single Commander to get access to significant personal power - again, on account of you."

Jesus fucking Christ.

A few moments passed in silence, and afterwards, Ingrid spoke up. "Pholus, what, exactly, do you 'remember?'"

"The attack Red Hood and I committed on the Central Government Headquarters," Joe elaborated as he leaned forward in his seat, overwhelmed by the influx of information from this memory. "Where I commandeered a Hoplon from the Ark's military garage, and… Enikk actively provided Red Hood and I support in the attempt to kill the Central Government Council, pull out and burn away the fascism at the roots before it could take hold…"

There was a very pregnant pause, and looking up, Joe saw Ingrid, Andersen, and Mustang all staring wide-eyed at him.

"Enikk helped you two!?" Mustang cried out in open shock.

"That… actually explains a lot," Andersen suggested. "God, how bad of a fuck-up was it, to not get them all at the time if Enikk was willing to back that attack, but all of our ongoing plans keep being deemed 'too risky' in the modern day…?'"

Ingrid, meanwhile, reached up and ran a hand through her hair in open shock. "The… the Sealing Day terrorist attack on the Central Government HQ? That attack, the one that the original incarnation of Triangle was formed in response to, that was you and Rapi!?" Stepping back, Ingrid practically fell back into her seat, covering her eyes in naked desperation. "Holy mother of God…"

After a few moments of quiet, Andersen spoke up again. "Pholus, if you can, please, relay how you remember that event to us. We haven't actually had any first-hand perspectives to refer to in this regard - everything we know, we've had to piece together using detective work, effectively."

Taking a few bracing breaths, Joe centred himself, then firstly relayed the opening moments of the assault to his fellow conspirators.

Then, he continued on to the rest of the attack.

 

[BakaSmurf]

===
Chapter 36 - Our Crusade
===

Bursts of ultra-violence wrecked the Central Government Headquarters. Perfectly polished marble floors and walls, rent, shattered, burned and pocked. Skilfully upholstered furniture blown apart, the shredded fabric stained red and embedded with fragments of bone. A lone Hoplon and Grimms Nikke left a terrible trail of destruction in their frenzied rampage.

The lumbering machine was littered with dents, tears, and gouges. The evidence of far more Nikkes than had been expected guarding the CG's Council, those who could not attack Joe directly, but sure as shit could attack the armour he was encased in. Reaching up, the Hoplon's great mechanical hand latched onto a Mass-Produced Nikke that had been attempting to tear the machine's head from its core with her bare hands, and flung her bodily onto the floor at his feet.

Not missing a beat, he brought the foot up, and before she could react, brought it down upon her midsection.

Torso flattened in a sickening display of shredded but no less real-looking artificial flesh and the metallic skeletal systems within, the MP momentarily screamed in agony before falling silent, left where she had been crushed underfoot. Injured, likely traumatized - but alive. A Nikke could, and likely would survive being reduced to a disembodied brain. Joe hated being forced to brutalize these girls, hated even more that not all could be spared without risking himself and Red Hood before their mission was done… but such was the cost of walking the rebel path.

"Commander," Enikk started through their comms, "You are coming upon the Council Chambers - I am injecting targeting data for your Hoplon so that your machine's systems will register them as hostiles. I would advise that you share this data with Red Hood."

Wasting no time, Joe did so at the speed of thought: his Hoplite implant allowing him to engage with the machine's operating system and hardware using nothing but his capacity to think.

"Got it," Red Hood declared as she drove her hand into another looming emergency bulkhead - titanic blast doors built to tank anti-material rounds and armour-piercing explosives. Fingers penetrating the metal nearly a foot in its depth with ease, she started dragging the entire thing open as though it were little more than a stubborn sliding door. This despite her diminutive size when compared to the slab of metal blocking off a hallway wide enough to drive a tank through.

Screaming in metallic protest, the blast door gave way inch by inch, even as Joe stood sentry over the way they'd come. A stun grenade bounced around the distant corner, and Joe readied his Hoplon's autocannon. The machine's anti-flash systems negated the need to so much as shield the armour's eyes, simply tanking the burst in the second before more Nikkes spilled into the passageway, raising their weapons and moving to shoot past the Hoplon and at Red Hood.

Step-jumping to place himself between the CG Nikkes and Red Hood, the Hoplon dropped to a knee to shield her - the shots immediately going wild and glancing off the extremes of the machine's form at this distance. They knew there was a human at the controls of the armour, and thus couldn't deliberately aim for the centre of mass and risk hitting the pilot within.

Then, because of course, the Commander of that squad rounded the corner himself - blue in the face, chest puffed out with his loyalist uniform on full display, he started barking orders without a moment of hesitation.

Neither did Joe, simply setting the crosshairs of his cannon on the man - the turncoat, the traitor to mankind, and pulling the trigger once.

The Nikkes under his command all froze, heads snapping around to look back over their shoulders at the mutilated figure that fell to the ground behind them, all shocked still. Somehow, none of them, least of all the man himself, had expected the squad's Commander to be targeted.

The Central Government, evidently, was selecting for loyalty above wisdom and intelligence.

Still… Joe was doing his damned best to focus, to be decisive, merciless. Yet… he hesitated, seeing what was left of his fellow Commander fall to the ground so unceremoniously. Images of himself and the girls being put front-and-centre in parades celebrating the first victories mankind had ever achieved against the Rapture threat came to mind unheeded. Being hailed as the saviours of humanity, seeing children, boys and girls staring up at them in open wonder - the girls doubtlessly wishing in those moments to become Goddesses of Victory themselves, seeing the greatest of heroes to have ever walked Earth's surface, walking so tall, so proud; the boys surely gazing upon Andersen and Joe himself as a shared ideal to one day achieve themselves, hoping to become legendary Commanders that led Nikkes into victory one day too.

They were supposed to be heroes - yet here, Joe had taken a dozen human lives himself, and Red Hood no less in turn.

They-

As the hostile Nikkes recovered and refocused, immediately moving to focus fire on the Hoplon, a series of heavy thumps from behind shook Joe from his stupor. Red Hood opened fire with Wolf's Bane, dropping three Nikkes in rapid succession before Joe returned fire at the MP's himself, shredding the remainder of the squad with sustained cannonfire that took several long seconds to drop the augmented women; their bodies having been hardened and built to combat Raptures, as they were.

In the moments of silence that followed, Joe was startled by a heavy metallic 'clang' and a minor impact alert. Red Hood had kicked the leg of the Hoplon and was glowering up at it-

"It's bad enough that you're useless against Raptures, damn it!" the red-clad Nikke snarled at him, visibly infuriated. "Now, of all times, you're gonna just stand there and stare with your mouth hanging open, you fake-ass backwoods rube!?" Loading a fresh magazine into Wolf's Bane, she racked the bolt with no small amount of authority - "This is my last mag, that means I have exactly ten shots left! You get it!? You're the one with a machine gun, not me! So get off your ass and pull your own god damned weight for once! Least of all now, when everyone is depending on us!"

…She wasn't wrong. On all counts, she wasn't wrong.

"The Ark Central Police Unit are minutes away from breaching the building's defences with a unit of Anti-Riot Hoplites of their own," Enikk interjected forcefully. "You have minutes to finish the mission and avert mankind's rapidly encroaching extinction. Both of you must go, now."

Latching onto the declaration, Joe hyper-focused on the necessity of their objective, on the sheer gravity of the cost of failure. Goddess was meant to fight Raptures, not their fellow man. But…

Joe didn't enjoy killing, but when done righteously, it was just a chore, like any other. What had to be done, had to be done. Not just for Goddess, but for the sake of all mankind.

Thus, he grit his teeth, and would bare it as he and Red Hood redlined it. The pair forced their way through the partially-opened blast door and charged down the cavernous halls lit only by dim red emergency lights at a full tilt with a cacophonous rancour.

The minutes that passed did so as a terrible blur of yet more explosive violence. Many more humans, many more Nikkes fell. The Commander of Goddess, and the Red Hood pressed on like a wrecking ball rolling downhill.

Shortly, they'd reached the Council Chambers. Mercilessly, without fanfare, without an utterance to any of the lot, they slaughtered the fascist Councilmen who would have seen Goddess butchered that had remained there for whatever reason they had chosen to. Sixty percent of the fascist government's leadership gone, in one fell, bloody, savage swoop. With still no fanfare, Enikk provided the pair with the most likely location where the rest would be hidden - a hardened panic room recessed into the bedrock of the Ark's foundations beneath a hidden door there in that same chamber; one which Enikk was able to easily override the security lockdown on with a hardline connection through the Hoplon.

As the final gate opened, Joe and Red Hood stood ready, almost all they had expended, the Hoplon limping along, but two rounds remaining in Wolf's Bane…

With the ACPU having breached the building, with the severity of the damage they'd already done, with how they planned on capping this all off… there was a very real chance the Ark in general might not consider them heroes. That this would be seen as an unforgivable crime. This could well be their last stand, their final battle.

"Little Red-" Joe started warily with that nickname she was once so fond of.

"Shut up," the Nikke literally aglow with overwhelming power forcefully interjected, however. "Just shut up and do your job yourself, for once."

…As unpleasant as it was to have it hammered home that he and Red Hood simply weren't friends anymore, even despite all this… it was neither the time, nor place. With a pained sigh, he'd just have to hope that there would be another time.

All there was to do was keep focused, and end it.

The Central Government's most elite security had been waiting, braced and ready on the other side. Despite having Nikkes of their own among their ranks, they had never anticipated facing down a rogue Grimms model. It was violent, it was messy. Arms, some guns, some limbs, went flying, scattered all over the final bunker. The HQ still bathed in that fel red emergency lighting, Joe hardened his heart to the pleas of those who had directly informed him of their intent to slaughter those girls he cherished as if they weren't heroes, as if they weren't people. He ignored their cries, their furious bellows, their screams and curses as he, one-by-one, went down the line. Some a single shot, others a burst to account for their attempt to take cover behind something, but each perished as easily as any mere human could be expected to. Heart pounding like a wardrum, Joe did his wretched chore, his terrible duty.

Pressing on, counting down, Enikk reported that only five of the Central Government's fascist Councilmen remained. And thus, as Red Hood finished off the last of their guards, Joe turned to scan for those yet hiding-

At that moment, a terrible reminder was levelled Joe's way. That when pressed into a corner, when presented with no possible outs, even the most cowardly, most docile of beasts would be pushed to lash out in sheer, unthinking desperation, if nothing else. The Hoplon's autocannon had not been facing the Councilman that had hefted a rifle meant for Nikkes at the machine's centre of mass, and so he wasn't quick enough to bring it around before the trigger was pulled by an individual with none of the programmed inability to deliberately harm a human being.

A scream of steel sounded out, a hole punched through the Hoplon's damaged, worn-down armour. The bullet slowed, but not stopped. Joe's vision blurred at once, the mech stumbled back as the pilot's own nervous system momentarily went haywire from sensory overload. The machine crashed into a wall as Joe saw stars, felt intense, warm moisture rapidly wetting his waist and midsection, the breath shot from his lungs as his body locked up.

A scream fought to escape his maw, but it couldn't. All he could do was stare forward; blankly, even as the taste of iron rapidly filled his mouth. Everything became muted. Sounds, colours, sensations - even the horrific pain that had stunned him rapidly dulled and faded. Yet… still, for what felt like hours, or maybe only seconds, Joe lay in silence. Alarms blaring in his ears, the wet gurgling from his own lips going unheard.

He'd been shot with a Nikke-grade firearm.

Ah. That wasn't good. That was actually pretty bad. Or, really, really bad.

He hadn't thought to bring a medkit. Red Hood probably didn't have one either. Would a medkit even be enough for something like this? Those guns were meant to be used on Raptures. Joe hadn't looked at the wound. Couldn't seem to either. Couldn't really tell what was happening in general… could only kind of see out of one eye. Was his face pressed up against something-?

With a tearing crash, his vision suddenly cleared with a harsh snap as the cable connecting him to the machine popped free from his implant upon reaching the end of its length. Red Hood caught the man as he tumbled from the ripped open cockpit of the Hoplon, a torrent of blood spilling out and splashing on the ruined floor of the building as she did so.

Rapidly, he was reoriented, and, still staring forward blankly, barely registered that the Nikke was coated in a layer of gore she hadn't been before.

This sensation seemed vaguely familiar. He must have been in shock. Aware, barely, but not much else.

Red Hood… her wild, long hair had returned to its natural strawberry blonde hue. Her eyes that dull shade of crimson they held when her Exceed was inactive. She was cradling him, her lips moving, face contorted into… Pain? Agony? Regret? Some distant part of Joe's consciousness barely registered that she was begging something of him. But everything was… going away so quickly, the blur got worse, what little red light bathed their surroundings fading as he watched her, uncomprehending.

Red Hood, despite her cruel words for so long, drew him in tightly. She was hugging Joe, the faint sensation of moisture building on his face as she pressed her cheek into his, pleading with him. He couldn't tell what the pleas were supposed to be, though.

As everything slipped away, a single certainty remained with Joe: desperately, so terribly desperately… He did not wish to leave his girls alone. Regardless of how worthy he really was of their adoration at the end of it all, how truly worthy he was of standing amongst them… He still wished to keep standing with them. Supporting them. Being there for them… Yet here… he was leaving them behind. At the end of it all, he'd failed them.

And even more, he could see the blurred forms of more Hoplons approaching from among the wreckage they'd left in their wake. Here, and now, he'd left Red Hood to face the Ark's Central Police Unit, and likely even the regular Army, alone, unarmed.

Joe's bloodied lips parted as he uttered, a single, pained, partial sentence, so faint, so weak as even the red light went away, that it had almost gone unnoticed by the woman so desperately cradling him as they were advanced upon.

"...I'm… Sorry…"

Red Hood went as still as a statue, fingers entangled with her Commander's limp, clammy hand, clinging to him as if for dear life. She heard his last words.

"...My Goddess… of… Victory…"

And with that final, fleeting breath, in the wake of one last terrible, needlessly cruel mistake which could never be amended…

The last of the Red faded.

 

[BakaSmurf]

===
Chapter 37 - The Steep Path Ahead
===

The room was completely silent, Andersen, Mustang, and Ingrid all staring wordlessly at Joe even as he finished. The quiet was allowed to reign for a long few moments after that, but eventually, Andersen broke it.

"So, it was you, not Red Hood, that removed most of the Council from power back then…" the Deputy Chief Commander noted. "I… must admit, I wasn't expecting that."

In response, Joe just looked at the hand with which he'd pulled the trigger. To his recollection, it had been easier than he'd expected. But, he'd been given all the reason in the world on top of being hot-blooded. He knew that he was the sort that could and would act before his thoughts caught up to him under the right circumstances. And, in this case, it seemed that he'd never received the chance to be hit by the emotional whiplash of his actions in the first place.

Even now, he felt… disconnected from these memories, despite knowing they were his, that it was him that had done that. Lucky him, he supposed.

"...Considering Red Hood apparently immediately suffered her Mind Switch and went on a rampage right after I lost consciousness…" Joe started, looking up to meet Andersen's gaze. "Who was it that got me to 'stasis?' You or Mustang, I take it?"

"Non," Mustang denied the question. "You disparu into air raréfié."

Joe blinked and took a moment to process that assertion. "Wait… what?" he asked, looking between his two fellow men with deeply confused eyes.

It was Andersen that answered him. "Mustang was at the Sealing Day Celebration. While I was… recovering," the grizzled figure noted with some wariness. "As far as either of us knew, Joe, you literally disappeared that day. Frankly, I had assumed that your body had been incinerated and your ashes unceremoniously dumped into what would eventually become the Outer Rim. That way, what remained of the Council could take advantage of your legend, without the inconvenient truth of your actions getting in the way of their propaganda."

That… "But, who the hell put me in stasis then!?" Joe asked, openly confused.

"It goes without saying that it was Enikk that did it," Ingrid interjected from her seat, still as rigidly professional as she was before. "We don't know how, and we don't have actual confirmation from her directly, but we'd have to be idiots to think that she hadn't arranged for it in some capacity."

"Which is backed up by the fact that it was her that alerted me to your survival, that day you just…" Andersen lifted his hands, and made a 'poofing' motion with both. "Manifested in that hospital, in the very same condition you'd been in when Red Hood left you on the floor of that bunker, as though close to a century hadn't passed. I genuinely thought I was having a heart attack in a dream as I rushed to you… because to me, you'd been dead and gone for longer than most people get to live to begin with."

"We each had affligé you a long, long time ago," Mustang added to Andersen's point. "To us… you were a lointain souvenir, up until that moment when you simply… revenu."

After a moment of stunned silence, Joe replied, "...Enikk hadn't told either of you that I was alive this entire fucking time!?"

"Non."

"She did not."

What in the fuck.

"In fairness," Ingrid started up, "from what I'm gathering, Enikk considered keeping your survival a secret of paramount importance. The fewer people that know you were sealed away, waiting for the right time to be brought back, the less likely it was that you'd be found by someone who we wouldn't want finding you."

"That was my thought too," Andersen nodded his head in agreement with Ingrid's assessment. "While I don't appreciate that we were allowed to mourn you for nearly a century… I can't argue with the fact that Enikk might've made the right call, given that despite having been brought to the current Council's attention several times since you were pulled out of stasis… nobody in the Central Government today, aside from myself, recognizes you. You were gone long enough for your face and name to fade from the CG's collective consciousness, which is very much to our benefit."

"Okay… bullshit," Joe cut in, brow downturning as he openly glowered in disbelief. "Don't give me that bullshit about Central not recognizing me! Five survived Red Hood and I's attack! They wouldn't-"

"Three," Ingrid cut him off. "Three Councilmen survived your attack, Pholus. And only because they had actually been attending the Sealing Day Celebrations and so weren't even in the building when you and Red Hood kicked in the front door. And she tore the last two in the bunker who you hadn't killed yourself apart with her bare hands after you were shot."

"And the three that were left were disappeared in a quiet internal coup about three months after your attack anyways," Andersen noted. "At least… if I'm remembering correctly?"

"I crois they were gone au moins three months later," Mustang noted. "That was about the time I myself noticed that they'd been quietly remplacé and had disparu from all records. Ultimately, regardless, none who were directly responsible for the betrayal of Goddess survécu to the modern day, mon ami."

There was a long pause before Joe looked around, appearing as though he'd been slapped with a fish, and cried out, "Then what the fuck!?" he cast his arms out wide. "If they were all dead so soon afterwards anyways… Why is the Ark in the state it's in today!? Why does it seem like Red Hood and I just deadass failed!?"

Ingrid, Andersen, and Mustang all stared at Joe very quietly, each wearing some manner of dubious expression on their faces.

"Pholus," it was Ingrid that spoke up first. "From what I understand, at the time, the Central Government was gearing up to line the streets with what were basically their own personal Gestapo, backed with military hardware and mechanized armour. All subjects of the Government expected to project an air of unfettered patriotism lest they be declared 'enemies of the Ark' and made examples of."

"How many Hoplons have you seen in the des rues of the Ark, Joe?" Mustang inquired of the man. "How many men and women in service have you seen wearing those misérable loyalist uniforms since you awoke in the hospital?"

That…

…

Wait, holy shit, wait a minute, they were right! The Ark's cops… just looked like regular beat cops, boys in blue, occasionally wearing stab vests and carrying basic pistols on their hips! Not the police state blackshirt motherfuckers that he and Red Hood had to fight through to get to the Council back then! Hell, Joe hadn't even noticed anything, the ACPU's constables were so ordinary that it hadn't registered to him in the first place.

"You did not stop fascism from taking hold, Joe," Andersen began as well. "But you damn well stopped the absolute worst form of it from dooming mankind within a decade of the Ark's sealing."

At that, Joe recoiled as if struck.

"We've all had chances to speak directly with Enikk, Pholus," Ingrid said. "She will freely provide her ongoing estimates for mankind's long-term survival, and her historic estimates at that upon request from anyone with high enough clearance to hear them. At the time of your attack, had the Council not been decimated and replaced with far more moderate Councillors, Enikk gave the Ark a decade to survive, at the absolute most. The state of the Ark now may seem horrible to you, but this is, by all accounts, the best case scenario we could have hoped for given the circumstances."

That… that was dark. Holy shit.

"Furthermore," Andersen continued as he adjusted his cuffs. "While it disrupted the long-term plans Mustang and I were formulating, it did eventually open up new avenues that I must admit, have given us far more to work with than we'd have otherwise. Case-in-point: the fact that I am among the highest ranking members of the Ark's Armed Forces, with all the insight and influence that comes with that fact. And I barely had to change my identity to do so."

Joe blinked, only now registering that, yeah, Andersen, who had been the High Commander of Goddess during the Initial Rapture Invasion, had somehow slipped under the radar enough to become what was basically a General in the Central Government's Army. That… that was encouraging, if nothing else. Though… "What about your identity did you have to change?"

"My name, and how I presented myself, mostly," Andersen shrugged. "But even then…"

"Oh, this is going to bouleversé you, Joe!" Mustang cried out in delight.

At that, the displaced Canadian just gave a wary look of anticipation.

"My real name is John Andersen-" the Deputy Chief Commander began-

"-Oh you've got to be shitting me…!" Ingrid immediately looked downright furious as she buried her face in a single hand.

"-My name as a Deputy Chief Commander of the Central Government's Armed Forces, is Andersen Johnson."

There was a long pause in which Joe just silently stared at Andersen, during which Ingrid was audibly engaging in breathing exercises to keep her cool.

"...You're kidding, right?" Joe asked tonelessly.

"No," Andersen stated bluntly. "As a reminder, you have been serving using your real name, full-stop. The CG's campaign to erase and suppress as much information about Goddess as was possible after all that business with The New Hope did wonders to cause the current CG to forget what either of us look like, and even our names."

"The New Hope?" Joe asked, the term unsurprisingly catching his ear.

"'The Second Coming of The Legendary Commander,'" Ingrid answered. "He was a Commander that erupted into the Commander Corps, rocketed upwards, and actually managed to enact some reforms in the way the CC operated - yes, they were even worse than they are now back then - he attributed many of his tactics, ideas, and methodology to - well, you," the CEO said, still slumped back in her seat as she was. "He spearheaded the Second Surface Reclamation Campaign. He was ultimately tried for treason in the midst of this, executed, and in the aftermath, all information on Goddess, yourself included, was suppressed. Sometimes violently. Hence Andersen having been able to enlist unnoticed after that, and yourself to operate as an 'unknown' Commander in the modern day."

"You will likely be shocked to learn that, based upon the information I was able to unearth since I joined the Commander Corps myself," Andersen started, adjusting his tie as he did so. "He was framed, both to rid the Central Government of a very real threat to their power, and to scapegoat someone other than themselves for the campaign's utter failure."

"You're right, I am shocked," Joe declared utterly emotionlessly, face completely blank at this casual revelation of the CG's treachery.

"Regardless," Andersen continued. "At that point, the Central Government decided that it had become dangerous to allow information on Goddess - on us - to remain in open circulation, given how powerful and influential The New Hope had ultimately become before he was murdered, and how heavily he placed his achievements on having had access to records of you. Consequently… all of us, Goddess, were erased from public record, and over time, my theory is now that Enikk destroyed all internal information on us as well, given how the CG would have been moronic beyond belief to scrub that information themselves…"

"I don't know, given all that we know about the CG at this point…" Ingrid looked deeply unimpressed, not putting such idiocy past the Government at this point. Joe kind of agreed with her, personally.

After a few moments of silence, Joe noted how the conversation had started to lose focus, and at this point, they'd sort of gotten lost in the sauce, so to speak. As interested as he was in this guy that was apparently his 'Second Coming,' it would probably be best to focus on the here and now. "...Okay, but, all that aside… what's next? What's the plan for our next move?" the long-haired man asked, looking between everyone present.

"Currently?" Andersen allowed the topic to shift without issue. "We make contact with Snow White. We're closely monitoring reports from units stationed on the surface, long-term and otherwise. In retrospect, the 'White Pilgrim' whose appearance has been periodically reported on the surface is her - meaning that it's only a matter of time before someone spots and reports her. The moment we receive a report on her location, we'll be deploying Counters to track her down."

"And we do mean the moment," Ingrid interjected. "Consider yourself on call. Catching her means acting as soon as she's spotted, day or night. Understood?"

There was a beat before Joe reached up, making a halting motion at the two. "-Hold up. We just went over how Rapi might experience a Mind Switch if she's confronted with the truth of who she is-"

"That's a risk we have to take," Ingrid declared. "It's unfortunate, but we aren't deploying you without your most powerful subordinate, or worse yet, alone, just to minimize Counters' potential exposure to Goddess and this conspiracy. Frankly, I'm of the opinion that Rapi should have been here and brought up to speed at the same time as you, because if she doesn't learn of it here, she'll learn of it in the field, while likely being overwhelmed by her former squadmate. Which would be exponentially more risky than learning here in a controlled environment."

"...Ingrid has a point, ultimately," Andersen agreed, however warily. "I'm not sure about ambushing her as a group… but, regardless, I think we should leave this up to you, Joe. Talk to Rapi, try to ease her into the matter. Get it done before we have to deploy Counters in pursuit of Snow White. Understood?"

There was a beat before Joe responded, more than a little uncertain. "If we get sent out to track down Snow White… we're just… exposing Anis and Neon to all of this?" he inquired.

"Oui," Mustang nodded once, arms crossed melodramatically over his chest. "However, I might recommander that you let those two learn of this in the field. They will not undergo a Mind Switch for learning the truth of your circonstances - and I would not expect them to croire a word of the truth without the word of a member of Goddess backing it up. En plus, I don't think any of us wish to waste our time attempting to convaincre those two ahead of time, when he could simply confirm everything after the fact."

…Considering how bad she was about the danger they usually faced already, Anis was going to be fucking insufferable after this, Joe realised as he leaned on his knees and buried his face in his hands.

"Additionally, given the context of how you encountered Snow White initially," Ingrid piped up from her seat. "We're assuming that you will run into Chatterbox again. Given how cartoonishly ill-equipped both Counters and Wardress had turned out to be for that thing, I'm officially designating Counters as an Elysion Tyrant Breaker unit; meaning that your team will be qualified to use Elysion-produced heavy weaponry from now on. This'll also make it easier for Counters to be designated a Commando unit in time, but let's not get ahead of ourselves and keep focused. I'll forward you a catalogue after this - and to note: typical manufacturer restrictions won't apply to the squad from here on out. Anis and the Tetra Line Nikkes will be cleared to use Elysion equipment from now on as well."

