Creeps from the deep

Posted originally on the Archive of Our Own at http://archiveofourown.org/works/33828115.

Rating: Explicit
Archive Warning: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Category: F/M
Fandom: XCOM (Video Games) & Related Fandoms
Relationship: Viper (XCOM)/Original Male Character(s), Viper (XCOM)/Original
Character(s)
Character: Viper (XCOM)
Additional Tags: Eventual Smut
Stats: Published: 2021-09-12 Updated: 2022-01-14 Chapters: 11/? Words:
60210

Creeps from the deep

by Snussy_Loving_Heretic

Summary

It has been several years since the defeat of ADVENT and the earth is finally at some
semblance of peace. Strange Occurrences begin to plague the remaining civilizations of
humanity and aliens alike as something sinister brews beneath the ocean's surface waiting to
strike without mercy. Everything rests on the collective shoulders of one squad and how
well they can work together to stop the oncoming threat before it's too late or will the world
drown in the depth?

Notes

I will try to keep chapter releases pretty regular though I'll be sure to say if something has
changed or not, I'm also no grammar master so I apologize about that in advance and I do
hope you enjoy my humble story. I would also love whatever thoughts and critiques people
have for me.
 Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Reporting for Duty (XJ-5)

Today was the day I was finally getting assigned to a squad. It had been my wish ever since I’d
been taken in by Xcom after they rescued me from that ADVENT facility I had been stationed at,
initially things were onto a bit of a rocky start, though I couldn’t blame them considering an
ADVENT combat mech up and converts, turning on its former masters and wanting to join their
resistance, miraculously gaining free will? I would’ve been incredibly skeptical had I been in their
shoes that day as well. After what seemed like an eternity of tests and experiments on my A.I., I
was allowed to help people like Shen with her tinkering and messing around with other ADVENT
technology that was pillaged during battles or left behind in their possession. It didn’t hurt that I
had quite the knowledge on the subject matter, but while worthy work, I found myself longing for
more ways to help, surely I could do more with my hands and intellect. I didn’t really know where
it came from, surprising for a being such as myself but I decided to work up enough courage to
approach the commander and put in a request to get transferred to a squad in the field, trying to
save lives, maybe make up for what ADVENT had done.

Now here I was, on the transport that would take me to the base where I’d begin a new chapter of
my life. I’m most certainly excited although I can’t deny that there’s just a hint of anxiety at
meeting my team and the others on site. Interaction with people had never fully been my strong suit
though I try to be as friendly as possible given my appearance. I figure that some music might help
relieve my worries, with a thought I turn on my earpiece and select a playlist I’d been
recommended by shen during our time working together. She was the one who’d gotten me into it
in the first place and I can’t say I’m disappointed in her musical tastes either. It certainly helped
sooth my electrical nerves, as the transport occasionally jostled and rocked due to the turbulence
outside as if to match the beat of the song I currently listening to. Leaning back once again, I was
ready for the long haul, patiently waiting for our arrival. It only felt like 30 minutes had passed by,
but I heard the pilot call out that we were finally at our destination and would be setting down
shortly.

Checking my internal display clock, I was curious to see how much time had elapsed will I was
jamming out. 3 hours, not bad, I was thankful I had something to keep me safe from the clutches of
utter boredom on the trip. Our landing wasn’t very remarkable, but I felt that was probably a good
thing, just then the rear bay door opened up with a hiss and the clunking of metal against concrete
runway rang out, sunlight filling the cabin. While not in possession of muscles, it was still nice to
be able to stretch my legs out and move around. Picking up the rather small bag that held what
little possessions I owned, the only things I had deemed necessary, such as tools for maintenance
on my body or working on pieces of ADVENT tech. Standing up straight and banishing the
worries from my mind, I strode forward out of the transport and into my new world.

“I have to make a good impression”, I muttered to myself.

Observing my surroundings I saw quite a few familiar sights but with a distinct lack of ADVENT
insignias and mechs, this place must be a reclaimed ADVENT base similar to the one I’d be kept
in. The large fortified walls making up the perimeter with its intimidating size which was enough to
make a muton feel small, the storage buildings for vehicles and facility upkeep equipment, the
heavy vehicle depot, and the most unforgettable structure, the operations center. Finished
reminiscing on old memories from my past, I began to make my way to the main building, the last
thing I wanted was to keep my new commanding officer awaiting, pissing them off definitely
wasn’t what I wanted now. As I made my B-line towards the main building I noticed something
rather interesting that I hadn’t before. I wasn’t just seeing humans performing work here, it wasn’t
even repurposed mechs that normally would’ve killed the resistance members on sight either, it
was the fact that many other ADVENT soldiers, or rather former soldier races were assisting in
tasks around the site. From sectoids using telekinetics to help mutons and other humans move
around massive crates and equipment, to vipers taking stock of inventory. Thankfully I wasn’t able
to show my surprise, though perhaps I should work on in the future so I don’t seem creepy. Not
breaking my stride, I cursed to myself for how damn far we’d landed from where I had need to get,
I wasn’t tired by any stretch but being late would not look good so I slightly picked up my pace,
taking longer strides.

Trying to seem calm and collected despite my speed walk to avoid tardiness, as soon as I opened
those reinforced doors, I was greeted by a receptionist, a muton with large almost comically sized
rimmed glasses, he didn’t even look up from the magazine he was deeply invested in.

“Elevator to your right, 4th floor, the commander will see you there for introductions.” He gestured
to a hallway with two elevators at the end of it.

A quick thank you was all I managed to say before I spun on my heels and aiming for the elevators
I sped down the hallway, arm partially outstretched to push the up button. Just as I was about to
strike the button however, there was a flash of black smoke that exploded in front of me and in an
instant I crashed into something, or rather someone? I let out a startled curse as someone groaned
from getting plowed over by my large metal ass. As the odd smelling smoke cleared away, I
quickly bent down and hoisted my victim up to their feet,

“I’m so terribly sorry for that, I didn’t think someone would just appear like that in front of me to
get barreled down.” I apologized profusely to the pointy eared stranger.

Great my second encounter with someone here and I nearly trample them to death. Now this was
something I’d not seen before as I began to look the man over, I assumed it was a safe bet to safe
he was ADVENT in origin though I wasn’t sure what he’d been made with. His skin had an odd
texture to it that I couldn’t find words for and was jet black, his pointed ears didn’t strike me as too
strange when compared to his shining yellow hazed eyes. He spoke with a smile on his face,

“Oh no no, it’s my fault, I’ve caused issues like this before when teleporting without thinking who
I may get in the way of, if anything I should be apologizing my friend.”

Calling the elevator after that incident behind us, we got to talking more as we seemed to be going
to the same place, he spoke with an accent, my best guess is German though I’d have to check later
as I didn’t wish to seem rude and ask.

“Again I apologize, don’t take this the wrong way but if I may ask, would you happen to be here as
the newest member of Patchwork squad? Id heard it was going to be some sort of mech unit but I
didn’t want to assume since...”

I finished his question as he trailed off for a second. “No need to apologize again, I’m well aware
that ADVENT mechs of my kind can look incredibly similar, it’s one of the main reasons I’ve been
working to look more distinguishable though I’m still working on that and yes I am that mech. By
the way I don’t think I caught your name?”

He was more than happy as he offered me his hand to shake, “I am Xavier, it’s a pleasure to meet
you.”

I was happy to meet someone that was this polite, it certainly was a surprise but a welcome one to
be sure, I gave him a firm hand shake and offered my name as the elevator stopped at the 4th floor,
“My designation is XJ-5 but you may call me whatever you prefer, it doesn’t bother me.” My
answer made him happy and in a flash he was gone, he mentioned something about seeing me soon
before he left.

Stepping out of the elevator and following the hall to a set of large doors which had a sign labeled
“Gym and training center” next to it. Shrugging internally to myself, I figured this was the place,
with a quick check of my clock to make sure I wasn’t late, good thing I had, I was making good
time. With a light push, both dull grey metal doors swung open and I entered the brightly lit room
due to the windows high above. True to its function, there was exercise and training equipment
grouped and organized neatly into sections for efficient use of space. What really stood out was the
large structure of to the right side of the room which had a small gathering of people on it, I figured
they must be who I was supposed to meet up here, couldn’t hurt to ask anyways. While I
approached what seemed to be a super sized boxing ring, I began to analyze the group before me
and perhaps seeing if any of them had the look of a commander to them.

Before I could reach my own answer on the matter, a middle aged looking man, the more official
looking among them waved towards me shouting for me.

“You the new blood? Get yer arse over here son, we got some discussing to do.” Satisfied with that
answer, I increased up my pace to speed walking and it didn’t take a moment too soon to reach the
ring.

Mechanical tendrils sprouted from their home inside the pack attached to my back and boosted me
up into the ring with little effort. I knew I was right to add those modifications as they made
traveling just a bit easier and for good entrances apparently.

“Unit XJ-5 reporting for duty Sir! Apologies if I kept you waiting Sir!” I stood at attention as soon
as I touched down.

He chuckled to himself as he adjusted his shades to fit more comfortably on his nose, “Don’t you
worry son, I wanted to make sure no one was late in greeting our newest recruit since they all live
here.” He made a wide gesture with his hands to the others that were standing with him.

“Go on now don’t be shy, give us a proper introduction for yerself.” The others waited in
anticipation with the commander as he retrieved a small electronic device from a breast pocket and
took a puff from it.

“Yes Sir, as you already know my ‘name’ is XJ-5 but you all may refer to me as you wish if it is an
inconvenience. I was originally an ADVENT variant combat mech built and stationed in South
America. During a firefight between a local resistance cell and my squad, I was damaged in the
attack and it somehow it led to my new found sentience.” Even to this day, Xcom technicians and
myself are still unsure how that even came to be, but I continued to speak.

“It was like waking up from a hazy dream that you couldn’t control, finally fully aware of myself, I
found I’d begun to question what I was doing for the elder, it was distasteful as you say. Thus I
turned on my masters, and is how I came to be in your service.” That was all there really was to it, I
waited expectantly for whatever reactions or questions I might get from the others.

The first to pipe up among the group was the viper, blue eyes squinting in skepticism with a hand
raised to her chin, a look I’d come to know well before. “So you just miraculously gained feelings
and a conscious all at once? Get real with us, what’s actually up with you?” She let out a sound that
I guessed was how vipers scoffed in disbelief, as she crossed her arms, glaring plasma bolts straight
into me.
A familiar voice came to my defense as I just now realized he was here with us, though I could’ve
sworn I hadn’t initially seen him among the group when I first entered the gym, strange. “Hey
now, don’t act so rude Violet, he wouldn’t be here if he’d been a spy, Chen would’ve spotted if
something was fishy about him. Besides he’s quite polite consider our earlier interaction.”

Had I the ability to smile in relief at that moment I would’ve, it was Xavier. I was happy to see him
again and that I might have made a friend already. Violet as I now knew her to be, huffed in
annoyance and looked away from me now.

“Why yah gotta make me out to be the bad viper here? It’s not my fault it sounds too good to be
true while I look out for our well-being.”

Xavier stepped forward to introduce himself next with smiling at the situation consider we’d just
meet not 12 minutes ago. “I do believe you already know my name but allow me to tell you my
tale, though I’m not fully aware of all the details with my origins. I’m possibly from Germany since
it’s where Xcom found me, as I liked to play pranks on people that came too close to my makeshift
home.” He chuckled as he reminisced on the memories.

“So do be warned my friend, I love to joke around so I hope you have a good sense of humor, and
don’t mind miss grumpy over there. She’s just mad from a small prank I pulled on her earlier.” He
laughed a bit heartier at that and turned to the Sectoid of the group and lowered his palm, promptly
receiving a high five, four? From the little blue man as he laughed with Xavier.

More annoyed than before, Violet let out a low hiss to match her mood as the Sectoid Stepped
forward as it was his turn now. He must’ve been an invasion era Sectoid given his appearance as
far as I could tell, I was honestly surprised he was still alive given ADVENT’s opinion of outdated
models regarding their soldiers.

“Hello! You can call me Ivan! And this here is my dad!” He gestured to the gruff older looking
human that stood behind him.

That caught me off guard, he came from a human? He must mean adoptive, and from the sound of
it in sectoid terms he sounded incredibly young. I didn’t want to even ponder what they could’ve
meant for ADVENT.

“I was originally part of the Invasion but as I came down in my drop pod, something went wrong
and I went far off course and landed in Siberia. By the time I was awakened, the invasion was over
and ADVENT was in control, I would’ve died of it wasn’t for my dad, Dmitri. He took care of me
even though I wasn’t really his child and treated me like one.”

It was certainly a heartwarming story for whatever I could call my heart. A human raising an alien
child and protecting them from his own government? It was just another example of good will that
I wanted to follow as well.

“Eventually father got into contact with Xcom and in return for our cooperation as they wished to
study and understand me, they’d keep us safe from the government of father’s homeland and
ADVENT recycling squads.” Finished with his story, the youngster turned to the viper that
towered over him to his right, giving her a look that said it was her turn.

She let out a small sigh, she didn’t seem too enthusiastic about talking to a potential spy but she
couldn’t refuse the pleading look from the kid.

“The names Violet if you couldn’t tell from earlier.” She glared at Xavier as she said that before
returning her gaze to me. “I was originally an ADVENT soldier just like the vast majority of my
sisters in arms. However after the elders control over all of us ended, we got our free will back and
could think for ourselves finally. I liked fighting however as did many of us, and with the
chrysalids and other leftovers that didn’t have high brain functions still a threat to everyone, many
of us decided to continue that fight on way or another.”

I thought she had finished and was about to speak again but it seemed that she still had one last
point to make to me.

“And I swear if you’re actually a spy or try any pranks like Xavier, I will turn you into my target
practice. Got that Tin man?”

I didn’t feel like receiving more of her ire than I already had by simply standing before her. “No
pranks on you, got it!” I nodded my head to affirm my understanding to her.

The commander cleared his throat and spoke up once again. “With the introductions out of the
way, I’d like to formally welcome yah to Patchwork squad XJ, this yer new home now.”
 Training
Chapter Summary

Introduced to his new teammates, XJ-5 will experience an example of what it is like to
work with his squad and to prove his worthiness not just to them but also himself.

Chapter Notes

I've currently got the first five chapters and one interlude done for now so I'll get those
set up for browsing. In the meantime I'm a quarter of the way done with chapter six,
and as always thanks for giving this story a read.

Chapter 2: Adjusting (XJ-5)

“With that out of the way, Violet, why don’t you show XJ to his quarters, you could use the
interaction. After you have some time to get all situated, we’ll call yah up here again for some
group training.”

The commander took another huff from the strange electronic cigar I guessed, before he continued.

“Gotta get everyone used to how yah do things before doing any field missions together. Don’t
want any mishaps like what happened when Xavier joined.”

I’d have to ask about that later as Xavier and Ivan’s father both chuckled softly at the mention of it.
Violet however didn’t seem very thrilled with her orders, it looked like she was about to protest but
stopped short, using her scaly hands to rub her temples before she slithered past me without her
warning. Everyone started to go their own ways now, and not wanting to get left behind by the
speeding viper, I leapt over the side of the ring and exerted myself a bit more to catch up to her.
Once we were out into the hallway she slowed her pace though only slightly due to not wanting
crash into the walls from her speed. It was now that I finally got a chance to really got a chance to
analyze her without getting caught staring despite my lack of visible eyes, it wasn’t quite obvious
from a frontal view however, examining her back I was able to see how she came by her name, a
unique scale pattern i hadn’t seen among the majority of viper soldiers, and not standard coloring
either. She had a mixture purples, blacks, and deep blues, all of which blended together well on her
back scales if I did say so. I was not what some would call an expert in the field of artistry, however
one couldn’t deny art like this if they saw it.

I decided to break the odd silence as we walked towards the elevator, perhaps I could find
something to use to turn things towards a more positive attitude for her. I wasn’t too sure if it
would work but you can’t know unless you try as they say.

“Despite what you may think of me, do know that I’m looking forward to working with the
squad...” I was cut off abruptly before I could finish my sentence.

“That’s good for you and all but while you may have the others around here satisfied and trusting
you, I’m still not convinced by this act.” I was pushed back into the elevator with a clawed finger
pressed against my chest plating. I was sure as hell wishing this wouldn’t end in an elevator brawl
like you’d see in a movie.

“I can smell it on you, something’s not right with you ‘Machine’ you’re lying about something but
I just can’t tell what it is yet. Rest assured though that I will find out what you’re hiding from us.”
Her tongue flicked out as if to emphasize her point before she thumbed the third floor button,
causing us to begin our descent. If it were possible for looks to have power, I’m sure she would’ve
melted away my facial plating with how she was glaring at me, inches from my face.

“I’m uhhhh sorry you feel that way, I was hoping to try and smooth things over between us since
we’re going to have to rely on each other during missions. Is there something I could do perhaps to
ease your concerns?” I was grasping for straws at this point, hoping she might take that and give
me something to work with, I didn’t fancy getting thrown from an elevator even if it wouldn’t
injure my chassis by much.

“Psshhh as if, that’s exactly the kinda thing a spy would ask just to get their victim to lower their
guard.” The elevator dinged, finally at the intended floor, I was nearly flung out onto the floor by
the pissed viper as she continued down the hall and taking many turns while I quickly followed
suit. Hmmm this wasn’t looking up as much as I had initially hoped it would’ve. Perhaps there is
still something I could try to win her over, maybe violence was the solution to this particular issue
she had with me.

“Then perhaps a challenge? After training how about you and I have a sparring match together. It’d
be a good way to relieve some stress and see if you’re as good at fighting as you are at being
rude.” By the way she twitched and huffed angrily as soon as I said that, I was certain I’d finally
gotten through to her, now to see if I can fold up the situation perfectly.

“Hah! You really think you can take me on tin suit? You know what? You’re on, but let’s make
things a bit more interesting.” She had a devilish look in her eyes and the smile to match, it’s one of
the most unnerving I’ve seen and I wasn’t sure if I liked where this was going.

“Whoever wins the sparring match has to do something requested by the winner to the letter,
within reason of course but what do you say?” She extended a clawed hand to me to shake on our
little bet, I most definitely wasn’t going to back down now, especially if I had a chance to knock
her ego and attitude down a healthy peg or two.

“Interesting proposal, I think I will just have to take you up on that. I do hope you won’t back out
of it though when I win, I already have a few terribly ‘evil’ ideas lined up.” I did my best to add a
tone of sarcasm to that last bit as I firmly shook her hand and sealing our bet properly.

She actually chuckled, like genuinely so, I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t just seen it. Perhaps
she isn’t so bad after all if I can manage to get her to laugh a little, it’s progress in baby steps but it
is better than nothing. Stopping after a few more minutes of walking in silence, she gestures to the
door in front of her and pressed a button on the wall console, the door to my room opening up
quickly after.

“Here’s your room, you can decorate it as you like for the most part, if you need anything you’ll
get sent everyone’s contact info. Oh and don’t let me catch you doing anything suspicious or
else...” It was nice to see she wasn’t completely livid with my existence anymore, on one hand it
was a nice change of pace but on the other hand it still put me on guard in case I was walking into
some kind of trap.

“Thank you for showing me to my room, I eagerly look forward to promptly annihilating you in
our upcoming match.” She laughed hard enough that you would have thought she just heard the
funniest joke of the decade. It took me aback just a bit but she quickly regained her composure
before speaking up again.

“Keep telling yourself that, just don’t self destruct after you get your shiny metal ass kicked good
and hard. I’ll be seeing you soon.” Finished talking smack with each other we went our separate
ways for now. Heading inside I began to examine my room in peace, it was quite spacious from
what I’d expected to get. A large bed, probably to compensate for the different sizes of aliens and
people that possibly could have slept here at any given time, a barren metal writing and work desk
with a lamp for better lighting, holographic windows so as not to provide a weak point into the
building, and a closet for storage. While I hadn’t the need for clothes I would certainly make use of
it for storing whatever personal projects I’d work on while here. Speaking of which, setting my
small tattered bag of personal possessions on the work table as I had some things to take care of.
Getting my fabrication gun out, a handy tool for building and repairing parts of my body so to
speak, I got to work on something I’d been meaning to work on for some time. Not sure how much
time I really had before training and not wanting to make huge changes for this, I worked hastily.

Bringing a hand to my faceplate, with a simple motion I detached my neural circuits safely from
my neck before removing my head from my chassis. I wanted to do a simple cosmetic surgery in a
manner of speaking, and with skillful precision afforded to one with robotic reflexes, I began to
fabricate plate after tiny plate of armor, each unique in shape and function. I would aliken this to
putting together an intricate puzzle with little room for error. It took me two hours but I’d finished
my first task, good but I still hadn’t been summoned for our training exercise, taking it as a sign to
continue my work I don’t take a break. Switching settings on my tool, a small plasma blade lances
out from the end and I begin my sculpting work. I found this part to be a bit harder than the
fabrication as I had to be careful not to accidentally scorch my earlier work, thankfully I hadn’t
when I leaned back to appraise my work.

I would have let out a satisfied sigh if my head wasn’t currently detached. Gently picking my head
up, I fumbled with a few wires before putting it back into place and powering it up once again.
Heading over to the mirror next to the closet to see how I looked, I was pleased with my work. Just
as I was getting into fully admiring the good work I’d done on my face plating, I saw the ping
appear in my HUD display, it was time to train finally and I was excited to show what I’d worked
on to my companions.

Entering the gym once again, I could see I was the third to arrive, Ivan and his father beating me
here. Getting closer and judging by their surprised reactions, I believed my work to be a success.

“So Ivan what do you think? I wanted to seem more friendly so while I waited for the call, I made
myself an actual face!” To be more accurate I’d fabricated a large amount of those small plates to
move and shift to make the appearance of a face and could contort to make facial expressions
while powered by my reactor core, they could also change function and become a facial shield to
protect against enemy fire. It was simplistic in design and had no nose but sometimes I liked
simplicity.

“It looks great XJ! You’re not super scary as you used to be.” He was honest but I could
understand where he was coming from, the expressionless faceplate of an attack bot certainly
didn’t convey goodwill and friendship. “Do not be rude now Ivan, it may have been scary but you
also do not have to tell him in such a way.” He spoke in a soft, calm tone as he leveled himself with
his son as he explained understandingly to the boy.

“Ohhh, I’m sorry XJ I didn’t mean it like that, I’ve been trying to get better at communicating to
others and how to talk politely.” I still could not get over how touching this relationship was to see,
truly something I wanted to see more of humanity achieve.

“It’s ok kiddo, it’ll take a lot more than that to hurt my feelings, trust me you should see how
aggressive Violet was with me. Speaking of which, she and I are going to have a friendly sparring
match if you wanna watch after our training run.” He seemed to light up at the sound of that whilst
his father just curled his mustache in intrigue as he raised and eyebrow at that.

We spent the rest of our time chatting about things that interested him while we waited for the
others to arrive as we’d gotten there rather early it seemed. I found out that he liked to figure out
how to build and take things apart like puzzles since they provided a challenge for him to solve, he
also had an addiction to video games and often played them with his father, and invited me to
come by his room sometime to play a game called Mortal Kombat with him sometime, I informed
him I would love to accept that offer and that he’d have to help teach me. Dmitri smiled at that, I’d
have to talk to him sometime but before I got the chance to say something to him, we all heard the
familiar bamf that indicated the arrival of our friend and squad mate Xavier. He apologized for
making of wait for him as he’d been putting the finishing touches on his weapons during his
cleaning of them for our practice. For the first time I heard Dmitri speak since I’d arrived here.

“I would prefer your weaponry be in top shape and you being late than the other way around
Xavier. Now we just need Violet and we will start our exercise for the day. To welcome XJ in and
show how we fight and see how he does as well, we can determine the best way we can work
together in the field.” He curled his mustache as he talked and addressed us all.

That sounded good to me, I really hadn’t developed a style of combat personally, but during my
flight here, I spent the hours pouring over old videos and footage of fighting styles and tactics.
Analyzing them and picking out what to keep and memorize to use when I had finally gotten to this
moment. It was not too long after Xavier arrived that Violet made her entry to the gym, slithering as
a blur to the training sim area we were at.

Dmitri nodded at her before turning to face everyone and beginning his briefing. “Alright while
everyone else may know this deal already, I’m going to recap for XJ before we start up. I’m squad
leader to clear that up for you, Ivan is psionic support who stays in the back with me as I provide
sniper support and overwatch.”

He motioned to Xavier next. “Xavier is our resident CQC specialist, using his abilities to get in
close for shock and awe.”

He gestured to Violet next. “Violet follows a somewhat similar role with Xavier however she
works with both close and medium ranged weaponry, mainly seeking out those left by Xavier for
her to handle or hunting targets for non lethal takedown. Now why don’t you tell us about how you
fight so we can figure out how to use you?”

“To be fully honest while I don’t have a fighting style for combat of my own as of yet, I analyzed a
great deal of combat and fighting data on my way here so I have knowledge on all of that.” I put a
finger to my chin as my expression shifted to one of deep thought.

“My strengths in battle would be the raw power of my chassis and limbs, the four extra
manipulator arms on my back pack, my ability to handle weapon fire and act as a shield, and my
combat analysis of enemy weapons and tactics, my reaction time is far superior to that of organics.”

Holding up both of my arms for the others to see, they shifted rapidly releasing a bit of steam, in
place of my forearms, I had two medium looking plasma casters of my own design. “I also
designed these when I heard I’d be coming here with Shen’s help, our own brain child. Fully
concealable if we need and should be undetectable to our enemies.”
He seemed quite pleased to hear all of that. “You’ll be our heavy unit then, breaching and
providing cover fire to the others among other protective duties if you think you can handle that?”

It didn’t sound so bad, if there was any way to prove my dedication to the squad what better way
than being their shield. “Since you put it that way how could I refuse? I would gladly be your
bulwark against enemy fire. Shall we begin?”

Dmitri nodded his head in confirmation. “Yep, we’ll be starting tonight with a simple game of
capture the flag. We have to fight our way through a hoard of enemies to reach their flag at the top
of the battlement.” He pointed towards a metal rod at the top of a rather large battlement with a
flashing tip, surrounded by gun turrets and many positions for snipers and enemies to hide in
cover. This was going to be fun one way or another.

Tapping away at the holo-display on his wrist, the training room closed up around them to seal
everyone in for safety purposes. It didn’t stay dark for long as lights flashed to life and the scenery
changed to take us to some city’s downtown, everything camouflaged to mimic it down to the
concrete. “Positions everyone, enemies inbound! XJ you’re up, we need cover fire!”

He didn’t need to tell me twice, I threw myself over our concrete divider cover, arms extended,
with one thought transforming them into their weapon configuration. I could see them as soon as I
vaulted over the divider, training bots armed with a wide variety of ballistic and plasma weaponry
rushing to their positions. I wasn’t going to give this first wave a chance to attack my squad, using
predictions of where their paths seemed to be taking them, I unleashed rapid fire volleys towards
those locations. Plasma arced unceasingly from the casters on the ends of each arm, all the while
making sure that I was in the path of incoming fire as I felt Xavier press himself against my back,
preparing to begin his assault as the snipers reached their perches and began to pepper my chassis
and head with weapon fire.

In a puff of smoke with his signature laugh though it was a bit more haunting this time as it echoed
around us, sniper fire beginning to lessen as they came face to face with Xavier’s twin swords.
Interesting, I didn’t take him to be one so adapt at swordplay but there he went, it was like
watching a professional dancer with the we he flowed past and around the groups of sniper bots.
Cutting them down with unnatural efficiency and precision. Hitting the point were I needed to let
my plasma casters cool off, I called out for support.

“Reloading! I’ll need a hand Dmitri!” In an instant I could hear and feel the rounds from Dmitri’s
rifle fly past my head to provide the necessary cover for me to allow my casters to cool off. Steam
hissed and released rapidly from the cooling vents, just as I was to begin returning fire as more
heavier bots were coming into view with the heavy guns to match. I felt another of my squad mates
taking cover behind my back, before I could register who it was, I saw the barrel of a modified
magnetic rifle come to rest on my right shoulder plate and Violet’s voice in my ear.

“Hold still, I’ll focus fire on those heavy gunners with you, think you can hold out against that for
me XJ?” I was a bit surprised by how I wasn’t currently being insulted or something similar but I
couldn’t think on such things now.

“You kidding me? I can handle anything their flashlights can throw at me, but I’ve got an idea, coil
up against my back with help from my manipulator arms!” I yelled back to Dmitri with a plan in
mind to push forward.

“Dmitri! Can you watch over Ivan? I’ve got a plan with Violet to help us punch a hole forward!” I
could hear his confirmation through my earpiece as he didn’t seem like someone to shout much.
Unsure but quickly cooling herself against my back with help from my four extra limbs to hold her
steady, I charged forward, straight towards the heavy gunners like a freight train with plasma
casters blazing in their direction. There was five of them in total, packing heavy plasma cannons, I
couldn’t tank those as easily as the smaller arms fire of the grunts but I’d be damned if I wouldn’t
test that limit. Thanks to using me fire cover and the distraction we caused, Dmitri began to rapidly
pick of the grunts with the help of Ivan who used his psionic to highlight their locations for him
and Xavier to dismantle with extreme prejudice. Seeing my plan now, Violet picked out the two
closest heavies and with deadly accuracy and speed, plugged their heads full of metal slugs.
Leaving the last three for myself while she reloaded quickly, I launched at them with a ferocity I
was unaware I could possess, seeing that they were too close together which was perfect for my
plan. They fired wildly, surprised by my illogical charge, two shots struck me at different points on
my chest plates, slamming hard and mercilessly, burning and painful, but my determination and
momentum proved the stronger. Shifting my arms back into their standard configuration, I swung
them open wide to receive the three bots into a crushing embrace, bringing my arms together with
all the force I could muster, I aimed for their necks and bringing all three together with the
crunching and distorting of their chassis as they fell victim to the deadly bear hug, their heads
coming free of their bodies.

I could’ve sworn I heard a chuckle come from Violet at that, but we had bigger problems to worry
about, while the remaining bots had been cleaned up, the sentry turrets which I was directly below
thrummed to life seeing that they were all that was left to keep us from the flag. I turned on my
heels as I heard the first of the rapid fire turrets begin to fire off at us, Violet hissed out in surprise
and pain as a round connected with her shoulder plating, thankfully I was fast enough to make sure
only the one shot struck her but now all I could do was act as a shield, my arms and body were
being beaten by a hailstorm of fire and I could feel my armor integrity giving fast.

“Xavier! Grab the flag while I distract them! Cant hold out much longer and Violet is hurt!” I
couldn’t see too well due to all the enemy fire let alone hear much, but I could never mistake the
sound of Xavier’s teleportation. In the span of a few seconds the fire stopped raining down on me
much to my relief, I slumped down, happy to have a moment of respite, before I could hit the
ground though I was caught by the passenger on my back.

“No slacking off yet XJ, we still gotta grab the flag together.” Her voice was stern but calming and
reassuring. I groaned as I pulled myself up with her assistance, seeing what caused the turrets to
stop shooting, each had been methodically destroyed, I assumed by Xavier’s hand to save me. I’d
have to thank him later for that, in an instant I could see him grabbing Dmitri and Ivan, teleporting
them to the top of the tower, not just waiting on us.

“Alright Violet, hold on tight, I’ll get us up there real quick now.” Coiling around my waist, she
secured herself and nodded for me to begin my climb. Deciding to show off just a little bit for the
fun of it, I climbed over the destroyed turrets using Xavier’s style of acrobatics, even with the
combined weights of the two of us, I took us to the top with little difficulty. All together at the top
of the tower with a hard fought victory and a fun one at that, each of us gripped the flag and hoisted
it free as a squad.
 After hours
Chapter Summary

Now having a taste of what teamwork is truly like, XJ experiences some downtime
with a few of his squamates out on the town.

Chapter 3: Fun and games (XJ-5)

The training exercise was over, it was more fun than I had expected and I couldn’t wait to do more
with the squad. For now though I would be content with the next upcoming fight, Dmitri and
Xavier had gone off to shower after our training, Ivan being the only one to stay behind to watch us
spar. I was patching up my armor with a fabrication tool before we began so it’d be a fresh start
when Violet slithered over with an odd grin on her reptilian lips.

“I hope you know I’ll be holding you to our earlier agreement, as I expect you would of me. I
swear though if you mention anything about the viper strip club in the city, I will shoot you with
my rifle.” I couldn’t help but laugh a bit at that, I wasn’t aware such establishments as viper strip
clubs even existed, information to follow up on a later date perhaps.

“Don’t worry I wouldn’t dream of it, not like I can really understand the feeling that organics refer
to as arousal anyway, or at least not in the physical sense. I can certainly feel it when admiring
cutting edge weaponry and analyzing their inner workings.”

She cast an annoyed look at me but satisfied with getting her point across we hopped into the ring.
We’d agreed on the rules before hand, whoever could get the other pinned for 10 seconds or
getting them to concede. Both of us nodded at each other as we got to respective sides of the
oversized ring, and with that confirmation the match began in a flash. Violet didn’t want to give me
a chance to ready myself, propelling herself towards me with those powerful muscles of hers, I
could feel as she coiled around my legs tightly before focusing her attention on my head trying to
disorientate me. By the time I had my hands grabbing at her coils that hugged my chassis, she was
already clamping her mouth around my head and shifting her body weight in an attempt to knock
me down.

It had almost worked on me, even with better reaction timing than hers she was still be able to
surprise me, I wouldn’t let that happen again but she already knew this. Digging my feet down into
the ring and slowly beginning to force myself upright again, I decided to try something she might
not have considered. Reaching down I found what I’d been looking for, her tail. I worked quick as
she once again tried to knock me over using my own weight against me by swinging her tail around
like a steel battering ram and striking my back with it. As she made contact with my back plating I
sprung my trap. The four extra arms I kept stored in my back shot forth in an instant, snaking
around her tail and securing her to my chassis. Now I could try to pin this slippery serpent, reaching
around her torso in her moment of shock and pulling her into a tight vice like hug. Similar I’m sure
to how she’d have tried to beat me had I been an organic. I made sure my output wasn’t enough to
cause permanent damage, but I had to make sure she couldn’t escape, but by hell she was trying. It
certainly felt odd to have her in such a vulnerable position as I could feel those powerful muscles
struggling for freedom.

Not having my footing now, we struggled back and forth with each other as Ivan cheered us
onwards from the stand, jumping and shouting. I would’ve responded back however in our epic
battle for dominance we were flying in every direction possible, that and Violet’s cloth clad breasts
were being aggressively smashed into my faceplate as we writhed and thrashed each other around,
making a conversation with Ivan rather difficult. If it weren’t for the confines of the ring, I’m
certain we would be able to throw ourselves towards Ivan to say Hi. I wasn’t sure if it was from
how absurd the situation was or some other factor but I began to laugh as we fought, Violet took
this moment to finally wrong her tail free from my extra arms, and now we were finally free of
each other, Violet began to laugh as well, it seemed to be contagious.

“I can still do this all day snake eyes, all I gotta do is tire you out till I can pin you well and good.”
A relaxed smile shone across my face, Violet slumped against her coils and the ropes of the ring,
she hissed at me though I was unsure what the emotion was behind it.

“I suppose I’ll allow you to be the victor this time around, but don’t let it go to your head. Next
time we do this I’ll win mark my words XJ. Now tell me what your request is, I’m interested to
hear what it is.”

Tapping my chin as I began to think through the list of things I’d come up with earlier, it only took
a moment but I picked the option I liked best and figured wouldn’t get me shot one way or another.

“Hmmm I do have some rather personal maintenance I need to perform on myself, an extra set of
hands would be deeply appreciated.” That and I was hoping it would function as a good way to
build more trust between us given the nature of what I needed to do. I don’t think she expected that
to be my request but she hadn’t voiced any displeasure and began to follow me out of the gym with
Ivan running up next to us and climbing onto my back for a free ride.