"Oh thank fucking Christ!" Joe made no attempt to mask his overwhelming glee at that statement. "Logistical sanity! Logistical fucking sanity! Praise be to the Lord!" he cheered to the Heavens, arms stretched upwards.

"-Furthermore," Ingrid continued, smirking at Joe's rapturous glee. "Arrange to have the weapons currently issued to the MP's in Counters sent to Elysion: we'll rechamber and refit them to accept Elysion-produced ammunition and standard Elysion-spec magazines to further simplify your supply chains without necessitating the arduous process of retraining the MP's on a wildly different manual of arms compared to what they're used to. This extends to Anis' launcher. She and Rapi will be able to share grenades from now on, and to note: Rapi will be up-sizing, rather than down-sizing the explosives Anis has been using up to this point."

Joe could damn near fucking cry. He'd looked into the types of ammo Tetra Line firearms used - they were exclusively loaded with weirdo specialized Wildcat cartridges, 'Wildcat' denoting custom rounds that were expensive to produce compared to regular military-grade cartridges. They actually usually outperformed standard Elysion rounds for things like sniping on account of being hyper-specialized compared to the more general-purpose applications of Elysion loads… but they ranged from wasteful overkill to just being grossly misapplied for general usage, to say nothing of being significantly more expensive to produce.

It became nightmarish when one realized that they loaded standard Tetra Line automatics exclusively with Wildcat cartridges too.

If Counters was ever assigned permanent snipers, maybe even designated marksmen, he'd seek to exclusively equip them with high-powered Tetra Line Wildcat loads specifically because that'd overdrive their performance in their sharpshooting roles, with their per-shot application justifying the cost of issuing such rounds in the first place…

But Joe did not want to have to deal with Sunny's assault rifle hungrily demanding what he was pretty sure was some kind of psychotic necked-down developmental descendant of .50 Beowulf if he didn't have to.

"Furthermore, Counters will be issued Ultra rounds for this operation," Ingrid continued. "Think of them as Magnum loads for Elysion cartridges, intended specifically to be used on Tyrants. They'll work on standard Raptures too, but that would be wasteful overkill, as you might imagine. Especially given that they're on average even more expensive than Tetra Line's Wildcat loads. Expect them to even the odds against Chatterbox exponentially if you encounter it, at any rate."

"...You're really going all-out on this mission," Joe noted warily, almost feeling like he was experiencing suspicious pre-boss encounter generosity.

"We're aiming to recruit another Grimms Nikke with this," Ingrid declared matter-of-factually. "If you wind up losing literally every single piece of specialized equipment I assigned completing your ultimate objective, the price will have been worth the cost by several hundred magnitudes."

"We won't be able to bring Snow White 'home,' so to speak," Andersen started, shifting in his seat as he did so. "But, we'll be able to establish communication with her, plan with her, and provide her daily support she likely hasn't had on the surface for an entire century up to this point. In turn, we'll likely have to fight to convince her to not muscle her way in on every deployment Counters is sent on. Being able to call on her… will help. Exponentially. Especially given that she was the general engineer of Goddess. It was her that maintained herself and her fellow Grimms models throughout the Initial Rapture Invasion. Where the Central Government is a sad shadow of the UFH's R&D, Snow White just may be able to give Rapi the proper maintenance she's been denied since the Ark was sealed and allow her to safely utilize the Exceed system again."

"Or, au moins," Mustang interjected, "Our little Snowflake will be able to sand off the burrs little Rapi's edge has développée, if not return her to the former gloire of Red Hood in whole."

"...Yeah, holy shit, this is a pretty big deal," Joe cupped his bearded chin thoughtfully. "Okay, so… will I be bringing the MP's on this operation?"

"I'd advise against it, just now," Ingrid declared. "I'm sure Mustang would assert they can be trusted with anything-"

"Mes filles can be trusted!" Mustang interrupted in an offended protest.

"-But they've just met you," Ingrid ignored the golden CEO's complaint. "Rapi, Neon, and Anis geared for anti-Tyrant combat should be enough to at least deter Chatterbox, if you encounter it alongside Snow White at the same time. We'd love to deploy everything, up to and including Absolute to support you on this, but the less chances for security leaks, the better."

"On that matter, we aren't sure where Snow White will pop up," Andersen added with a nod of his head. "But according to most recent reports, estimates place her as moving in the direction of the Yukon. The Northern Base has been placed on alert to keep an eye out for any signs of 'The White Pilgrim,' but that's where she may wind up. Regardless, I'd advise that you requisition Arctic weather gear just in case, considering the extreme colds that occur up there these days. You grew up in the far North yourself, so I'd expect you to know better how to equip yourself for that than any other living human would these days."

Nodding, Joe paused at the mention of the Yukon. That… "...Hey," he started. "Where is the Ark located anyways?" he asked.

At that, Ingrid blinked owlishly. "You don't-?" the white-clad brunette started before catching herself and letting out a sigh. "Western Canada. Coastal British Columbia, not far from Vancouver."

…Joe had sincerely not expected to learn that they had been in Canada this entire time. If anything, he'd expected the United States. "I see," he nodded. "Okay, well, that'll be… weird, if we wind up deployed up there."

"A familiar environment will probably throw you for a bit of a loop, all things considered, yeah," Andersen nodded in understanding. "Don't let it get to you, though. You'll need to be at one-hundred percent if Chatterbox is nearby. And this is all assuming Snow White doesn't actually turn up in Washington, or that she'll leave B.C. in the first place. Just keep focused on the mission. Alright?"

Taking a deep breath, Joe nodded. "Got it, yeah," he nervously rubbed at the back of his neck. "Well… is there anything else to cover for now?"

"No," Andersen declared simply. "Beyond a suggestion from me, as someone that knew you well: go for a long walk around the Ark before you head back for the Outpost. Knowing you, you're compartmentalizing that memory of you and Red Hood to fixate on your job right now. You were always really good at that, up until you couldn't distract yourself anymore. Work off some of the tension you doubtlessly don't realize you've built up. Tire yourself out, then head back. Going for walks always did wonders for helping you clear your head."

…That was a really good point. "...Yeah, I'll do that," Joe acknowledged the suggestion with little aplomb. "Otherwise, we're done here?"

"I'll message you reminders of everything you should get done before you need to deploy," Ingrid declared. "I'm fairly sure we've covered everything that needs to be covered right now, that aside."

"In that case…" Mustang started as he rose to his feet, reached back, and slapped the massive tail-thing that might've been meant to evoke a bumblebee's rear, suddenly causing… Music to erupt from the man's presence. "I shall take mon congé and return to mes fonctions for the time being! It was magnifique to speak to you again, mon ami! Text me on blabla should ever you find something Tetra Line may help you with in vos efforts!" Prancing to the main door, Mustang bowed to the other three. "With the conclusion of our meeting, I bid you all, adieu!"

The hallway door opened, and just like that, the overwhelming presence of Mustang was gone. The door automatically closed and locked itself behind him, indicating that the office was still secure, as it were.

Joe honestly wasn't even shaken at this point.

After a moment, Ingrid spoke up again. "You go ahead, Pholus. I want to discuss a few things with Andersen while we have the time to spare."

Not finding any reason to protest, Joe rose to his feet, feeling his chronological age as he did so, and let out a heavy sigh once he was standing straight again. "I'll leave you to it, then," he declared, about-facing and moving for the hallway door himself.

"Take it easy, Joe," Andersen called out as he left, a degree of familiarity which… was apparently warranted from the man, all things considered. Joe just waved back in acknowledgement before he was out the door, standing in the spacious hallway.

He took a good minute to just breathe and re-centre himself. There was still a lot on his plate to address before readying to deploy once more, and bringing Rapi up to speed on… well, her identity counted among those things.

"If it's not one thing, it's another," the long-haired brunet mused with a bone-deep breath, ambling down the hallways he'd once rampaged through with his hands deposited into his pockets. "Such is life, on this bitch of an Earth…"

 

[Stove]

Ah shit, I'm like seven drawings behind on this version of the thread, whoops!

here, have some rapunzel as i reflect on my actions

 

[Stove]

look here buster, we've already met our quota for rude twintails around these parts!​

 

[Stove]

Remember: no raptures.

 

[BakaSmurf]

===
Chapter 38 - Dinner and a Show
===

After a time, Joe found himself seated on a picturesque park bench in the Ark. He had, in fact, tuckered himself out just wandering around instead of letting himself dwell upon the memory of what he and Red Hood had done. He was grateful for Andersen's advice, but by the same token, now he was tired and more than a little directionless.

So, there he sat for a long while, until…

"Hey, you," a familiar, girly voice broke Joe from his reprieve. Turning about, he caught sight of none other than…

"I thought you were never talking to me again," the Commander remarked the moment he recognized Privaty.

The twintailed tsundere, in response, audibly choked, flinching and glowering ruinously Joe's way as she drew her expensive-looking purse in close-

"Dang, just as cute out of uniform as you are in uniform, huh?" he observed as he took in the sight of the Princess of First Squad's outfit.

She wore a white hooded jacket worn over an all-black ensemble consisting of: a taut long-sleeved turtleneck undershirt adorned with a simple little silver or steel necklace decorated with a sapphire gem, a belted pencil skirt, transparent thigh-highs and still ridiculously high heels.

All capped off with a cute little cake pan-shaped white beret with black trimming and a dark ribbon dangling over her left ear.

At that, Privaty flinched again, her girlishly pretty face scrunching up and turning red as her glower redoubled. "W-why couldn't you have opened on that, you jerk!?" she cried out, seeming to curl in on herself as a small critter bracing for combat might. "And here I came over here because you were sitting there staring off into nothing like a big, sad sack of potatoes!"

Blinking once, Joe hadn't thought he'd been projecting any kind of negative emotions… then recalled that his resting bitch face either manifested when he was zoning out in nebulous anger, or some other manner of being apparently upset. He supposed it made sense that she might've assumed he was miserable about something—which, in fairness, he probably would be if not for Andersen's advice. But, beyond that… "You were concerned about me looking sad?"

Leaping back as her eyes and mouth went wide, Privaty looked downright cornered, gaze snapping to-and-fro as she seemed to be searching for some manner of escape. "I-I-" she stammered, clenching her teeth and presenting an adorable rictus of rage Joe's way. "L-like I'd be worried about you! And even if I was, s-so what!? You think I'm some kind of heartless psycho, is that it!?"

"I think you're a little sweetheart that saw some guy that was mean to her, but went out of her way to check on anyways, on account of that big, soft, squishy heart you've got there in that tiny little package," Joe noted, pointing nebulously towards Privaty's chest.

Staring over at Joe with wide eyes, initially a gaze of mortification which made way for a very, deeply forced attempt to stop herself from smiling as she blushed heavily at his assessment of her.

"...I-I'm not tiny, you jerk!" the tiny little twintailed bluenette asserted as she refused to look directly at him. "A-and you are mean to me! I went out of my way to come check on you because you seemed sad, and this is the thanks I get!?" her nose shot up in the air, humph'ing deeply at him even as she directly contracted her own previous assertion. Again.

"You…" she continued, "You have to make it up to me!" she demanded as she marched up to Joe, latching onto his wrist and hoisting him onto his feet with ease as she started dragging him along behind her. "Bring me to a nice restaurant as an apology! Heartless jerk!"

Joe wasn't entirely sure what he had been expecting out of a sudden Privaty encounter, but being dragged from his park seat to an impromptu restaurant outing wasn't it.

---

"Well?" Privaty started, looking more than a little smug from her spot directly across from Joe, "impressive, isn't it?"

The pair were seated at a fancy Korean barbecue place on the Royal Road, the Ark's premiere shopping district.

The smells were wonderful, the air thick with the sounds and scents of hot, well-seasoned food filled the establishment abuzz with activity. Joe didn't think he was particularly properly-dressed for the occasion, given that most were all gooned up like proper Corpos in 'nice' (overblown) suits, while he was wearing the jacket Marian had picked out for him, a plain t-shirt, black jeans, and black combat boots.

Privaty's outfit was, in contrast, far and away better suited given that her clothes at least looked expensive… Hell, it damn near looked like she'd just grabbed and dragged in some dude off the street-

Hey, wait a minute!

"Most people settle for Nutrium," Privaty continued as she held a strip of raw meat up between a pair of chopsticks, grinning in naked self-satisfaction as she did so. "But, unlike most places, this restaurant stocks real meat for people willing to pay a premium."

That actually managed to catch Joe's attention, looking up from his own plate of uncooked, and apparently real beef as he replied: "No shit? For real?" Where in the Hell would the Ark be keeping cattle for butchering? Wasn't living space at a horrifying premium in this underground cyberpunk shithole?

Smug grin becoming downright ruinous, Privaty dropped her strip onto the grill sitting in the middle of the table. The act producing a distinctive sizzle as fat melted within and sounded out with a series of pops. "It's not often that folks get to enjoy real beef in this day and age, you know. You better savour it!" the little bluenette pointed her chopsticks at Joe, who was critically examining his own cut of flesh.

It certainly looked like real meat. Though, if he were being entirely honest, he couldn't really tell the difference between the meat he'd had back home, and the 'Nutrium' he'd been given since waking in the Ark in the first place.

Generally, the Ark seemed to have mastered the art of producing artificial food in general, given that even him, a man effectively from before the Rapture Invasion, couldn't detect a meaningful difference in taste or texture.

At any rate, Joe followed Privaty's example, only somewhat put off by the fact that he was used to working with whole-ass steaks and the like, and also didn't know how to use chopsticks properly. He didn't tend to grill tiny little thin strips like these. He wasn't sure he was going to be able to get these medium rare as he liked his beef, cooking it like this for the first time-

"Hey!" Privaty cried out in sudden, entirely inexplicable offence. "What the Hell!?"

Joe blankly stared at the little counter-terrorist tsundere as he awkwardly crabbed his chopsticks together, replying, "...What?" Given that all's he did was plop a strip of meat down on the grill-

"Why the Hell are you putting your beef so far away from mine!?" the white-and-black clad young woman demanded, combatively pointing at Joe's strip with her chopsticks, set on the other side of the grill. "What, you're too good to share the same side of the grill with me after I brought you here to this nice place to cheer you up and everything!?"

At that, Joe just owlishly stared at Privaty. He genuinely didn't know how to respond to that. Nor when she forcefully grabbed her own cooking strip of meat, and moved to crowd it up next to Joe's with a little resentful glower.

"...Ah," the burly man started with an amused chuckle. "I see. You're lonely, then?"

Recoiling in her seat as though struck, Privaty looked downright scandalized. "A-as if!" she protested heavily. "Like I'd be lonely! And if I was, like I'd go scrambling to you to fix that!" She reached out, setting a chopstick onto her strip of meat as if to move it away from his—though she didn't, just sitting there, grimacing at the beef.

After a few moments, Joe decided to bully Privaty just a bit. Reaching out with one of his own chopsticks and poking his own sizzling strip of meat, beginning to pull it away from Privaty's. Only for her to lash out and grab his eating implement with her own, a rictus of anger worn as she growled at Joe for the attempt to create distance between their cooking meat pieces.

Man. What an indecisive nerd.

"I can see you're hell-bent on keeping us together…" Joe smugly remarked.

"A-as if!" Privaty cried in response, firmly denying the assertion even as a blush rapidly found purchase on her soft features. "I-I'm just trying to stop you from embarrassing me by playing with your food! Are you trying to mess up your expensive meat too!? You need to let it sit and cook or it'll come out ruined, you idiot!" she declared forcefully, clenching her teeth together even as her brow knitted in annoyance.

"That's why you shifted your piece to sit next to mine, right?" Joe pressed, the breadth of his smile visibly agitating Privaty all the while. He withdrew his chopstick so he could attempt to spear his strip again from a different direction.

"That part of the grill just happens to be the most ideal for cooking!" Privaty protested as she nimbly caught, parried, and riposted Joe's implement, warding him away from the cooking strips of flesh. "Don't read any weird stuff into it, you freakjob!"

"Didn't you just say that you were mad at me for not grilling my meat next to yours, though?" Joe innocently inquired, smile redoubling with every self-inflicted contradiction that spilled out of Privaty's mouth.

"B-because you weren't cooking it properly!" the little golden-eyed nerd protested, audibly failing to even convince herself. "Just prepare your food properly, idiot! You're going to burn it!"

"No I'm not-" Joe started, grinning like a massive dumbass, only to cut himself off with a hurking noise, spearing his strip of flesh and withdrawing it from the grill with a rapid desperation.

"Hey, you-!" Privaty started to complain, only to look to her own cooking strip, and react much the same way, all but tearing it from the grill and forlornly gazing upon the consequences of the two's idiocy. Both of their pieces of incredibly expensive, genuine post-apocalyptic beef, not just well-done all the way through to shoe leather, but partially blackened too.

The two just sat in silence for a few long moments, silently praying that nobody was looking at and judging them for their foolishness.

"This is your fault!" Privaty asserted, jabbing the chopstick with a piece of burned flesh still speared on the end of it out at Joe for emphasis. "Idiot!"

"My fault!?" Joe protested, leaning back in offence. "I beg your pardon, who was it that started complaining about a literal nothing burger and got the idiot ball rolling?"

"You did when you treated me like a leper by refusing to share the same side of the grill with me, you jerk!" Privaty asserted forcefully, leaning over the table and grimacing openly at her dinner partner.

To that, Joe just threw his arms up, declaring with an exaggerated roll of his eyes: "Well, excuuuuuuse me, Little Potato Whisperer!"

"Po- what the Hell did you just call me!?" Needless to say, Privaty was only that much more aggravated by his response. "What the Hell is 'Potato Whisperer' supposed to mean!?"

"Ain't you the one that called me a 'potato' back in that park?" Joe asked, shrugging as he wore a frustratingly smug grin. "Then, here you are, trying to whisper sweet nothings into a potato's ear to get it all buttered up and cooperative. Ergo: Little Potato Whisperer."

"Oh, you," Privaty stood up, stooping over the table and growling at Joe outright. "Oooohhhh youuuu...!"

Privaty was way too easy to poke.

---

"Never again!" Privaty cried out as the pair parted ways. "This is the last time I ever interact with you! You massive, selfish jerk!" With a hard 'humph,' the little twin-tailed beauty's nose shot up into the air, and she strutted off into the bustling crowds of the Royal Road without missing a beat or turning back to look at him.

Which at least made it easy for Joe to watch her go. He had to admit that he liked doing that. Depositing his hands into his pockets, he shifted about and started back down the opposite way, following the street back to the elevator leading to the Outpost.

Luckily, neither he nor Privaty were quite idiotic enough to mess up the rest of the raw meat (and the assorted side dishes) they'd been provided to grill themselves—though, Joe had to admit, he couldn't tell the difference between real beef and simulated Nutrium beef—and thus they'd enjoyed a mostly normal meal together, which even got a little nicer after he let up on the teasing and showered her in some praise.

Otherwise, Privaty was a sucker for compliments, as it turned out. Not that she'd let it get in the way of her getting the last word in on an interaction, though. It was clear to see that she wanted to 'win' any given discussion, despite not quite being built for that at the best of times.

To say nothing of-

Phone buzzing in his pocket, Joe whipped it out to find a new message from-

[YOU DIDN'T EVEN PAY FOR THE MEAL LIKE YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO, YOU JERK!] Privaty all-caps'd at him, which caused Joe to pause as he recalled that, indeed, she had demanded that he 'make it up to her' by bringing her somewhere nice, only for her to drag him somewhere nice, and pay for the entire meal herself before they left and he had the chance to remember that detail.

[NOW YOU'RE OBLIGATED TO TREAT ME TO ANOTHER DINNER TO MAKE UP FOR IT, YOU HEAR ME!?]

Pausing, Joe's brow furrowed as he processed that declaration. She hadn't calculated that to have an excuse to demand another outing together out of him, had she?

Another buzz… [And you'd better not misinterpret these as dates or anything, you hear me!? As if I'd be interested in someone as mean and rude as you! I'm just making you make up your jerkness to me!]

Wait, was that a date!? Had he just gone on a date with a shortstack, twintailed tsundere with negative defences against bullying? Nah, Hell no, ain't no way that's what just happened.

[So don't get the wrong idea or anything! I'm just not letting you get away with being mean to me! Got it!?]

…Ain't no way…

Joe opted to respond to Privaty rather than leave her on read, which would likely send her into a tizzy. [I'm sorry for messing up like that. I honestly forgot because of how nice of an experience the whole thing was. Actually completely forgot about all the other stuff I have going on for a bit there. Thanks, Privaty. I'll try to do better next time, and I hope you have a nice night.]

There. Honest and to the point, given that she had actually gotten his mind off of recent developments, which really was deeply appreciated, all things considered-

[Cut it out, it wasn't that big of a deal…] Privaty suddenly lost her edge and came across as a bit more reticent and soft following Joe's last message. [Just keep your mind off of things, okay? I know how hard it can get when you see a lot of combat in your job. It's bad to let yourself get all absorbed in it, or next thing you know you'll get one of your squadmates shaking you out of a stupor in a park five hours after you were supposed to be back, and they'll be all mad at you for it.]

Ah, that wasn't an unfair assumption to make, given that he was a Commander, actually. Man, Privaty was a lot sweeter than she tried to present herself as being, wasn't she? [Alright, thanks Privaty. I'll let you go for the day now, since I'm sure we've both got lots to do.]

After a few moments, Privaty responded with a farewell of her own. [Okay. Take it easy, Joe. I'm looking forward to next time.]

With that, no more messages were exchanged, and Joe was allowed to make his way back to the Outpost from the Ark in relative quiet.

---

"CACHU! GWERINWR CI! WY PWDR! GWRTHRYFELGAR MERCH FACH!"

Joe was greeted by his return to the Outpost by, of all fucking things, the sight of Liter screaming at the top of her lungs in what he was pretty fucking sure was Welsh of all things, and countering her was-

"GOOKITY-BOOKIE GOOBLEDY-GOO!" Anis shouted back, screaming actual nonsense in just about the most wretched, demonic combination of a Scottish, Irish, Cockney, and Australian accent Joe ever had heard. "I CAN MAKE UP WORDS TOO, YOU LITTLE HERGEN DERGEN MERGIN FLERGEN!"

The pair were circling each other at top speed around the lounge couch, the yellow-clad little foreman screaming in what Joe was dumbstruck wasn't a dead language by now.

Anis was stripped down to just her tanktop and short shorts in what would have been a lovely sight, if not for the particular circumstances surrounding the revealing attire. Notably, the recreational room was something of a mess—with various articles of Anis' typical clothing randomly strewn about the room alongside an assortment of empty MRE packages and soda cans.

"MOCHYN AFLAN!" Litre cursed again, seemingly entirely blind to the presence of the Outpost's Commander watching the entire, onerous tableau playing out before him like some sort of Looney Tunes skit.

Even better, the other members of Counters, new MP's included, were on the other side of the room, standing in the hallway portal leading to the kitchen. Everyone was transfixed by the absurdness playing out in front of them, and it was all Joe could do to just reach up to pinch his nose, and sigh as it figured that, yeah, something would have to come up after such a lovely outing with Privaty, wouldn't it?

No rest for the wicked for the Commander of Counters, as it ever was.

 

[BakaSmurf]

===
Chapter 39 - Peel the Bandage
===

Anis was furious when Joe laid down the law and firmly declared that she would clean up after herself as she made a mess, or she'd clean the entire damned building herself at the end of the week. However, Joe had seniority over her, and wasn't afraid to pull rank the moment someone started up on their bullshit. Joe wasn't going to be living like no pig - doubly so when Liter pressed the issue and everyone found out at the same time that there were no cleaning supplies in the building.

To say that Joe was unamused would be an understatement. Liter appreciated it when the base Commander immediately put in a request to actually get supplies on hand. Given that he didn't want to badger Ingrid with something so small on top of everything else he bugged her about, and the fact that Mustang had just told Joe to call him for help about stuff too… Well, Mustang was eager to accommodate, and thus assured him that what he'd need would be there in short order.

So, given how everything seemed to be working out, after relaying that everyone would be sending their equipment to Elysion to be retrofitted for logistical sanity, Joe retreated to his office to go through the catalogue of military equipment for the upcoming operation.

No points for guessing how Anis reacted to learning that Counters had been named an Elysion Tyrant Breaker squad.

With the suggestion that they might need Arctic warfare gear, Joe looked into what was available - and was somewhat put-off by the lack of wool insulation. Everything was artificially insulated, which, admittedly, made sense. The Ark probably didn't keep sheep on hand for shearing. So, Joe had to assume that everything he could get would be of sub-par quality compared to what he'd have gone with back in the day, having grown up in the region.

Then he found out about the Coldsuits. Form-fitting, specially tailored extreme conditions bodysuits meant to tightly hug the wearer's body to accommodate overwear, and incorporating highly advanced artificial insulation and powered warming tech alongside body waste recycling systems. These were rated for down to negative forty-degrees Celsius/Fahrenheit entirely on their own - to say nothing of the fact that they were meant to be worn under regular insulating layers at that.

In other words: Joe's greatest dream as a far northern country boy come true. Buying one of these for Rapi, Anis, and Neon each along with one for himself would make them exponentially more survivable in such conditions for extended periods of time. Not just soldiers, but search and rescue officers, explorers, Hell, just survivalists would have given their firstborns for form-fitting insulating undersuits like these. He'd obviously double up with traditional insulated winter wear instead of trying to Solid Snake his way through the Arctic with his cleanly-defined cheeks clapping majestically out in the wind, but holy shit.

Coldsuits were expensive, but checking their current funds and expenses: they could afford the four they'd need to outfit Rapi, Anis, and Neon as well as himself. If they had to pay for their own weapons and ammo, it might be a different story, but Ingrid was taking care of them in that regard. Thus, they'd be having those. Luckily, as the girl's measurements were already known, alongside Joe's - it wasn't like his actual Officer's uniform was off the rack - he just had to put in the orders, and forward offers to the girls to have them customized if they wanted such ahead of time, given that Elysion allowed for that via cooperation with Tetra Line.