“Alright I’ll help you with whatever it is you need but don’t get any funny ideas from this.”

Ivan giggled at that before voicing his opinion. “It’s ok Violet, his intentions are well meaning, I
would’ve told you if he was planning anything bad for you.”

Violet seemed a bit more at ease after hearing that. Our first stop after exiting the elevator was to
drop off Ivan at his room, I waved to him and wished him a good night, then started making our
way to mine.

Entering my room, I began to get out the few tools I needed to do the same routine I was quite
familiar with at this point. Every so often I needed to make sure my internal components were still
in top condition, checking and repairing them as needed. Sitting down at my desk which would
function as my repair corner from now on, Violet slithered over and joined me, coiling her tail up to
form a chair for herself as she looked at me for instruction.

“I’m going to be performing some routine maintenance on my reactor core, it’ll go faster with you
here, and it’ll give us time to talk if you’d like.” Air hissed and escaped from the split that formed
down the center of my chest plates as they detached for ease of access. Fiddling around with my
innards, I quickly found what I was looking for, placing the glowing orb that was about the size of
a volleyball into Violet’s outstretched hands. It pulsed rhythmically like an organics heart would,
though mine pumped more volatile fluids than simple hemoglobin. With her holding it, I could
focus my attention on patching up my ‘veins’ and circuitry that connected to the reactor.

“Why are you trusting me with your heart? You know of my suspicion against you, I could kill you
by destroying this.” She was being genuine with me about her confusion that much I was certain
of, but I didn’t think it would’ve been this soon, but I wasn’t complaining.

“I am acutely aware of that, I do so because we are a squad aren’t we? We’re supposed to trust
each other with our lives.” I took a few seconds before continuing as I focused on an annoying area
of tubing to patch up. “It’s why I became a shield for everyone during the exercise even against
that live ammunition. I figured that would help us grow to trust each other more, but I thought this
would also help with that. If you really think I’m a spy then you can crush my reactor, I could do
little to stop it right now.”

Violet took a moment to think on my words while I moved from my reactor to the other sections
that also required a checkup. Judging from the lack of death I was feeling as I went about my
maintenance, perhaps she was warming up to me with this. I had caught her azure eyes glancing
between myself and the glowing heart she held in her hands, it looked like she’d made a decision
based on the expression she was wearing.

“You are....correct, no spy would go this far without giving off the subtle signs I’d pick up on. I
haven’t treated you as I should’ve, I don’t say this often so don’t rub it in but...I’m sorry XJ. Will
you accept this humble apology?” I looked up from my work to see she was staring into my new
eyes with an earnestness to her gaze, she truly meant it didn’t she? It would be rude not to accept it
after all that.

“Of course I accept it! Thank you for being able to do that, I wasn’t harboring any negative
feelings either way though. I’m just glad you finally see me as a squad mate rather than potential
traitor.” Finishing up my maintenance and getting my innards back into their proper place, I looked
at my clock, it was 9:00pm and was given an idea.

“Hey, why don’t we see who wants something to eat, I’ve looked into the places around the city
and I know a few highly reviewed places to get drinks.”

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more confused look in my existence than the one I was seeing right
now on Violet’s face.

“You’re a machine though, how would you drink or even eat with us? Unless you’re hiding
something from me?” She gave me quite the stare down with those strangely piercing and alluring
blue reptilian eyes of hers. All while eagerly waiting for whatever my response would be.

“It’s actually something Shen gave me during my time with her when we worked together on the
Avenger. It was a way to humanize me to the crew, we hooked up a small gadget she made to my
core, it converts alcohol into power as long as I’m not chugging it wildly with abandon.” It
certainly made for a fun party trick, memories coming back to mind about drinking with the few
friends I made during my time with Shen and Xcom, the looks on their faces when they saw a
mech drinking alcohol made my friend Danny laugh so hard her drink shot from her nostrils.

“I’ll call up the others and ask who would like to join us, I won’t force anyone to tag along but I
would hope everyone is available.” Humming to myself, I sent out the message to their phones
with a thought, one of the perks of being connected to my communications device, seeing who
would like to join us for dinner. Xavier had already gone to sleep at this point, Violet assured me it
wasn’t unusual for him, apparently he didn’t need eat often due to something with his metabolism.
Dmitri was busy but asked if we would take Ivan as he was incredibly excited by the idea and he
didn’t want to disappoint his boy. While it was a shame they wouldn’t be joining us, I’d still have
it be a fun evening for the others regardless.

Heading out into the hallway, Violet slithered ahead and knocked on Ivan’s door, the sectoid
jumped out of the doorway as soon as he heard the knock, Dmitri wasn’t exaggerating, he certainly
was excited. All together now, we made our way to the elevator and made small talk as we did.

“So where are we going XJ? Not to sound picky, I’m just wondering is all.” Violet held his hand
protectively as we entered the elevator giving me a strange sense of remembrance but I couldn’t
quite place why, even still it was adorable to see but I quickly pulled up the info on the
establishment I had in mind for us.

“It’s a family type restaurant called Riley’s, I figured it be a good place for us to visit as a way to
get to know each other better. It shouldn’t pose an issue for us as it’s a mixed species restaurant as
well, so we won’t be hassled by others I hope.”

It seemed that Ivan and Violet were familiar with it already, since they’d been here longer than me,
they’d stopped by it before for the same reasons I chose it, a good sign I thought to myself. Ivan
was happy with my pick and skipping along to keep pace with Violet as we exited the spacious
elevator to inform the muton secretary who I learned was called William, of our plans before
heading to our destination. Ivan for his part on our walk out of the base and into the city, seemed to
have no end of questions for me to answer, not that it bothered me, I loved feeding his curiosity.

“So XJ, do you know how you gained sentience? I know from reading that father has had me do to
sharpen my mind that ADVENT mech units do have some degree of sentience that comes from
their limited combat AI capabilities but in each case, it’s just enough to do their job and nothing
more as to not cause things like you to be possible.” A deep question indeed, good just the kind I
liked to think about in all honesty, I did my best to answer, as even Shen and myself working
together still never found a concrete answer as to why I did.

“If I’m being fully honest with you, I’m not quite sure myself, it was one of the first things myself
and Engineer Shen looked into during our time working together. Our main theory is that
something happened to my AI programming during the firefight I was in, mixed with some
unknown variables from whatever the elders were doing in their facility I was stationed at.”

He pondered on that question for a bit, I couldn’t begin to imagine what was going through his
head as we were getting close to Riley’s. People of all kinds walked the sidewalks of the city and
the smell of cooking food was thick in the night air. The city had begun to light up with Neon signs
and glowing advertisements boards for businesses and other adult establishments I tried to keep
Ivan from seeing with his young eyes.

“Well whatever the case may be about why you became who you are XJ, I’m happy you’re apart
of our family now, don’t let anyone else make you think otherwise.” If he could smile right now,
I’m sure he would be, I could tell by the kind look in his eyes as he looked up at me and then to
Violet. Her expression softened as she peered down him.

“Hey now don’t worry kiddo, we’re alright now, I don’t think he’s a spy anymore, we’re friends
with each other now. I promise I won’t be mean to him unless he deserves it ok?” Ivan was giggled
at that and nodded at her, just as she responded to him, we’d arrived at the restaurant finally, it was
vibrant even from the outside, massive letters spelling out the building’s name in red neon that cast
a glow on the sidewalk and any who walked past underneath it. Not thinking twice we made our
way inside, thankfully it didn’t seem to be a super busy one for them tonight.

I could see groups of humans, sectoids, vipers, and even mutons all intermingled together, eating,
drinking, and talking merrily together. It was a pleasant sight to behold, and again that odd feeling
of something I felt I should be remembering from my databanks yet could not call forth nagged at
me, though the thought was quickly banished from my mind as the server asked us how many there
were in our group. Violet responded for me, stating there were three of us, it drew a bit of a
confused glance from our hybrid server but he quickly shrugged it off and showed us to our booth.

Violet took one half for herself, coiling her tail into the remaining side of her booth’s cushioning to
avoid tripping anyone walking past us, leaving Ivan to sit next to me, all while the server handed
us our menus and left to give us time to think on what we’d like. While I didn’t need any food, I
sifted through their drink menu as it was one of the things I could enjoy, Ivan on the other hand
proudly stated to the both of us that he’d be picking from the adult side of the menu due to being a
big boy now. Violet and myself for that matter couldn’t help but chuckle a little at the childlike
innocence of the boy, perhaps because there had been such a lack of said innocence during the war.
It was certainly refreshing to see something to put hope and love in again.

“So what are you thinking of getting bud? Don’t worry about the price, I’ll be handling that this
time. Just don’t give yourself a stomach ache ok?” He pointed to the item he wished for in response
to my question, ah yes, a classic burger and fries, well he was a growing boy so I couldn’t argue
with his choice.

“Dad says I need meat to get strong like him, and I don’t wanna disappoint him, I’ll show him by
getting as big as you XJ. I know it might be a bit unrealistic but I’m still gonna try to do it.” I could
feel my reactor skip a beat as he said that. Violet was smiling at us though she tried to hide it.

“I know you’ll get as strong as your old man, and just like you told me, don’t let anyone discourage
you from that goal Ivan.” I couldn’t resist and gave him a few head pats, making sure my hand
treated him as gently as possible. We took a few minutes more before everyone had decided on
what they wanted, just in time for our server to return and take everyone’s orders. Handing over our
menus to him, he was off with a smile and assured us he’d be back soon with our drinks.

“So metal head, tell us about yourself, I know you told us a bit during orientation, but I’m sure
Ivan, and myself included would like to hear more about yourself.” I hadn’t figured she’d start
asking this early into dinner but hey I wasn’t going to lock up now:

“Hmmmm. Well first off, Shen introduced me to music for the first time and instilled into me her
love of music, even gave me one of her personal playlists. Thus far I can say she had good taste in
such things. Secondly because of that, I enjoy dancing, I don’t know why but then again there isn’t
much to it other than just enjoying moving fluidly to the sound despite my large bulk, and no
Violet, there were no strip clubs of any kind involved.” I gently thumped my fist against my chest
plate to emphasize my point while chuckling as Violet rolled her eyes at that comment before I
continued.

“I also love to craft things, it’s a hobby that I gained from engineering with Shen, as you’ll come to
find out, much of what I enjoy was first shown to me by Shen and those I met at xcom. So if you
guys ever need help with new weapons or such, I’d love to help.”

As our server returned with a tray of drinks he began to pass them out, a bubbly brown soda for
Ivan, a stiff drink for Violet, and something with a hefty kick for myself, the hybrid giving me a
slightly worried look though I nodded my thanks to him and we left assuring to be back with our
food in a jiffy. Before I could say more, Violet excused herself to the ladies room, leaving me and
Ivan alone in the booth.

“XJ, I hope you don’t mind a more personal question but I’m soooo curious so please don’t get
upset.” I put a hand on his blue shoulder and affirmed that I would never get upset at him for
simply asking something out of genuine curiosity.

“What was your life like before ADVENT came here?” Those words caused an icy stabbing
feeling deep inside of my mind and reactor. It was the strange feeling that I’ve been getting
throughout the day, what did he mean by that? I’d been built on site at the facility I served in. I had
no life before ADVENT...yet what was this feeling then? And the ones from before where I
couldn’t recall memories I thought were there. I must’ve given Ivan a fright with the slack eyed
thousand yard stare I was giving him as my mind went blank trying to comprehend what the hell
was going on right now. I was brought back to reality by him shaking my arm gently.

“I’m sorry if it’s a difficult question, should I have asked something else?” I shook my head and
responded fast, I didn’t want him feeling bad for something that wasn’t his fault at all.

“No no...that just took me by surprise is all, I don’t believe I had one before ADVENT built me,
yet...I sometimes get odd feelings from time to time like I should remember something but I’m
never able to find it. Don’t be alarmed though I’m sure it’s just a result of my newly found
sentience.”

He rubbed my forearm plating to comfort me in his own attempt, I appreciated the kind gesture.

“Oh I see, even still sorry for making that weird for you, but you’re my best friend now and that’s
all that matters XJ.” I thought for a moment I felt something leaking down my faceplate, from a
quick check with my right hand I found nothing, odd but alright I suppose.

Ivan looked like he wanted to say more about something else but was cut off by the return of
Violet and then seconds after, the arrival of their food. The mood got better after that, less strange
for myself as the joy of the others helped pull me out of my overthinking. As we spent our time
conversing more about ourselves, I learned more about the games Ivan liked to play and wanted to
teach me how to play like call of duty and Starcraft. I also found out that Violet, after she had a bit
to drink and loosened up a bit, told me of her love for painting, showing us some photos of her
artistic works, she also enjoyed drinking games apparently, even daring me to challenge her
sometime despite my advantage over her in that.

Once again, faint feelings connected to something I couldn’t understand bubbled up, but it felt soo
much closer this time, just underneath the water’s surface of my mind and yet it still eluded me, It
felt of infatuation? I pushed it to the side, not wanting to be distracted from those around me. Went
spent some more time talking amongst ourselves before finally finishing up our food, Ivan ate
rather fast as he was able to ingest his meal using his powers since he lacked a mouth.

Satisfied and ready for bed, everyone was ready to head out, I paid for the meal and received a
thank you from Ivan and Violet as we started our walk home. We’d spent an hour and a half there,
though the streets hadn’t darkened much, the sky certainly had. Ivan got a little scared and getting a
glance from Violet, I understood what she was saying to me. I scooped up Ivan in a swift but gentle
motion and placed him on the back of my neck, effectively giving him the feeling of being a giant,
and he absolutely loved it. Violet didn’t try to hide her smile from us this time, it was nice to see, I
could’ve stared at that all day however the last thing I wanted was for her to catch me doing that.

There wasn’t much chatter on our way back but we were all happy in each other’s company and
soon enough we were back at base and stepping into the elevator to get a good night of rest, all in
all, I had quite the fun first day at my new home.
 Bizarre Occurrences
Chapter Summary

Strange phenomena continue to plague XJ as he experiences his worst yet, confused

and unsure of how to process what is happening to him. The team is thrust into a
mission last minute to defend City 31 from an imminent attack, all while something
sinister brews beneath the city's shadows.

Chapter Notes

Just as a warning if graphic depictions of bloody violence bother you then don't read
the combat section of the story for your own good. Hope you guys enjoy it.

Chapter 4: Strange Occurrences (XJ-5)

I was grateful that it wasn’t much of a trip to reach my room, an odd mental exhaustion was
beginning to take hold of me as I gave Violet and Ivan each a goodnight before heading into the
embrace of my own room. I don’t really require sleep at all and yet that’s how I felt? How do I
know what that feels like though? I groaned softly and sat down against the wall next to my bed,
perhaps I needed to power down for a bit and let my mind sort itself out, yeah I liked how that
sounded. Fidgeting with my internal settings through the power of thought, I could feel the relaxing
pull of the thing that’s as close to sleep as I can get. I didn’t fight it, it was too inviting and I let
myself slip into that black void.

It only felt like a few hours but I saw a light piece the black veil of my ‘sleep’ and curious I
followed it. I was transported to a room but it definitely wasn’t mine, I found that I was strapped
down to some sort of examination table. I struggled but to no avail, I was held fast but how? I
could tear my way out of anything at this size by sheer brute force. My hands aren’t mine, I can
feel that they’ve been replaced with flesh and bone, I don’t get to ponder on this for long as I’m not
alone now. Bright lights from above are almost fully blinding me, but I’m able to make out
multiple voices talking to each other. The chatter is terribly muddled as if coming from behind a
thick cloth curtain, suddenly the lights shut off and plunge me back into darkness, I haven’t tried to
struggle after hearing the voices. The stale smell of medicine and old blood still hang in the air.
The voices start to grow closer and closer as I continue to try and find a way out of this without
alerting whoever is approaching, I knew better than to shout or scream out.

I quickly stopped all movement as the voices came close enough to make them out before abruptly
stopping altogether, I had never felt so on edge before even as my mind felt numb and foggy. In an
instant six figures came into view, I couldn’t make out any physical characteristics that could give
what they were away except for their eyes. Each shadowy figure held a unique pair of glowing
eyes that stared down into my very being, the intent behind them were indeterminable. Finally they
began to speak but I couldn’t tell which voice belonged to which set of eyes and they never seemed
to blink.
“Scientistsssss, are you sure this one is truly worthy to become part of our brotherhood? It seems
soo weak and helpless now, if it can’t even break free of its bindings once then it isn’t worth
bothering.”
The voice sounded hollow like a breeze of wind, cold and harsh.

“Yes my lord, the Elders were crystal clear of their intent for this one, it shall be the 8th, that order
is unquestionable. It hasn’t broken free because we finished the gene and body modification
procedures, it required copious amounts of chemicals and drugs so I’m not surprised it couldn’t
escape its bondage.”
A shriller voice responded to the first one’s question, Sectoid maybe? It was certainly familiar to
me but my mind was still muddled enough that I couldn’t fully recall.

I felt it then, a dull pain of metal cutting flesh, I tried with all the will power I had to suppress a
pained groan but I couldn’t stop it, drawing unwanted attention from the eyes and voices.

“Don’t question the elders brother, they’ve made up their minds on it, there’s no use in arguing
about it now. He shall join our family, and we shall treat him as such, through battle and the deep
sleep no matter where it takes us.”
This was a new voice, it spoke with more weight and authority behind it, yet unlike the one before
it, it was soothing and smooth.

“It’s not all that bad Kal’duna, after all, he’s a human and their people have put up a rather good
fight, more so than we all thought they would. I can’t wait to see how our new brother fights.”
This voice sounded feminine that much was certain but there was more to it, it drew out certain
words it had said and noises as it spoke unintentionally I suspected, it drove me mad how I almost
knew what it was yet couldn’t place it.

“Shut your mouth Valistra, we all know what a xenophile you are, quit ogling over our newest
brother, even if you two aren’t related. Have some dignity, you dirty serpent.”
The first voice, Kalduna I assumed, responded to the third one.

Before I could hear more of the conversation from whatever this bizarre vision was, I came
crashing back into reality. I awoke in a frenzy, stumbling over myself as I attempted to stand bolt
upright, cursing to myself loudly as I more calmly got up on my feet without falling over this time.
I examined my body as soon as I was sure I wouldn’t fall over again for whatever reason. I felt a
wave of relief wash over my worries, metal chassis and robotics limbs all attached where they
should be. Before I had the chance to think more on the strange dream or vision I just experienced,
I heard a knock on my door, I quickly made my way to it and signaled the door to open with a
thought.

“Are you alright XJ? I heard a loud commotion as I passed by, I just wanted to make sure you were
alright.”
Xavier was standing before me, it’s comforting to see that he cares enough to check on me.

“Yes I am, I was just getting off the ground out of sleep mode and I tripped over myself
unexpectedly. Thank you for the concern, however you’re actually the person I wanted to see.”
His ears shifted in curiosity at the mention of that and he continued to listen.

“Whenever you have some free time, today or later, I came up with a few ideas for training
between you and I that might make for some interesting maneuvers during any missions we go on
in the future.”
I could see those hazy eyes of his light up in a way I didn’t think they could.

“Ahhhh I see, you mean combination moves much like in the video games Ivan plays. I like that
idea, we should practice after our mission tonight then, on that topic, you’ll always want to check
your notifications in the morning, the commander sends out what the schedule for us looks like,
excluding emergencies.”
Diverting my attention for a moment to my HUD, it was true what he said, a schedule for the week
from the commander’s secretary. We had the morning to ourselves but we were to be deployed on
some sort of mission around midnight.

“Come on XJ, let’s get some breakfast and join the others, even if you don’t eat food I’d like to
have you with us.”
He gave me his signature smile and made a gesture for me to follow him. Making sure to close the
door behind me, I caught up with him as we jogged down to the mess hall, passing by a few other
agents as we did and giving out the occasional good morning. We were walking for several
minutes before finally reaching the oversized mess hall, not surprising given the wildly varying
size of all the personnel that lived here and who each had their own dietary needs.

“Hey guys over here! Come sit with us, we saved you some seats!”
I heard Ivan shouting to us from his seat next to his father, they were at a long table like one would
find at a school, sitting across from them coiled up to avoid tripping anyone behind her was Violet
who was focused on swallowing a weighty hunk of meat whole. I waved back at them in response
and sat myself down next to Ivan while Xavier dropped himself right beside Violet after grabbing a
bowl with some kind of cereal. I wasn’t familiar with the brands that existed so I didn’t know what
it was.

“Good morning, I hope everyone slept well?” I was greeted with mixed responses from everyone
ranging from a tired grunt from Violet, to a more energetic response from Ivan and a calm greeting
from Dmitri. Deciding to let the others eat in peace for a bit as it was still rather early in the
morning, I turned my attention to my HUD. If we were going on a mission tonight then I wanted to
look through the armory’s digital inventory log to see what they had for their mech units in terms
of equipment. I certainly wasn’t disappointed with the spread of weaponry available, heavy
weapons of all kinds, plasma cannons, multiple variants of the rotary turret, rail throwers, and even
bladed gadgets that attach to different body parts. My excitement was clearly visible, I’d forgotten
I now had a face to convey my emotions, Violet made a comment that snapped me back to
attention while downing another cut of her breakfast.

“Oi chrome dome, you alright? You’re making creepy faces at the wall and I don’t see anything or
anyone that looks like they’d grab your interest.”
Xavier chuckled softly, shit he’d seen it as well, I doubted he’d let me live it down easily.

“Apologies, I neglected to mention that I’m able to view details of my communications device
through my eyes without physically accessing it. I was browsing the armory’s inventory in
preparation for the mission tonight so I’d have an idea of what you have for mech units to use.”

The amethyst serpent rolled her eyes and let out a sigh before retorting.
“Ogling like that just for weapons? There are other things in life much more deserving of such
adoration and attention you know?”
The way she spoke reminded me of how Shen would speak when showing off the latest invention
she made with great pride though I was unsure why that was.

“Heh, if I told you of anything other than weapons I feel like I’d just invite more teasing on myself,
or threats of violence involving firearms.”
The commander happened to be walking by our table as I said that, putting a hand on my shoulder
he proclaimed proudly for everyone at the table to hear as he is known for.
“Son you listen here as I’m going to give you some fatherly advice since you were born a little
yesterday. Don’t ever lose that respect and appreciation for quality firearms, however if you’re
looking to add to your list of things you feel that way about, I’d recommend you come to the Oasis
bar with me and some of the boys this Saturday, I’ll show you something to appreciate alright
heheh.”
Just as quickly as he came, he strode off to grab a tray and assemble his breakfast.

Dmitri had a knowing smile on his face and shook his head, patting my shoulder plate without
saying a word. I was rather confused but judging from how Xavier and Violet both reacted in their
own ways at what the commander said, it must be an interesting place to see, I will have to accept
his offer then.

“So Dmitri, any plans for the day before we head off on this mission of ours?”
I was genuinely curious about what he would do, we didn’t have many interactions or
conversations between us and I wanted to change that if he’d let me.
He took a long sip from his coffee mug, savoring the bitter liquid before giving any kind of
response.

“After breakfast I’ll be taking Ivan to practice at the shooting range, then testing him on his
assembly and disassembly skills. When that’s finished though I’ll just be reading and doing a few
other tasks that need to be taken care of.”
I felt a small hand tapping on my forearm guard as Dmitri finished and took another hit from his
mug.

“When I’m finished with training would you maybe like to come over and have me teach you how
to play some video games so we can play together?”
I couldn’t refuse such an invitation from the likes of Ivan, and I was interested in learning how
video games worked anyways, I was confident he’d make a fine teacher.

“Of course! I would love that, I’ve been meaning to take you up on that but forgot to ask last night.
I’ll be training with Xavier in the meantime since our mission is during the night, if that’s alright
with you Xav?”
I knew that we had made our plans for the night but with the mission being then, I figured we
could use our free time wisely if he wasn’t busy with something else.
“I was actually thinking the same thing, and you’re welcome to join us if you’d like Violet. I didn’t
want it to seem like you weren’t invited or excluded.”
By now Xavier finished his meal and quickly disappeared only to return just as fast in a puff of
smoke, having given his bowl back to the kitchen to be cleaned.
Violet had been staring off much like I had earlier, deep in thought and I could’ve sworn I caught
her looking at me a few times though it may have just been my optics being fuzzy.

“Hmm? Oh, thanks but I’ll pass this time, I’m feeling more in the mood to paint instead and it’s
been awhile since I’ve done so. I’ll stick to watching you guys go at it though, perhaps that’ll be
what I paint.”
We discussed what theories we had for the last few minutes of our breakfast about what our
mission might entail later in the night, once everyone was satisfied we split up to go do what we’d
planned on.

Ivan waved goodbye for now while Xavier and Violet followed along with me as we walked and
slithered respectively to the gym’s training section. Violet stopped by her room right before hand to
grab a kanvas and her paints, before quickly rejoining us. Being the man with a plan, Xavier began
to tailor the training simulator from the control console while I stood by waiting patiently to see
what the final product would be. Violet slithered her way up into the spectator stands and began to
set up for her painting. I was curious to see what she’d paint about specifically during our training.

It didn’t take Xavier long to finish setting the room to what he had in mind, we were now
surrounded by a rundown looking town in what I recalled from memory banks, what Americans
from ages past would’ve called the Wild West.
“Sorry I couldn’t help myself, I’ve always wanted to do a training exercise here but never had the
chance to until now. To the matter at hand, I had a few maneuvers in mind for us to work on since I
think our skills would work well together.”

My interest was piqued by this but I could only guess what he was thinking about so I decided to
ask what he meant.
“I think I get what you’re saying but would you enlighten me real quick before we begin.”
He nodded understandably, and began to explain what he meant by this.

“Before you came along, the rest of us on the team had worked together long enough to have
certain techniques we could execute together with each other, now that you’re here I would like to
have those with you as well.”
Now I was starting to get the picture, it was just as I had thought earlier with the video game
analogy.

“My first idea is for when we’re surrounded or getting cut off from the others. You use your
mechanical strength to throw me as high as you can into the air leading to me laying down
covering fire for you to counterattack, finishing it off with rapid teleportation to those that remain
and taking them out.”
His first idea sounded pretty awesome, I think these combos are starting to grow on me and we
haven’t even begun yet.

“Besides that I figured we could wing it and just see what we come up with that works, and no
better way to do that than with training.”
Hitting the key to start up our exercise, I could hear it, just as I was sure Xavier could. Feet
shuffling around on dusty floorboards and in a flash we were training bots that were made to look
like outlaws, decked out in cowboy boots and fifteen gallon hats began to open fire.

“Let’s try the first maneuver, throw me quick, I’ll need the momentum!”
Xavier was behind me as we got caught out in the open faster than I’d expected. Thinking fast
while I started to block the bullets from reaching him, I wrapped him in my tendril arms, and with
a simple twist of my upper body, I sent my friend flying high into the air like he asked. He was
laughing every second he was in the air, I could hear his twin rail pistols firing off though I
couldn’t spare the attention to see how he was faring as I had my own issues on the ground.
Ducking down to avoid taking fire for even one moment, I lashed out with all of my extra
appendages and grabbed onto four unlucky training bots, pulling them to me and disarming them
swiftly.

Perfect, my own personal shields. Now I could get a bit more reckless, returning fire in the form of
burning plasma, my arms switched forms and unleashed torrents of the burning blue energy,
spraying towards the enemies Xavier had missed. Speaking of whom, I could hear the signature
sound of his teleportation and his echoing laugh when farther off snipers were silenced no doubt by
his hand. There seemed to be no end to our foes however, four more bots would come out for every
singular training droid we gunned down, we needed to dismantle them even faster.

“Xavier! We need to switch strategy or we’re gonna be overrun in seconds, let’s try something
new, run and gun with me to carve a path through towards better ground!”
Not waiting for a response, I kept the slagged remains of my metal meat shields close to my
chassis, the enemy were bringing out bigger guns now besides just simple six shooters. I surged
forward, charging down the Main Street with both guns blazing intensely as I melted a path for
myself. Just in time, I could see Xavier dodging gun fire as he had beforehand, elegantly moving
out of the paths of the bullets and plasma fire. All while using his fusion swords now and severing
all manner of limbs from his opponents. Finally getting a moment to think after rounding a corner
into an alleyway we discussed our next course of action to deal with the horde while they
thundered after us.

“I think I’ve got an idea for another maneuver, do you happen to have any other heavier guns
inside of you XJ? If so, let's try a back to back run and gun.”
I had something that might work but it had still been a bit experimental but perhaps this would be
the best time to try it out.

“Yeah I think I’ve got a little something that may work for us, you get my back and I’ll handle the
front to shield you.”
Just then we both felt the shockwave as an explosion came not that far off from us, with wood
splintering all around.

Whirling around and securing Xavier to my back, I leapt up onto the nearest rooftop, with a mental
command I modified my plasma casters for wider spread and burst fire, maximizing width of my
shots and reducing overheat at the cost of the automatic firing mode. As soon as I came into view
of the training bot army that was spread throughout the town like a plague, they opened fire with
every manner of weaponry imaginable. I was going to have to ask Xavier what the hell he’d done to
the settings later as we had some bots that needed to be obliterated.

I was being forced to run rooftop to rooftop as to avoid the rockets and grenades that the heavier
units blasted at us while I returned fire, specifically looking for those that were carrying explosives
and anything that looked like it would cause a distraction for us. Igniting multiple chain reactions
among the horde, they exploded into large balls of fire. The ones I missed or passed over became
targets for Xavier, making sure they stayed down, his aim was still good for someone being swung
about by a large mech soldier. Oil, metal shrapnel, and battlecries rang all around the training
simulator, wide bands of plasma and mag slugs carving through metal bodies, slowly but surely we
were making progress. Even after being forced to put my casters away to allow them their cool
down, I resorted to my bare hands and Xavier with his swords, we jumped down into the middle of
the metallic army and began to shred anything before us with extreme prejudice, laughing like
idiots as we danced and plowed through gunfire.

The aftermath was like something out of a robot’s nightmare which took several more hours of
fighting to finish. We exited the training simulator both still laughing together and covered in the
oily remains of our foes.
“You two will definitely need to visit the showers, there’s no way I’m slithering anywhere near
you with all that shit covering your bodies.”
It looked like Violet had put the finishing touches on whatever it was she was painting, but she was
right about that. While fun, I wanted to be cleansed of the mess we made.

“Why not? Afraid of a hug? I never thought that would scare you so much, Violet.”
Both Xavier and I chuckled, he knew I was just giving her a hard time to annoy her a little bit.
“Maybe in that scrambled brain of yours, I just don’t want that oil dirtying my clothes or my scales.
I’ll show you two what I painted after you children get cleaned up.”

Xavier looked like he wanted to add something but we both desired showers more than Violet’s
annoyance, I wasn’t sure where they were however but thankfully Xavier was kind enough to show
me the way. I didn’t understand the need for separate stalls much considering everyone there was a
male and not all that different from each other, but I respected the wish for privacy. The sensation
of the water splashing against my chassis was rather relaxing as it washed the oil and whatever else
had covered my body away. After eight minutes of meticulous cleaning, I was stepping out of the
shower stall when I received an urgent alert that displayed across my HUD. Our mission had been
moved up to now due to something coming up to the commander and we had to move to the
briefing room ASAP. I gave myself a quick pat down to dry off sufficiently so as to not slip while I
ran, Xavier ported away after receiving the same message and reappearing a few moments later on
my back, fully clothed now.

We didn’t see any of our other squad mates on our run to the elevator, though we assumed it was a
safe bet that they also received the message just as we did. Taking the elevator to the 6th floor, it
wasn’t a long trip, the elevator seemed to be moving with more haste to it than I’d felt when I first
arrived, but we got there faster and that was all that mattered for now. While careful to not plow
over any pedestrians this time as I ran, I wasn’t slowing down with how urgent the message
sounded. Xavier directed me where to go and in just a minute we barreled into the briefing room,
the others were already there waiting for us.

“Ah good you two are here, now we can begin. We’re moving our timetable up because we had
just been informed by our intelligence satellites that the Sacred Coil is making a move on our
neighboring city.”
Although subtly, I could see the expression of maliciousness that Violet tried hard not to outwardly
express.
“While City 31 has their own agents that are part of Reclamation known as Chimera squad, the
enemy force is larger than they alone can handle. So we’re sending you boys in to lend a helping
hand in defending the main entrances into the city.”

The hologram projector before us lit up the room in a blue illuminating glow, showing a detailed
layout of City 31, Commander Jensen used his wrist mounted tablet to highlight several point on
the map in red.
“You’ll be split up into two teams for maximum coverage of the west and east entrances. Team A
will consist of Ivan, Dmitri, and Violet. Your team will defend the west entrance.”
He fidgeted more with his wrist device causing the map to zoom in to several locations behind the
west wall, showing barricades and fortifications in the streets that would act as fall back points.

“Should the wall be breached or you need to strategically retreat for any reason, fall back to these
checkpoints. They’ll be fully stocked with ammunition, ordinance, and fun weapons. The same
goes for Team B.”
The commander gestured towards myself and Xavier and shifted the map towards the east end
now.
“For team B, it’ll be you two maniacs since you worked well together in the simulator. You’ll be
defending the east side and just like the other team got, you’ll also have fallback points if you’re
pushed back. Any questions?”

Xavier was the first to speak his mind.

“Sir what if they try tunneling underneath the walls using Chrysalids or trying to fly over via drop
ships?”
That was something I myself had been wondering as well, it would seem foolish if they only threw
themselves at the wall even for religious zealots.

“I’m glad you asked Xavier, the city sealed up their sewer system and all other such subterranean
systems that they had once they heard about an impending invasion and even went far enough to
fortify them, setting up what little they had in the way of turrets. Secondly we’ll be receiving air
support from another of the nearby cities to make sure drop ships aren’t an issue.”
Dmitri spoke up next with questions of his own.
“Will Chimera squad be defending the north and south? Also are we sure this isn’t some sort of
distraction to get our attention away from another target?”

“Yes to your first question along with local law enforcement and other military assets. For your
second question, we have considered the possibility of that. XCOM has been alerted to this and will
be monitoring the situation, ready to move out in full force should they catch a glimpse of anything
suspicious.”
Clapping his hands together, the commander turned the projector off and began to walk towards a
heavily built door. I wasn’t able to detect what was behind it with my sensors, it must be a special
room if I couldn’t scan through it.

“Alright enough time wasted now, arm up quickly, Sacred Coil is four hours away from making
contact with the city. Let’s not allow a single one of those psychotic bastards to lay a finger on the
civies.”
Punching the code into the control panel by the doors, they slide open with the sound of metal
scraping against the floor. The room behind those doors was beautiful. I stood for a moment in
admiration at the sight of the armory, quickly following the others as they filed inside and began to
select their loadouts.

Ivan equipped the smallest sized pieces of armor that could comfortably fit his light frame, and
holstered two pistols as his backup. His father on the other hand packed to be prepared, besides his
signature rail rifle, I also glimpsed him grabbing a plasma and Bolt pistol, an example I’m sure
Ivan picked up on. Extra magazines, a few grenades and several throwing knives hidden across his
armor and a pack of cigars in his breast pocket. Xavier was donning armor I hadn’t seen before,
flexible plates of armor that looked like it would allow him to keep up his agility and acrobatics
without a loss in maneuverability, he also picked the two plasma pistols he’d used in the simulator
with me, both were ornately designed, one was black and the other was ivory white, they each
seemed to have a small portrait set into their grips but I couldn’t tell of who. But of course he
wouldn’t leave without his twin fusion swords, each silvery blue blade tucked into matching black
leather sheaths. Violet was packing the heaviest next to myself, equipping heavy body armor plates
that I recognized to be tailored specifically for a Viper and her biology. I hoped she hadn’t caught
me staring as I thought to myself. She grabbed a two bandoliers, one held extra ammo while the
other held multiple types of grenades that she slung on over her scaly shoulders , accompanied by a
gnarly looking shotgun that I remembered from my databanks was called a Storm gun, matched
with a plasmic SMG called the Auditor.