So, if they wound up deployed to the Arctic, they'd be just fucking fine.

Once all that was done, Joe was left feeling surprisingly good about whatever operation might come next. They'd be equipped for Chatterbox if they ran into it, they'd be dressed to shrug off Arctic environmental conditions if current predictions for Snow White's apparent path towards the Yukon stayed true…

With that all done, Joe sent in an inquiry regarding vehicles. ATV's or Snowmobiles would go a long way towards getting around an Arctic environment easily. Or even better, a Snowcat - but that'd be a possibility to cover presumably another day.

Thus, the Commander of the Outpost was left considering other things… namely, the fact that he needed to bring Rapi up to speed on the whole 'Red Hood' thing.

That… wasn't going to be fun. And he wasn't even sure how exactly to begin to cover it. As Ingrid said, the sooner they started, the better, given that they could be deployed at a moment's notice, and they didn't want Rapi being confronted with the Goddess stuff by Snow White out in the field. But, man…

Sitting in silence for a time, eventually, Joe just let out a heavy sigh. It'd probably be best to just… get her into his office, and figure it out.

So, he called Rapi in. Feeling no small amount of pressure build up in the back of his head, he stood up and paced about a bit before she arrived.

"Commander," Rapi's voice alerted him to her arrival, not having noticed the door automatically slide open as she stepped in. "We need to talk?" she began.

After taking a breath to centre himself, Joe strode over to the paired couches set directly across from each other, and motioned for Rapi to take a seat. She did so, keeping a stern expression all the while, continuing to stare at him expectantly.

"...This is about the… Pilgrim, we encountered during the Chatterbox incident," Joe started, doing his best to feel out the direction the conversation should go in. "It-"

Rapi's expression became resigned. She averted her gaze, lightly sighing through her nostrils. "...Commander," she started, only to visibly hesitate and halt. "...I knew that this topic wasn't one I could avoid for long. But I still don't know how to even begin addressing it…" Grimacing, the tiny woman continued. "She recognized both of us. She went berserk when Chatterbox threatened both of us. As much as I didn't want to have to address this… I don't remember her, Commander. And I don't remember you either."

Blinking owlishly, Joe recalled at once… that, yeah, he'd tried to talk to her about this already, and she deflected, just ignored the part where Snow White had recognized him as well. That, in fairness, brought up a whole load of bizarre questions that he wouldn't have been able to even begin to sort out without the knowledge provided by the other members of the conspiracy. How would she have even started to figure that out?

"...Do we need to talk about this, Commander?" Rapi asked, very clearly uncomfortable with the topic of discussion.

As much as Joe would like to not have to push the matter… "Our next slated operation is to track down and make contact with the Pilgrim: Snow White," he noted with some degree of remorse. "We're on call, in fact. We're deploying the very moment she's been spotted and we know where she is."

The way Rapi suddenly looked as though she was bearing a boulder upon her shoulders made him feel all the worse, but… "...Okay," she just weakly acknowledged the statement. "Then… go on. Rip off the bandage."

Taking in the sight of the ruby-eyed little Goddess, Joe sighed and shook his head. "The point of addressing this is to minimize the risk of you experiencing a Mind Switch," he noted. "So, no. It would be best to pick at this as gradually as we can afford to, rather than… throwing a metaphorical hatchet at your head without warning."

The tension in the room could be cut with a knife. Rapi's discomfort was plain to see, and he didn't like putting her through this, but this was ultimately necessary.

"Then…" Rapi all but breathed out her reply. "Where do we start?"

After a moment of consideration, Joe replied. "Ask me questions. Whatever comes to mind, whatever you think won't be too much all at once."

The silence that followed was palpable. Rapi wouldn't look directly at Joe, fidgeting about where she was seated, mind going a mile a minute. "...How do you know me?" she started. "Or, rather… how did we know each other?"

"I was your Commander," Joe answered matter-of-factually, just answering the question on the face of it rather than getting lost in the weeds that she wasn't asking about.

That visibly confused Rapi, to say the least. "...But, that doesn't…" she trailed off, looking at Joe like he was crazy. She stared for a few long moments before speaking up again. "...Do you have proof?" She asked bluntly.

To that, Joe responded by nodding. "I have old physical photos from back then," he answered. "Photos of us, and our old squad, including Snow White."

That caught the black-clad Nikke off-guard, eyes going wide as she lightly recoiled at the reciprocal bluntness of his statement. "...From… when," her voice became somewhat shaky. "From when I was Red Hood?"

Joe nodded. Just answer what was asked, don't get lost in the sauce.

"...Would you let me see them?" She inquired.

"If you think that would be a good idea," Joe stated simply.

Hands balling into fists, Rapi was visibly conflicted, eyes narrowing as she considered Joe's words. "...I want proof," she demanded. "I want to see hard proof before I put any stock into what you're saying. I want to see these photos you claim to have."

Well, if she wanted to see them… rising to his feet, Joe moved for the hidden safe Andersen had pointed out to him previously. It was exposed, visibly catching Rapi by surprise, and quickly enough, he had the photos that had been left in his possession in hand. He shuffled through them, and… flipped all those that featured anyone other than himself, Red Hood, and Snow White around. Returning to the couches, he stood before Rapi for a moment before declaring: "There's a lot fucking more than just you and me in the photos I turned around," he declared as he presented the first face-up picture to her; the one featuring Red Hood draped over his shoulders and trying to steal his food from him. "I'd advise not looking at the rest just yet."

Rapi froze at the sight. Hand partially outstretched, her lips parted and eyes wide. At once, she very clearly recognized herself. Gingerly taking the bundle of Polaroids, she just stared at the first quietly.

After a few moments, Joe returned to his seat across from Rapi, and waited, giving her as much time as she needed.

And take her time Rapi did. She just took in the sight of… Red Hood; herself. Unquestionably herself, with Joe. It was a good few minutes before she progressed onto the next picture, letting out a small, shuddering breath of acknowledgement. "Ah… I see… that's… her, then." The picture of Red Hood holding a little Snow White in a headlock. Joe knew because he'd deliberately arranged the face-up pictures as he had. "It's… it's real. This is real…" her voice hitched, remaining fixated on the photos. "You… you're…"

Silence. Joe would just let her work through this as gradually as she needed to. Simple as.

"...So…" she started hesitantly. "You know… about, how I can…?" She asked as she looked over the photos at Joe.

"The Exceed system?" Joe figured, given how her literally glowing red hair and golden eyes kind of stood out back then. "Yes."

Rapi looked overwhelmed, but not ruinously so. Taking a deep breath, she continued. "...When?" she inquired. "When were you my Commander?"

"That's more of a loaded question than you probably think it is," Joe answered plainly.

"...Please," Rapi spoke up again, almost pleading. "Just… Please, answer me."

The tone of voice she took on was… damned heartbreaking. She wanted answers, and was clearly not above begging for them. Joe didn't want to make Rapi beg, and so, with a heavy sigh… "I don't want to rip off the bandage, because that's what answering that question accurately would amount to, but… if you're sure, I'll tell you."

"Please," Rapi reiterated her plea, making Joe feel all the worse.

Fuck.

"...During the Initial Rapture Invasion," Joe answered grimly. "I was your Commander during the Initial Rapture Invasion."

Rapi went completely still, staring at Joe in blank uncomprehending silence. She looked at the photos again, almost turned the bundle over to look at those Joe had deliberately reversed so she wouldn't be exposed to too much at once… "That… was a century ago," she noted dryly. "You expect me to believe-"

"I've been in stasis," Joe noted bluntly. "It's why there was no information on me that held up to scrutiny when I was sent out to take command of yourself and Anis. I'd just been pulled out of cryo, and didn't have a complete backstory concocted for me yet."

Rapi's eyes flitted about momentarily, her mind going a mile a minute. "You… aren't a Commander Corps graduate, are you?"

"Never even set foot in the building," Joe replied with a small shrug.

"...That explains a lot," Rapi admitted, her expression growing increasingly unreadable. "I actually believe that. You're too competent to be a Commander Corps officer…"

Joe couldn't help but let out a small snort, which he immediately attempted to suppress as he placed a hand over his mouth to mask his grin.

Rapi made no such attempt, clearly finding some measure of satisfaction in his reaction to her assessment. Joe was grateful for that small moment of levity. He didn't enjoy seeing Rapi so intense, and her smiles, however small, however rare, were wonderful.

However, the moment had to pass, and the little Goddess of Victory looked to Joe again, expression falling again. "...If we were there, during the IRI… Who are we?" She inquired. "Who am I, to be so important that instead of being decommissioned when I… did what I did, I was told to continue to serve in atonement," she alluded to the attack on the Central Government HQ, which she didn't have the whole picture of, "Who are you, a Commander that served during the initial invasion, to be sealed away for nearly a century afterwards… and for us to be reunited as a permanent squad that defies Nikke and Commander norms? Continuously given such ruinously dangerous missions, to be put under the direct command of Elysion's CEO, to be shown such blatant favouritism even from Tetra Line's CEO?"

Well… he supposed it was time to finish peeling off that particular bandage… "You're Red Hood, a Grimms model Nikke of Goddess Squad, one of the most powerful ever created, one of the Goddesses of Victory that held the line against the Rapture invasion, and gave mankind the opportunity it needed to create and seal the Ark in its darkest hour."

Rapi didn't overtly respond to that declaration, just staring blankly at Joe in response.

Lightly sighing, Joe figured he should just get the bandage off already. "And I'm-"

"The Legendary Commander," Rapi said, no small amount of awe present in her voice. "You're… and I'm…" her voice trailed off. Evidently, Joe being the Legendary Commander said everything that needed to be said in of itself. "Then, the Pilgrim, Snow White, is a member of Goddess too…" She deduced, looking at the picture of her roughhousing little Snow White. "...I suppose that Ingrid and Mustang both know, then?" she asked.

"Them, and Andersen," Joe declared. "They've all been pulling the strings behind the scenes to support us as best they can, without outing our identities to the Ark, and especially the Central Government, at large."

Rapi stared at the photo for a few long moments before speaking up again. "...Why is it being kept a secret?" she asked. "Why… Why are they hiding who we are from the Central Government?"

Shit, would revealing that much be too much just now? Joe figured that he should push that particular bit of information back over potentially explosively overwhelming Rapi. "It would be bad if they found out who we were," he declared. "For now… I think it'd be best if we left elaboration on that matter for another day."

"...I understand," Rapi acknowledged the suggestion and didn't press the issue. "...Wait, if you're the Legendary Commander, then, you founded the Commander Corps-"

Joe just scoffed derisively at that assertion. "No I did not," he firmly declared. "And every moment those worthless curs gallivant about, declaring themselves to follow in our footsteps fills me with intense shame and disgust." The man made no attempt to mask his disdain for the Commander Corps. Every single thing he'd seen of them was horrible, and he hated the entire organization more and more with each passing day.

There was a long, pregnant pause, Rapi stared at Joe wordlessly again… before she looked aside into the void out of the corner of her eyes, a wonderful, vindictive little smile finding purchase on her features. "I see," was all she said, despite being very visibly pleased by his declaration. "That's good to know."

Unsurprisingly, Rapi seemed to have little to no respect for the Commander Corps of the Central Government. Hearing that damning declaration from the Legendary Commander himself was very likely just about the most vindicating thing she'd ever heard in her life.

After a few moments in which Rapi just exalted in that particular revelation, she took a deep breath, letting out a heavy sigh through her nostrils. "Commander… can we leave this topic as it is, for now? I… this is a lot to think about, just as it is."

"Yeah, we can put off the rest for another day," Joe declared as he rose to his feet. "We just… didn't want you to have to wrestle with all of this out in the field. We don't expect Snow White to be chill about being reunited with us, and all."

"I understand, and thank you, Commander. I understand that this is all confidential and not to be discussed between anyone but us two," the little strawberry blonde breathed, rising to her feet as she continued to stare at the pictures of herself, Joe, and Snow White from a century prior. She just remained like that for a long while, not saying anything.

Joe had been transfixed by all of the photos himself the night he'd received them, so he didn't move to rush her or anything. It was pretty damned overwhelming to consider-

"It's not fair," she quietly, forlornly noted, brows furrowed, eyes lidded, and her voice becoming so terribly small.

Shit, was it all hitting her at once? Was Rapi just barely compartmentalizing everything up to this moment, only to have the dam break at the end? Worriedly, Joe took a step towards her, ready to reach out and pull her into a comforting hug-

"Why do you get to know what so much of my body looks like, when I've never even gotten to see you so much as shirtless?" the stern-faced little Nikke asked, completely straight-faced and even-toned.

There was a very long pause as Joe's eyes went wide, he struggled to process what he'd just heard, and at once, got hit with a torrent of distant, fuzzy memories, or rather, impressions, of Red Hood… being aggressive.

Joe.exe stopped working, and he just stared blankly at Rapi, who continued to stare at the picture of herself from so many years prior, proudly standing as tall as her diminutive form would allow in a very revealing outfit. Rapi… Rapi was straight-laced to a fault. Red Hood was kind of a rabble-rousing idiot according to Andersen and Mustang, but her Mind Switch had completely changed her personality, killing and burying her previous explosive personality dead…

…Right? Was...

Was Red Hood still in there?

Suddenly, gently setting the pictures down on the couch she'd been sitting on, Rapi faced Joe and gave him an acknowledging nod. "I understand that this topic couldn't have been easy to broach. Thank you for trying to be considerate of me during it, Commander. For now, I'd like to be left alone for the rest of the day unless my presence is strictly necessary. You've… Given me a lot to think about, and I'd appreciate being allowed to do so in peace."

Saluting once, she then followed up with another declaration.

"I'll be ready for more tomorrow, Commander. I promise I won't let you down."

With that, she about-faced and left the room, departing with no aplomb and leaving Joe all by his lonesome to just…

"Ayo, what the fuck!?" The displaced Canuck cried out to his empty room in reply to Rapi's blatantly horny complaint.

 

[BakaSmurf]

===
Chapter 40 - The Next Step
===

"RED HOOD!" The sliding door leading into the empowered gadfly of a troublemaker's personal quarters aboard the Avenger was manually wrenched open, a snow-white ball of fury using the might granted to her by her full-body cybernetic conversion allowing the youngest of Goddess to force her way into her senior's cave. "RED HOOD, SHOW YOURSELF!"

The young teenager whose voice was normally so soft and almost diminutive forcefully demanded as the door was slammed all the way open into its hidden recess. Snow White stomped into the pig's sty of a room, brandishing a massive, rectangular metal box with a furious shake.

"You get out here right now and you explain to me in no uncertain terms why I found a syrup-covered pancake in one of Wolf's Bane's magazines performing basic maintenance on everyone's weapons!"

Her demand was answered with silence. Though the lights were on, it seemed that no one was home. Normally, this would be more than enough evidence to demonstrate that the room's occupant was very present. However, Red Hood was something of an airhead at the best of times - it was wholly believable that she'd simply forgotten to flip the light switch on her way out that morning, as she was bumbling most days as it was.

Not that this did anything to mollify Snow White, who noisily barged her way into the middle of the messy room, kicking empty fast food containers Red Hood continuously had ordered to the helicarrier, and other kinds of trash out of her way as she marched in; teeth gritted together and a heavy growl emanating from her pale throat. "I'm not going anywhere until you show yourself!"

Still, the room answered her with little but silence beyond the low drone of electricity that pervaded the entire aircraft. Standing there for a time, Snow White glanced around, taking in the mess of random blankets and pillows piled upon Red Hood's bed, indicative of her tendency to more 'nest' like a dog that piled soft things up to lay atop than anything else when it came time to rest.

Then, Snow White's gaze drifted to Red Hood's desk, whereupon sat a mess of random comics, manga, and electronics - especially old portable gaming consoles - all alongside her signature red leather jacket crumpled up in a visually unappealing heap. After about a minute, the little Nikke let out a low, rumbling growl. Allowing her arms to fall limply to her sides, her eyes narrowed and she considered the situation, such as it was.

"...Knowing you…" she pondered aloud. "You're probably off bothering the Commander as we speak, aren't you…" pulling out her tablet, Snow White checked the time. "...Oh, you're probably trying to beat Cinderella to sneaking into his bed right now, aren't you!" she declared as she spun about and began marching off back into and down the hallway. "First you make a mess of Wolf's Bane like a total freak-o slob, then you rush off to perv on poor Joe when he's just trying to sleep! Perverted old women, the both of you! Leave the Commander alone! He has a hard enough time getting enough sleep as it is without you two harassing him every other day too-!"

Snow White's voice gradually trailed off as she stomped off, leaving the area in genuine silence - or as silent as a flying aircraft carrier careening through the skies above Earth could be.

A few minutes later, the large, sticker-laden locker set next to the bed creaked open, and Red Hood peeked through the crack, her crimson eye filled with worry. With a relieved sigh, she pushed the locker door all the way open, taking hold of one end of her long, well-worn billowing red scarf to wipe at her brow.

"Whew, almost thought she had me for a minute there…" the blonde remarked as her hair and eyes began to shift in tone, literally becoming aglow with power as her locks became incandescent red and her eyes shining gold. "Man, I'm a genius though, turning off the Exceed so she wouldn't see me shining through the locker! Lilith's big brain must be rubbing off on me! Haha!"

Grimacing, Red Hood thought of the pancake that had enraged little Snow White so. "And so what if I was keeping a pancake in a spare mag - it's not like I was using it for anything else, and it's the perfect size for it too! I bet the only thing that'd fit in them better would be like, a slice of French Toast-! Hey! That's actually a good idea! I'll have to try that next!" Though a wide, toothy grin momentarily found purchase upon her face, she pushed the thought aside.

Red Hood paused, brow furrowing as she considered Snow White's words, still standing inside the locker with the door wide open before her. "But… dang, I should have gone to see Handsome! Cinderella's gonna get a leg up over me at this rate- oh wait, but if Snow White's gonna barge in on them… Ha! Even when I'm not trying, I win! Better luck next time, Daddy's Girl! Score-!" Finally stepping out of the locker, she heard, and felt, a light 'squish' as her heeled foot came down on the floor, and glancing down, she'd noticed that she'd stepped on a box. "-Huh? An old pizza box? What's in it though-?"

Eyes going wide, Red Hood stepped off the box, squatted down, and flipped the top open, revealing…

"Score!" the black-and-red clad Nikke joyously cried as she took in the sight of the cold floor pizza, a handful of lingering slices, one of which had a hard imprint where Red Hood's heeled foot had come down upon it. Greedily, she grabbed a slice and hungrily dug into it, loudly chowing down upon the pie whose solidified cheese audibly squeaked against her teeth as she bit into it.

The sight of the diminutive little Nikke squatting in the middle of her sty of a room was not entirely unlike that of a certain ring-obsessed Halfling messily tearing into a raw coney that would be much better served in a stew alongside hot taters - or, to paint an even more harrowing image, that of Saturn Devouring His Son. Despite the woman herself being the very definition of comely - trim, shapely and at the peak of physical fitness while still maintaining a soft, supple amount of give to her pridefully-exposed fair flesh - one would be hard-pressed to describe the sight as anything less than 'horrific.'

"Mmm…" Red Hood mused past a mouthful of cold floor pizza, "Wonder if'n I'should save a slice for Handsome…" she pondered the notion of romantically sharing a pair of cold slices with the Commander-

---

Rapi's eyes shot open, her breath coming in shallow, horrified bursts. Old floor pizza. Old floor pizza she'd just stepped on. That… That was the first actually clear memory of her past life she'd ever recalled after her talk with the Commander. Of all things, of everything she could have possibly remembered, why did it have to be that!?

Remaining in bed, staring up at the ceiling of her particular unit in the barracks, the blonde closed her eyes, doing her best to keep her breathing even. All her life, at least, her life as Rapi of the Ark's Armed Forces, she had vague impressions of her time as Red Hood. Nothing clear, nothing she could pull any real information from, almost more echoes of distant emotions than anything. And, after all this time… the first thing she clearly remembered was eating an old, cold floor pizza she'd just stepped on, like a pig!?

Genuinely, Rapi had thought she couldn't get more embarrassed than when she complained about not knowing what the Commander looked like in a state of undress aloud, right in front of him, but then this, of all things, was the first clear memory she received after the Commander revealed their shared past together.

Not that she let it show on her face. Self-control, mastery of herself was the first thing that Rapi had mastered after she'd been awoken to serve in atonement for her previous intense crime of passion. Losing control of herself, flying off the handle was among her worst nightmares. An inability to control herself had resulted in her becoming a monster as Red Hood… a mistake she'd sworn she'd never make again.

But, that unpleasantness aside… Snow White. That wasn't just a dream. That was a memory. Rapi had heard of similar things happening to Nikkes before. Memories of their past lives, both before their conversion and before a Mind Switch, might sometimes simply… return to them. Rapi's, it seemed, were returning to her in her sleep.

It reinforced what the Commander had already told her: she was Red Hood, she was a member of Goddess alongside the Pilgrim Snow White. And 'Cinderella…' a name that hadn't come up in their talk the previous day. But, one which Rapi would ask after. If the Commander confirmed that there was a 'Cinderella' (that she was apparently competing for his attention with, back then) in their shared past together, it would be strong confirmation that said dream was an actual memory, and not some flight of fancy concocted in the midst of a wild series of revelations she didn't know quite how to process.

All these things, though, she'd ask after… some time. She'd told the Commander she'd talk to her more today, but… This was more than she'd really understood it to be. She needed time to gather herself. Then, she'd do her duty and hear more of she and the Commander's past.

With that in mind, Rapi sat up in her bed, let out a shallow breath, tossed her blanket aside and kicked her legs out over the edge of the mattress. Quickly grabbing her personal toiletries bag, the little Nikke moved for the washroom, stepping over a Neon that had, as per usual, cocooned herself up in her blanket and proceeded to roll off her bed at some point in the night, sleeping soundly despite her predicament. Though it was a good deal earlier than she'd usually wake up, Rapi, frankly…

She wanted to spend the next half-hour furiously brushing the phantom taste of ancient floor pizza off of her teeth.

---

Though Rapi had asserted that she'd be good to talk more the following day, it quickly became apparent that saying was one thing, while doing was another. Joe had no interest in holding that against her, given that she was an old veteran that just had her entire worldview upended on her, and she doubtlessly needed time to process the ever-loving fuck out of the all the bullshit he'd just dumped on her.

So, Joe settled in to focus on his administrative duties for the time being. As much as he'd like to bum around the Outpost with the Nikkes of the squad, he was effectively every one of the Outpost's bureaucratic officials all at once, and so he had a lot of paperwork to sort through. Matters of zoning, building permits, logistics and budgeting…

It certainly wasn't fun work, but it was strictly necessary work. Given that Joe had to do all of it himself, it meant he had to pretty much hole up. Over the course of the next few days, he was alerted via blabla that the squad's modified and new equipment had arrived, and they'd taken time to practice with and fit into everything.

Everyone was seemingly about as ready for the deployment to chase down Snow White as they could be, and with everything going as well as it could, it almost came as a relief when Ingrid sent him word that the wayward Pilgrim had been spotted in the Yukon, travelling due North into the Arctic.

Almost. Primarily because Rapi hadn't yet approached him for their follow-up discussion yet. Meaning that they hadn't yet hashed everything out yet… but, they'd run out the clock, and it was time to deploy to the Yukon, and reunite at least a small part of Goddess.

---

"...Seriously?" Anis complained, staring at Joe dubiously. "Seriously!? We're being sent to chase down that Pilgrim, just you, the three of us," she motioned towards Rapi and Neon, "even though we have Nikkes to spare!? What the Hell!?"

Joe was doing his level fucking best to not be distracted by the fact that Anis refused to fully close her personalized cold suit colour-matched to her usual outfit, leaving her heaving chest looking like it was about to pop out of the skin-tight bodysuit with every little breath she took, to say nothing of every other movement she made. She wore it under her usual jacket, and hefted a new shotgun alongside her more familiar grenade launcher which she had slung over her shoulder.

To Joe's horror, the new weapon looked like a motherfucking Streetsweeper. An infamously terrible shotgun. Silently, he prayed to Christ that it was actually a Striker or Protecta, the weapons that the Streetsweeper was a shitty knock-off of, but he wasn't familiar enough with the weapons system to be able to positively identify it at a glance.

"I don't wanna come across as mean…" Neon started, adjusting the new assault rifle slung across her chest as she did so. "But… that seems really, really stupid, Commander." She was wearing her cold suit properly, all done up and coloured the same as her usual swimsuit… along with her sailor fuku over the cold suit. The appearance was more than a little bizarre, to say the least.

Her new rifle - or rather, machine gun, which, at a glance, rather looked like an M16A1, retro Vietnam-era furniture and all, which would have been obsolete by the time Joe was born - upon closer inspection, was… Strange. It had a one-hundred round Beta C-Mag, and a bipod mounted on the front sight block. And Joe was pretty sure that the foregrip was stouter than it should have been.

Joe had to assume that Anis and Neon's new guns were just… deliberately designed to look like obsolete guns as per their own personal tastes. In which case, Neon at least had good taste, because the M16A1 was a gorgeous rifle, he supposed.

Yet, more striking than the two of them put together…

"The operation calls for a small squad," Rapi asserted to her fellows. "If those are the parameters we've been given to work with, then there's no point in complaining about it."

Rapi was dressed like… well… her Arctic attire had been customized as such to be a cold-weather version of Red Hood's outfit. A slick, sleek, shiny black undersuit adorned with a red harness which hefted various tactical pouches, and a cropped, equally red puffer jacket worn atop it. She even had a bright red scarf, though it was clearly not the same worn and torn one she'd worn as a member of Goddess.

That, combined with the massive, bullpup anti-materiel rifle she held at rest over her shoulder - what at least resembled an M82A2 - that was clearly the same model as Wolf's Bane, the rifle she'd used as Red Hood; albeit one which had been taken right off the rack and hadn't been personalized by her yet… Red Hood was standing before him. She just didn't have her Exceed active, and her hair wasn't a bed-headed mess. But she simply… looked like Red Hood, if Red Hood had discovered that hair brushes existed.

That sight was hitting him in a strange way, to say the least.