For myself I had to walk farther back for weapons that had a bit more girth and heft to them, I like
em big after all and wasn’t afraid to admit it. Due to my heavier nature, I could pick out ones that
would’ve been too much for my smaller mech brethren. Eyeing up a small wrist mountable Gatling
gun, I gently picked it up and reverently attached it comfortably to my forearm along with the large
mag it came with. Next up were the attachable blades, they’d been modified from arc swords to
attach to mechs and pop out at their command as concealable weapon attachments. Grabbing four, I
put one on each of my elbows and one each for my knee plates. The last thing I grabbed besides
extra ammo for Xavier and the others should they need it was an attachment that could function
with my plasma caster system, a Grenade launcher that I could integrate into myself due to its
simplicity. Finally all set to move out, we made haste to the elevator in the armor that went to the
Helipad outside where a VTOL awaited to take us to City 31, and in a flash, off we soared to their
aid.

The flight had been quiet thus far as everyone looked at each other in silence, we’d been told that
every kind of troop at the Coil’s disposal would be deployed and to expect anything.
I decided to try and break the tension and lighten everyone’s moods even if it was just a tiny bit.
“After this mission we should all get dinner together outside the base, I’d like more quality time
with you all if that isn’t asking too much.”

Ivan voiced his excitement, while his father grunted and gave a nod in affirmation.
“We definitely should dude, maybe whoop Violet in a drinking match, I know Dmitri would have a
laugh watching that.”
We all could hear Dmitri give a small chuckle at that, Violet seemed to take exception to that.

“Just because he won against me once in a sparring match doesn’t mean I’ll keep up a losing
streak, besides if XJ knows what’s good for him he’ll treat me properly if he ever wants my help
with his maintenance just like before in his room.”
She had a change in tone when she got to talking about the moment we shared during my
maintenance, shit she was making it sound too far out of context as Ivan asked what she meant,
Dmitri and Xavier both giving me looks with raised eyebrows. Violet had the dirtiest grin on her
scaled lips as she glared at me in victory.

“Context guys context! It’s not what it sounds like, believe me, I was patching up my reactor core
and nothing more!”
Based on the looks they still wore on their faces, they didn’t buy what I was selling one bit. They
were never going to let that go either, damn it I would get her back for that, somehow or some way.
We spent our remaining two hours talking amongst ourselves now that the mood had gotten better.
It wasn’t long before we heard the pilot call out over the intercom, we were touching down at
Chimera’s HQ to meet up with them before making our way to the separate defense points we had
been assigned.

Jumping out of the VTOL, we were greeted on the landing pad by a relatively young human male
with trimmed black hair and dressed in light armor.

“You must be Patchwork squad? I wish this meeting was under better circumstances but I’d like to
thank you for the assistance. The rest of Chimera has already deployed to their posts, I stayed back
to help get your group situated.”
He gestured for the two heavily armored guards next to him.
“My associates here will escort you to where you need to go for the sake of speed, as for brief
introductions, you guys can call me Whisper. I’ll be helping coordinate the city’s defenses during
the assault which will include you all as well. If you will, please follow your escorts and I’ll
continue over the comms from there.”

He turned quickly on his heels and began to jog back to their command center to begin his job, just
as we should be doing as well. One guard led the way for Dmitri and the others as we parted ways
in opposite directions while Xavier and I followed our escort. With time being of the essence at this
point we didn’t waste it on chatter and all of us started to sprint together, racing across the concrete
landing area out of the base, past deserted buildings and streets still lit by the signs of the buildings
around us, until we came to arrive at our section of the wall to defend. Our escort led us to an
armored door, waving his wrist near an access panel nearby which made the door slide open for us
as he ushered us inside. Once inside we were led through a claustrophobic maze of halls,
passageways, and stairs until we made it to the top of the fortification. Though the inside hadn’t
seemed very full of soldiers, the top of the defensive wall was littered with both police and soldiers
of every kind imaginable.

They all seemed anxious and on edge, I couldn’t blame them either, one war had finished and I
doubted anyone wanted to experience that horror all over again in what was supposed to be a time
of relative peace once more. As soon as both of us had started to make our presence known by
walking around the edges of the wall, surveying for any signs of incoming enemy activity, did the
moods of the soldiers start to turn to silent looks of relief. I was glad I could do even this little bit
to ease the stress off their minds with Xavier but we still had the hard part of defending this city
ahead of us. Just then everyone started to hear Whisper over the comms.

“Ready up and look sharp everybody, the Sacred Coil’s forces are right on top of the city now and
should be coming into visible range anytime now and beginning their assault!”
Right on que, we all heard it, the sounds of heavy cannons and the battlecries of the Coil’s zealot
army, in the air we could see the explosions and hear the roar of engines as the air battle began in
full. the wall’s strength was tested as it was peppered with all manner of heavy weaponry as a large
writhing mass of enemy soldiers charged from their cover in the distance towards the wall and its
main entrance. One of our men shouted fiercely as it all started to rally everyone out of their
surprise.

“Return fire, don’t let those bastards in the city whatever the cost! Make em pay for every inch of
ground!”
No one required any further encouragement after that, if a gun was in someone’s hand, it was being
fired off, ballistic, plasma, grenades, rail slugs, all sound was drowned out by the sound of our
return fire. Xavier and I were laser focused on our tasks, side by side we scanned for the more
important looking enemies, whether by their distinctive coloring, or more extravagant headgear.
Sending precise shots of plasma and slugs into their heads. Our trigger fingers never let up unless
we needed to reload or in my case, letting my plasma casters cool off for a few seconds, I’d switch
to my grenade launcher and Gatling gun to shred the enemy.

Normally I would’ve made some sort of joke about how easily things were going for us as their
first wave walked into a literal meat grinder of bullets but I didn’t find this to be an appropriate
time for such things. Just then something ominous twinged at the back of my mind as I spared a
moment to look more intently at the surrounding forest our foes were coming from, as I had an odd
feeling about this all. Something was just out of my sight range but I could still feel it lurking in the
darkness of the forest created by the coming of night that was quickly descending upon us. In an
instant I felt it like a bullet to the brain, my sensors were picking up a foreign energy signature
emitting from the forest. Everyone was occupied with gunning down the invaders, that they
weren’t paying attention to the dead that slumped at the ground and against the wall we were
defending.

“Whisper Come in! This is XJ-5 of Patchwork, I’m getting strange energy readings I don’t
understand coming from the forest directly in front of us, can you give me some info?”
Xavier could tell something was really bothering me but he kept his attention focused on the battle
while I awaited a response from Whisper.
“I hear you XJ, I’m getting similar readings here, something is definitely going out there, let me
warn everyone.”

Before he even had a chance to say another word, we all heard it, an otherworldly cry of a thousand
different voices in unison. Good lord, the corpses were rising to their feet with an eerie white
glowing fire burning all over their bodies and deep within their empty eye sockets. The defenders
on the wall visibly shook at this gruesome sight, the reanimated dead were now charging forward
at an unnatural speed for bullet riddled corpses and began scaling the sides of the walls. All while
unleashing more bone chilling screams of anguish.

I found my voice as I peered down over the wall, my wrist mounted Gatling gun spinning to life.
“Don't waver now! Let’s put them down a second time and make sure they stay in Hell for good
this time boys!”
For emphasis on my point, I began unloading the turret down onto the undead horde that
clambered towards us. It was easier said than done however, despite how easily they had died
before, these zombies would not go done without making us work for it. Even with every defender
turning their guns and attention downwards towards the zombies climbing up the wall, they were
slowly but surely making their way up the side of the wall.

“East wall defenders you need to fall back and regroup at the fallback checkpoints before your
position is overrun, all other defenders are bogged down and can’t spare any support at the
moment.”
Whisper was doing a good job of hiding the concern in his voice though I could still pick up the
slightest hint of it as he said that.

“Xavier! Help get these men to their checkpoints, we both know you’ll be able to do it fast, I’ll
hold up here until you’re finished and then I’ll come down and join you!”
He gave me a worried look but he didn’t argue thankfully, in a flurry he began teleporting back and
forth from the checkpoints and the wall, getting these brave souls to safety. While he focused on
that, the undead had finally started to climb over the edge of the wall and roll onto the top of the
battlements, many started to jump over the edge and down into the city streets, I knew the men
below could handle them, those that were closer to me on the other hand saw something moving
and thus they were compelled to kill it until it stopped.

Forming my facial plates into their defensive mask mode, I went to work, plasma firing out in wide
burst arcs, melting flesh and bone as the horde poured onto the battlements. Those that hadn’t
initially gone down from plasma fire ran at me, bloody hands tearing at my thick metal plating, a
few of them were of no consequence but I could see the problem a large mass of them would pose
as more launched themselves at me. Unleashing my hidden arc blades as well, I twisted and twirled
in a way mimicking how Xavier fought after observing him from our training, energized blades
slicing limbs and heads off from their owners still lumbering bodies. It was a disgustingly brutal
scene on the wall for anyone that looked on, an absolute unit of a mech fighting with all the
strength his reactor could give him, covered in multiple shades of undead hybrid blood.

I let loose a primal war cry as I did whatever I could to keep myself from growing overwhelmed by
their overwhelming numbers, every weapon I had equipped I was using at the same time.
Eventually the moment I was dreading came as my casters needed to cool off but inadvertently
giving me a new idea as I now resorted to using my powerful fists to dispatch the undead. The
horde thrashed and clawed bloodily at my protective plating, their numbers giving more strength to
their pulling, it was painful to feel my ‘flesh’ being pried at in an attempt to pull me apart at the
seams, I would do the same to them then. I was starting to become frantic however as I couldn’t
find Xavier anywhere and grew nervous for him, channeling the heat from my casters into my
metal hands, I used its intensity to help myself as it caused my appendages to pierce through their
weakened flesh like butter. I thrashed about like a wild beast as there seemed no end to their
numbers no matter how many I tore apart and threw off the wall again and my growing anxiety
wasn’t helping. In the chaos my Gatling turret was wrenched from my arm plating and the two
knee blades had been snapped apart from the sheer weight of all the corpses.

Without warning I was blasted backwards off the wall and into the city below, something fast and
powerful had launched forward and tackled me all the way to the ground below. I groaned as I got
back to my feet, looking around until I quickly found what or rather who had hit me off of the wall.
Before me stood a vaguely humanoid shape covered in thick, flowing robes that were designed for
fighting judging how it could still move in them. Whatever flesh would’ve been exposed was
covered in some sort of advanced body armor I’d never seen before even in my ADVENT records.
It had numerous braided cords dangling down from the back of its skull, with a large forked metal
crest upon its head, accompanied by two evenly distanced eyes that glowed a light blue. As it
entered a fighting stance holding a peculiar looking staff or perhaps spear, I could see how
disproportionate its arms and legs were to its torso, while they were much longer than they
should’ve been for a being that size, they didn’t however seem to suffer from muscle loss.

“Hold off here, this one is mine. Go assist the others at all other points along the wall.”
I could see whatever leftover undead were still on top of the wall diving back from whence they
came and I could sense that they were moving away like the stranger had commanded, though that
somehow failed to make me feel any better.

“So this is what has become of you? To regress this far just to avoid us? To think the Elders saw
anything worthy within you, though with them being dead now maybe even their choices in us
were poor as well.”
I had absolutely no idea what this fool was babbling about but as we sized each other up and
circled around waiting as he talked. I hoped I could reach out to Whisper for some heavy support.

“Oh no you don’t, no calling for help just yet. Not while you’re dealing with a family matter my
brother, you may have rejected us but we...I won’t let go of you so easily, one way or another
you’ll come back to us.”
These words were touching something I knew yet didn’t at the same time, damn it all he was
bringing that stupid feeling of Deja Vú back, I couldn’t get distracted now.

“Look whatever your name is, I’m going to level with you so we’re on the same page. I have no
idea what you’re talking about, I have a feeling like I should but it’s all very muddled.”
He lunged forward suddenly, I barely managed to guard against the attack, blocking the staff and
struggling against it as he spoke again.
“Fret not brother, if that is the case then I’ll help you remember what you’re repressing inside your
head, even if I need to break you to do it.”

I was launched back with immense force into a convenience store, crashing through the glass and
traveling through several aisles before imbedding myself into a freezer, I could feel the cracks in
my chest plate form deeply. I wasn’t certain this was a winnable fight but I couldn’t give up when
this monster could easily turn his attention towards my squad instead. Growling and enraged now,
I stood myself back up, ripping out the large cooling system and powering up my left plasma caster
to maximum charge, I lunged forward as he moved towards me and caught him in the side of his
head with the cooling system as he thundered forward in an attempt to knock me back again. I was
forcing my body to its utmost limits of exertion. The strain was very audible, timing it correctly to
knock him over and into the next few aisles over. Tracking him I unloaded my caster and grenade
launcher where he crashed into the wall, he would not go down so easily either though, I could see
my shots weren’t hindering him in the slightest even when hitting square with his armored face.

Reverting my weapons back into my hands, I lunged forward again to meet him and we grappled
together in a contest of wills and monstrous strength. I was surprised I was able to hold my ground
against him as I could feel just how much stronger he was physically despite not being a mech unit
or a berserker. We tossed each other back and forth all across the block, through walls of metal and
concrete, to straight down into the plumbing system and out again. I was an utter mess and it was
becoming more and more apparent as our one sided fight went on, I was covered in blood, oil, and
my own vital fluids from every corner of my chassis that was nearly spent.

“Come now brother, why must you be so difficult? You still don’t seem to want to remember your
family. Perhaps if I get a bit more serious you’ll snap back into your right mind.”
His staff began to shift and change instantly breaking down, it was now a strange sword of alien
design I couldn’t place. I braced for the next assault but was only greeted by terrible pain as I
realized too late, he’d become even faster than I could register. Using his sword he toyed with me
cruelly, hacking off my right arm at the shoulder, sparks and my ‘lifeblood’ spilling to the ground
as I attempted a swift counter attack with my left plasma caster. This fared little better as I felt the
searing pain flash in my face now, half my vision was gone as I felt his sword cleave through a
good portion of the left side of my facial plating.

I’d fallen back against the ground as the sensation of pain while new, felt familiar like an old friend
I hadn’t seen in a long time. My remaining optics were fuzzy and I could barely make out the shape
of the stranger crouching down beside me though I could certainly hear him. He placed a gentle
armored hand across my half destroyed cranial unit and spoke.

“Still not going to show yourself brother? Why? I don’t want to hurt you but you haven’t returned
to us. Hmmmm perhaps this squad of yours, yessss they might work, perhaps forcing you to watch
as I slaughter them before you will reawaken you for me with enough emotional trauma.”
I rioted at his touch, I could feel him connecting to my memory banks through some unknown
means, he was trying to figure out about the others, it was my worst nightmare and fighting his
influence was like trying to hold out against the force of the entire ocean.

“Ohhhh perhaps this young one you know of, come now you can’t hide his name from me. Or
perhaps....oh? You have grown infatuated with one among your new squad? A former ADVENT
soldier, come now tell me her name brother, I won’t hurt her much.”

I don’t remember what happened next, but the second after he said that I opened my eyes and I was
somewhere else? Wait, my vision was now fully restored and so was my arm. I’m inside of a dimly
lit abyss standing on top of the water. Before I can call out for anyone, I see a figure approaching
and step forward into the dim lighting, a young human male, no older than twenty five. His face
did not display one of youth however, it was covered in its entirety in scars, what once would’ve
been a good looking man was now an ugly and scarred boy.

“Tell me something, are you afraid right now? Do try to answer honestly if you actually want to
get out of this place.”
Despite his looks, he spoke with a soft and calming voice, it was one I could vaguely recall, was he
one of those people in that strange vision I had earlier this morning?

“Yes I am, I’m afraid not of dying, but of leaving my family behind, I still have soo much I want to
say and do with them.”
It was as truthful as I thought I could be with his question though I wasn’t sure what he wanted
from it.
“Then why do you hesitate to unleash everything in this fight against the one who has practically
put you on death’s door?”

I felt like I had been struck by a rail slug to the head, the thoughts I couldn’t remember felt like
they were practically clear now, only needing one more push as he said that.
“What do you mean!!! I don’t remember anything despite this damn feeling like I should know
what you and he mean by all of this. Please if you can give me the strength to win this fight then I
ask you, no I beg of you lend it to me I’ll do anything.”

He gave me a look that was a mixture of pity and sorrow but I was lost as to why he would.
“It’s not me you have to beg for such power, when you already possess it within yourself, I will
warn you though this path is one rife with pain, both In your past when you remember what has
been forgotten and your future.”

While that might be the case, I needed it whatever the cost...for them I’d endure anything.
“Then show me please, whatever pain is there I will endure it for my family. I want to be able to
protect them no matter this cost.”

He nodded solemnly at me and offered up a meager hand for me to grasp, and so I took it.
My optics opened up, I was in a real world again, I could feel it, I felt different. The stranger still
had his hand to my face and had finished asking his question, and I understood what I needed to do.
In what I’m sure was a real surprise for him, I caught him with my left arm, new strength I’d never
felt before pulsed through my limb as I threw him into the wall we fell from earlier. To my shock
he sank halfway into the defensive structure, standing up shakily. In what were mere split parts of a
second I could feel the tiny feet of nanites marching across the missing half of my face and
restoring my vision and armor. All over I could feel them repairing my sundered armor, even my
arm was not spared, a metal endoskeletal arm bursting forth from my shoulder before the rest of
the armor plating and sensors were assembled over it in a clean fashion.

The stranger was laughing psychotically now, launching himself from the rubble, his sword
changing into a much larger bladed weapon, I moved not of my own will but rather on instinct,
slamming my arms together and extending them outwards, they melded together, shifting and
transforming into a foreign type of heavy energy cannon, without a single thought or hesitation I
fired off two blasts from this new weapon. Unable to change course the stranger was blown back
into a smoldering crater, and I quickly gave chase, though my worries soon subsided when I saw
his completely mangled frame in the crater as he garbled out the last of his laughter.

“I’m glad to see you finally remembered who you are Gabriel, we all look forward to seeing you
once again heheheh, but goodbye for now brother, you win this round.”
Hmm so this wasn’t real in the first place, I could see now with new sight, the stranger had been
some kind of droid piloted by the real ‘stranger’ what a cowardly move.

“XJ ARE YOU THERE?!? It’s Whisper! Please respond! Enemy forces are in retreat, I repeat the
enemy is in full retreat. Do you need assistance? The enemy used some sort of jamming device to
cut you off from me.”
Whisper's voice brought me out of my contemplation.

“I’m fine don’t worry about me, I was dealing with some kind of specialized unit, damn thing
nearly killed me but I’m alright now. How are the others doing, please tell me they’re ok?”
I just realized Xavier never had come back to look for me, I hoped everything had gone ok for him.
“For the most part yes, everyone made it out alive but Violet is in need of urgent medical attention,
were moving her to a medical bay as we speak right now“
 Blood and Honor
Chapter Summary

This chapter follows the other side of the conflict from chapter 4.

Chapter 5: On the Defensive (Violet)

I cast one last glance backwards at my two squad mates, even if those two always try to annoy me
for the fun of it, in the end I knew they cared about me just as much as Dmitri and little Ivan did, as
I did for them. It was natural to be worried for them as we were a family together yet there was
something else there when I glanced back at them walking away into the unknown where I would
not be able to help them, it twisted a knot into my gut. I had to ignore it for now though as there
were people to protect, slithering faster, I caught up to our armored escort who was being followed
closely by Dmitri and Ivan clinging to his back.

The sky slowly but surely was beginning to darken as the sun continued its retreat under the city’s
defensive wall, our escort leading us through what I assumed to be the most efficient path to
wherever it was we’d be defending the wall judging by how we weaved about many barren streets
lit by still active lamp lights and disheveled alleyways that were blanketed by the shadows of the
buildings that rose high around them. No one uttered a word as we continued on our way with all
haste, and I found my thoughts drifting to the safety of team B. I shook my head as if that would
help my worries fall away like rain against my scales, I tried to shift my thoughts to focus on
strategies instead, it was something Dmitri helped me become accustomed to when I began to
worry and stress too much about things.

Thankfully it worked again, focusing on different strategies and contingency plans for the different
things we may be coming up against helped to distract me from my anxiety. Before I knew it we
had arrived at one of the many ways into and up the wall, a heavily armored door set into the thick
wall. Our escort waved his hand near the scanner built next to the door and just a moment later the
door ground open allowing us to pass inside. Once inside we really picked up the pace to make it to
the top of the wall, the walls interior was every claustrophobe's nightmare, very tight halls and only
the bare minimum of room to move around in. Ivan did not seem to like the enclosed nature of it
very much and hugged himself tighter against his father and kept his eyes shut to avoid
overwhelming himself, it reminded him of bad memories so he told me.

Once in the rather cramped elevator that began to pull us up towards the top of the wall, I gave my
gear one last quick inspection to ensure everything still looked to be in working order and wouldn’t
fail. Reaching the top of the wall with a shudder of the elevator, I felt that my equipment was in
satisfactory condition and slithered out of the cramped cage with the others as we were greeted by
the fresh, cooling late afternoon air.

The view was breathtaking when I finally got out of the elevator and started to take stock of my
surroundings. The battlements were full of soldiers chatting amongst themselves, checking their
equipment over and over again much like I had and prepping their heavy machine gun
emplacements.

“Alright Boss, what's the game plan for us? I’ll go along with whatever you’re thinking.”
I was eager to hear what Dmitri had been planning up when we began our walk to this place, that
was the thing with him. Any time of day or night, you could bet money on it that he would be
making up all sorts of plans and schemes just for the fun of it. No doubt due to whatever training
he received by his government.

“Hmmm, depends of the types of soldiers they send at us but until we learn that, my initial plan is
for us to work with the other snipers here by taking out the commanders and high threat units like
the andromedons if we even see them out there.”
I followed along with Dmitri as he strode off towards one of the vantage points for the wall’s
snipers to get better angles on enemy troops.
“Ivan will stick with me as always to help point out targets for us as we surgically remove their
heads so to speak.”
He chuckled at that bit of grim sniper humor.

I spent the remaining time before we were supposed to see the enemy forces coming past the tree
line helping any of the soldiers that asked kindly for my assistance. Whether it was helping with
last minute maintenance on one of the turrets or setting up the ammunition caches for everyone to
use, the smiles and thanks I received from the soldiers was new to me and I became a little
flustered by it as I’d rarely gotten such kindness from humans before or at all for that matter
besides Dmitri. Just then however everyone heard Whisper’s voice loud and clear over the comms.

“They’ve arrived! Quickly everyone prepare for combat, the Coil is right on top of us!”
As if to prove his point we could hear engines roar high above in the sky and the thundering of
their main rotary cannons ripping through the silence and illuminating the darkening sky, Coil and
our own fighters began their dogfight in the skies heralding the beginning of the battle which was
soon followed by the enraptured voices of the Coil’s forces within the forest making themselves
very known to us now.

“Violet, eyes open Ivan’s starting to mark targets for us, let’s get to work now!”
I could see Ivan’s handy work in play and it still never ceased to amaze me, as the enemies began
their March forward towards the wall to storm it, I could see certain targets amongst them start to
emit an eerie light blue glow. Dmitri acted quickly, firing shots at the targets that Ivan marked for
him, and not being one to get left behind on the action, I lined up my sights with their glowing
targets and gently squeezed the trigger on my SMG in short bursts. Thanks to having superior
eyesight and Ivan’s appreciated assistance, I was downing every target he presented to me.
Meanwhile bullets and plasma fire flew in every direction imaginable, I kept myself ready to move
at a moment's notice while taking my time behind cover before peeking out to gun down another
enemy commander.

“Watch out we’ve got Andromedons incoming, keep clear of their acid blasts, they’ll eat you
alive!”
Dmitri made the call out over the comms thanks to Ivan picking up their thoughts. Sure enough
everyone on the wall began to see the tell tale signs of their approach, the heavy glowing metal
frames slowly waddling towards the wall made them easy targets for the wall gunners, though it
wasn’t without it’s dangers. Despite the gap they’d have to cross to reach the wall, they raised their
arm cannons and began to fire off calculated volleys of their acid bombs at the top of the wall.

“Get back, let the snipers handle them!”

I shouted loudly over the comms, desperate to be heard over the cacophony of gun fire and chaos
around us. I grabbed the soldiers nearest to me as they weren’t reacting fast enough and dove
backwards with them just in time, sickly smelling green acid splashed harshly against the wall and
coating the cover we’d just been hiding behind, sizzling and starting to melt the concrete.

Some had not been as lucky however in moving in time, the cries of the injured soldiers and yells
for medics could be heard all around as fellow soldiers tried to administer aid and remove their
compatriots' acidic armor to save them. Dmitri and the other snipers didn’t waste a moment
however and quickly refocused their fire on the wave of advancing andromedons. While I couldn’t
see it, it was certainly audible to everyone over the gun fire, a sound like thunder striking mixed
with the feeling of an immense shockwave cascaded against the defenders and myself. Twenty
meters above us, multiple glowing holes were torn open like the very fabric of reality was being
undone, and falling through them I could make out the forms of more enemy troops gliding down
towards us.

I turned my Auditor upwards now, along with the rifles of the soldiers I’d just rescued who
followed my gaze, began to fire desperately at our rapidly descending foes. The closer they grew, I
could finally identify that they were Mec units similar to XJ but much smaller in comparison to his
much heavier build and there were hundreds of them. At this point all non snipers or gunners who
were brave enough to stay on their turrets after the initial acidic barrage, had aimed their weapons
skyward to engage the newest threat, oil, metal, and body parts of the mecs crashed down in heaps.
Something sad took hold of me for a moment as I sprayed as many of the mec units with bullets as
I could, perhaps due to their close resemblance to my teammate, yes that had to be it, how could
one not feel that way when attempting to be forced to kill something so closely resembling a friend.

“Here they come, get ready to engage!” I shouted once more to be heard over the chaos in comms,
those who hadn’t succumbed to gunfire landed against the battlement’s floor with heavy metallic
thuds and unleashed hell with their heavy weapons immediately. Everyone desperately diving for
cover and to return fire if possible, I was no exception, slithering around a pile of destroyed mecs
with a few other soldiers before tossing a grenade, making sure no one else could get hit by the
blast before pulling the safety pin from the top. The resulting fiery explosion sent the several mecs
scattering over the wall in pieces as well as drawing the attention of the rest of the arriving mecs.

“We need to protect our snipers or we won’t be able to fight off those damned Andromedons!
Come on, let's give them hell!” I did my best to try and sound inspiring and fearless despite how
horrible the situation was beginning to look for us. I wouldn’t let these mechanical bastards get to
Ivan no matter what. Steeling my resolve, I dashed out from my cover and grabbed a downed mec
as a mobile shield taking a page from XJ’s book, I started to carve a path through their forces and
rallying more soldiers behind me to gain momentum. We had their full attention now, plasma and
bullets going both ways, the other soldiers taking my example and putting it into practice, grouping
together with mec shields and advancing while their fellows behind them fired back against the
mecs, picking them off the wall with me.

Just as we were clearing off the battlements of the last of the mec units and tending to the
wounded, I heard the telltale puff of Xavier teleporting next to me.
“Violet were overrun on the east side! I got everyone to the fallback points but XJ is still holding
off the reanimated corpses of the zealots.” Xavier began to explain hurriedly and grasped my wrist,
his intentions clear about teleporting us back to help him. I nodded quickly and waited for us to
appear next to our friend but all that did happen was us rapidly flickering between reality and
whatever warped space Xavier teleports through before ending up right where we’d been standing.

“What happened Xavier?!? We need to help him before he’s killed!” Worry was overshadowing
both of us now as everyone heard Whisper relaying the news over everyone’s comms, the east side
was being overwhelmed by an undead horde. He’d just lost contact with XJ as something powerful
launched from the forest and blasted him off the wall and into the city.

Just as Whisper said that, everyone felt the impact of whatever it was that tackled XJ into the
streets, rock the foundations of the wall we stood on like a miniature earthquake, even our foes
below gave a moment as pause at the quake.
“Xavier! Get us to him now!” I was trying my best not to scream at him and only make things
worse but luck wasn’t with us.

“I don’t know what’s going on! Something or someone is blocking my ability to teleport at all
within the city, we’re stuck here but maybe we can still run down to aid him!”
More thunderous quakes rippled outwards from the east side of the city, but no one could spare the
time at this point as the enemy started to scale up the wall and required our efforts.

“We can’t help him right now Violet, these men here need our help and XJ still has the soldiers at
the checkpoints to help him, all we can do for him is pray he succeeds.” Dmitri, still as calm and
collected as he always seemed, spoke professionally to me and he was right, I couldn’t let myself
slip up now if XJ could remain strong still and that others needed our help. Turning around from
facing the city to grab Xavier and take him towards the wall’s edge to attack the ascending
enemies, I let out a scream of surprise and grabbed Xavier’s legs with my tail and yanked him
down and off to the side hard with my tail as he shouted out curses in protest until he saw why I
had tripped him. Just mere seconds after I tripped him, an obscenely large double headed war
hammer swung downwards right where Xavier had been standing, had I not moved him, he
would’ve become a fine paste splattered into the floor before me.

“What the hell is that?!?” Xavier exclaimed and not even waiting for anyone to answer his
question, drew his twin mag pistols and began to rapidly unload them into the owner of the
hammer that nearly drastically reduced his height, his mag slugs simply bouncing off the
stranger’s armor plates.
“It doesn’t matter, just put it down like the rest and don’t let him whack you with that thing this
time!” I replied as I backed up with Xavier as we got a better look at our new opponent. The form
was human-like but even shorter than Xavier at 5’10 however they looked to have an incredibly
thick build as everything about this thing looked to be built for brute force. Braided cords of some
material I couldn’t identify hung down to it’s neck from the back of its metal head like hair almost.
The eyes slits in the helmet glowed an eerie white as if to burn any who gazed into them,
accompanied by a strange gemstone embedded into its forehead and the hammer in its hand, its
whole body adorned in black robes that didn’t seem to hinder its movement.

“So you’re the ones that have been looking after our little brother then? For that I thank you for
taking care of him the short while he was in your care but now I will be taking him back, I won’t
be taking no for an answer.” The armored figure spoke with a rich baritone voice as he stated his
thanks. Xavier and I both exchanged confused glances at each other before focusing on our new
target, he couldn’t be referring to XJ could be?

“I’m sorry to say but we aren’t quite sure who you’re talking about but seeing as we seem to be at
an impasse, it looks like me and my friend here will just have to stop you.” I stated firmly and rose
up to my full height again to be as intimidating as possible. The main battle still raging on all
around us, some soldiers spared glances from under their cover to see what was happening but
knowing that we’d be handling they went back to suppressing the coil’s advancements.

No more words needed to be exchanged between us now, the stranger assuming a combat stance
and leveling his hammer, ready to charge us and see who makes the first move. Xavier gave me a
subtle but knowing glance, I understood his intentions and with a flick of my tail I catapulted him
into the air before launching myself forward at the stranger to distract him from Xavier. Almost
effortlessly the stranger swung his hammer fluidly as he stepped forward to meet my charge,
catching me a bit by surprise how he could move that massive hammer, I was thankful for my
nimble body otherwise his first assault may have found its mark. I contorted my tail and upper
body with everything I had to avoid the rapid swings and maneuvers of the monstrous weapon as
each swing left deep gash wounds in the concrete of the wall where it attempted to strike me. Now
much closer to him, I decided to try my luck with my storm gun, squeezing the trigger after
dodging his most recent swing, multiple beams of light erupted forth from the barrel and impacted
with the stranger who audibly grunted as the beams struck his midsection. Though they hadn’t
struck a killing blow, there were significant scorch marks and dents on his armor from it.

With the stranger’s attention now on me, he wouldn't see Xavier, though he was unable to teleport
for now, was no less lethal. Seeing that his pistols had no effect, he drew his twin fusion blades in
a flash and twisting himself in the air he landed square on the strangers shoulders after he was
recovering from the pain I caused him from shooting him point blank.
It was now his turn to be surprised, Xavier driving both gleaming blades downwards aiming for the
lungs, the stranger yelled out in pain as the blades penetrated just enough into his armor to reach
and cause him some pain.

“Huh not bad but you’ll have to do better than that if you wish to bring down the Thunderer!” The
stranger bellowed out enraged, electricity sparking from his hammer as he made a violent swing for
Xavier but he was quick enough to leap off of his shoulders getting him to stagger forward while I
followed up by winding up a hit against the stranger’s back using my tail as a club and knocking
him back over the wall.

“Well that was rather easy.” Xavier chimed in as we heard the stranger yell out curses while he fell
to ground below as everyone could hear the sound of a colossal impact ring out. He must’ve been
heavier than he looked judging by how the impact sounded.

“You shut up right now, we don’t even know if that killed him yet and I don’t fancy checking
while the coil is still attacking and getting shot at.” I let out an amused sigh at Xavier’s attempt to
lighten the mood. I was about to ask Whisper for XJ’s current condition when I felt a sharp pin
strike deep into my left side followed by the sensation of being in the air as I was sent flying and
then rolling to the ground just in front of Dmitri’s perch. Groaning in pain and trying to lift my
head up to see what had struck me, what I saw chilled my blood with fear, the stranger was right
where I had been standing, he’d somehow made it back up the wall without alerting anyone and
struck me with his hammer.

His demeanor had changed now, he was growling like a beast and was charging forward recklessly
with his hammer raised high over his head to flatten me with it. Before he had a chance to make
good on crushing me into a bloody smear on the battlement floor, The sound of metal slashing
metal rang out accompanied by an angry roar of pain from the stranger as he fell to his knees and
rolled over to see Xavier with his swords drawn.

“Run! I’ll hold him off, Dmitri, I need help right now!” He barely managed to shout out before the
stranger was back to his feet and charging Xavier. The scene before all who looked backed from
the wall would see the armored stranger, enraged beyond his reason, but still in control of his skill
as he masterfully swung and controlled his hammer moving fluidly from sequence to sequence.
Xavier used his mastery of acrobatics to save himself from being struck many times and even
catching the hammer’s handle to gain momentum as he became a flurry of blades against the
armored juggernaut that pushed him ceaselessly. Despite his fusion blades being top quality
weapons, they still did very little to the stranger as I’m sure he knew, opting to give him a death by
one thousand cuts, though he still pushed on. Dmitri, hearing our battle, turned his attention away
from the battle in front of the wall to what was happening around us and without further
prompting, began to fire precision shots at the strangers joints and his eye slits when the
opportunity arose.

“Don’t worry Violet, I'm here now just hold still, this’ll hurt a bit.” It was Ivan who murmured in a
low voice as to not attract any attention to us as I pushed myself back against the side of the wall
that faced the city, Ivan pulling out a medkit and applying the blue spray to the spot where I’d been
struck which was bleeding slightly and missing a fair amount of my obsidian scales. It took a great
deal of my willpower not to hiss out in pain at the application of the healing spray but soon after
the pain thankfully began to dull though I could not risk moving much more and exacerbating the
wound until I could get proper medical treatment.