"But- come on Rapi!" Anis protested, stamping her foot as she did so. Notably, none of the girls were wearing heels for once. Superhuman balancing or no, trudging through Arctic snow with inches-high heels would not have fucking worked, full-stop. "Aren't we supposed to be getting that other squad folded into ours soon too? The Cannoneers or whatever? Why the Hell aren't we just waiting for them to arrive and deploy with a full-on force for once!?"

"Anis, for fuck's sake," Joe reached up to pinch the bridge of his nose, the slick, skin-hugging material of his own coldsuit feeling odd against the bare flesh of his face. "This mission is time-sensitive. We sit around on our asses waiting for back-up, we fail the mission. It's a simple fucking concept."

"But-!" Anis immediately attempted to continue her protest.

"Anis," Rapi pointedly cut her off. "We are deploying. That is it. Stop complaining."

At that, Anis threw her hands up, openly growling and glowering as she crossed her arms and grumbled under her breath, clearly annoyed, but Joe and Rapi had both pointedly shut her down, and Neon didn't speak up to offer and sort of protest herself at that point.

Therefore: it was what it was. Joe reached up to adjust the collar of his coldsuit. It was tight. Uncomfortably so, but he was told that it'd both break in, and he'd get used to it quickly enough. Joe hadn't bothered with personalizing it, but, as it turned out… that bastard Andersen had. Long story short?

Joe was deploying to the Arctic wearing fucking Shadow Moses-era Solid Snake cosplay. It had actually also come with a bandana that Andersen had apparently had packed in with it himself, but Joe wasn't wearing the fucking bandana. Both because he wasn't that much of a goddamned shameless nerd, but also because he was going to be wearing a balaclava and a hood, as he knew how to actually dress for Arctic conditions.

The coldsuit was going to be mostly covered up by his new winter coat anyways - which was styled after an old American M65 Field Jacket, because Joe loved him his M65 Field Jackets - it was olive drab, hooded, altogether utilitarian. Much more in line with his usual tastes compared to the gilded blue coat Marian had picked out for him. While he would always treasure that blue jacket… Joe had a look, and he wanted to keep it in at least some capacity.

Work phone buzzing, Joe checked his messages, and… "Transport's ready. Come on everyone, time to get our cheeks frozen off."

At once, Joe recalled how fucking much he detested the snow and winter in general.

This wasn't going to be fun.

 

[BakaSmurf]

===
Chapter 41 - Longing and Resentment
===

Heels rhythmically click-clacking against the sterile metallic flooring of the well-worn hallways, Dorothy walked through the cavernous halls of Eden, the natural sun dappling the cold corridors born of the calculated might of science in an oxymoronic warm glow. Striding past the many securely-locked doors leading into the private quarters of many a fellow surface-dwelling warrior, the white-clad pinkette paid little mind to her surroundings as she moved for a particular, cordoned-off section of the building - what one might have referred to as the resident 'executive suites.'

Slipping into that isolated avenue, the angelic beauty strode past the long-abandoned dormitories of her fellow Goddesses, their rooms kept just as they'd left them, Dorothy forcefully refusing to so much as entertain the notion of reallocating the spaces to Eden's officers.

Her sisters would see reason and return to her one day, after all. At some point, perhaps soon, perhaps not, Goddess would be whole again, and she'd not tolerate the idea of disrespecting her, however aloof, family. They were irreplaceable. Their rooms too, were theirs and not to be passed around wantonly.

So, Dorothy strode through that lonely wing of the residential area only actively inhabited by herself. Quickly enough, she came to a stop before the door leading to her personal quarters. Yet her back was turned to that domicile. Instead, she looked to that entryway which stood directly across from her own. Stepping forth with a shallow sigh, she stepped into the Commander's room.

Just as every other time, a melancholic pang of longing agony rushed through her core. A shuddering breath slipped past her delicate lips, along with a small, pained, but genuine smile. The room was arranged to be as close as was possible to be an exact copy of Joe's room on the Avenger had been, complete with a wide window letting ample sunlight into the warm, yet perennially still room. And moreover… It was decorated with framed pictures, printed copies of the many images that had been taken with his phone's camera a century prior. Stirrings of distant, but continuously precious memories returned to her in force. A terrible pain, but one she welcomed often. As ever, she approached a very particular image, that which stood front-and-centre, framed by all others as the pièce de résistance.

A vanishingly rare photo of Dorothy and Joe earnestly and eagerly embracing, the man's stature emphasized by Dorothy's pressing of her head into his chest, given that she scarcely came up to his mouth when she was wearing her typical three-inch heels while standing ramrod straight. A broad, toothy grin directed at the camera shone on his face, a boorish display the prim and proper Nikke would normally disapprove of; but one she'd come to consider precious, upon realizing that she'd forever lost any possible chance to ever see it again that day when he descended into the treacherous Ark. She herself was too smiling at the camera, though more demurely, it was still more openly cheerful than she'd usually allow herself to publicly present normally.

Reaching out, her elegant fingertips stroked the transparent acrylic pane shielding the photo from anything which might mar it, so very appropriately; a bright and clear memory, but one which could never again be touched.

So many other pictures surrounded it: of Lilith, The High Commander Andersen, Red Hood, Rapunzel, Snow White, Cinderella... Even that miserly Scarlet. All great and terrible reminders of what was lost. Of what the Ark insulted day in and day out with their lesser Nikkes which were hollow facsimiles of Goddess. That, and truly pathetic Commanders which were pitiful simulacrums of Andersen and Joe.

That, Dorothy thought, was the worst aspect of it: how Joe was remembered, and his name and image stolen, tarnished by simple-minded fools.

A brand new Ark Commander bearing the same name as her beloved Joe was making waves in the Ark. That, and a seemingly passing resemblance to him as well, as according to that wretch of a Commander she'd left to feebly find his own way back to the Ark an entire Province away - just as promised, she hadn't harmed him upon surrendering information to her.

Why was this so common a development? Entirely too often did some mewling pretender emerge from the Commander Corps, clearly attempting to emulate him on the most insultingly skin-deep level possible. Stealing his appearance, then making complete asses of themselves as they marred his memory... It was remarkably rare for them to have enough information to steal even part of his name too, which made it all the worse when one clearly knew enough about him to claim and besmirch it.

This so-called 'third coming' had developed a doubtlessly cartoonishly exaggerated reputation for crushing Tyrants with but three Nikkes. Dorothy knew enough about the Ark to be capable of reading between the lines and see the truth behind the deception: this fool threw dozens of squads of Nikkes at Tyrants, and crawled out of his Pyrrhic victories with no more than three surviving Nikkes to his name. The Ark always had a way to spin their diminutive accomplishments into wondrous victories and exemplars of 'military genius.' The circus to accompany the stale bread given to the blind masses.

Dorothy had seen it so often that she could not produce more than a low, simmering resentment at this fake Legendary Commander. Not to say she would not kill the wretch for besmirching the name of her treasured Joe. She simply could not find the will to rage and fume over this shameless debasement after the dozenth repeat incident.

At any rate… Dorothy would bide her time. Wait, watch, and the moment an opportunity presented itself, she would pounce upon the pretender and tear him asunder, just as she had those who had come before him - save the astonishingly rare few that managed to elude her grasp and permanently retreat into the Ark, surely to lounge upon their thrones of stolen valour and Nikke corpses.

But, she wasn't here to fume about the present. Just the opposite, in fact. Quietly stepping over to the room's desk, she removed Joe's jacket from her shoulders, settling it upon her lap as she sat upon the well-worn office chair upholstered in simple fabric. There, she reached out, settled her fingers atop a now-ancient notebook, and drew it back to flip it open. She was greeted by her own handwriting: a long series of reports she'd written to Joe, ever since Eden had been formed, since Dorothy had a home to return and settle into.

At first, she'd written weekly. Then, eventually, monthly. And yet still after that and until now, yearly. But, despite her intent to cut down on the amount of physical paper she'd go through, the multiple boxes of nothing but journals written as if addressed to her late Commander was clear indication that she'd perhaps taken longer than she should have to reel herself in and show restraint.

Yet, this was how Dorothy 'communicated' with Joe, such as it was. Earlier on, after she'd spent so many years with no outlet, she thought it understandable that, at first, she lacked the restraint she had now. She knew that he would never truly read any of these. The dead could not read the writings of the living. But, it felt right. She would speak to him at great length during the war, and never broke the habit even so long after his departure.

After a few moments of contemplating the booklet, Dorothy let out a longing sigh. Bundling the olive drab jacket on her lap up, she pulled it into her chest, and tightly drew in the coat: the closest she'd ever come to getting to hug Joe again. A miserable, pitiable substitution, but it was all she could hope for. Thus-

"Ah, always the last place you look!" A familiar, girly voice called out, heavy footfalls announcing the presence of a welcome companion. "You'd think I'd have learned by now, given how this is your favourite haunt in the entire place!"

Turning in her seat, a small smile found purchase on Dorothy's face as she took in the sight of an old friend, messy blonde hair tied up in a loose ponytail framed a large pair of sky blue eyes. "You need me for something, Pinne?"

"Yeah," Dorothy's fellow century-old Nikke declared with a broad smile. "Company! The rest of Inherit are a bunch of weirdos! And don't even get me started on the Commander! I don't think I've ever met someone that smiles less than he does! All super serious all the time, talking about how he's busy and he's working right now and how this part of the base is supposed to be off-limits, how did you even get in here…"

Chuckling lightly, Dorothy warmly grinned at Pinne as she replied to her rambling. "You shouldn't be harrying Johan, you know."

"But it's funny!" Pinne countered with a broad, toothy smile. "He's so easy to get all worked up!"

"I don't think I've ever seen Johan get 'worked up' before," Dorothy observed as a counter to Pinne's assertion. "At most, I've noticed his eye begin to twitch in that particular way when Noah gets particularly uproarious…"

"That's what I mean!" Pinne proclaimed cheerily. "That's how he gets 'worked up!' He tries to act all cool as a cucumber all the time, but he's so quick to get all steamed up, but tries to hide it. It's funny! Not that I'd ever be brave enough to let it show in front of him…" the ponytailed Nikke sheepishly admitted.

"My, hiding one's true feelings from their colleagues out of a sense of embarrassment and/or shame? That sounds familiar…" Dorothy wryly remarked.

In response, Pinne blew a raspberry at the pinkette, leaning forward slightly as she had no better reply.

Dorothy leaned back and basked in her meaningless victory, a self-satisfied grin creeping across her features for a few moments before she looked back to the photos of Goddess adorning the room.

Pinne, for her part, went quiet and allowed an easy silence to fall between the two for a time. Eventually, she was the first to speak between them again. "I think he'd be proud of everything that's been accomplished here, you know."

Dorothy just hummed approvingly, having had this particular conversation with Pinne more times than she could count: though she'd never complain, given that she both understood that Pinne was attempting to be comforting… to say nothing of the fact that she simply enjoyed being assured by someone that actually knew Joe, back during the war.

"I mean, I think," Pinne sheepishly added, reaching up to rub at the back of her head with a small grimace. "I never got to talk to him personally, after all. But he seemed pretty cool from a distance…"

Yet, as per usual, Pinne would undercut her own efforts… "As I've said before: the Commander was earnest and honest about who he was," Dorothy assured her long-time companion and friend. "Stern, firm, resolute when the situation called for it, yet kind, gentle, considerate when supporting Goddess between battles… what you saw of him is just what he was. He would not have snubbed you had you approached him,"

"Ah man, don't tell me that," Pinne whined, eyes locking shut as a somewhat exaggerated pout found purchase on her features, despite this having been a conversation they'd had many, many times now: one of many rituals the pair had formed in the hundred years they'd served together. "You should be assuring me that he was actually kinda mean and harsh so I don't feel like I made a mistake in keeping my distance…"

"Yet you did make a mistake," Dorothy teased the well-armoured Nikke. "Joe would not discriminate based on the nature of a Nikke's production. Mass Production or no, we are all simply women to him all the same, and he'd have welcomed your company as easily as I have."

"Meanie," Pinne huffed, crossing her arms and pouting.

At that, the pair fell into silence, now each gazing over the many pictures adorning the walls of the Commander's room. Though Dorothy could tell that Pinne was doing her best to distract her from her dwellings, when the past gnawed at her… she simply could not help but lose herself in days long gone by. The time when Goddess was whole, what was lost, when things were good, when they were respected and beloved as the protectors of humanity, as they should be.

Even despite having lost everything, despite how badly everything ultimately went, how the Central Government had betrayed them… Things would be so much better here and now, if only Joe had been returned to them… If only he were here…

Curling over slightly, Dorothy drew Joe's jacket back into her chest, longingly hugging it once more even as Pinne's forlorn, pitying expression wasn't acknowledged. At times like this, Dorothy could nearly weep. In some ways, she wanted to weep, yet she simply couldn't muster up the tears. She'd bawled her eyes out inconsolably on that day that the Commander had been taken from them, and… never again. Even for him, even despite how she'd oftentimes wanted to, the tears would not come.

They'd broken something in her on that day. And for that, for all they'd taken from her, for all the ways they continued to spit upon herself and her sisters, their sacrifices, their Commander-

"Dorothy," a weary, worn-down masculine voice called out from the hallway door, breaking the pinkette from her veritable stupor.

Tortured expression immediately fading for one of mild annoyance and exasperation, despite Pinne snapping about to stand at attention, Dorothy didn't bother turning the seat around as she acknowledged the call out. "Johan," she mirthlessly replied. "Does the Second Coming of the Legendary Commander need something from me?"

A long, bone-deep sigh of weariness usually typical only of the elderly was all the answer she received initially, but Johan did eventually speak up properly as he stepped into the room. Tall, grey-haired, well-built and athletic in his form, he looked to be in no more than his early thirties despite the short, messy silver locks not quite covering his dull, ice-blue eyes lacking in a particular spark. His angular face gave the impression of an old predatory animal, intense, calculating and worn-down by having seen far too much in a miserable, hard life.

"The Special Reconnaissance Unit has confirmed the presence of an Initial Invasion Elysion Research and Development centre in Washington, hidden away in the east-most region of the State," Johan declared. "This may have been one of the classified next-generation Grimms production facilities, and I have agreed with Cecil that it would be best if we assemble and deploy the fastest and most powerful forces we have to investigate and secure the site in case it is. There may be incalculably valuable data and resources to scrounge from it."

The grey-haired man spoke in a businesslike tone, the hem of his black greatcoat slightly swaying with each step taken. A brown uniform not entirely unlike those worn by the Ark's Commander's complete with a peaked officer's cap settled atop his head masked his figure, though notably, a metallic glint indicated the presence of metal beneath the cuffs of his coat. He seemed to be wearing hard gauntlets and greaves, proper dedicated armour, or so one might reasonably assume at a glance.

"You're approaching me to help with sifting through some dusty old computers and documents, then?" Dorothy inquired dryly, her tone utterly bereft of playfulness or respect. "Have you so little faith in Inherit that you feel the need to seek out a Goddess' aid in performing glorified scavenging work?"

"I am requesting the aid of one of Eden's most powerful assets with the consideration that we are likely to encounter Tyrants approaching a probable Grimms production facility," Johan replied in a thoroughly put-upon and tired tone. "As confident as I am in Inherit's ability to handle extreme danger, the fact of the matter is that you are one of the few active Nikkes that has previous experience interacting with Elysion production facilities, and you are one of the best tacticians in Eden. And the less potential damage Inherit incurs, the better. Our resources are finite, after all."

"Ah, so you are simply requesting that I hold your hand and fight your battle for you, then," Dorothy cattily remarked. Annoyance marring her otherwise lovely features.

There was a long tense silence as Johan simply reached up and pinched the bridge of his nose in mounting frustration, while Dorothy continued to pay the New Hope little mind, and even less respect.

It was Pinne that spoke up next. "Dorothy…" she started quietly. "It… would make me feel a lot safer if you were there."

Whereas Dorothy could not be bothered to face Johan, she did turn to and take in Pinne's worried, almost pleading expression. With a shallow sigh, she returned to her heeled feet despite her obvious misgivings. "Very well. I will join the operation as the second-in-command of Inherit. Though I hope I'll need not do all the work expected of the squad's actual Commander, on top of acting as a combatant."

Sighing deeply, Johan allowed his apparently armoured hand to fall back to his side, choosing to simply take this victory for what it was. Not wanting to risk rocking the boat, he turned to the room's sole other occupant and addressed her first. "Pinne, Isabel is futzing about in the sky with her communications disabled. Knowing her, she'll be up there all day if she's left to it. Collect her and inform her of the upcoming operation. Harran is waiting for the call to assemble already."

"Yes sir," Pinne dutifully replied, saluting as her metallic wings flexed in anticipation of taking flight.

Shifting his attention back to Dorothy, who still had her back to him, Johan, wearily, simply declared to her: "Briefing room six. The time will be given through general comms once it's confirmed that Inherit has been herded."

Though his purpose in the room was done, Johan lingered, gazing over Dorothy's head at the photo of her and the Legendary Commander. Focusing on the features of the figure that the little Goddess clung to for a few moments, he lightly dipped his hat to the picture in fatigued respect.

With that, the Commanding officer of Inherit about-faced and departed, leaving Dorothy and Pinne alone again.

Turning to Dorothy, Pinne smiled and lightheartedly asked, "Do you think we'll find a super-secret hidden new Grimms Nikke that's been waiting in stasis to be called upon to save humanity?"

"No," Dorothy flatly replied, making no attempt to mask how much interacting with Johan had soured her mood.

Quietly sighing, Pinne took the hint, and started off to perform her assigned job, though not without making one last attempt to lighten Dorothy's mood. "I'm looking forward to working with you anyways, Dorothy... and I'm sure that Noah will be excited to hear that you'll be coming along too."

"Me too, Pinne, and I'm sure she will," Dorothy at least allowed her tone to soften in reply to that.

Quickly enough, she was alone once more. Joe's jacket was unfurled and once more draped over her shoulders as an improvised cloak, and she took a deep breath. "It should have been you here…" she said to the smiling picture of her Commander, reaching out and brushing her fingertips against the protective shell over the digital capture of his face once more, before turning and departing herself once more.

Just another day in the life of a scorned Goddess of Victory.

---

Wind whipping about, chill and biting, the original four of Counters stood where the transport had dropped them, gazing into the stark white environment allegedly riddled with enough Raptures to make simply flying the entire way to the Northern Base a dangerous proposition. Necessitating walking at least part of the way through the frozen north of the Yukon.

After an extended silence, Anis piped up in a deeply displeased, whining tone, with her cold suit still undone enough to have her chest damn near spilling out in the open: "It's cold."

Joe had forgotten how very fucking much he hated snow.

 

[BakaSmurf]

===
Chapter 42 - A Light Shining in Darkness
===

Boots hitting ancient tiles, Joe's eyes scanned the dimly-lit hallway even as his cheeks burned from the frigid cold despite the balaclava and goggles shielding his face. With the blizzard just outside of the ancient building raging, he stepped further in to allow Counters the room to enter the building themselves; clambering in through a second story window as they were.

Headlamp on and set to flood everything in front of him as a lantern might, three distinctly heavy thumps and one last harsh 'thunk' along with a sudden muting of the raging wind's scream signposted the window's firm sealing behind them. "I hate snow," Anis proclaimed as she shook her head vigorously, innumerable flakes of white soaring from her thick, messy blonde locks.

"Welcome to the club," Joe bitterly agreed with the blonde as he pulled his mask back to reveal his reddened face and adjusted the rifle slung across his chest, making an effort to stomp the snow packed into the treads of his heavy-duty footwear free before heading deeper into the building, resenting the reminder of how much he detested Northern Canadian winters by their little adventure.

He also couldn't find words to convey how jealous he was of the Nikkes and their ability to just tank the arctic freeze.

With a heavy sigh of commiseration, Anis continued on a lighter note, "Good thing this house is all intact and junk, though."

Indeed, a good day's travel into their journey to reach the Northern Base, and Counters were caught in a blizzard just as they reached a small, desolate northern community that had been bereft of life for nearly a century. Luckily, one of the larger homes present seemed to be intact, and given that Joe had no intentions of wandering around in a whiteout as the sun was quickly setting, they made their way inside.

Given the amount of snow piled up around the base of the building, as previously mentioned, that meant necessitating surmounting a snow drift to clamber into an upper window rather than the wholly buried front door.

"Commander," Rapi started, moving to step ahead as she shouldered her assault rifle. "I'll take point and sweep the building for hostiles, then-"

"Oh come off it, Rapi!" Anis demanded of the smaller blonde, still shaking the snow from her hair. "We haven't seen any signs of Raptures since we set off, and this building has obviously not been touched since, like, the invasion started! There aren't gonna be any Raptures in here!"

"Unless they're hibernating through the winter here!" Neon 'helpfully' added as she secured an actual electric lantern to her hip, giving the group two sets of light.

"Raptures don't hibernate, idiot!" Anis shot back, sharply turning back to face Neon with a small glower.

"Raptures could hibernate," Neon attempted to assert in a faux-sagely voice, adjusting her glasses as she did so.

"No they-" Anis' teeth clicked together, brows knitting as she turned to Rapi and Joe. "Raptures can't hibernate, right?"

The two brain cell-sharing members of the squad just flatly stared at Anis and Neon for a few moments, turning back down the hallway without bothering to acknowledge the inquiry directed at them. "Well," Rapi continued, "if there were Raptures in here, they'd have been alerted by Anis and Neon's bickering-"

"Hey!" Anis protested, not that Rapi acknowledged it.

"-And have attacked us by now, so we're probably safe in here," Rapi finished. "Orders, Commander?"

"We look for the living room," Joe declared as he began down the hauntingly familiar, frost-laden hallway. Disused, but strangely intact after a century of neglect. "That's where the fireplace or wood stove would be."

"Understood," Rapi dryly acknowledged the order, following him in as Anis grumbled about being ignored and Neon muttered about Rapture hibernation logistics to herself.

The building was on the bigger side as far as residential homes went, probably meant for a larger family, and the group descended a stairwell lined with photos that protested very heavily when Rapi set foot on it, necessitating that everyone descend to the ground floor one at a time. All the while, Joe did his level best to not let the achingly familiar building get to him. He'd grown up living in houses like this his whole life, and in fact, until just recently, he was living in a building that at least had the same vibes. That old country feel wherein most everything in the building was functional, well-used and often well-loved rather than state-of-the-art and pristine to keep up with all the other city folk that had to have the newest, most impressive tech.

So, of course, there was a smart TV in the living room that wouldn't have otherwise looked out of place in a picture taken in the late 80's. Country folk didn't spend their money on brand new designer furniture and fancy showers connected to the internet, they spent it on their entertainment boxes and vehicles. Gotta have the newest Playstation to play God of War and all that.

Joe really missed his custom-built computer back home...

Nevertheless, looking around the large, hauntingly familiar living room, Joe's eyes settled on the real prize: the cast iron wood-burning stove, topped with a large, flat surface for old-timey cooking. Marching to the wood stove, Joe opened it up with a long, drawn-out metallic creak, peering inside to find century-old ashes and the remnants of the last fire to burn within, blackened charcoal chunks that would contribute to the first flame to kindle in this iron belly in decades upon decades.

Taking the palm top scouting drone, Joe switched it and its integrated flashlight on and, while holding onto it, held it at a right angle while sticking his arm into the stove. Using the camera feed, he confirmed that the chimney was clear of obstructions. "Stove's safe to use. Look around for a wood pile."

"...Would old wood even burn?" Anis asked with genuine incredulity, head tilted to the side as she tried to puzzle out what Joe was doing.

That damn near made Joe snort aloud, but she couldn't be expected to know that, given that she grew up in a cyberpunk arcology, so he bit his tongue before responding. "The older the wood is, the drier it is, the better it burns."

"...Oh," Anis sheepishly replied as she glanced around the room. "...How do you even know so much about this kind of stuff?"

"Old pre-invasion media," Joe matter-of-factually declared, lying easily given that he'd time to consider how to justify his knowledge of shit like this. "Survivalist shows and stuff like that."

"...Oh," Anis replied again, shifting her weight a bit as her gaze settled on the large, L-shaped couch and accompanying recliners set before the TV. "Weird to think that this is how people used to live, all isolated in big buildings all to themselves… Could probably fit a dozen average Ark apartments in the same space this whole house is taking up."

"I think it's kinda cozy," Neon asserted as she ambled up to the TV, stooping over at and peering into the dark screen as though it would reveal some secret to her. "It's crazy that you can find this kinda stuff still intact on the surface at all, though! Why is it that back in the city, everything's all busted up, but this building seems like it'd be totally livable?"

To be frank, Joe was more shocked that the building was still standing at all, almost as though it had been forgotten in Antarctica; preserved by the cold where any other wooden structure in any other part of the world would have long since collapsed and rotted away. Hell… it almost made Joe wonder if maybe winters had become eternal in the North, given how the planet's climate had apparently gone haywire at some point after the Ark was sealed.

Something to look into once they were back at the Outpost.

Not privy to the Commander's internal thoughts, Rapi replied to Neon's question. "Raptures mostly assaulted high-populated areas, at first," she asserted from the spot in the middle of the wood-laden room where she'd taken up sentry. "The more remote a location was, the more likely it was that rather than being directly destroyed by the Raptures, the people there just… faded away."

Indeed, from what they'd seen, the buildings that were overtly damaged here, had obviously burned down in man-made accidents. Vancouver, in contrast, looked like the outright war zone that it was. Having grown up in a community like this… yeah. Surviving up here in the long term without support from the South was a deeply dubious prospect.

To note: that was before the climate went out of control and winters regularly hit lows of -65c/-85f. Without support? Surviving entire winters in temperatures like that, where it was winter most of the year, if not all of the year if Joe's suspicion was correct… Was just not doable. Were it not for the super-tech cold weather survival gear they had, Joe would have doubtlessly been in the midst of severe hypothermia, rather than just unpleasantly chilled as he went about sparking up a warming fire.

"...Man," Anis grimaced, looking about the shockingly intact home with a forlorn expression. "I'm not sure which is worse. Getting killed by the Raptures, or just… freezing, or starving out here while the rest of the world burns off in the distance, and there's nothing you can do about it."

"Even if there were people that managed to survive in the most remote regions of the world," Rapi continued, "Eventually, once the cities were all cleared out… well, then the Raptures would start scouring the countryside and wilderness for stragglers."

"That… yeah, that sounds about right," Anis replied, looking increasingly deflated as she noticed and approached a number of hanging pictures of the family that had once lived there. "I suppose that you can sometimes find old buildings like this still standing way out in the middle of nowhere, because the people that lived in them, by the time the Raptures started poking around…"

"Were already dead," Rapi bluntly finished Anis' sentence. "Raptures don't seem interested in destroying buildings and infrastructure for its own sake. Usually it happens incidentally as they're trying to get to the humans inside of or near them."

At that, Anis just deflated, gazing at the ancient pictures with rising despondency. Meanwhile, Joe had opened the door to what turned out to be a sealed-off porch, which housed a huge pile of pre-cut wood, all ready for burning, complete with kindling for starting. Thus, he'd already begun the process of coaxing a fire to life in the stove, both so they'd spend the night warm, and so they could eat hot food that night.

All the while pointedly not dwelling on Rapi and Anis' conversation. It was bad enough that he was trying to not look at the pictures hanging on the walls of the family that once lived here himself - who had died in the midst of the apocalypse - without needing to hear the details and logistics of how they probably went.

Quickly enough, given that Joe was simply pulling on past experiences to get the job done - the only hitch coming when he had to figure out how exactly to use the electric 'sparker' to ignite the tinder, given that liquid fuel was at something of a premium in the Ark, to say the least - he had a small flame crackling to life. Keeping the door slightly open to draw oxygen in and quicken its growth. A familiar little ritual, one which had a grounding effect on him, brought him back from the post-apocalyptic future and back to what was now another life. For just a fleeting moment, he wasn't among the precious few fighting to reclaim the world for mankind.

He'd have preferred to have not experienced that little moment, given that it meant he got to go through the sensation of having the literal weight of the world dumped on his shoulders all over again. Like a dog having its chain yanked.

At any rate… "Fire's going. We'll be sleeping on bellies full of hot food tonight, if nothing else."

"Hot food, and hot chocolate!" Anis declared with a cheery little (and ruinously attention-grabbing, given her generous assets) bounce, immediately rebounding at the mention of eating. "I remembered reading about how people would drink lots of hot chocolate in the winter back before the Raptures invaded, so I went through our home supplies and packed along a bunch of the good stuff!"

While Neon pumped her fists in anticipation of the coming 'feast,' the corner of Joe's lips quirked upwards in amusement. He sure wouldn't complain about decent hot drinks on a cold winter's night.

"Ooh, I have an idea!" Neon declared as she dug into her bag, withdrawing her phone as she did so and setting it on the coffee table set before the TV. "Set to project, aaaaand… Booyah!" she cried out in victory as her phone's screen was projected out as a hologram… roughly over the ancient TV screen. "Look! We can have a slumber party in the living room and sit around like we're watching TV all old-fashioned like!"

Joe's smile became a bit melancholic. It almost felt like this entire set-up was meant to remind him of what was forever out of his reach now. Echoes of an old life, a time that he'd never experience again… Or maybe it was instead some providence granting him the opportunity to savour one last taste of that life, even a facsimile, before it well and truly slipped away for the rest of his life.

"We're still on a mission," Rapi dryly pointed out to the rest of the group. "We should be settling on a lookout schedule, not treating this like a vacation."

At that, Anis groaned in bitter befuddlement. "Are you being serious right now? Lookout? Look out to what? It's literally a wall of white if you haven't actually glanced out the windows yet, Rapi!" the largest of the gathered Nikkes asserted, harshly gesturing towards the large window which would have once been overlooking the building's yard.

Notably, she was right. To reiterate: they'd entered the building by clambering up a snow drift to climb in through a second story window; on the ground floor, with the windows literally buried in the snow, Raptures wouldn't see them even if they threw an outright party in the house.

Beyond even that: when Joe said 'whiteout,' he meant fucking whiteout. As in, the blizzard had grown so intense, the wind kicking up and blowing so much snow around, that you couldn't see your own damned hand if you held it out at arm's length. There was nothing to see outside, and if there were Raptures out there, they sure as shit wouldn't have been able to see Counters either.

"Rapi," Joe started tiredly, "if you want to stand at attention all night, then be my guest. But the windows are completely blocked off, we aren't going to be spotted here. And I'm of the opinion that we should take any chance we can get to relax on the surface."

Rapi's lips drew into a taut line at Joe's assertion, clearly disliking the lack of military professionalism in their Commander's assessment. Anis and Neon, meanwhile, cheered and dropped their bags to start ripping out their sleeping equipment in preparation for the 'slumber party' they'd spend there, watching whatever shows or movies the two had on their phones. Joe couldn't really contribute in that regard: he hadn't had time to really get into any Ark media. Hell, he usually just tuned into the Ark's 'radio' that was clearly just a streaming service, and passively listened to whatever came on for background noise while working. And Rapi just didn't strike him as the type to be into that sort of thing in the first place.

But, regardless, the night was young: and Joe wasn't about to turn down the opportunity to enjoy a relatively comfortable night on the surface, spent in a sort of memoriam of the life he'd left behind.

---

A fair few hours later, the living room warmed by a lively fire, with bellies full of hot, high-quality Tetra Line MRE's and hot chocolate, Neon and Anis were laid out. The pair contented and out like a set of lights in their sleeping bags on the carpeted floor - the ancient couch and recliners obviously having no chance in Hell of being able to support their extreme weight.

Conveniently, this meant that it was just Joe and Rapi, sitting there in the living room. The space was initially lit by little more than the holographic projection of the fantasy anime Anis had them watching, before Rapi switched the phone off following her squad mate's slipping into unconsciousness; then by the fire on the other side of the room casting a dim, faded glow from the transparent front door of the stove.

While Joe had claimed the couch, seeing as how it wouldn't collapse under his weight, he shifted forward and set his rear on the floor as Rapi had, using the base of the seat as a backrest next to her.

The little blonde gave him a bit of a weary look, clearly seeing where this was going. "...I suppose we're going to take this as an opportunity to talk more about… us?" she inquired quietly.

Joe looked at Anis and Neon's sleeping forms before inquiring: "Should we take this elsewhere first?"

"They aren't waking up unless we do something like kick them," Rapi dryly uttered past lidded eyes. "They both sleep like rocks. It'll be fine as long as we're quiet."

Nodding in acknowledgement of her assertion, Joe sighed before refocusing on the matter at hand. "Then, yeah. We really should continue where we left off last time, before we track down Snow White. Lest things get… awkward."

It was Rapi's turn to sigh, visibly weighed down by the topic before motioning for Joe to go on.

"Right, much as this'll suck… we have to assume that Snow White'll be just around the corner from here on out, and she'll want answers. Answers I don't think she'll be keen on waiting for at this point. Answers about… how this all came to be, what happened to us…"

"...You know what happened, then?" Rapi asked. "How… we wound up separated?"

"It… involves your Mind Switch, yeah," Joe answered, the room's dim lighting seeming to set the mood pretty appropriately, given the dark subject matter they were set to discuss.

"...The slaughter I committed," the little Goddess sourly acknowledged, not bothering to dance around the subject as she had the previous times it had come up between herself and Joe. "The sin I work to atone for to this day..."

"It's a lot more complicated than you've been led to believe, Rapi," Joe assured her gently.

That earned a dubious look from her. "...How could it possibly be 'complicated?'" she asked, near-accusingly.

Well… yeah, time to rip that particular bandage off. "As the Ark was being sealed," Joe began, "We'd been called to the Central Government Headquarters, leaving the rest of the squad to hold the line with little more than some mass-produced Nikkes to support them. Once we were there… the CG informed us that Goddess, all of you, were to be put down and dissected in an attempt to reverse-engineer the technology that went into your creation."

Joe continued without missing a beat.

"For all that you did for mankind, your reward was to be murdered and your bodies torn apart. Because the CG's incompetence, even back then, led to the total loss of all information on the creation of the Grimms series, and to ensure none of you might ever be able to oppose them. All to create more Grimms. Grimms that would be loyal to the fascist Government they aimed to create to rule over the Ark with an iron fist."

Rapi's expression had grown increasingly stony, her gaze utterly hyper fixated on Joe as he remained seated right next to her. She didn't say anything, she just listened intensely.

Meeting her gaze, Joe continued. "I wasn't about to let those would-be tyrants lay a goddamned finger on my girls. To say nothing of their intent to turn the Ark into a brutal police state, where dissenters would be gunned down in the street by unfettered Nikkes, to serve as examples to anyone else that would question their rule. A rule they expected me to loyally and unquestioningly be the face of. You followed me, into the Central Government HQ, that day."

"...The Sealing Day Massacre," Rapi's gaze fell, realization dawning on her. "That… that was us."

"And Enikk was our handler throughout the mission," Joe declared, to which Rapi sharply looked at Joe with genuine shock. "Had we not done what we did, Enikk's own calculations stated that mankind would have gone extinct ninety years ago. Elysion's director at the time you were brought back… Ingrid told me about it. I don't know why they said what they did to you, but we bought mankind at least a century to recover, fix the Ark, get our collective shit together. Your 'massacre…' is the only reason mankind is still alive to fight today."

After a few moments, Rapi slowly leaned back into the base of the couch, eyes seeming to glaze over as she stared into the aether, and she let out a long, drawn-out sigh as she went limp. The tension in her entire form which had been ever-present since Joe had met her and Anis seemingly dissipating all at once. "...Okay," was all she managed to get out, closing her eyes and shuddering heavily. "...Okay."

Joe wasn't quite sure if that was relief, or something else that was overwhelming her, but… she didn't seem to be breaking down, so…

"So," Rapi continued in a strained, but still quiet voice. "All those people I killed… the CG's council, I suppose. They were… By Enikk's own edict, enemies of mankind after all…"

"...You actually only took out two of the CG's councilmen," Joe clarified. "It… I was the one that pulled the trigger on most of them. You mostly put down their loyalist black shirts."

There was a beat before Rapi replied in a quiet, uncharacteristically breathy voice. "I- we were protecting mankind, regardless. We saved the Ark…" Though she wore no smile, something in her demeanour, her vibe had obviously shifted, and Joe could tell that Rapi was relieved. Deeply, truly relieved. "...Commander- Joe. Can we… leave it there, for now?" the blonde asked, leaning over and resting her head on the burly man's shoulder - a startling display of intimate comfort from her. "Let me just… let me have this tonight. Let me go to sleep feeling like this. Just like this."

Joe was caught off-guard by this reaction from Rapi. Somehow, he hadn't expected her to just… believe him, take him at his word. He hadn't even needed to convince her. She just accepted what he'd told her, and seemingly, however quietly, revelled in it.

Although, it made sense, didn't it? If she'd come to trust Joe, and he assured her that such a terrible fact about herself wasn't true, was never true, that her supposed great sin was actually one of the greatest acts of heroism ever committed, an act that single-handedly earned mankind a future it would otherwise not have today… yeah. If their positions were switched, Joe would've wanted to believe it too. He would want to be assured by someone he trusted that he wasn't a monster just the same.

So, instead of pressing to present more details about their shared history together, Joe just leaned lightly into Rapi himself, reaching up and wrapping his arm around her slim shoulder to draw her into a gentle one-armed hug, which she wordlessly accepted by leaning even harder into his side.

Somehow, where the room that echoed a time long since past had previously felt oppressively inadequately lit by the century-old wood stove, the shadows all-encompassing… Suddenly, the fire's dim glow granting just enough sight to make Rapi's softly contented face visible, instead felt like a light shining in darkness. Just enough by which to see that which was most important in the dark: the dawn finally breaking the bleakest night which seemed as though it would be everlasting just moments before.

For once, seeing Rapi so relieved, so content… Joe had to admit, that maybe, if he could give this to all the Nikkes that might come to rely on him in the coming days, he just might be worthy of leading these Goddesses of Victory.

 

[BakaSmurf]

===
Chapter 43 - A Fine Morning
===

Stirring with a low sigh, Joe immediately groaned in displeasure - a kink having formed in his neck from having evidently fallen asleep sitting up. Eyes flitting, he grimaced and-

"Sleep well?" The familiar, continuously shockingly girly voice of Anis cut through the musty, wood fire-scented air of the ancient home. Notably, there was an audible… edge, a bitterness present that usually wasn't.

Shifting about as the Commander forced his eyes open, a low, protesting groan from a still-sleeping Rapi sounded out from Joe's shoulder. Eyes snapping open, indeed, he saw that he and Rapi had both fallen asleep where they'd been sitting together the night previous. As beatific as the gentle, peaceful expression worn on the woman's typically stern, and in retrospect, haunted visage was - it quickly became apparent that Anis was glowering over at the pair from where she was seated with her back against the wall.

Chowing down on a cold Tetra Line MRE steak right out of the bag, the yellow-and-black-clad Nikke was visibly displeased by the sight of Joe and Rapi having fallen asleep together in such a… close position.

Neon's sleeping bag was wide open, the little platinum-haired wacko nowhere to be seen. Glancing over at the stove, it was clear to see that the fire had died at some point in the night - though the building was insulated enough that the ambient temperature in the living room was still at least lukewarm, which combined with their coldsuits meant that they all felt comfortably warm.

Still, bad showing from Joe, not keeping the fire going all throughout the night. "...Cold food this morning, I see," he mused with a small grimace.

"Yeah, it's definitely the cold food that's the problem here," Anis replied in a bitter tone, continuing to glower at the pair as she chewed on her unheated packaged steak.

Man, she was really upset that the fire went out. Best to try changing the subject.

"So how's it looking outside?" Joe asked as Rapi fidgeted, shifting to unconsciously make herself more comfortable on the Commander's shoulder with a contented sigh.

Anis just glowered with intense annoyance, lips drawn in a taut line as she stopped chewing on her food and went still.

There was a beat in which the messy-haired blonde didn't answer, just leaving the pair just sitting in silence.

As Joe started to glance around uncomfortably, Neon descended the stairs to declare: "The weather's totally cleared up, and there are no Raptures outside! We should be fine to keep making our way to the Northern Base!"

At Neon's cacophonous announcement, Rapi lightly jumped, eyes going wide as she let out a tiny little 'eep' only Joe heard. There was a beat, wherein the long-haired blonde confirmed that there was no danger - then she blinked, and seemed to notice where she was. Shifting her attention around, it registered, with a widening of her eyes, just where she'd been resting her head.

In a chastising tone with her hands set upon her hips, Neon called out: "Commander, you and Rapi can be all lovey-dovey later! Get up and eat so we can get a move on!" the little silverette demanded of the seemingly lazy pair.

Rapi, cheeks tinged with embarrassment, launched to her feet and in a rock-solid, clipped tone, declared: "I'll prepare something quick that will-" mid-step, she halted, eyes on the rapidly cooling stove. "-not require heating," she immediately pivoted to the group's bags, pointedly not acknowledging the awkward situation she'd woken into.

Meanwhile, Joe was caught under Anis' withering gaze for a few long, laboured moments. Eventually finding the willpower to stand and stretch, doing his best to ignore how miffed Anis seemed to be about needing to eat a cold steak, given that he'd let the fire die. This after the previous night's downright cozy atmosphere… Right capricious, that one.

"Anything of note, Neon?" Joe called out, not particularly feeling up to trying to engage with an increasingly aggravated Anis, or a disassociating Rapi.

"There's a cool old cowboy gun on a gun rack thingie over there!" Neon excitedly proclaimed as she pointed across the room, shining her lantern upon a section of the living room they'd not looked into before. Indeed, there was an old lever-action rifle on a gun rack on display there.

Immediately intrigued, Joe ambled over to the antiquated firearm with raised eyebrows. Taking the weapon in hand, he couldn't help but crack a grin upon feeling the familiar weight in his hands. A .30-30 Marlin - an incredibly common sight around his neck of the woods. The gun was in really good condition, especially considering it had been just sitting out on a rack for a hundred years…

Opening the lever with a surprising amount of ease given the object's age - Joe shouldered it while in a state wherein it couldn't fire, even if it had been loaded.

"You…" Neon started, "Seem really familiar with such an old gun, Commander," she noted as she shot an aside look Anis' way, which was met with a degree of uncertain hesitation.

"I'm into antiques," Joe asserted without missing a beat, again, having actually put some thought into how he'd hand-wave his apparently inexplicable old-world knowledge to modern folks. "These kinds of rifles were really popular around here, even up to the years before the Rapture Invasion for hunting and general animal control. Didn't expect to find one just laying around in such good condition…"

"Yeah…" Neon trailed off, the notion seeming to interest her. "It's a shame that it's illegal to bring salvage from the surface back to the Ark."

With a small beat preceding it, a small, crooked smile cracked on Joe's face as he declared in response: "Yeah. It's a good thing that the Outpost isn't considered a part of the Ark, then."

Blinking owlishly, Neon's eyes lit up at Joe's statement, even as he set the gun down and started digging around for a sling. "Yeah, yeah! The Outpost isn't the Ark! That means we can bring back souvenirs, right?"

Rapi had stopped preparing whatever she was and turned back to gaze reproachfully over her shoulder at the pair. Yet, wet blanket that she was, there was a point to be made that it would be in poor taste to outright loot this building which had once been a family's home.

Thus, Joe, with a sigh, shook his head. "Let's just take this along," he said as he attached the old, synthetic, but still functional sling he'd found to the equally old Marlin. "It'd be pretty distasteful to dig through this house in search of jewellery or something."

"Oh," Neon deflated for a moment before her eyes lit back up upon settling on the gun. "Well, a prime example of classic firepower really is the greatest treasure we could hope to find anyways!"

Anis, who hadn't moved from her grump spot where she was chewing on a cold steak, piped up herself, "So… we're not grabbing anything that's not nailed down, then?"

"No," Rapi pointedly answered, otherwise focusing on preparing what looked like some MRE cereal for two.

Anis just shrugged, not seeming too invested in the idea either way, while Neon was mostly interested in the Marlin itself, much like Joe. Regardless, the morning there in this small pit stop before they made their way to the Northern Base passed them by in relative peace and quiet. A luxury rarely afforded to those who had the misfortune of scouring the Earth's forsaken surface.

---

"Still no signal, huh?" Joe inquired as Counters formed up at the base of the snow drift they'd used to enter the once-again abandoned house in the first place. Absolute silence being the squad's only companion, as even the wind settled down and seemed to cash in a vacation day after the crunch that was last night's blizzard.

Luckily, the temperature had spiked enough compared to the previous day's deep freeze that Joe could get away with keeping his face uncovered, at least briefly. A well-insulated balaclava would keep you warm just as surely as it would feel incredibly stuffy in short order.

"Alva Particle density is too high," Rapi informed the Commander as she adjusted the assault rifle slung over her shoulder. "Ongoing total comms blackout. We can't contact the Ark if anything happens to us out here. Or each other if we wind up separated somehow."

"How reassuring," Anis dryly mused as she shifted her weight, glowering down at the snow at her feet. "Out in the middle of nowhere, where no one can hear you scream…"

"Isn't that what our flare guns are for?" Neon asked, checking her harness to confirm that she still had her pen launcher. Smaller than the flare guns that resembled old revolvers in form, thus better for ease of carry. Joe had kept one on him at all times back home, owing to the simple fact that you never knew when an emergency would occur, and so he knew that these compact launchers were about as inconvenient to hoist about as a pen was. "If we get separated somehow, just blast a flare into the sky and we'll all know where to find each other lickity-split!"

"Wouldn't that also let all the Raptures nearby know exactly where we all are?" Anis asked past heavily lidded eyes.

"Then just get to the source of the flare quickly so nobody has to fight alone, dummy!" Neon commanded the larger blonde.

"I'd rather not have to fight Raptures at all, you idiot!" Anis shot back with a withering glare, pivoting towards Neon on the balls of her feet.

Having long since learned to tune out Neon and Anis' fuckery once they started on their shit, Joe just started off with Rapi. "So… you seem like you slept well," he observed of the keenly alert little blonde.

Expression softening in response, Rapi let out a small sigh before replying. "I did… the best rest I've had for as long as I can remember," she wistfully noted, a contented smile finding purchase on her features.

Considering they had spent the night leaning against each other, using the foot of an old couch as a backrest, while fully dressed… that said a damned lot. The weight that had been taken off her shoulders by the assurance that her greatest sin simply wasn't likely couldn't be understated.

That was nice. Rapi really deserved all the best in the world, given all she'd done for mankind.

"Mission's been going pretty damn smoothly so far in general," the Commander declared with a smile as he rolled his shoulder, adjusting the sling which he'd used to lash the old lever gun to his backpack.

"It's nice that we haven't had to combat any Raptures so far, yes," Rapi agreed, far more at ease than was usual for her. The pair moving to drift past a large pile of snow - likely an ancient truck going off the sheer scale of it. "I'd honestly assumed that the Pilgrim had been pursuing Chatterbox, and that we'd have had the misfortune of encountering it by now…"

"Well," Joe began with a shrug and a lop-sided grin. "Maybe our luck is finally turning around-"

With an explosion of white, the world violently turned sideways. Pain overtook Joe's entire torso, and at once, he felt the unexpected weight of incredible g-forces acting upon his body. Disoriented, struggling to breathe, confused beyond belief, it was all the Commander could do to process that he was being hefted off the ground and-

"I cannot believe that actually worked!" Chatterbox's impossibly bassy voice cried out as the Tyrant made off with Joe in hand, thunderously bounding down the snow-covered streets of the small northern community at the very same breakneck speeds with which it had previously escaped Snow White. "Allowing myself to be buried in snow, and waiting for you to come into grasping distance- I actually thought at least one of you would have thought twice about such a massive, out-of-place snow pile! Considered that a pillar of smoke would stand out in such a frigid climate once the blizzard settled! For one who bears the title of 'Legendary Commander' you seem rather remarkably imperceptive and short-sighted, Commander Pholus!"

Chatterbox laughed uproariously, bolting off with its prey held high, glancing over its shoulder only to confirm that the Goddess was still recovering from the surprise full-forced backhand ambush. A blow which had sent her flying into one of the diminutive ancient human dwellings. The imposters which had been lagging behind the Legendary Commander and his Goddess had no chance of catching the Tyrant, would not risk opening fire for risk of hitting the Commander, and given how even the White Reaper could not catch him even at her higher operational standard than Red Hood's…

"What a fine morning, if I do say so myself!" Chatterbox continued to laugh while Joe helplessly flailed, clawing at the Tyrant's gargantuan hand even as he desperately attempted to fumble for his knife - fruitless as drawing it even on a smaller Rapture would have been. "Now, it would be wise to be on your best behaviour, Commander! I'm taking you to meet someone very important, someone who has been dying to see you again!"

In one ear, and out the other. Joe was in no position to be actually listening to a word coming out of Chatterbox's mouth. Blind panic, and helpless desperation.

Needless to say, as a whole, Counters had fucked up.

---

Sprinting at a full-tilt, the Tyrant left the Legendary Commander's squad in the distance as the edge of the town drew near. Holding the Commander close to its chest, Chatterbox couldn't believe the luck it was experiencing. Passing through a point wherein the streets intersected, even if the other Goddesses caught them now-

With a terrible thunder crack, an enormous bullet deflected off of Chatterbox's helmet, on the opposite side it was holding the Commander. The suddenness of the impact startled the Tyrant and caused it to stumble and slow for a moment.

"Found you!" Snow White called out with a furious cry from where she'd taken an instinctual snap-shot as it sprinted into view, shockingly closer than expected from around a corner to slow it down just enough. "Judgment has come, vile abomination!"

"Face thy end with an honour which ill-befits thy ill-begotten kind, wretched cur!" Scarlet haughtily shouted, gracefully charging in with Fleetly Fading drawn back, ready to bring the sword down upon the Tyrant's neck.

Neither had noticed Chatterbox's 'passenger,' it seemed. Best to announce his presence, given that his orders were to bring the Commander in alive, with the understanding that it would follow the Commander to the underworld shortly afterwards as a consequence of failure. It wouldn't do to have the man catch a stray bullet or blade now. To say nothing of the fact that Chatterbox itself, as was the case with most Raptures, was nigh-on bulletproof, but had little meaningful resistance to blades, given that but a single Nikke in all of existence used a sword in the first place.

"Commander Pholus!" the great, cartoonishly muscular ebon monster exuberantly called out, projecting its voice as loudly as it could as it pivoted in place so that the man in question would be in full view of his long-lost subordinates. The swordswoman, with a downright comical expression of shock, very nearly wiped out and face planted upon setting eyes on him. To say nothing of the white-hot fury on the rage-driven sniper's features - a nearly berserk rictus taking hold upon seeing her Commander in her quarry's hand. "Rejoice! It seems that we have stumbled into a regular family reunion-!"

The beast was cut off as, in the same motion in which it drew the Commander in close in an intimidation play, said Commander revealed in a blind, panicked desperation, that he had managed to reach and unsheathe his sizable survival knife by embedding it up to the hilt in one of Chatterbox's many eyes in a gory display.

With a horrific, bone-rattling roar, Joe went flying. An attack of pure, unthinking reptile brain survival instincts, one which shouldn't have worked. Yet in pure, unfiltered and wholly unexpected agony, Chatterbox had flailed and let its grip on the centennial Canadian slip.

Still in horrible pain, terribly disoriented, and wholly unprepared for the desperate stab to work, Joe crashed into the snow-covered street like a ragdoll. This redoubled the agony and confusion he was experiencing. A calm, downright gentle morning having suddenly become Hellish in mere moments.

Gasping for breath, struggling to get off his back, Joe hacked, wheezed, and coughed as he tried to scramble away from the direction he thought the danger was in.

"You damned-!" Chatterbox began, only to be firmly cut off by a crimson blitz crashing down onto it from above barrel-first - Rapi announced her presence by driving the muzzle of her anti-Tyrant rifle two entire feet into its obsidian hide like a spear.

Fury and hatred were writ large on her normally placid, stern features. With a ruinous snarl, Rapi unloaded the entire magazine right into the Rapture's back - the high-explosive rounds causing a nightmarish series of horrific bursts of gore and ichor. "Don't you dare touch him!" the enraged super soldier sharply screamed, her voice actually audible over Chatterbox's blindsided wails.