Turning my attention back to the fight, I could see Xavier beginning to tire out from the unrelenting
assault of the hammer and the stranger showed no signs of tiring out while Xavier kept him away
from the other soldiers who by now were quickly moving away from our section of the wall to
avoid being caught in the crossfire. In a moment of exhaustion Xavier was finally caught by the
hammer in a glancing blow as he did not dodge as fast as he had intended and was sent backwards
like I had been. Dmitri thought fast and targeted multiple joints on the stranger’s legs to try and
bring him down long enough for Xavier to recover, all this did however was enrage him further as
he turned to face all of us now, lightning was striking down at random all over the more angrier he
became, screams could be heard as he commanded it to begin bringing the wall down and blasting
the section where our fellow defenders were fleeing to and killing them instantly in droves.

I could barely move and Dmitri was reloading hurriedly as the stranger began charging at us now,
Ivan stood up defiantly and stretched out with his power as a glowing blueish barrier formed
around the two of us as he began to slam down on it with his hammer, Ivan cried out obviously in
pain from the strain of maintaining the barrier but wouldn’t give in although cracks were beginning
to spread across its surface.

Jumping down from his perch Dmitri cracked the stranger over his head with the stock of his
sniper before jumping back in an attempt to gain his attention, though all it truly did was enrage his
further as he extended an open palm at Dmitri as if to tell him to stop before the sound of high
pressure releasing exploded from his palm, blasting Dmitri over the wall towards the city side,
Ivan having his concentration broke as we both yelled out for Dmitri as he fell below our sight line.
Before he knew what was happening, Ivan was being lifted off the ground in the iron grip of the
stranger who brought Ivan up by his throat to stare into his terrified eyes, Ivan attempting to strike
him in a feeble attempt to resist as he cried out for the loss of his father. I could only attempt to use
my storm gun which earned me a harsh kick to my undamaged side of my ribs and caused me to
collapse over in pain as he planted a heavy boat on my neck to ensure I wouldn’t try that again.

“You stay away from him you son of a bitch, he’s just a kid!” I heard a similar voice yell,
following the stranger shouting in pain again as I saw Xavier’s blades punch through the stranger’s
armor fully, he was accompanied by a human soldier who was wielding one of his swords. The
stranger still showed no sign of stopping as he dropped Ivan into my lap, I instinctively curled
around him to comfort and protect him as he was crying now but the heat was on Xavier and the
random soldier that was with him. Moving a bit farther back to avoid being caught in that
monster’s sight again, I saw a dark figure creeping over the wall and onto the battlements, he took
a look towards my direction before turning to face the stranger. He broke out into a sprint holding
something in both of his fists, it was getting more difficult to see due to the remaining pain still
affecting me and the increasing darkness of night but what I could make out was the shadowy
figure was aided by Xavier and the human soldier as they came together to launch the shadowed
figured up as he attached what he held on his fists to the enraged stranger’s helmet before running
our way as I saw him explode into a large fireball. Now I could finally see who it was and breathed
a sigh of relief through the pain, Dmitri had made it back, he dropped to his knees and I shifted
enough so he could grab Ivan in a loving hug.

“I’m so sorry my son, I’m here now don’t worry I won’t let him anywhere near you again.” He
murmured more words in Russian as he scooped Ivan up into his arms and held him close as he
mouthed his thanks to me, all I could do was give him a smile in response while shakily getting up
off the wall, Xavier moving over to help steady myself along with the other soldier.

“Don’t....think you’ve won just yet, I may not be used to using these things just yet but next time
we meet I know it’ll be even harder than today hahah.”
How the hell was this guy not dead yet?!! Everyone turned to see the heavily damaged form of the
stranger walk through the blaze caused by Dmitri’s grenades, a beeping sound emitting from him,
all of our eyes widened as we knew immediately what he was planning. Acting on instinct and
whatever remaining adrenaline urged me to move, I grabbed hold of everyone and dove forward in
a mad dash to the nearest cover available. Just in time as well, no sooner had I made it to our cover
and coiled over everyone to protect them the bomb with the stranger went off, a deafening bomb
and shockwave rocked us all, pain was all I felt as I stayed my ground to keep everyone safe,
especially little Ivan. After the initial burst of pain all it started to get a little more tolerable, but my
version became blurrier with every passing second. I didn’t want to die just yet, not until I could
find ‘him’ again.
 Decompression

Chapter 6: confusion (XJ-5)

I rushed as quickly as I could to the medical center that I had been told was where Violet and the
others were being treated for their injuries. Only taking a few minutes of sprinting thanks to the
new strength that invigorated my body, I didn’t know how to feel about these new changes, the
implications, and what was happening to my friends. My mind was a tempest of emotion but I had
to push it to the side for now to focus on the well being of my squad. Entering the hospital in a
rush and frantically seeking where my squad had been placed, a hybrid nurse at the main desk
directing me to where they were. “They’re in here hun, just don’t get too loud with them, they’ve
all had it rough and the viper is in a coma and we aren’t sure how long she’ll be in it.” She gestured
for me to enter the room, holding the door open and smiling apologetically.

Upon entering the room, the sight of what had befallen my....family caused many strong feelings to
come to the forefront of my mind, sorrow and hatred against myself for failing to be there when
they needed me. ‘How could I let this happen? What kind of failure let’s this happen to his squad?’
Was all I could think to myself. Dmitri was asleep upright in a chair, bandaged but not doing too
badly with Ivan asleep and covered in bandages somewhat resembling the mummified remains of
ancient human rulers from Egypt. They sat in between two beds, Xavier cradled in the bed to the
left being treated for what looked to be brutal blunt force trauma, Violet was in the other bed, I
couldn’t help but mentally gasp when I saw what had happened to her. She was badly burnt and
broken, I could easily see the burns against her back, she was missing scales in large patches that
were being treated with large medical gel patches to halt infections from spreading.

I quietly closed the door behind me and took great care to be as silent as possible when I
approached them, kneeling down between the beds of my friends and delicately rubbing Ivan’s
undamaged shoulder. “I’m so sorry little buddy, I would’ve been there to protect you with the
others, I was too weak.” I couldn’t mask the sadness in my lowered voice, before looking up and
catching a yellow glint in the corner of my optics, Xavier wasn’t as asleep as I had thought. He
balled his hand into a fist and weakly shifted it to me and made an attempt to speak but all that
came out were feeble grunts and the hissing of air.

“No don’t try to speak, just rest Xav, I’m truly happy you all made it back. I dreaded the worst
when you never came back, I tried dammit...I tried so hard to get back to you guys but I got held up
by some weird super soldier nearly dying...I thought I’d never see any of you ever again.” I
returned his gesture and carefully bumped a metal fist into his as he gave me a sympathetic smile. I
was about to move away to check on Dmitri and Violet when I felt Xavier’s hand grasp my wrist
with all the strength he could muster at that moment. I turned back around to face my friend, the
look in his eyes spoke more than I felt words could’ve at that moment, he pulled me down and
embraced me in a weak hug which I returned careful not to bruise him further, he patted my back
plating in attempt to console my mind. While it was true I’d trained for this aboard the Avenger,
I’d never truly experienced the horror of combat like that before, sure I had memories of my
patrols and the limited fighting I’d seen there, but none of it compared to what we had all just been
through. Especially now that I was beginning to question everything I thought I knew to be true
about myself.

“Thanks Xav, that helped a lot, but really you should rest now, you’re gonna need it more than
me.” I could see him chuckle lightly at that as he let go of my metal frame and slowly laid back
down in his bed, closing his eyes to hopefully find sleep. I moved my attention to Dmitri and
Violet now, Dmitri still slept peacefully with Ivan, and poor Violet couldn’t even wake up of her
own will. I knelt next to her by the bedside and gently rubbed her arm, making sure none of the
features of my hand and palm would hurt her.

“Whisper told me about what you guys did while I defended the east wall, you did so good with
the others, even shielding them even if it meant certain death. Not sure if it means much but I’m
proud to be part of a squad with people like you all.” As I finished my thought aloud, I felt a
familiar hand place itself on my metallic shoulder. I turned my head back to see Dmitri smiling up
at me, holding Ivan tight to him with his other, I was barely able to hear what he whispered to me
in an attempt to speak without waking the others:

“I’m happy to see you’re still with us kid, was worried for a moment when Xavier couldn’t get
back to you and help you out.”
He was about to say more before he was racked with a coughing fit, he did his best to keep it silent
though Ivan did begin to stir from his sleep. I did my best to keep quiet while I spoke back to him,
“I got a summary of what happened to you guys from Whisper but what actually happened? You
got attacked by some super soldier like I did?” Dmitri nodded for both of my questions, stroking
Ivan with care as his eyes opened groggily from his sleep, looking up to see me and his father.

“Everything had been going as planned, waves of enemies getting gunned down by the defenders
and us. After the second charge, however, strange things started happening. Portals above us began
to open up and drop mec units onto the wall. While everyone else focused on them and keeping the
snipers safe as they had to focus on the incoming Andromedons, the super soldier appeared out of
nowhere, most likely a portal. He nearly killed Xavier if it hadn’t been for Violet reacting fast
enough to save him.” He took a moment to catch his breath and to comfort Ivan who reached out a
hand to Dmitri and then to me as if to see if we were real or just some dream his mind had made
up. To his silent delight we were, with me returning the gesture and holding his hand with a soft
smile.

“It was all downhill from there, I wanted to help them but between the approaching Andromedons
and not wanting to draw his attention, I couldn’t risk it just then. Once they’d all been dealt with,
however, I began to try and blow his joints and eyeballs out. Whatever that fancy armor was made
out of though barely even gave in to my rounds of Xavier’s sword for that matter. We could hurt
him but just barely, he nearly had us all dead to rights but thankfully he decided to quit on us right
at the end. He was a sore loser about it and tried to take us with him or whatever it was we were
fighting, we have Violet to thank for saving us from the blast.'' He gestured over to our comatose
viper in her bed.

“I hope she’ll wake up soon then, I don’t think it would feel the same here without her. Wouldn’t
have anyone to throw insults and sass my way.” That got a chuckle out of me and Dmitri, Ivan
though not physically capable of showing was smiling from what I could tell with how his facial
muscles contorted.

“Hey papa and good morning XJ” Ivan greeted us sleepily as he stretched his arms and body
gingerly, becoming aware of his injuries again. “Did....did we win? Is everyone ok? I don’t
remember what happened after Violet shielded us all from that explosion.” He rubbed his head as if
to try and help his recollection of the events but it didn’t seem to work.

“Yes we did my boy, and I’m very proud of how bravely you acted out there, especially when you
shielded Violet from that soldier’s hammer.” The pride in Dmitri’s eyes was obvious to anyone that
looked at him, it was a sweet moment. It was, however interrupted by a soft knock on our door
followed by a voice Dmitri seemed to recognize. Quietly a figure entered the darkened room,
making his way over to us so we could see him more clearly.
“You’ve done very well Patchwork, the commander wanted me to stop by to get whatever kind of a
debrief I could from whoever was able to give it. I must say I’m impressed by what I’ve heard and
seen from recordings Whisper has shown me and am eager to hear what you have to say.” The
voice was a bit monotone though distinct in a way I was unable to place until my suspicion was
confined. The slim figure stepped into what little light was available in the room, revealing that he
was in fact a Sectoid, I knew it. He wore similar clothing to that of the commander and had our
city’s emblem on it, with a patch near the top left corner of his shoulder giving away his name
which was Leopold.

“It’s nice to see you again Leo, while I can’t speak for XJ, I can give you my half of what
happened, then you’ll have to get XJ’s side of it since I doubt Xavier will be in any condition to
talk for a short while.” Nodding in understanding, Leo pulled a chair over, enveloping it in a soft
purple light as it obeyed and silently slid over to him. Dmitri explained what happened to their
group during the battle in great detail and clarity, it wasn’t very surprising given how as a sniper it
would be expected of you to have good memories.
I was grateful I hadn’t been made to go first but I dreaded when I’d have to explain, I wasn’t the
most courageous person and it felt a bit embarrassing how I let myself feel so scared, people in this
city and around us looked to us to protect them, we...I shouldn’t have been getting scared. I was
brought out of my deep thoughts by Leopold’s voice, he was calling for me to explain my side of
things, I hoped they wouldn’t judge me too harshly for it.

“I can actually do you one better than just explain it, I’ll show you what happened through my
optic feed. You’ll see events play out just as I saw them and heard them.” His expression changed
to one of curiosity and he gestured for me to proceed.

With a thought my optics glowed a brighter shade of blue and began to project the memory footage
onto the wall across from myself. Everyone but Violet giving the video their undivided attention,
the events playing out exactly as I mentioned them. Up until he was unable to return, Xavier now
saw what he had missed, I had to lock my expression into a neutral one so no one could see my
discomfort as the footage continued. It was when I was beginning to get overwhelmed by the
zombies, the brutality and gore of it all as I had to use my bare hands to fight the desiccated corpses
alone, hearing my panic and fear at the time, I felt ashamed they had to see me like that. Things
didn’t get better when my fight with the stranger played out for them to see either. I felt a small
hand that I knew to belong to Ivan rest on my right arm.

After a few more minutes the footage had ended, Leopold turning back to look at me, his face a
mixture of disgust and pity.

“I’m....terribly sorry you had to experience that XJ, but I have to ask this of you, how is it you
aren’t covered in gore and missing your arm and however much of your face that soldier cleaved
off?” He asked the question everyone had been wondering as they all faced me now.

“After he struck my face, I honestly thought I was going offline for good, and yet even after
blacking out for what was around 12 seconds, I felt myself coming back.” Thankfully I had fine
control over my expression and tone of voice. I hated lying to them like this but I didn’t want to tell
them just yet, especially with Leopold here.

“I don’t know how to explain it but one moment I faded to black, then the next moment I felt
myself coming back online and my vision had been restored, using all my strength I knocked the
soldier back with my one arm and stood up. I realized what had happened after getting a moment to
think, apparently I had been equipped with a contingency of repair nanites and never been aware of
their existence.” The expressions of the others became somewhat quizzical.
“I’ve never heard of a mec unit to be equipped with such things, and how is it you never knew or
that Engineer Shen never found these hidden in you?” His question was certainly justified though it
didn’t make me any less nervous.

“I understand your concern but I’m not sure how they were missed with all the extensive studying
both myself and Shen conducted on my chassis, we never found any structures or containers that
could be used to house nanites and it’s certainly not something I would’ve been able to hide from
her. Shen is many things but being lax in her study is not one of them.” Thankfully that answer
seemed to satisfy the sectoid as he thought about it before nodding.

“Very true, from what I’ve heard about her she wouldn’t be one to miss such a detail. Well it’s
good to see you’re alright just the same, at-least you won’t require repairs then. I’ll be reporting all
this to commander Jensen right away, in the meantime however take your downtime to rest and
recover, you’ve more than earned it for what you’ve done here.” He gave a smile before excusing
himself from his chair, quietly and mechanically striding out of the room.

“It’s ok son don’t let Leo get you all worried about those things inside of you. It’s his job to worry
but he means well, we all trust you, if you were a traitor you had plenty of opportunities to try
something when Xavier couldn’t reach you.” Dmitri caught me off guard with that, I knew I was
still very green and new to this team, that we would have to work together and set aside distrust but
to hear what he thought, it touched my core, I turned to face him again as I attempted to smile.

“It means a lot to hear you say that, even when I was on the Avenger and working with Shen, I was
barely trusted by those aboard. Not that I can blame them, in their shoes I may have felt the same
around a former enemy claiming to have miraculously switched sides.” I couldn’t hide the sorrow
that played across my face, and perhaps I just didn’t care enough to hide it,
“I barely had anyone there to call friend, and the glares and glances among other things certainly
begin to weigh on the mind after enough time. But the first moment I spent with you guys in that
training simulator, and yes even with Violet, I felt more welcomed than I ever had before....I just
wanted to say thank you. Even if I am to one day go offline to defend those in need, I can do so
with the happy memories you’ve given me.”

I could hear a gentle chuckle escape from Dmitri, he had a knowing look on his face as he shook
his head slightly.
“XJ I don’t mean this in any kind of rude way but you really are far too human for an AI. You’ve
proven yourself son and you’ve done us proud, relax and enjoy your time off, don’t dwell on
painful thoughts like that now.” He was right as usual, now that I thought about it I could feel the
mental exhaustion I’d felt before, perhaps a short power down would do some good.

I nodded at him, giving Ivan one last head pat before finding a comfortable spot against the wall in
the corner of the room and sitting back. After all that happened tonight I wondered if I’d see that
strange young man again at some point, hopefully with some damn answers this time. I had far too
many questions and too little in the way of answers, but rest would come first, I wanted to relax in
the recesses of my mind without a care.

I drifted off quickly, welcoming the warm embrace of that familiar sea of darkness, it felt
wonderful to just drift gently with no worries. I enjoyed the therapeutic solitude for what felt like
an eternity, but it didn’t last for much longer as I heard a muffled voice off in the distance.
Groaning slightly at being disturbed from my bliss, I opened my optics and tried to scan my
surroundings with little results in an attempt to find the direction of the voice. Again the voice
continued to call out, it was certainly familiar, I think it was calling out my name but I still couldn’t
locate where it was truly coming from, what made it more infuriating was the fact that each time
the voice called out to me, I swore it was getting clearer each time.

“Gabriel....” I heard the voice clear as day and it came from directly behind my head.

I froze dead in my tracks at that, quickly whirling around, preparing to wind up a punch as it
startled me that badly. Yet no one was there, but I could see a wooden door, painted grey and a
powerful light spilled out from behind it and leaked through the cracks in its perimeter.
As I contemplated opening it and going through it I heard the voice call to me once more,
“Gabriel? Where are you?” I think it was the voice of that scarred young man I had seen in my
vision. Perhaps he’d give me some answers finally.

Hesitantly I gripped the doorknob and pulled it open, preparing for multiple different scenarios if
this turned into some kind of sick trap. I dashed inside ready for an immediate ambush, but none
came, instead I was greeted by the welcoming interior of a house. I turned around to check on the
door but it had disappeared now, this was getting incredibly weird but at this point, I’d been
dealing with a copious amount of weird phenomena that it was starting to seem like my new
normal.