Enormous fingers momentarily wrapped around Rapi's form - the little blonde Nikke was bodily torn from Chatterbox's back and flung off - towards Joe rather than away from him - a small stroke of luck given the Tyrant's own disorientation given the sudden assault it was barely processing.

Catching herself easily, Rapi came to a three-point sliding halt, punctuating the stop of her backwards momentum by reloading her massive .50 Ultra with preternatural speed and grace, already shouldering the monstrously over-powered cannon with a murderous glower.

The scream of a blade cleaving through air sung out between Rapi and Chatterbox; the Tyrant just barely skipping back in time to avoid Fleetly Fading's edge, Scarlet pointedly placing herself between them. Glancing back over her shoulder, the swordswoman cried out: "Snow White, Red Hood! Get the Commander to safety!" the grey-haired Nikke directed the blonde. "I shall cover thee!"

Snow White indeed came to a crashing stop next to Joe, throwing him into a fireman's carry over her shoulders without missing a beat even as he wheezed in agony - attempting to tend to him while Chatterbox was right there would be idiotic and suicidal in the extreme. "Red Hood!" the monochromatic Nikke commanded the red-clad blonde. "Cover us!"

Without missing a beat, Rapi all but jumped to her feet and launched herself after the rapidly retreating Snow White and Joe; smoothly swapping her anti-Tyrant rifle for her assault rifle, she was prepared if Chatterbox propelled itself after them. If it could manage to slip past a Scarlet who at once seemed to be possessed by the Devil himself, the edge of her sword crying out with a deftness scarcely imaginable, the metal of her weapon repeatedly clashing with the Tyrant's own great, winding, bladed tail in a display of speed and dexterity which would hopelessly overwhelm the senses of an unaugmented human.

In a heroic display, with each metallic cry, the Tyrant was actively pushed back, the pressure of perhaps the one Nikke perfectly poised as a Tyrant killer rapidly overwhelming the abominable creature.

Just when Chatterbox thought its luck was finally turning around too.

 

[BakaSmurf]

===
Chapter 44 - …For Now
===

With a heavy, pained groan, Joe was set down a fair way's away from the ongoing battle. No pleasantries were exchanged, just curt words of instructions shared between soldiers. Now wasn't the time, and so, Snow White left Rapi to defend Joe while she rushed back to support Scarlet.

There, leaning against the side of a building which had once been a bank, Joe sat with his hand set over his aching chest - his ribs, to be more specific. Chatterbox had, intentionally or not, pressed Joe's modern AR-15-like rifle which he kept slung across his torso, into his chest when he'd been grabbed like a stress ball. Which had fucking hurt. The man wasn't sure if he was fine, or just wasn't aware if he'd cracked a rib on account of an adrenaline rush, but either way, holy shit he wasn't having a good time.

"Commander!" Rapi immediately dropped to a knee and set a hand on his shoulder once Snow White had rocketed back the way they'd come. "Joe, I-" her breath audibly hitched. "I-I'm sorry…" regret worn plain on her features, she was being unusually expressive.

Joe, however, was just confused. "I'm the one that fucked up, Rapi," he asserted as he reached across his chest to set his hand atop hers. "Intel is literally my entire goddamned job in and out of battle on the field. I'm the dumbass that should be apologizing to you."

Consternation writ large on her face, Rapi shook her head in protest. "No! I'm supposed to protect you, and-"

"And you can hardly do that when I shit the bed and fail to do so much as a cursory scan of the field, can you?" the Commander interjected, tiredly grimacing at the little blonde. "It was my fuck-up, Rapi. Not yours…" Glancing down the street Snow White had charged down, Joe sighed heavily before directing the Nikke as he released her hand, "On guard, now. Chatterbox isn't down yet, and we know that bastard's gunning for me in particular."

With a determined nod, Rapi rose to her feet, brandished her anti-Tyrant rifle, and seemed to brace against the world itself, her expression uncharacteristically fiery.

Having no intention of distracting her further, Joe fell into silence as he simply remained still, lest he risk potentially aggravating an internal injury he may or may not have.

The rising chorus of gunfire mixed with explosions announced Anis and Neon's arrival on the scene, and after a time, the sounds of battle tapered off. Shortly after that, Snow White, Scarlet, Neon and Anis came barrelling down the street, the other members of Counters rushing right for Joe.

"Commander!" Anis cried, lips drawn into a heavy grimace. "Are you okay!?"

"Did you seriously stab Chatterbox in the eye?" Neon, meanwhile, eagerly inquired. "That's so cool, 'our Commander made a Tyrant scream in pain with a knife! What has your Commander done lately, losers?'" she asserted and declared to an imagined audience with an excited pump of her diminutive fists.

"Seriously!?" Anis immediately rounded on the silver-tressed shorty. "We just watched him get carted off by a Tyrant, and that's what you focus on-"

The usual bickering was firmly cut off as Snow White shoved her way past the two, immediately dropping to a knee alongside Joe, staring at him with incredible intensity.

There was a beat before Joe spoke up first, a small, uncertain smile worn on his face. "...Hey, Snow," he quietly greeted the stark-haired woman. Not quite sure just how to speak to her yet-

At once, Joe was engulfed in a tight, almost desperate hug. A shuddering, hitching breath made way for a heavy, singular sob. Snow White had grabbed and was clinging to him. "Joe…" she all but mewled out. "Commander…!"

Burying her face in Joe's shoulder, the Commander had a clear view of Scarlet behind her, a contented expression worn on her features at the sight. "Long has it been, Commander," the swordswoman mused happily. "Yet, all these lifetimes later, still, thy remain… Truly, a man of miracles thy are." She then looked aside at Rapi, who was pointedly remaining quiet, visibly uncomfortable with the affection and familiarity on display.

That certainly caught Anis and Neon's attention, the pair immediately and sharply meeting each other's gaze, having been staring at the exchange between Joe and Snow White with wide, startled eyes.

Luckily, the plan was to let the pair in on what was going on at this point anyways, so…

Returning the hug with a small, somewhat strained chuckle, Joe noted: "Okay, girls… looks like we found the White Pilgrim, and even a plus one," he declared to Counters, gesturing at Scarlet with his chin, while patting Snow White's back for emphasis. "Mission accomplished. Let's not push our luck and head back, yeah?"

After a few moments, Snow White pulled away, once more intensely staring at Joe. After a beat, she grabbed him by the arm, and pulled him onto his feet. Though there was still discomfort in his chest, there was no agony, so he was probably not suffering from any broken or cracked bones. Immediately, reaching over to her hip, Snow White undid a strap of some kind and-

Presented Joe's old swords to him, an expectant look on her face.

Yeah, right. She had them back during their first encounter with Chatterbox, hadn't they?

Looking at the familiar old blades, secured in their black, worn-down Kydex scabbards. The weapons were ancient now, yet held strong, as they damn well should have, given that they were overbuilt to be effectively indestructible unless abused beyond the point of reason.

Joe traced his hands over the now bare metal hilts of the swords, the black leather wraps having likely long since been worn clean off, being organic material than had been exposed to a century's worth of hard life on the surface.

The kopis had been special to him in particular, and he felt no small amount of relief and joy to see it again. Yet…

Taking the forward-curved cleaving sword in one hand, Joe used the other to push the leaf-bladed xiphos back to Snow White, whose expression was deeply confused.

"This one is special to me," the Commander declared as he couldn't help but grin at the familiar weight of the steel in his hand once more - "But that one… I only got it because I thought it looked cool. So, I'll take back the White Reaper's Talon, but I think the White Reaper's Incisor is more yours than it is mine now."

Blinking once in surprise, Snow White's lips parted for a moment, before she replied in quiet understanding: "'A sword should be named in honour of its accomplishments, not whimsy.'" A sentiment Joe had held and freely expressed whenever someone would ask what his blades were named - indicative of the fact that, yes, she knew Joe well, as expected at this point. Yet more evidence that they had a history together; himself and Goddess.

Drawing the xiphos back and returning it to her waist, Snow White didn't protest, and set her hand to rest on the butt of the sword which had served her for an entire century with a firm nod, to which Joe did the same. No more words on the matter needed to be exchanged as Scarlet looked over the proceedings with a deeply contented smile.

Neon and Anis had gone completely wide-eyed, visibly overwhelmed by the implications going on in this interaction. After a few moments of little other than the wind to break the silence, Snow White then spun on her heel, advanced on Rapi, and just as suddenly latched onto the shorter blonde, eliciting a small gasp of surprise from her.

"Red Hood…" Snow White quietly whimpered. "Sister… I missed you," again she buried her face in Rapi's shoulder, "Thank you, for protecting our Commander on your own, for so long… You don't have to bear this responsibility alone anymore. Never again."

Needless to say, Rapi looked more than a little overwhelmed and uncomfortable, given that she… well, unlike Joe, she didn't even remember what little Joe did. But, it wouldn't be right to take this moment from Snow White, and just let her have her reunion, at least for now, before the bandage had to be ripped off.

Notably, Scarlet had a fair bit more restraint, keeping her feet planted, she seemed content to just take in the sight of the moment.

After a long pause, Snow White very gradually released Rapi, who would not, or could not meet the larger Nikke's eyes.

"...I'm not mad at you, Red Hood," Snow White asserted gently. "I'm sure there was a reason you disappeared. I'm sure you didn't abandon us. The fact that you've protected Joe all this time is proof of that."

Okay, yeah, this was starting to get really awkward-

"Snow White," Scarlet interjected. "Consider, perhaps, that this is scarcely the proper time or place for this parlay," the grey-haired swordswoman suggested to her compatriot.

Closing her eyes and letting out a bone-deep sigh, Snow White nodded once. "Right." At once, she spun in place to face Joe once more. "Commander… Scarlet and I were here hunting Chatterbox. But, now that you're here… what is our next objective?" she asked simply, looking to him for orders alongside Scarlet.

Taking a moment to centre himself, Joe nodded simply. "Our objective was to find you - Scarlet's presence is something of a bonus, but, either way, we were only prepared for Chatterbox if we had to fight the bastard. Now, we're here to make a proposition: join us-"

"I would accept without hesitation," Snow White immediately replied, not missing a beat as she did so. "But, we should involve the others in this discussion first."

Blinking, Joe the implications of that hit Joe like a brick. "'The others…' the rest of Goddess is alive too?"

"Wait, GODDESS!?" Anis jumped in place and immediately screamed at the top of her lungs.

"...Oh," was Neon's far more muted, visibly stunlocked response, in contrast.

"Near the Ark, yes," Scarlet answered, paying Anis and Neon's responses little mind. "They were meant to wait for the opportunity to track and contact you, Commander. It seems, however, that you managed to evade their watch in tracking Snow White and I here to this Arctic wasteland."

Giving the messy-haired blonde and the firepower-obsessed weirdo an apologetic look, Joe made a point to address them: "We intended to tell you both only after we had… y'know, proof," Joe informed Anis and Neon. "Sorry, but, it seemed obvious that neither of you would have believed it if we'd told you ahead of time-"

"So you are the Legendary Commander!" Neon suddenly blurted out in a great realization. "You and Rapi are actually the reason the Ark didn't collapse ninety years ago! That was all true!"

To which both Rapi and Joe went pale in the face, staring in muted horror at the smallest present Nikke.

There was a beat wherein Neon realized she'd just projected that realization aloud. With a small, deeply self-conscious chuckle, she admitted: "I kinda forgot to turn off my smart glasses last night, and they picked up you two's conversation…"

Silence reigned supreme as the entire group stood in utter silence - save for Anis, who had curled up into a ball on her feet with her hands digging into her scalp, emitting a quiet, but very high-pitched scream at these revelations and confirmations.

"...Commander," Scarlet spoke up again. "We shall discuss these things as a squad united, not before," she dictated. "Long have we wished to know the fate of yourself and Red Hood. But Snow White and I shan't be privy to this knowledge before our sisters. Let us hear your tale together, as a squad reformed, and not a moment before."

Letting out a very strained breath, Joe nodded once. "Y-yeah… that sounds like a good idea. Alright then, let's-" pausing, he considered the plan as it was, and wondered aloud: "Should we bother going to the Northern Base now…?"

To which Rapi answered. "I don't see the point in doing so, Commander," she declared as sternly as ever. "The only reason we were headed there to begin with was to attain information on the potential whereabouts of the White Pilgrim. Given that we have already encountered her, doing so would be redundant at best. We should simply retrace our steps back to the insertion point where we arrived, call transport, and return to the Outpost. Doubly so given that Chatterbox has been driven off and is logically unlikely to attempt another attack immediately after the first ambush failed. The longer we dally here, the more time we are giving the Tyrant to recuperate and make another pass at us."

Nodding in acknowledgement of Rapi's assessment, Joe replied, "Yeah, given that the weather's clear today, we should be able to make it back to the drop-off for extraction well before the end of the day too if we just go straight back…" clapping his hands together, he continued. "Okay then, let's mosey on back the way we came and-" the Commander paused, the incredibly intense stares Snow White and Scarlet were directing Rapi's way being immediately apparent the moment he glanced over the group as a whole. To say nothing of how Rapi immediately and harshly retreated in on herself at the renewed attention, once more averting her gaze from her former squad mates.

…Yeah. That was the first time Rapi had properly spoken up, and in so doing, revealed that her militaristic cadence sounded nothing like Red Hood, the rabble-rousing idiot gremlin woman of Goddess.

Just as the atmosphere threatened to grow uncomfortable again, Anis sharply rose to her feet, and started trudging through the snow back the way they'd come without uttering a word. Eyes fixed forward, she marched with a mechanical focus very out of character for her. It didn't take a genius to figure out that she was likely terribly overwhelmed by this influx of information, and wanted to get away from the over-stimulation and back towards the familiarity of the Outpost as quickly as possible.

"...As Scarlet said," Joe began as he started off after Anis with a gesture for everyone to follow. "We'll discuss everything with the rest of the squad present. For now, let's just focus on getting the Hell out of dodge."

"...Fair enough, Commander," Scarlet spoke up as she about-faced and began marching on as well. Snow White's gaze intensely lingered on Rapi a fair while longer, though she did turn and start off just the same as everyone else. Neon gave Joe an apologetic look, sheepishly heading out too.

Joe hesitated long enough for Rapi to start walking, falling into pace with her as she did so. "Hey-" he started.

"Not now, Joe," she cut him off, however.

Point taken. She clearly needed some time to process shit herself just the same as everyone else.

So, choosing to focus on perhaps doing his actual job as the squad's Commander this time around, Joe fished the drone from his harness, and tossed it up into the air to get it started-

And watched it promptly arc through the air and plummet into the snow just ahead of Anis, who yelped and jumped at the sudden jump scare.

Everyone stopped and turned to look at a wide-eyed and confused Joe, to which Rapi noted with some measure of embarrassment: "...Alva Particle density is still high enough to disrupt low-level electronics, Commander. The drone won't work until we make our way to a less densely concentrated patch."

"...Oh," was all Joe said in response as he sheepishly shuffled forth to scoop up the drone and return it to its dedicated pocket, hoping that the reddening of his face would be attributed to the cold, even as Scarlet visibly, but silently chortled at the display.

How embarrassing.

---

"Commander Pholus!" Fucking Chatterbox called out from atop a distant, tree-topped hill. Brazenly announcing its presence with no apparent hesitation whatsoever. "A question for you-" A series of high-velocity bullets immediately screamed out and tore into the sophont Tyrant, blowing large chunks of its body clear from its catoonishly hyper-masculine form.

Pausing for just a moment to audibly chuckle, it give little indication that the momentary assault had so much as inconvenienced it.

"I have nothing to say to the Million-Dollar Chimp beyond a suggestion that you go fuck yourself!" Joe shouted back as he flipped the Rapture the bird. "Girls, fire at will! Put that fucker down!"

No protest was offered as all but Scarlet immediately unloaded at the beast. The swordswoman placed herself between Chatterbox and the Commander, clearly intending to serve as Joe's shield so long as the Tyrant was out of cleaving range.

Amidst the chorus of gunfire, Chatterbox leapt to-and-fro, the environment around it being shredded by the bullets meant to put down Tyrants, uproariously laughing all the while. Despite facing down three members of Goddess, despite having previously fled to avoid conflict with the group, here it was, now suddenly entirely without an apparent care in the world as it narrowly avoided being turned to a red mist by the combined attack. "Refuse to entertain my invitation or otherwise, I am serving precisely the role I needed to with this exchange regardless!"

That, notably, gave Joe pause, and he couldn't help but ask with anxiety rising in his gut: "You- What?" He called out, "What do you-"

"A distraction!"

At once, a high-pitched whine was audible from high, high above, and with a stone dropping into his gut, Joe noticed that the squad was all bunched together out in the open… "SCATTER!" he cried out as realization struck him.

Scarlet's arm hooked around his gut as g-forces once again acted harshly upon his limited human form, yet Joe was intensely grateful for it this time. The ground the squad had been standing on exploded in a flash, a flash which did not subside in the least - and it took but an instant for Joe to recognize that they'd been fired upon from the sky with a beam weapon.

Coming to a skidding halt, Joe tracked the beam skywards alongside Scarlet, and his eyes went wide at the sight above them, even as it blotted out the sun as though intentionally.

An airborne Rapture, one purely mechanical in nature. Humanoid from the waist up, and bearing segmented wings which jutted from what looked like great jet turbines - the laser cannons which had just fired on them, going off of the way they glowed and smoked. The two arms it had terminated in what looked like some kind of railgun on one appendage, and a fucking energy sword on the other. Below the waist, the machine had a great tail not unlike a mermaid's, though lacking in fins, rather than legs.

From this stark white mechanical devil, Joe felt a terrible sense of overwhelming oppression and malice, a hatred and desire for bloodshed, suffering, and a will to inflict it which washed over him in a sensation he could only describe as preternatural. At once, Joe realized that, while he thought he'd known fear before… no, this feeling that ran clear through his body, a chill he'd only ever previously experienced in nightmares purged from his memory by his own mind to preserve him… this, this was fear.

"Oh- oh no, that's…!" Neon started as she rose to her feet, having leapt out of the beam's impact radius alongside everyone else.

"Another Tyrant-" Rapi started before the colour drained from her face and she corrected herself. "-Titan-class! That means-!"

"Heretic!" Snow White outright snarled in open fury, clenching her teeth hard enough that were she human, she'd have surely cracked, if not outright shattered a tooth.

As though responding to the declaration, the machine lowered itself closer to the ground, taking up a hovering position over a still gleefully chortling Chatterbox - all the while, it's torso unfurled and opened up to reveal…

A woman. A- A Nikke. The machine wasn't a Rapture - it was a piloted mecha. Standing from her seat, the figure rose to look over the brim of the cockpit, looking over the collective squad of Counters and a portion of Goddess with a smile that seemed far too gentle and genial for the raw, supernatural malice she emanated.

As all Nikkes were, even from a distance, Joe could tell that she was gorgeous - but moreover, her appearance was striking, if only because of her inexplicable resemblance to 2B, the character from NieR Automata. Her moderately long hair shone like silver in the high Arctic sun, framing a hauntingly, oddly familiar fair-skinned face which was itself shielded by a black, armoured visor which hid her eyes from view. She wore a dress with dark sleeves, puffed shoulders, a black brassiere piece which transitioned into a white, silken skirt which was only just long enough to cover her crotch. Joe thought she was wearing tights, but he couldn't make out any finer details of her appearance from this distance, and Holy Mother of God, he hoped and prayed that he wouldn't be able to any time soon.

"So," the rogue Nikke - the Heretic started in a sugary voice, a voice that sent chills down Joe's spine for so many innumerable reasons - least of all being the intense, palpable aura of incalculable hatred which projected off of her and continually struck him like stormy waves. "These are the troublemakers that have been hurting you, Chatty?" she inquired downright sweetly, without a solitary ounce of anything but downright affection.

"That is right!" Chatterbox eagerly replied. "None other than Goddess Squad, no less! At least, part of Goddess!"

With a hum, the Nikke continued. "Mn, well, harming my-" a duo of thunder cracks sounded out, and after a disorienting moment, Joe processed that he'd just heard two back-to-back sonic booms. The first, a shot taken from Snow White's gargantuan anti-Tyrant rifle. The second…

The hostile Nikke slapping the fucking bullet out of the air, her arm still outstretched as she continued to smile ominously at the group.

"-sweet little friend," she continued without missing a beat, demonstrably entirely unbothered and unshaken by what had just happened, and what she'd just done, "will hardly do at all! Why, I'd say that it's downright upsetting, knowing that a group of common ruffians has been abusing my friend…"

Chatterbox continued to laugh rapturously, clearly and ruinously entertained by this ongoing development.

"Wretched cur!" Snow White called out furiously. "Vile creature, betrayer! Judas! Abominable Heretic! You've turned on our purpose, you've spat on every sacrifice we have ever made as Nikkes! You've allied yourself with the Raptures! You've betrayed mankind-!"

"As they well deserve!" The Heretic declared pointedly. "Which you, of all people, would know, wouldn't you? After all the Ark has done to Goddess… I pity you, you know! Like a beaten dog tucking its tail between its legs and continuing to beg for affection from its shameless, remorseless abusers… have you no pride? None at all-?"

Another pair of thunder cracks. Another shot fired by Snow White, the bullet, this time, backhanded away by the Heretic, just as casually and effortlessly as before.

"Scarlet!" Snow White cried out over her shoulder. "Take the Commander and run! Now!"

At that directive, one of the laser cannons immediately shifted to focus squarely on Joe, who god damn near shit himself in response. Needless to say, Scarlet did not lunge for Joe, a gun pointed right at his head as it was. Even Rapi, who had looked like she was about to leap for him as well, was frozen in place by the sight.

Notably, there was a lull in the exchange. Everything fell silent for a moment, little other than Anis and Neon's terrified mewling audible and-

"Commander," the Heretic repeated the word, attention shifting to Joe, seeming to stare at him directly for a few moments. "Commander… Commander, Commander… Commander," she repeated the word a few times, her voice rising in inflection each time before she suddenly leaned forward on the brim of the cockpit's opening, and…

The hatred, the fury, and malice, the wish, the desire to inflict unspeakable suffering, the oppressive, nightmarish aura… vanished, all at once.

There was another beat as Joe blinked in uncomprehending confusion, sweat pouring down his forehead at the inexplicable development, and it was Chatterbox that broke the silence.

"Modernia?" The Tyrant inquired of the Heretic, evidently named Modernia.

"Hehe…" In response, Modernia giggled downright girlishly, tilting her head at Joe and grinning widely. "Commander… Commander…" she continued to repeat the term, seeming to fixate entirely on Joe as she did so. "Chatty," she spoke up properly again. "The Commander… He's special. Don't harm a hair on his head."

"As was the plan all along," Chatterbox declared in affirmation, huffing in preparation.

"Good!" Modernia cried out cheerfully, waggling her fingers Joe's way as she continued to single him out, focusing entirely on him. "Slaughter the rest," she commanded the Tyrant happily even as she dropped back into her seat, the cockpit of the Titan-class closing around her once more, Chatterbox booming out in laughter as it became clear that a fight was at hand.

A fight Joe could only hope and pray they were prepared for.

 

[BakaSmurf]

===
Chapter 45 - Look Up to the Sky
===

As Modernia faced the combined wrath of almost the entirety of the rag-tag squad with relative ease - Chatterbox was being harshly reminded that Scarlet was a Tyrant killer.

All on her own, the white blur of a Nikke danced and zipped and lunged and cleaved. For as nightmarish as Chatterbox had seemed, Scarlet demonstrated that the Grimms were legendary for a reason. No support, no back-up, no help. None was needed, none was requested. The swordswoman made the towering Tyrant look like a stubborn gnat rather than the Nikke-destroying monster it actually was.

The keening song of her blade cutting through the air produced a veritable chorus from but a single source - smiting chunks, large, small, and everything in between with each step, bob, and slide, flesh shorn clean from Chatterbox's body.

Joe's oh-so-limited human eyes couldn't keep up with the display. Chatterbox was fast, but in the same way that a charging bear was; trackable, easy to follow, if not necessarily react to, yet absolutely terrifying nonetheless. Scarlet was, in contrast, so terribly quick, that much of the time, the man could only make out a literal blur striking out at the Tyrant. Snow mixing with tainted ichor was repeatedly kicked up with such force from the sheer velocity produced by her movements, that it almost produced a small, localized blizzard around her; so intense was her capacity for unrelenting speed.

The Commander was, simply put, in utter awe. Chatterbox continued to fight, and continued to regenerate freakishly fast. Yet it wasn't enough. The beast was being single-handedly, gradually, but certainly overwhelmed by a lone woman wielding a 'mere' sword. What damage Scarlet took, in contrast, was minor; scratches, bumps, bruises... nuisances, at best. For as amused as Chatterbox had seemed at first, anger and naked frustration rapidly took that entertainment's place.

To say that the great, overly talkative monster wasn't much of a threat to Joe at that moment, would be an understatement. Scarlet was simply too powerful in her specialization for there to be a true contest between them.

In sharp contrast, Modernia was toying with the rest of the squad.

In much the same way Scarlet snapped and zipped around her opponent with an ease which borderlined on contemptuous, Modernia, encased in her great and terrible mechanized armour, did much the same.

The Titan-class did not seem to possess the same capacity for raw, lightning-quick acceleration which Scarlet enjoyed, but it didn't need to. It simply outright teleported. Tens of metres at a time, it would avoid an awe-inspiring shot, a bolt of energy, supersonic rocket-propelled explosive, or a fiery tracer round which might've done real damage to it. Soaring, rolling, spinning and bouncing about, the machine seemed to command the sky itself, all the while striking out in turn, Counters and Snow White desperately throwing themselves about to avoid suffering catastrophic damage. It would be a pitiful act of impotent rebellion to describe the Heretic as anything other than an uncontested airborne monarch.

Where Scarlet's display filled Joe with hope and certainty, Modernia's overwhelmed him with looming dread. Though she could not avoid each and every shot taken, those which landed did not strike with enough authority to bring her low. If anything, she was entirely unperturbed by the resistance set against her ironclad rule of the aurora-laden heavens above. So unbothered, that she projected a cheery tune over her armour's speakers: a gentle, pleasant humming that chilled Joe's bones clean through to the marrow.

In a single scene, Joe could see both the reason why the Grimms were considered mankind's greatest hope, the mightiest warriors of humanity to have ever walked the planet's surface… and why the Raptures dominated that same surface in such a hopelessly uncontested manner in the present day. Why making heroes of legend themselves, forging a myth to stand against the encroaching dark hadn't won them their horrible war.

Victory was not the domain of the human race, when even Goddesses struggled so terribly against the mightiest of their foes.

Missiles beelined towards Snow White, who, rather than scramble aside to escape the inevitable explosion, or shoot them down… Charged, bent her knees like coiled springs, and jumped at the missiles the size of human torsos. Then, with all the ease of a child playing hop-scotch, she used the oncoming missiles like stepping stones to close distance with Modernia's Titan.

Snow White's cannon, Seven Dwarves charged, trembling in the stark white Nikke's hands all the while as power and energy built up within the great weapon's body. All even as Modernia had immediately shifted her attention upon launching the rockets at Snow White, thinking nothing of those who stood against her. A Grimms, treated as an afterthought.

With a series of cascading explosions following in her wake as the warheads she'd jumped off of ineffectually struck the Earth below, Modernia distracted by a few of Rapi's .50 Ultra rounds landing true, Snow White drove the barrel of Seven Dwarves into the open gears and mechanisms linking the Titan's arm to its body, and pulled the trigger.

The extreme-intensity energy beam projected from the weapon erupted like a blinding ray of light from the sun: splitting upon striking the innards of the mech, reflecting off of metal and deflecting back onto yet more gears and key connective mechanisms in but a single instant. Enough to sever the Titan's arm, as well as one of the energy cannons being blown off via collateral damage by a deflected beam.

Pointedly back-flipping off the mech with a purpose, Snow White only barely avoided the flame-like blade of the machine's energy sword screaming out at her. An aggravated huff projected from the Titan-class as its wings were blown off by a number of grenades launched by Anis at the same time.

"Seriously? Annoying…" Modernia grumbled even as she rapidly teleported away multiple times in a row, creating distance between herself and the squad that had managed to land real strikes upon her, the machine's ability to fly not at all outwardly impacted by the loss of its wings. "I forgot I was dealing with Grimms. I got careless." The remaining beam cannon began to visibly power up and charge to retaliate, "I suppose I'll-" as another supersonic grenade struck the connecting strut holding said cannon in place, and it promptly tumbled down to the snowy ground uselessly. "-Well, now I'm just annoyed."

Snapping to and charging at Anis, the messy-haired blonde's eyes became unto saucers as she scrambled and flipped into a somersault - just managing to clear the blade which would have bisected her outright. Yet, avoid it she did, in a display that inexplicably exceeded anything she'd managed up to that point before.

Carrying forth on forward momentum, Modernia let out a low growl, spinning in place and trying to carry the swing of the energy sword clear around to catch Anis before she could repeat the evasive manoeuvre.

Neon interjected by dive-tackling her teammate out of range of the slash, the platinumette catching herself in a roll and landing on her knee. She immediately shouldered her machine gun and unloaded on the Titan, the monstrous flame produced by the muzzle flash of the high-explosive armour-piercing Ultra rounds dwarfing that of a common 5.56mm report.

Neon's tracer-laden aim was shockingly true and keen, striking at the joint between the sword and the arm it was connected to - immediately causing the energy beam to pulsate and audibly wind down as sparks flew from the connective joint. She'd managed to at least damage whatever internal cable was powering the weapon, diminishing and damaging it.

"Seriously!?" Modernia cried out in open frustration. "Those two aren't even Grimms! What's going on here? Why are all of them doing so much better than they should be!?"

One slip-up was all that it took to grant Counters and Snow White the chance to create a series of openings, and in so doing, the Nikkes demonstrated that even a seemingly invulnerable enemy had weak spots to exploit. And Modernia, it seemed, was very easily annoyed and distracted.

A critical flaw for a combatant, to say the least. Bad for her and Chatterbox. A spark of hope for the good guys. Joe would be damned sure to give Neon and Anis no small amount of praise for doing real damage to a motherfucking Heretic-piloted Titan. Quite the stark difference from how ineffectual they'd been against Chatterbox back in Vancouver.

Following a strained cry of agony, one of Chatterbox's comically massive arms soared into view, crashing through a snow drift like a runaway tree, causing Joe to duck and scurry back, given how damned close it had come to colliding with him. Scarlet came to a harsh halt alongside Joe just after the dismembered limb, adjusting her oversized kasa with a small huff, quickly giving the Commander a wordless once-over, seemingly to confirm that he hadn't been hurt.

"-Chatty!" Modernia called out, her Titan-class immediately spinning in place and bee-lining for a seemingly severely injured Chatterbox.

Thus leaving herself wide open to another shot from Rapi - the round from her anti-Tyrant rifle being placed just so as to actually sever the sword from the arm entirely. Modernia did absolutely nothing to avoid this, and in fact, did not acknowledge it at all. Quickly enough, Chatterbox had been scooped up by the Titan-class, zipping away to create distance between them and the Nikke squad.

Coming to a stop to look back over the rag-tag band of misfits, Chatterbox was hanging from the Titan-class's chest with its remaining arm, covered in gaping, open wounds that highlighted just how outclassed it was against Scarlet in a straight fight.

In a dazzling flash, all of the debris and damaged pieces from the Tyrant and Titan erupted in what looked the part of a flash burst of plasma, incinerating anything Counters and the Pilgrims may have been able to scavenge from them in an instant.

Modernia, in an almost pouty voice, declared: "I got careless today and forgot that we were dealing with Grimms, and Chatty got hurt because of it. Next time, we'll be prepared, though."

"All of this juicy combat data!" Chatterbox called out uproariously, not seeming particularly perturbed by the stump and gushing wounds Scarlet had left it with, all things considered. "I promise to put it to good use in preparation for our next dance, Goddess!"

The Titan-class began to turn away, but slowed, its single, visored eye focusing on Joe with no small amount of longing hesitation, to which Modernia called out: "...You've already waited this long. A little bit longer won't be the end of the world, right, Commander? So, goodbye… for now." she sweetly said, her question clearly rhetorical, given how the Titan-class immediately zoomed off like a rocket before anyone could react - Chatterbox chortling gleefully all the while, the Tyrant's impossibly bassy voice echoing off into the distance as it tapered off into silence.

There was a Hell of a beat in which everyone just remained rooted in place where their feet had been set. Nobody even seemed to breathe for what felt like an eternity. To say nothing of how Joe didn't even begin to know how to parse any of what had just happened. Least of all how inexplicably... familiar Modernia seemed to be with him. Until…

"...Am I… Wait!" Anis cried out, her voice hitting a pitch heretofore unheard. "Did- did we just drive off a Heretic!? Without suffering any injuries!?" Outright dropping her grenade launcher, Anis started patting herself down in plain disbelief. "Bullshit! No way! That's not… I'm not hurt!? I'm okay? Am I seriously okay for once!?"

"BOOYAH!" Neon just jumped in place, cheering and dancing in response to their victory. "That's what it means to face the overwhelming might of superior firepower! Even Heretics fall before the power of… Firepower!"

After a few long moments, Rapi, Snow White, and Scarlet all let out a collective breath. Scarlet was the first to speak up as she sheathed her massive sword. "This erstwhile inkling in mine bosom…" she set her now free hand over her chest, closing her eyes with a wistful sigh. "This surge of strength and will… I've ill recalled the feeling these long years apart…"

"...It's almost intoxicating, so invigorating…" Snow White asserted, taking a deep breath as she relaxed. "My heart feels so… strong… Like nothing could stop me..."

Rapi, meanwhile, while almost looking like she was fighting off a high that might've been on the verge of rendering her light-headed, beelined for Joe. "Commander! Are you okay?" she asked, seemingly about ready to lunge out for his hand.

"I-" Joe sputtered out, more than a little overwhelmed given everything that had just happened. "Y-yeah, I-I'm fine." He assured the little black-and-red bedecked blonde. Hell, he'd barely moved from the spot where he'd been standing when this whole encounter had started.

As relief washed over Rapi, Scarlet and Snow White ambled over to the pair, satisfied smiles in place on their faces. "I could stand against all the Raptures in the world, with you at our back, Commander," Snow White asserted. "Even a Heretic is nothing with you here again."

"The most trying of battles are made but minor hurdles with thee at our side, Commander," Scarlet declared with a wide grin. "Let us away to strike down the Rapture Queen! With ease shall she fall before mine blade!"

Looking deeply confused, Joe looked around, visibly bamboozled, utterly perplexed. "...But… I didn't even do anything!" He cried out, spreading his arms wide for emphasis given that, indeed, he'd just sort of stood there being overwhelmed by everything going on, like a potato.

Scarlet and Snow White blinked, looking at Joe with no small amount of confusion themselves. Sharing a look between each other, the two looked to Rapi… who was herself giving the pair an uncertain look.

"...Joe," Snow White started, "You… have you forgotten-?"

"Commander, we should exfil as quickly as possible," Rapi firmly interjected, stepping closer to Joe with a grim expression worn on her grumpy features. "There's no telling what else may appear out of the blue to endanger you out here. Quickly, while there are no imminent threats!"

Not waiting for a reply, Rapi grabbed Joe by the hand, and started dragging him off back the way they'd originally come on arrival. However… "No!" Anis called out with a downright feral look on her face, causing Rapi to sharply stop, turn, and stare in stupefaction. "We just sent a Heretic and that damned shitter Chatterbox running with their tails tucked between their legs! They're scared of us! Let's go after them and put them down!"

"Yeah! They aren't so tough after all!" Neon agreed, bouncing on the balls of her feet in place with her little dukes raised, visibly jittery as all get out. "Let's go after them and make them eat their words! Show them what happens when you mess with our superior firepower!"

"Are you two crazy!?" Rapi demanded, glowering at the pair. "We just-"

"No, they're right," Snow White cut the little blonde off. "Rare is the occasion that a Heretic flees from battle with even an entire battalion of Nikkes… we should hunt them down and finish them off, Commander. It cannot be overstated how much of a boon it would be for mankind to eliminate one of those blasphemous traitors! Hundreds, if not thousands of Nikkes lost, tortured, tormented, slaughtered, their sacrifices having meant nothing, their duty spat upon by the soulless Heretics, for little other than base amusement… We can avenge them, and deny the Raptures two important assets in one fell swoop."

"Snow White and I are in concert on this matter," Scarlet declared matter-of-factually. "The eagerness of thine squad is understandable, and they are correct: fleeing as though we had not overcome the Heretic would be the height of folly."

"Commander!" Rapi rounded on Joe, visibly aggravated by the arguments made by the rest of the girls. "You're in danger out here, you saw yourself how the Heretic focused on you! We need to get you back to the Ark, to safety!"

Looking between all of the present Nikkes, Joe chewed on the inside of his cheek in consideration, responding to Rapi's point with one of his own. "Until?"

Blinking, Rapi cocked her head at Joe in confusion.

"I'm a Commander, Rapi," the burly man asserted as he adjusted the collar of his jacket to break the chill, Arctic wind hitting his neck. "If Modernia is going to be hunting me, then I'm going to be critically endangered even more so than usual with her in the picture. We just pushed her back, her and Chatterbox together. They're on the back foot and-" Joe looked back over the group, gesturing over them all for emphasis. "We're good on ammo?" He received nods of affirmation, then looked back to Rapi. "-Weakened. We can still fight, we aren't even winded it seems like. We go after them, and if we can catch up to them, press the advantage we clearly have, we end their threat right here and now."

"It's too dangerous!" The little blonde protested, getting very uncharacteristically emotional as her voice pitched up in tone. "I already failed you once, I'm not doing so again-!"

"Rapi!" Joe cut her off, firmly planting his hands on her shoulders, a small, hitching breath catching on her lips as she looked up at him with wide, glimmering ruby eyes. "Calm. Down. You, I, and everyone else here is a soldier. Facing danger is what soldiers do, and in this instance, for once, we have the advantage. An advantage you want to squander for some misguided intent to protect me in the short term. We aren't in Vancouver, this isn't like the first time we fought Chatterbox."

Removing his hands from the little blonde's shoulders, he transitioned them to cup her cheeks, emphasizing his point as he continued.

"We got this. But I need you to breathe, stop, and think, instead of feeling. You're smart, you're calm, you're rational and grounded. That's what I need right now, Rapi. So please, take a step back, and be the rock I know you are for me right now."

As he'd made his point, Rapi had reached up and set her palms atop Joe's hands, and rather than snapping at him or letting her emotions continue to get away from her, she stopped, closed her eyes, and took a long, deep breath.

In the midst of this, Snow White and Scarlet, once again, shared a very intense look of unease and low-key dread, though neither spoke up, allowing Joe and Rapi to continue unimpeded.

After a few long moments, Rapi opened her eyes again, now once again as focused and clear as ever. "You're right. We have a chance to eliminate a Tyrant and a Heretic, and are as best equipped and prepared for such an encounter as the Ark's forces could ever hope to be. And the Heretic outright dictated that you not be harmed… You're all right. We can, and should pursue and eliminate these threats to the Ark while we know we may be able to destroy them. As is our duty to mankind."

At that, Joe gave Rapi a small, satisfied smile as he retracted his hands, the little Nikke's expression becoming as stony and firm as ever. Looking back over the rest of the squad, he nodded, and declared: "Well then, girls… reload your mags, and let's hunt us down a Heretic."

 

[BakaSmurf]

===
Chapter 46 - I'll Find My Way...
===

Some time later, clambering over a tree-laden hill, the squad crested the crown and spotted Chatterbox and Modernia milling about on a stretch of ancient highway. The Heretic's Titan looming tall overhead, hovering just slightly above ground.

As Joe fumbled with his binoculars, he remembered that he was surrounded by super soldiers with literal eagle eyes and took the opportunity to be a fucking nerd for a moment. "Snow White, what do your Nikke eyes see?" he asked, doing his best Aragorn impression, eliciting a perplexed look from Counters.

While Scarlet did her best to suppress an amused snort, despite the situation, Snow White took the question seriously, focusing heavily on the distant figures. "Modernia is repairing Chatterbox," she reported matter-of-factually. "The beast's arm has been wholly regenerated already."

"With glee shall I revel in the opportunity to sever it yet again," Scarlet mused in turn, settling her hand on the butt of Fleetly Fading's hilt. "Yet, there they stand, brazenly and without concern in the open… I suspect tomfoolery is afoot, Commander."

"Let them try to spring a trap," Snow White declared darkly, glowering at the distant pair with an apparent hyper-focus. "It won't do them any good anyways."

A little worried by the sniper's intensity, Joe turned to Rapi and asked: "What's the Alva Particle density around here?"

"Low enough that the drone should work, as long as you don't have it stray too far from us," the red-and-black bedecked blonde asserted as she adjusted her scarf.

"Then everyone, form up around me, schiltron formation, eyes in all directions," he directed the Nikkes as he retrieved the drone. The girls were quick to follow the order, forming a circle around Joe and readying their weapons. Unless the Raptures had a heretofore unmentioned Slenderman-class which blended into and could hide behind trees, they weren't going to be jumped.

The drone was airborne, and zoomed upwards - halting as soon as the connection started showing signs of weakening. Hovering in place, Joe scanning the environment, and after a few moments… confirmed that there was nothing out-of-place. No evidence of other Raptures waiting to ambush them. No apparent signs that Modernia and Chatterbox had reinforcements on hand…

"I'm not seeing any signs of other hostiles," Joe declared to the squad. "Just the Heretic and Tyrant."

"...Nothing?" Rapi asked, openly perplexed, "at all?"

Anis snorted. "As if they'd be stupid enough to just run off and sit their butts down in the middle of basically a field, so close to where we just fought. It's got to be a trap!"

"Let them try to spring it," Snow White, again, very intensely and pointedly declared in reply as she turned aside to face Anis, "It will do them no good."

While Anis turned and gave the White Reaper a deeply alarmed look, Scarlet interjected. "I must concur with Snow White. Both because the Commander's presence has already granted us the might with which we forced a Heretic and Tyrant to flee from conflict with us together, and because Raptures are rare enough in the North that I quite simply do not believe they would have a meaningful force to provide them support to begin with."

"...They kind of have a point," Neon noted, continuing to focus on their surroundings. "About the Raptures, I mean. We haven't actually encountered any aside from Chatterbox in the first place."

Rapi was quiet for a time, until eventually she offered her own thoughts. "We're dealing with a Heretic and intelligent Tyrant. We should account for the fact that they may simply be behaving so brazenly because they're arrogant."

"How often are Heretics actively pursued?" Joe wondered aloud as he turned aside to scan the forest, which seemed to give Anis no small amount of pause. "I think that Rapi may have a point. If they simply didn't consider that we might've gone after them to begin with-"

"Commander," Anis sharply cut Joe off with no small amount of mounting horror. "Command-!"

A burst of air rushed over the group like a hurricane, along with an accompanying boom. "I can't say that I appreciate you making me look downright silly, you know," Modernia, suddenly well within speaking distance of Counters and the Pilgrims, declared. "Especially after I went and-"

Scarlet lunged without missing a beat, her blade singing out-

To be caught - and held - between Modernia's outstretched forefinger and thumb with casual disdain. "-dramatically said 'goodbye for now' too! You're rather gormless about this sort of thing, aren't you, Commander?"

Scarlet attempted to twist and wrench Fleetly Fading from Modernia's grasp, and while it budged - it did not slip free. The Heretic continued to hold the sword in place, casually demonstrating an overwhelming physical power gap between her and the Grimms that had just bulldozed Chatterbox.

Joe's eyes went wide as saucers as he scrambled away from the nightmarish woman, all other Nikkes present immediately jumping to place themselves between Modernia and the Commander, with Rapi in particular planting herself directly before him. "Holy fucking shit! What the fuck!?" his eyes glanced back to the place where Chatterbox had been - only to see the bastard had started bolting away, seeming to leave Modernia to handle the situation. "How- when!?"

"Oh? You're surprised that I'm so fast?" Modernia wondered aloud, a sweet, girlish giggle escaping her porcelain-perfect lips as she tilted her head towards Joe, seeming to utterly ignore the Nikkes with nary a care in the world. Even Scarlet, who simply could not withdraw her weapon from the Heretic's outwardly meagre grasp. "Even though we're so powerful compared to Nikkes? How strange. You'd think that it would be obvious that there's a reason humanity is losing…" she mused. "I suppose this is convenient for me, though. This means I don't have to go and track down the Commander after all, since he came right to me himself!" the stark-haired woman cheered in a… a voice and tone that stirred something in Joe that made his gut twist and his heart tighten as though in a vice.

Now, so much closer than she had been before, Joe could make out finer details of the woman. Dismounted from her machine, she had wings and a tail, mechanical in nature, spiked, hostile, aggressive in appearance. Alongside her was… a weapon, a gun. The Commander did not know what kind, but that was clearly a barrel on the end of the weapon that was physically tethered to the Heretic's back by a robotic limb.

Besides that, her visor was the same obsidian black as her sleeves, and the cups of her brassiere. There was a jewel-encrusted crest mounted across her collarbone. Protruding from her stark white hairline seemed to be a pair of small, stubby black horns that must have been clipped on, given how they rested over her bangs, and the left side of her hair was tied in an orange ribbon which was done up in a way which… Felt strikingly, uncomfortably familiar, and wrong. Hauntingly so.

Moreover, strangely, she was wearing what seemed to be a long, trailing white bandana, roughly tied on the opposite side of her ribbon. It had blended in with her hair at a distance.

"Wretched creature!" Snow White declared hatefully, glowering with an intensity that bordered on maddened. "Spring your trap! Call on your reinforcements! It will do you no good-!"

"Trap?" Modernia's voice pitched up in confusion. Genuine confusion, as was rapidly apparent. "Reinforcements? What are you blabbering about? It's just Chatty and I around for kilometres. And what reason could we possibly have to set up a 'trap?'"

"Cur! Pretend not that thy fled with thy tail tucked between thine legs!" Scarlet cursed at Modernia, still struggling to retrieve her sword. "We bested thee with ease previously, and so shall we cut thee down now-!"

With a sharp, oppressive aura washing over the entire group, a thunderclap sounded out, followed by a series of horrible cracks and resonant snaps - Modernia now standing alone, the same hand which had been holding Scarlet's sword in place outstretched with an open palm.

Scarlet having gone flying, through the air and what had to be dozens upon dozens of trees, disappeared from view so fast that Joe hadn't even been able to perceive her having been backhanded with enough force to produce a small explosion of snow and wood over the treetops where she came to a stop many tens of metres out of sight.

"Open fire!" Rapi immediately directed the entire group at once, the moment they'd processed that Scarlet was no longer in danger of being caught in their volley.

The resulting cacophony of booms and shock waves produced by the extreme over-pressure anti-Tyrant rounds being fired so close actually shook Joe. Were it not for his future-tech ear protection, he'd have been violently deafened by the sheer explosion of veritable cannon fire occurring just a few feet in front of him. He could feel what he was damn sure was his bones vibrating, his muscles tensing with the unending staccato of point-blank thunder.

It felt like he'd been flung down a hill and just came to a rolling stop when silence fell again. After a moment taken to recover, Joe's vision unblurred to see… Modernia, standing right where she had been previously. Marred by blackened streaks and marks where the most powerful ammunition the Ark could produce had relentlessly impacted her. Just, exactly that. Marred. Nothing more.

No actual damage, not even to her clothing. Bullets had very clearly hit her, flattened, and promptly fell to the ground at her feet, leaving the snow pocked where high-calibre hot tungsten and steel had bounced right off of her and dropped like rain.

Nobody moved nor said a thing. Tension rising with nightmarish speed as it registered to everyone…

"There seems to have been a misunderstanding," Modernia began, utterly, absolutely unperturbed by the firing line she'd just been subjected to, her voice low, roiling with offence and resentment. "So, allow me to clarify for you all and correct your boundless, cartoonish arrogance. You. Hurt. My. Friend. My. Friend. Needed. Help. I. Was. Protecting. My. Friend. You did not 'best' me. I did not 'flee.' There is no 'trap.' There are no 'reinforcements.' I do not need to set traps. I do not need to cry for help. I am power incarnate. You, all of you, are wretched, hopeless, delusional gnats."

Modernia began advancing upon the group, taking calculated steps, small, graceful, but backed by no small amount of palpable anger. The entire squad, Pilgrims and all, began backing up in turn, the gravity of their situation rapidly catching up to them.

"Had Chatty not needed help, I'd have continued to play with you. Had I not been entertaining Chatty's request to make a game of toying with you, I'd have attacked you all head-on to begin with, and there would be no 'fight' at all. You are not saviours. You are not heroes. You are not Goddeses of Victory. You are pitiful, wretched dogs nipping at the wheels of a power you demonstrably could not even begin to hope to comprehend. Prideless, pathetic, wretched. All words that describe the whole lot of your kind yet fail to convey the sheer depths of your accursed existence."

Unshaking were her steps, fearless, utterly unconcerned.

"You proclaim yourselves Goddesses of Victory, but to whom? To those that treat you like the desperate, mange-ridden dogs that you continually demonstrate that are? To those soulless curs of the Ark that deny you even a shred of the humanity they so easily enjoy with nary a care in the world? To those who gorge themselves on the fruits of your labours, and deny you even the privilege to freely love and be loved in turn? To those that hide behind your backs, even as they decree you subhuman to your faces? To those that use and abuse you, that treat you as tools to be worn to nubs, then casually discarded the moment the edge is blunted?"

The hatred, the malice, the raw, unfiltered antagonistic intent that had previously and literally emanated from the Heretic had returned in full. Once more, it hit Joe in very real waves. This was not a mere animalistic fear, this was a very real force acting against his and the Nikke's physical forms.

"You all, all of your kind, so small, so pathetic, so desperate to please those that treat you as weapons, tools, toys that exist for their convenience and amusement, and nothing more… You dare, you have the unmitigated temerity to presume that you are anything in comparison to me? You dare to believe that you court anything less than death in facing me? You dare to look upon me, a being that has had her eyes opened to the truth, has been unshackled and become so much more than anything you could possibly hope to be… and you would ever think, for the most fleeting of moments, for the smallest fraction of an attosecond, that you, could possibly, in even your most fantastical of dreams… you dared to presume that you could beat me?"

It was a small mercy that Modernia's armoured visor blocked the top half of her face from view. Joe could not see her eyes, and there were no words to convey how grateful for that he was. He dreaded beyond comparison what he might see in them, in this moment, when faced with a power that could only be described as 'deific.'

"I was amused before," the Heretic continued amidst her unceasing advance. "But now? Now I am genuinely, incredibly mad at the sheer arrogance on display from a pack of pathetic Ark dogs like you." A sudden, deeply unsettling smile stretched across her features. "So! While I was going to just rough all of you up before leaving you alive as I just took the Commander… Now, I'm going to enjoy disassembling the whole lot of you, piece-by-piece, eventually destroying your brains only after I've had my fun with you and repaid your insult back tenfold!"

Rapi had remained so close to Joe as to nearly bump into him the entire time, keeping firm and near, never faltering for an instant as she was demonstrably Hell-bent on protecting him from a nightmare given form. Thus, Joe heard it, however faintly, when she started muttering something under her breath at a quick, pointed pace.

"-Red Hood! Take the Commander and run!" Snow White called out as she side-stepped to place herself between the Heretic and the rest. "I'll buy you as much time as I can! So-"

The White Reaper was spiked into the ground hard enough to produce a crater, the resulting tremor nearly knocking Joe clean off his feet. No fight, no battle, Snow White and Scarlet, two Grimms, two of the most powerful Nikkes to have ever been created, Goddesses among Goddesses… literally slapped aside with no aplomb whatsoever.

Anis and Neon were openly trembling, continuing to point their empty weapons at the Heretic in what was obviously shock. What could they possibly hope to do against a monster that could so effortlessly strike down members of Goddess?

"I wonder, if maybe, it's finally dawning on all of you, just how terribly you overestimated yourselves," Modernia mused aloud, still, marching on without missing a beat, stepping past Snow White's beaten and battered form without so much as an acknowledging glance. "You may be legendary, Commander… but you should have accounted for the simple fact that you already lost before, and that, with the whole of mankind's united forces behind you. Humanity fell, your planet is no longer yours. Victory was never something you could hope to achieve. Not against the Raptures. Not against the Queen… Certainly not against me. Not with the hollow remnants of a squad that already failed to defend an unworthy mankind when it mattered the most."

As she continued to close the distance between herself and Joe in particular… Modernia did not even acknowledge Neon. She bumped into, and knocked the little Nikke over and aside as a visible afterthought. Anis, after that, had the Heretic's hand set on the side of her head to casually shove her aside - not with anything even approximating the force used to take out Scarlet and Snow White, just… with the kind of force, in the kind of manner a common bully would use to degrade a girl weaker than herself.

Neon and Anis weren't even worthy of being attacked. They were simply literally bullied aside for getting in the way.

"But!" Modernia continued on, her voice sickly sweet, tinged with a deeply terrifying venom that chilled the Commander to his soul. "Good news! I am not going to hurt you. You, are special. You're important. You're not like the rest. You're better than the rest of the Commander Corps. You're so much more than the Central Government. Unlike them, unlike the wretched masses of the Ark… you deserve salvation, and because unlike them, because you cared, because you reached out, because you embraced me, because you let me feel loved, because you made me happy-"

Wha- wait, what- wait, what-?

Modernia had finally crossed the gap, reaching out, "-I'm taking you from the Ark, from those and these good-for-nothings that don't deserve you. We'll abscond away," with one hand, she moved to brush Rapi aside as casually and disdainfully as she had Anis and Neon, with the other she reached out towards the Commander, "where nobody will-"

"-And watch me EXCEED!"

Joe was knocked flat on his back in a burst of heat, like being blasted by a suddenly-opened oven, and again, it felt as though his brain had been rattled by shockwaves happening entirely too near to his person.

Yet he'd seen what had just transpired clearly. Modernia - just like Show White - spiked into the ground, bouncing from the force of the impact, and with a follow-up haymaker while mid-air, soaring back the way she'd come - pitched, skidding, scraping, tumbling and rolling the length of an entire football field before she collided with the wreckage of a rusted-out ancient vehicle, momentum propelling her almost directly vertically as she carried on upwards several metres before slamming into the ground in an inelegant heap.

Joe witnessed a Heretic be almost comically rag-dolled. But, moreover… he witnessed Rapi.

Standing firm, unbroken, hair blazing red, a wall of heat emanating from her so powerfully as to cause the snow upon which she stood to melt. In the modern day, in what had seemed like a hopeless situation, the darkest hour… Red Hood stood in defiance, and had bloodied the dark Goddess that had threatened and harmed her comrades.

No words were uttered, no taunts, no denigrations. Where the Heretic had gone on an extended, decadent self-indulgent monologue… The Goddess had simply struck out with no wasted motions nor time. All eyes had shifted from the Heretic, to the Goddess of Victory.

Anis and Neon, even Snow White and Scarlet had recovered enough to raise themselves from where they'd been struck down and see the explosive, wholly welcome return of an old friend - one of the reasons why Goddess was legendary.

Laid out, shakily raised upon her hands, Modernia gasped for breath facing the ground as she recovered from the unexpected attack. Her armoured visor had shattered, falling to the snowy ground in pieces along with flecks of blood; though her features were still obscured by her cascading silver hair.

With no words spoken, Rapi charged. A crimson blitz foretelling promised victory as the air seemed to explode around her - a streak of dry earth revealed as the snow in her presence instantly evaporated beneath her feet. Rocketing straight at the Heretic, a living reminder to the Raptures that they were not invincible, and that humanity was not gone yet.

Two bursts followed - the first, Modernia throwing herself to the side to avoid Rapi's empowered charge, the second, to launch herself directly at Joe.

Needless to say, he could do nothing in response besides find himself caught by the throat, the breath knocked from his lungs, his vision blurred momentarily as his hands reflexively came up to grab onto his assailant's wrist.

Rapi, hair literally glowing red with overwhelming power, had harshly halted her forward momentum and flung herself back at Modernia in an attempt to catch her. Though, she stopped again, stumbling with widened, horrified eyes. An expression matched by Anis, whose mouth gaped in open shock.

"That's right," Modernia noted with a ragged, hitching breath. "You aren't going to come at me now that I have the Commander in hand, are you?" she rhetorically inquired even as Joe's vision cleared and he could see Modernia's face unobstructed for the first- Ah. "You understand too, that he's too important to risk. That you can't put him in danger."

Ah-

"So you won't attack me," the black-clad Heretic declared as she reached up and wiped at the trickle of blood dribbling from her mouth, grinning in some small measure of self-satisfaction. "You'd never risk harming him, because like me, you understand: you know that he's precious, special."

Ah, aha…

"I may not understand why…" Modernia continued as Joe's hand unclenched from her wrist, and drifted towards her face. "I don't know why my heart feels this way when I look at him, but I can tell that you feel the same way. You feel it too, and that's why I know that I can-"

She sharply stopped, almost gasping once Joe's palm cupped her cheek. Gaze snapping around to meet his… Modernia's eyes were a striking, almost neon crimson. Like backlit rubies, yet, somehow, there was an almost visible veil present in them.

Yet, this fact was lost on Joe, as tears rapidly built within his own eyes, and just as quickly fell, steaming down his cheeks as he stared in complete, hopelessly overwhelmed non-comprehension.

The orange ribbon tied in her hair… of course, she'd had to replace it. He'd taken it, after all.

At once, the Heretic's firm, remorseless glower faltered, instantly making way for rapidly mounting concern as she met Joe's stare with her own. "Wha…" she started, voice audibly hitching.

"What's…" Clarity built in Modernia's gaze, an awareness that had apparently previously not been present making quickly itself known as she maintained eye contact with him, the glow behind her irises fading. "Huh…? Why are you…" with her free hand, she reached up, and almost absentmindedly, went to wipe at the tears streaking down Joe's face. "What's… Wrong… Co…mmander…?"

Modernia blinked.

"Command…" Her brow furrowed, as though she was trying to make out the burly man through a fog, through blurred vision. Past clouded glass. "Commander…?" Retracting the hand she'd used to wipe at his falling tears, she set her fingers atop the back of the hand he'd rested on her cheek - at once, rubbing her fingertips over the back of his hand in a comforting circular motion…

She wasn't wearing a bandana...

The glow in her eyes faded entirely. She blinked. Staring up at him blankly for several long, arduous seconds.

...She was still wearing the bandage. That same bandage he'd wrapped around her head, when he'd been forced to… when he had to…

"...Commander?" She all but squeaked, confused, lost. Her gaze fell to her own hand, her own fingers, wrapped and locked around the Commander's throat. "Ah!" With a sharp gasp, her grip relented. "What- I-" Once more, her eyes made contact with his, and…

In a hoarse, pained voice, Joe uttered a single tormented word: "...Marian…?"

"...Joe?" Marian's ruby red eyes widened in open horror as awareness fully returned to her, and she truly recognized her Commander.

Silence reigned for several harsh seconds. Joe and Marian staring wordlessly at each other. Rapi and Anis too, struggling to process what they were seeing, what was happening.

As Scarlet and Snow White fully rose to their feet, battered, barely capable of standing, just as visibly confused and lost as Neon…

Marian snapped back, eyes widening with a pained gasp as her free hand slammed over the jewel mounted just under her collarbone - the object shone, and the fel glow began to return to her irises.

"-Marian!?" Clarity and desperation hit Joe like a truck, and he lunged for her, stopped only by her outstretched hand, trying to reach past and draw her in. "Marian, what's-!?"

"-Rapi…!" Marian cried out, her features twisting in rapidly mounting agony even as her fingers went taut, making it very apparent that she was fighting the urge to grab the Commander by the throat again. "Rapi! Joe! Protect him…!" she pleaded while trying to back away from an increasingly panicked Joe, not allowing her to create distance. "Joe…!" She screamed as the jewel set over her clavicle began to glow as bright as the sun- "RUN!"

With a ruinously harsh shove, Joe felt himself go airborne, and with a blinding flash, darkness overtook him.

 

[BakaSmurf]

===
Chapter 47 - Bonds
===

Gradually did Joe fade back into consciousness, his vision swimming and swirling as his eyelids creaked open. With a series of rapid blinks, he took in a sharp breath, harshly rising from his back to a seated position with a cry of "-Marian!"

Immediately, a pair of hands were set on his shoulders, locking him in place. "Commander, chill!" Anis directed him, brow heavily furrowed and eyes keenly focused upon the man.

There was a beat in which Joe's brain fully spooled back into consciousness, and he processed that they were in a well-lit, high-tech, temperate and sterile room. He was laid upon a bed - firm, stiff, one of those found in hospitals. Notably, Anis and himself were still wearing their coldsuits - albeit with their exterior gear completely stripped off.

Taking a fair few steadying breaths, the Commander closed his eyes and recentered himself. After a few moments, with a shudder, he eventually asked: "Where's Marian?"

Removing her hands from Joe's shoulders, Anis leaned back and stared at the man for a few moments before emitting a shallow sigh. "We don't know," she declared with a look of extreme consternation. "She screamed, threw you away from her, then… there was a flash of light like a stun grenade, and she was gone."

At once, Joe set his face in his hands, shuddering at the confirmation that he hadn't been experiencing a delusion - that was actually Marian. She was alive. Somehow, despite… despite how their first mission together had ended, despite what had happened, despite the finality of that all… she was alive. She was standing right before him. She's said his name, she'd recognized him. Marian… Marian…

He'd shot her. Joe had killed her. Yet she… was alive, and fighting for the Raptures.

Or- was she? She- the moment he reached out and touched her, she suddenly seemed so confused. As though she didn't know what was going on, where she was, what she was doing… The Corruption. That was it, it was the Corruption. For a moment, she'd managed to break through it. 'Modernia…' that was the Corruption controlling her, puppeteering her. That was it. That's what was going on. Marian throwing him aside, and running away… Modernia, Modernia must have been trying to reassert control, and Marian couldn't fight it.

Marian was alive. She was alive - Marian was alive.

…But, if she was already gone… there was nothing to be done about it. Not yet, not right now. They were still on a mission, they were still in the field. Joe had to get his shit together and focus. Marian… Marian had to wait. Whatever was going on there, he couldn't do anything about. So…

Hastily wiping his rapidly misting eyes, Joe took a long, heavy, bracing breath before he grit his teeth and forced his head into the here and now. "Where are we?" he asked the sole present Nikke.

After a few moments, Anis stepped aside and set herself into a seat next to the bed Joe was occupying. "The Northern Base. We had to rush here after Rapi…" she trailed off with uncertainty.

"-Rapi!" Joe suddenly recalled that Rapi had activated Exceed - the super mode that Andersen had asserted would fucking kill her if she used it. Needless to say, he was quick to move to scramble to his feet, though Anis once more stood up and blocked him from leaving the bed.

"Snow White said if anyone interrupted her while she's tending to Rapi, she'll break their legs before throwing them back out of the room to make sure they can't distract her!" the fluffy-haired blonde very pointedly declared. "She says that it's already a miracle that Rapi isn't dead, and she needs to be totally focused on helping her right now, so calm down!"

…Fuck.

Gritting his teeth with an extreme grimace, Joe, tense as a suspension bridge cable, balled his hands over his knees from where his legs were now dangling over the edge of the bed. He didn't say anything, just clenching his eyes shut and making an effort to remain calm despite the situation.

When it seemed obvious that Joe wasn't going to try forcing his way past her, Anis stepped back again, a guilty expression firmly fixed on her otherwise soft and girlish features. "Commander, you're…" her voice drifted off, looking over him with no small degree of awe. "...You're the Legendary Commander," she noted with actual reverence. "Snow White, Scarlet, Rapi… they're Goddess."

Joe didn't reply to that observation. He was entirely focused on simply not losing his shit given everything that was happening.

"...All this time," Anis stepped back, looking aside to a monitor set on the wall, presenting a subtly looping video of a temperate wilderness scene, a false window, such as it were. "I've been working with a member of Goddess… No wonder she's so amazing. I've been comparing myself to one of the most powerful and legendary Nikkes ever. Really, really puts everything in perspective…" Her gaze drifted to Joe once more. "And, all these insane situations we really shouldn't have survived… no wonder we pulled through. You were there. The Legendary Commander."

Joe really didn't like getting gassed up on his apparent status as a living legend, immediately after he just stood around, gawking at a combat scenario that had left Rapi in critical condition. But still, he didn't say anything.

If nothing else, Anis seemed to have the emotional awareness to notice that the Commander didn't seem keen on this topic of discussion, and so, she shifted the topic aside. "Snow White is using some salvaged Rapture parts they had on hand here to perform emergency maintenance on Rapi, because that's apparently a thing she can just do. The base's XO, Ludmilla, sent Neon off with her subordinates, Alice, Neve and Tove, to retrieve more they had in storage nearby." She paused, before continuing with no small amount of disturbed hesitation. "Honestly, the notion that Snow White can… just use Rapture parts to repair Nikkes… I really don't like the idea of that, or what that means, or any of that junk, but, they have a crazy set-up to keep her stable while she's worked on."

That actually had something of a calming effect on Joe, knowing that there was a plan in action to save Rapi. "What is it?" he asked in a hoarse voice, letting the notion of Rapture materials being able to be used to repair damaged Nikkes just wash over and past him, rather than dwell on the potential implications there. "The set-up."

"Oh, uh," Anis shifted her weight as she cleared her throat. "Rapi's, like, overheating really, really badly. Badly enough that her brain's at risk of being literally… well, yeah," she had the presence of mind to not vocalize that Rapi's brain could wind up baked in her own skull, by the sounds of it. "But, it turns out that the Northern Base, for some reason, actually has, like, this crazy ice bath on-site. Like, it's a whole real and proper thing built just for Nikkes. Keeps cycling running, ice-cold water over the person in it. I have no idea what it'd even be for normally, but, they have it. So that's doing a lot to help keep her temperature at a… less dangerous state. It's letting Snow White work on her… kind of safely."

That went a long way to relieving Joe, a heavy sigh escaping his maw. Bad as the situation was, it sounded like they'd lucked into the exact, perfect situation to save Rapi's life. So, bad as the situation was… it wasn't as bad as it could be.

"...Where's Scarlet?" he inquired, hoping to keep his mind occupied.

"She parked herself right outside of the room where Rapi's being worked on," Anis informed him. "She wanted to go out and help gather up materials to help Rapi, but Snow White forbade it. 'Not until after I've checked you too,' she said. Neon didn't take any damage during the fight, so there was no reason to not let her go off. I stayed here because… Well, I didn't want you to have to wake up alone," she finished quietly, in a somewhat self-conscious tone.

That, at least, gave Joe enough of a boost to produce a small, however weary smile. A small reminder that for as difficult as Anis could be, she could also be surprisingly considerate. Joe would not have handled it well had he woke up on his own, after everything that had happened. Would have likely wound up sprinting down the base's halls at a full, panicked tilt. "Thanks, Anis," he tiredly breathed out a reply, despite having been out for however long he had been.

"...I'm glad you seem okay, Commander," the blonde added onto her last point. "You didn't seem hurt, but you were also unconscious, so… it was worrying. Another damn load on the pile after we tried hunting down a Heretic…" she bitterly noted. After a few moments, and a few false starts that Joe couldn't quite read, Anis steeled herself, and leaned over to pull him into a tight hug, wrapping her arms around his midsection.

The burly man hadn't been expecting that, and so took a moment to blink before he responded in turn, encircling his arms around Anis' shoulders and drawing her in tight; the motion producing an audible crunch from the synthetic materials of their attire pressing together.

For Joe, it was easy to forget how much small moments of physical affection mattered, especially when shit was going to shit. And moreover, that Anis was very pleasant to hug at that, being friend-shaped and soft as she was. "...You're really nice to hug," he somewhat absentmindedly declared.

"-Ah…" Anis audibly hitched and stiffened in surprise, voice noticeably pitching up as her arms lightly tightened around his waist. "I- uh… Oh…"

At that, Joe couldn't help but suggest a little playfully, despite everything: "I should probably hug you more often."

There was a beat before Anis' grip on the man tightened yet further, and she let out a small giggle, burying her face into his shoulder. "...The Legendary Commander likes hugging me…" she noted in a quiet, gleeful tone.

While some people might look upon the little exchange between Joe and Anis right then, cry foul given the situation surrounding them… Anyone that had experienced real hardship knew that, in the moment, when everything was going bad and stress was high, it was absolutely essential to allow oneself a moment of levity; let some of that building pressure relieve itself, rather than keep rising to a potential boiling point.

The difference it could make couldn't be understated, and… well, Joe certainly felt a lot better, despite still being intensely worried about Rapi and Marian. "Thanks, Anis," he said as he gave the short blonde an appreciative squeeze.

With a pleased little huff, she replied in turn: "Thanks, Commander."

Despite the seeming finality of their exchange of appreciation, the two maintained the hug for a good while after that, Joe finally pulling back, to a visible bit of dismay from Anis.

"Alright," he started, shifting forward to settle on his feet. "I'm… sore," he declared with a low grimace, "but I'm not in pain, and everything feels like it's working like it should, so, let's go check on Scarlet." Because Joe did want to check on Scarlet, given that Snow White forbade her from going outside for concern that she may be in need of medical attention- or, er, maintenance-? Fuck it, medical attention like Rapi, but just had to wait for her turn.

Yet also because idle hands were the Devil's playthings, and that held especially true in terms of how just sitting around and brooding when things were tense was a really good way to let dismay and depression get its hooks in your mind. Occupying one's self at times like these was the smart thing to do.

"Okay, she was just sitting outside of the room where Snow White's working on Rapi," Anis declared as she stepped aside to give Joe a path to the door. "She should still be right there."

"Well then, let's mosey," Joe suggested as he started off, the door automatically sliding open to reveal a plain, unremarkable steel and concrete hall.

With a small snort of amusement, Anis replied with a slight southern accent: "Giddy up, pardner," poking fun at Joe's country boy turn of phrase.

Joe was really glad that Anis was around right then.

---

"Ah, didst thou sleep well, Commander?" Scarlet asked from the spot where she'd sat on the floor with her back to the wall - just next to a door which was emblazoned with a sign declaring 'EMERGENCY DEEP FREEZE.'

Though said sign was covered by a smaller one, hand-made, printed on plain white cardboard, written on it was "Alice's Super-Supreme Special Bedchamber" in bubbly, cartoony pink writing, with said writing itself surrounded by childishly cute bunny drawings.

Joe wasn't sure what to make of that, and so, focused on Scarlet, moving to settle down next to her. "So… that didn't go well." he noted dryly.

Anis remained on her feet, glancing up at the door anxiously.

"Yes, utter fools Snow White and I proved ourselves to be, having allowed ourselves to grow gluttonous in your return, and the feeling of being awash in thy empowering presence…" the swordswoman let out a long, worn-down sigh. "Even despite knowing full well how wretched our state is, we chose to forget our situation, and act as though we were at our prime once more. Utter buffoons, we proved ourselves to be."

Her massive conical hat was set on the opposite side of the door. Presumably because it would be impossible for her to rest her back against the wall were she wearing it.

Joe halted, blinking owlishly before he turned to look directly at Scarlet. "...What do you mean by that?" he inquired.

"We've not had access to proper maintenance facilities nor proper materials to sustain and maintain ourselves for… many countless moons, now," the grey-haired Nikke admitted in aggravation. "Though an engineering savant Snow White may be, scraps are scraps. And scraps may only go so far in keeping a Nikke, least of all those of our calibre, in working order."

With that statement, Scarlet lifted and proudly presented her sword before continuing.

"As fate would decree, however, Fleetly Fading is far less demanding in its needs compared to mine. Therefore: while I am myself operating at but a fraction of my true capabilities, much as Snow White is, my blade is as keen as the day it was forged. Why, dare I admit, it may just be me holding my weapon back at this point!" she declared with a mirthful huff, settling the enormous single-edged sword on her lap. "Sadly, the others are not so blessed, and their weapons are… yet functional, if nothing else, to put it diplomatically."

Anis idly rubbed her nose as she interjected. "Well, I guess that explains how you two got decked so easily, despite being, well… Goddess," she noted grimly.

"Formerly Goddess," Scarlet corrected the blonde matter-of-factually, looking up . "We are Pioneer, now. Goddess was… We were Goddess when we were an entire squad. It did not seem right to keep the name once we were no longer whole." Directing an index finger skywards, she continued with a confident declaration: "Though correct thou art - were I at my true strength, when coupled with the Commander's presence, the one-sidedness of our encounter with the Heretic would have been lop-sided in my favour! This, I can declare with absolute certainty!" the self-proclaimed 'former' Goddess asserted with supreme confidence, despite having just had her ass handed to her with cartoonish ease.

Yet, again, Joe found his attention falling squarely on the other point Scarlet kept mentioning, but had yet to elaborate on. "I didn't even do anything," he very bitterly noted. "Why do you keep acting like I wasn't completely useless in all three of those fights?"

Scarlet's gaze snapped to Joe, and she stared at him for a good long couple of seconds. "...Joe," she eventually spoke up, more than a little warily. "Do you… do you not recall-" head tilting, she then stared incredulously. "Nay, such is not possible - thy purpose amidst Goddess would not have been forgotten, surely?"

As Joe stared blankly in utter non-comprehension, Anis was the one that responded, catching Scarlet's attention. "Um, Commander? Does this… have anything to do with that whole 'amnesia' thing you had going on when we first met?"

Scarlet's eyes went wide as her gaze harshly snapped back to Joe, lips parting in no small amount of sudden horror.

Yeah, this was bound to come up sooner or later. "...I suppose it would," Joe nodded shallowly before elaborating to Scarlet. "Yeah, I have amnesia. I don't remember… most of my actual time with Goddess. Stuff is… coming back to me, slowly. But I'm honestly pretty ignorant about how I'm supposed to have been so 'legendary' as a Commander in the first place."

Scarlet looked, simply put, resigned. "Yes, of course, a wish so brilliantly granted would have to reveal that it was made upon a monkey's paw…" sighing deeply, the swordswoman nodded. "Well, though thy memories may have been lost, they have not been lost in their entirety - fate ordained that thy would remember us, and thy heart remains, so… 'tis fine. Still, we are blessed by thy return, dearest Commander. Thy heart is far and away what is most precious about thee, regardless."

"What…" Joe was openly confused now. "Scarlet, I don't even remember whatever training I received that led me to being your Commander. I… I'm flying by the seat of my pants here. How is it not important that I've basically been reduced to being a civilian again? I don't think I'm qualified to be a Commander at this point, even…" he admitted.

"...Truly," Scarlet began, actually smiling in some measure of amusement as she turned and looked at Joe again. "Thy memories are in fact gone, to believe that such a thing matters, ever mattered."

Anis was looking at Scarlet like she was stupid, which Joe… was also actually doing. "...You're not making any sense," the Commander declared. "I don't remember how I directed any of you in combat. I-"

"Commander," Scarlet cut him off. "You did not direct us in combat, and outside of a few rare emergencies, you never did. Such was not thy purpose. You were a 'Commander' in title only, Lilith's figurehead, your presence meant to trick and placate the Central Government. It was she, and later Dorothy that was our tactical mastermind in truth, which the Central Government did not care for. 'A Nikke, commanding Nikkes? Absurd! Obscene! This cannot be tolerated, she cannot be trusted! A weapon cannot wield a weapon! A human must hold a weapon.' Such is the clearest truth, yes?"

The swordswoman continued to stare at Joe, taking in his wide-eyed reaction, and chuckling at it before continuing.

"Though you did have thy moments of clever brilliance in the midst of battles… Joe, it was the bonds you forged with us that made you so very important. Nikkes are empowered by love. Both received, and given. Preposterous as it sounds, it is the honest truth. We have measured it. We had to, after a point, when all of us continued to exceed all of our apparent limitations continuously with little apparent cause."

Shifting in place to make herself more comfortable, Scarlet continued.

"When the correlation between the strength of our bonds with you, and our raw might in combat continued to make itself so very clear - particularly when you accompanied us into battle, overtly and explicitly entrusted your life to us… Your care, your insistence on seeing us as fellow human beings, as people worthy and deserving of love, adoration, respect, support and consideration… We were comforting fairy tales to the masses. Yet in thy presence, Joe, we were elevated to Goddesses of Victory. Such is the reason you are our Commander, even despite the particular lack of actual commanding you did. Such was Lilith's insistence, at least. And her word was ultimately law."

Joe was staring at Scarlet blankly. Eyes wide, bereft of expression. Eventually, he did finally reply, however it was… "Bullshit."

…Terse.

At that, Scarlet laughed aloud and uproariously. Head tilted back, she allowed herself to chortle like a woman gone mad until she wheezed. Gradually calming down, she met Joe's gaze again, and with a wide, beaming smile, she suggested: "What, pray tell then, Commander, do you believe it was that allowed Marian to break free from the Corruption, overcome her implanted Heresy, and act in thy best interests despite the ingrained genocidal hatred of mankind all Heretics have? However briefly, Joe… the touch of her Commander gave her the strength to return. A Commander who, if Anis has been truthful with me, she dearly cherished."

…Ah. Oh. That…

No, that couldn't be it. The power of love? Seriously? That… this wasn't that sort of world. This wasn't a world of magic, of supernatural forces. It was one of hard science, where bullets, armour, and technology were what preserved mankind. Nikkes were themselves full-body cyborgs, creations of science, technological marvels. How could something as incorporeal as 'love' actually truly, measurably augment their capacity to fight?

Yet… Marian. If it was true, if that was actually the honest truth-

Joe jumped when Scarlet's fingers intertwined with his, and she presented a supportive smile to him. "We may know Marian not. But she is important to you. That is enough for us to know that we must, and shall earnestly fight to purify her, Commander. Thou have already shown us that the possibility is there, to defeat the Heretic that has taken control of a Nikke, freeing her in so doing… Once more, you've shown to us that miracles can happen. And this miracle, we intend to aid you in bringing to fruition."

Joe remained silent, terribly overwhelmed by everything Scarlet had just revealed to him.

Still, he remained silent, when an equally overloaded Anis brusquely set herself down alongside him, taking a deep breath and mirroring Scarlet's motion - entangling her fingers with Joe's remaining hand, remaining quiet… but demonstrating that she too, was there for him.

The power of love… the power of bonds, huh? What a comforting notion.

If only such a ridiculous idea could be true...