“There you are Gabe! I was beginning to think you couldn’t hear me through that thick metal head
of yours. Yet here you are, you must truly want answers.” I swung around, trying to equip my
plasma casters but my arms wouldn’t obey my mental commands, now I just looked stupid as I saw
the same scarred young man from before, chuckling at my display.

“You? Yes I do want answers, I’ve got soo many questions for you and I’m not leaving whatever
or wherever this place is until I’ve gotten them.” I moved cautiously over to where he was, he was
sitting down on the couch in the middle of the room.

I sat across from him before taking a moment to observe where I was. It looked like a family’s
house, it had a large kitchen with a tiled floor, black wooden dining table complete with some kind
of decorated white cloth. Large slabs of cut stone made up the counters and a matching island off
to the side with chairs surrounding it. We seemed to be in some kind of living room adjacent to the
kitchen, complete with the poofy brown couches, coffee table and its coasters, along with a decent
sized TV. It all had an air of familiarity to it which made it all seem like something out of a distant
dream.

“Alright first off, tell me who the hell you are? And I don’t want any bullshit answers, pardon my
language but I’m tired of the riddles and mystery right now.” I didn’t want to come off as rude but I
really was getting sick of this feeling of feeling like I should know something and yet not know it.
“Very well, however there will be some questions you have that I can’t give answers to, at least not
yet but that will make sense with time, you’ll come to understand why.” He gave me an apologetic
look as I’m sure he could sense my annoyance at his reply, but if he still gave me answers I
suppose I could let that slide for now.

“As for who I am, I can’t say who specifically for now but what I can tell you is this. I am a
projection of someone you once knew long ago. Your mind found this form to be the easiest one to
help you process the information for the answers you seek.” He stated it in a matter-of-fact tone of
voice as if he’d been rehearsing that line for ages.

“So this really is all happening in my head then? Not some illusion or ADVENT trick hidden in my
programming?” I was certainly curious to see what all this was about and if it really did connect to
my past. At the same time however, if this truly was an insidious trap encoded by my late masters,
I didn’t wish to fall into it like some kind of gullible fool, even if it felt damn enticing.
“I understand your caution Gabriel but if you do doubt the things I tell you then there’s an easy way
to prove the sincerity of what I’m telling you. Simply look to see if the answers I give are correct
when you awaken.” He took my question in stride, it was creeping me out a little bit how he
seemed to have been prepared for anything and everything I decided to throw at him.

“If that’s the case, why don’t you tell me something about my past then, I don’t remember
anything besides being a mec unit that stood guard at an ADVENT laboratory and barely saw any
combat. I’ve been noticing holes and gaps in my memory banks and diagnostics, things I shouldn’t
know for a mec unit yet do, and things that I feel I should know yet can’t recall.” I was hoping
with everything I had I could find some sort of slip up in his answers, something subtly off in his
tone or expression to tell me he was lying. I dreaded what he’d told me earlier that my answers
would bring painful things to light, mixed in with that was the hatred for feeling afraid, and yet I
kept falling into it when I shouldn’t be.

“I apologize for what I can’t fully give away yet but I can still answer a large portion of that
question. You were once known as Gabriel Lanaway, and your occupation was teaching,
specifically college students. You were originally a normal human which would explain why you
feel phantom memories and feelings pop up, giving you a sense of deja vù.” His words felt real
enough, I could feel them stirring things within my memory banks. I want to believe he’s telling
the truth but I must still stay cautious even as it gnaws at my mind.

“Wait what?!? That’s ridiculous! Can you explain then why I’m a mec unit then? Because I am not
quite sure how you go from human to a full on robotic soldier. I was extensively studied aboard the
Avenger. If I were in any way part human, Shen and I would’ve found something.” I crossed my
arms, waiting to see what he had to say about that, never once did we find evidence of any
humanity besides my AI which is based off of a sentient brain pattern from a human I never knew
but that is the extent of the connection.

“I’m afraid that is something that will have to wait until later, I can’t risk overloading you with too
many answers yet. Besides that particular answer is a rather....terrible one that will hurt to learn. So
for now you’ll have to look into more simple answers.” Obviously it wouldn’t be that easy for me,
it was like the universe despised me or something.

“Alright then did I have a family? Date anyone? Friends? I’ll take anything at this point.” I replied
with a hint of annoyance in my voice, letting out a groan of acceptance, I would have to play the
game his way for now at least.

“You did have a family yes, parents and one younger brother. I’m happy to say that your memories
of them were pleasant ones. You lived together in Florida before and during ADVENT’s
occupation of the planet, in a house just like this replica your subconscious created, as for friends
and all of those relationships, they will come back to you in time.” That would explain why I felt
so strangely at peace the first few moments I entered this place despite my caution and why it felt
familiar.
“Memories tied to the information I’m telling you will surface in like dreams now that I’ve
reawakened your awareness of them. However I sense you have another big question on your
mind.”

“After my battle with that weird stranger and our first talk about unlocking what I’m truly capable
of, I realize now that I’m not just a simple variant mec unit. What exactly am I?” I wasn’t too
hopeful about this question receiving an answer and didn’t expect much from him, preparing for
disappointment.

“You are correct in that you’re no ordinary creation of machinery and robotics, however if I told
you the full truth right now your mind would break from the pain of the memories you’d reawaken.
You’re....a very unique thing, one with potential if you have the imagination and knowledge to
grasp it. You already know of increasing the strength in your limbs and using the nanites to repair
damage.” He gestured to all of myself as if to emphasize his point before continuing.

“However you lack control over a vast majority of this potential, which is why you need to practice
and learn of them, accompanied by relearning about who you are.”

I was about to speak but was stopped suddenly by the fact that my vision was starting to cloud up,
white fog filling up the living room we were in.
“A shame, it looks like our time is up for now. It’ll become easier to find me now that you know
the way to come by and visit me. Remember, search for the truth since you still have doubts, you’ll
see I’m right.”

I shouted in protest and lurched forward off of the couch to try and grab his wrist, but my
movements felt like I was stuck in thick tar and my voice came out muffled as if underwater. In an
instant my eyes flashes open, alert and in the land of the living once more. These power down
moments just kept getting more and more bizarre. I was still in the hospital room, in the same
position I powered down in, everyone was where I remember except for Ivan. He must’ve been
what woke me up as my senses booted up in a few short seconds, I could feel he was gently poking
my metallic cheek to awaken me or get some sort of response.

“Hey bud I’m up, what’s on your mind? Is everything ok?” He didn’t seem to have a look of worry
on his face which eased me slightly.

“Everything is ok XJ, I just wanted to make sure you were ok. I was worried about you when you
didn’t answer me back when I came over to see you, and when I reached out telepathically to see if
you were alive, I was overwhelmed by the activity going on inside of your neural net while you
were in your sleep mode.”

“I’m sorry Ivan I didn’t mean to scare you, yes I can enter a low power state similar to how people
sleep, it lets me relax while I let my mind sort itself out.” I gave him a reassuring smile and quietly
tapped the ground next to me with a single finger, he gladly accepted the invitation and plopped
down next to me cross legged.

“There’s something on your mind, isn't there XJ? I didn’t see anything private in your mind, but I
felt it before during our time at dinner when we talked. I promise I can keep a secret as your best
friend, I wouldn’t tell a soul....not even the commander.” He whispered that last bit to show he
meant business, it was adorable.

I let out what amounted to a sigh for me, suppose I couldn’t keep this secret from them forever
after all they’d done for me, though I felt I’d go about it slowly and not all at once.
“I don’t doubt you would kiddo, yeah something has been plaguing my mind recently. For quite
awhile I was content to think my existence was a miracle of probability, yet I’ve had a very strange
sense of deja vu every so often since my awakening, like something I should remember but it’s just
out of reach.”

Ivan looked up at me and was content to listen as I kept my voice low to not risk waking the others
from their well earned rest.
“The first major occurrence happened when I was killed by the stranger I fought in the footage I
should everyone, his final attack to my face did kill me of that I’m certain. When I lost
consciousness, I awoke in a black void faced with a very scarred young man, we talked for a bit, he
hunted that I was more than what I knew and offered to show me the way to remember what I
couldn’t. After that I came back to the world of the living and you know the rest.”
“You think whoever this is can be trusted XJ? I wouldn’t want you to fall for some bad guy’s trap
to turn you against us or something worse.”

“While I’m not sure about that, I’m taking everything he’s told me with a grain of salt naturally.
After finding out everyone was safe and recovering here, I attempted to find my way back to
whoever that man was, so I tried powering down to see if I could find anything in my neural
network. Luckily it worked” Ivan seemed to ponder something before he spoke up.

“XJ? I’ll understand if you say no but would you mind if I tried to connect myself to your brain so I
can see if I’m able to access your memory banks? You might be able to show me exactly what you
saw.”
I didn’t see a reason why not, my trust in Ivan hasn’t done any harm and it is a two way street.

“Alright bud I’ll show you if I can, just be careful you don’t access any of the other memories....the
last thing I want is for you to see those corpses I had to fight in more graphic detail than you
already have.”
He stretched his arms up to try and reach my head, I bent forward and pushed my forehead into his
blue grasp.

The connection happened instantly, I could feel Ivan’s presence in my head, it was an odd feeling
having another consciousness inside my head. Thinking back to my vision? Dream? Whatever the
hell it was. Peering into my memory bank to see if what I witnessed had been recorded or if there
was something else going on with my AI. Thankfully it seemed that luck was on my side today, I
found the entire conversation stored, meaning something ‘had’ happened within my neural net
while I powered down.

“Here Ivan, I found it! Watch it play out and you’ll understand what I mean.”
I thought to myself and sure enough I heard a mental reply from Ivan, who began to watch the
memory play out like a video before his mind’s eye.

“Now you can understand why I’ve been feeling so strange these last two days, I’m not fully
trusting him but I’m going to look to see if there’s any truth to what I was told.” Ivan seemed to be
at a loss for words, just for a moment before his train of thought got back on track.

“That’s...heavy information to be handed, but you can trust me XJ, until you’re ready to explain it,
I’m not saying anything.” He made a zipping motion near where his mouth would’ve been if he
had one.

“And I meant it when I said we’ll always be best friends, no matter what the truth about what and
who you are may be.”
Just as I was about to thank Ivan, there was a soft knocking on the door. Quickly and as silently as
possible, I stood up and tip-toed over to crack open the door to see who was outside. Standing in
front of me was Whisper, several other individuals with them. I held up a finger to let them know
I’d be right back, turning around I whispered to Ivan.

“Whisper is here, I’m gonna go see what he needs, hold down the fort here and I’ll be back as soon
as possible ok bud?” He nodded before hugging up against Dmitri who was fast asleep in his
recliner chair.

I slipped into the brightly lit hallway before carefully closing the door behind me, there didn’t
seem to be as much activity in the large hallway as before, probably now that things were finally
quieter and the emergencies subsided.

“The others are resting up, what can I do for you Whisper?” Behind Whisper I got a better look at
who was with him.

A hybrid clone with pinkish skin and a kind look on his face as he waved at me. Besides him was a
familiar sight, Ivan's younger brother in a sense, the taller and more skeletal Sectoid who shared
the pinkish skin tone with the hybrid. Thankfully I didn’t hear or feel his presence in my head. Last
was an interesting sight, a viper whose scales were pure white. They were all dressed casually
though all of them had the logo of their squad and name on it, they must be members of that squad,
Whisper and the commander mentions Chimera if I recall that right.

“I just thought I’d swing by to see how you guys were doing, but if they’re sleeping then I won’t
bother them. I’m happy to see you’re doing better though....actually you look more than ok, you
don’t look as if you were even touched?” I could see those of Chimera squad glancing over my
chassis and realizing what Whisper meant, I was practically spotless.

“So what then? Did the bot get scared and hide in a corner so his paint job wouldn’t get messed
up?.” The viper spoke in a calm manner but her accusatory tone was quite clear as she stabbed the
sentence at me.

“Torque! He came to help us, he didn’t abandon his post so there’s no need to be rude to him.”

“No no she’s perfectly within her right to think that, under the circumstances I can understand why.
Technically I should be missing half my head and one arm, however I contain some remarkable
nanites that allow for very extensive repairs.” The viper, Torque rolled her emerald eyes at
Whispers remark, I didn’t pay her much mind but in a way it reminded me of when I first met
Violet, however the hybrid then stepped up and extended his hand towards me.

“Forgive our teammate here, thanks for the assistance, you helped us save a lot of innocent lives.
I’m Cherub and it’s a pleasure to meet you, mister? Uhhhh.” His voice was soft and cheerful, and
he wore a very disarming smile.

“My designation is XJ-5017, but everyone just calls me XJ. The pleasure is mine, it’s nice to
finally meet the famed Chimera squad, however I thought there were more of you?” I returned
Cherub’s gesture, firmly grasping his hand without crushing it and shaking it twice.

“Oh there are eight more of us you have yet to see, they are resting. We three at the behest of
Whisper came to check in on your squad.” The sectoid spoke in a somewhat monotone voice, not as
lively as Ivan’s but it was interesting nonetheless.

“You may call me Verge, happy to make your acquaintance XJ.” He gave a polite nod in my
direction. Torque spoke up next, barely waiting for Verge to finish his sentence.

“I’m Torque, just a warning but I expect you guys to take good care of my sister. I’d hate to have to
crush yah for hearing she’s not being treated well.” She brought two fingers up to her eyes before
flipping them to point at me, the gesture to let someone know they’d be watching you, not that I
hadn’t expected something like from a viper I suppose.

“Quit threatening the people that just helped us, compared to them we had things relatively easy
considering our sides of the wall didn’t get attacked by those two super soldiers.” I was
appreciative that the one called Cherub was kind enough to stand with me despite just having met
me.

“Why don’t you walk with us for a bit, if anyone in your group was up we wanted to see if you’d
like to get something to drink as thanks. Considering that two of your squad needs time to rest
however, we’ll get that drink with them later.” Whisper spoke over the other two who had started
to quietly bicker.

A nice gesture and I didn’t want to seem rude by refusing though I’d give Ivan a little warning.

“Hey Ivan, if you can hear me then just know I’ll be right back, I’m going for a bit of a walk with
these guys. I’ll be back real soon.” I thought aloud in my mind, and sure enough I felt his presence
lightly touch my mind before retreating back with his confirmation of my message.

“If it’s a chance to talk more then why not, though I do hope they have something strong enough
for me, I like the tingling feeling it gives my core.” The looks of utter confusion on their faces was
very apparent, even Verge couldn’t hide it.

“The hell kinda mec unit is able to drink anything for that matter? You’re a machine.” Torque
quickly spit out before getting an elbow nudge from Verge.
“No offense I mean...”

“None taken, I’m equipped with a little gadget from my time aboard the Avenger, I can drink
liquids and if possible it gets converted into power for my core. It was a funny party trick.”

They still looked rather uncertain, I figured they’d only believe it when they actually saw it.
Whisper simply shrugged and happily led us through the sterile hospital corridors, into the
darkened streets illuminated by the signs of the numerous alien and human businesses alike. Soon
enough we’d reach the place they’d intended on all without speaking a word. The establishment
must’ve been a bar from what I could tell, two stories high with a neon sign that was shaped like a
flying saucer from very old human ideas of what alien spacecraft looked like with a neon sectoid
riding on the top, called the Final Frontier. Rather cheesy but I found it funny.

A muton stood behind a desk shuffling through laminated menus while dressed in a comically
large suit, he nodded at Whisper as soon as he saw our group and began to lead us back to a spot to
be seated. The whole scene reminded me of my city, a few groups of different species intermingled
together, though the majority seemed to be others keeping to their own as the music thumped and
bumped its beats in the background. The dance floor was all abuzz with activity, a massive crowd
of people twisting and writhing in all directions, maybe I’d indulge in a bit of dancing myself later,
but as I finished that thought our server had shown us to our booth. I sat down beside Cherub,
while Verge and Whisper worked out how to sit down with Torque.

We were handed out five of the laminated menus he’d been organizing earlier and left to give us a
minute to select what we’d like.

“So XJ-5, if it is not a problem to ask this, could you tell me about yourself? I don’t know about
the others but I find the prospect of an ADVENT mec unit gaining full sentience and independence
from our former masters to be an interesting topic. Though please don’t mistake my question for
suspicion, I understand that feeling.” I wasn’t all that surprised Verge would be the one to ask me,
it made me think back to when Ivan did the same.

“No no that’s completely fine, I don’t mind sharing if we’re going to get to know each other
better.” I smiled and gave them the same run down of what I remembered about my time at the lab
in South America, my time as one of its many guardians, to my run in with XCOM and the psionic
network being crippled.
“So we believe it to mainly be due to some error in the programming that restricted the sentience in
my AI’s personality, once the psionic network was demolished the control over whoever’s
personality my AI was based on was gone and thus I came to be. Though we found it odd no other
cases like mine were reported. We even tried looking into other mec units to try and induce the
same thing but Shen and I never got lucky.”
Verge nodded as I finished, he was listening intently to every word as if analyzing their details,
looking for something that perhaps had been overlooked. We were interrupted though as our server
came back.

“Alrighty, what can I get for yah and your boys Whisper?” Interesting that he seemed familiar with
Whisper, perhaps he’s a frequenter here I thought.

“I’ll have my usual, what about everyone else?”

“I’ll just have a cola this time Darian, thank you.” The Muton nodded at Cherub and moved to
Verge.

“I will have the ion trail cocktail please.”

Darian, as I now knew him to be called, jotted Verge’s order down and moved to Torque.

“Psi-blade in the dark if you would please.”

It looked to be my turn next, though I wasn’t very familiar with many of their drink choices.

“Hmmm, what’s the hardest and meanest drink you have here?” Combined with the tone of voice I
asked my question, I heard everyone minus Verge who gave a small chuckle at the table try and
fail to restrict their laughter, even got a grin and chortle from our server before he came over
besides me to point it out.

“That would be the owner’s special cocktail, mainly people just use it as the final shot for their
drinking games. Can you actually uhhhh you know...drink it?”

“Yes don’t worry about that, I’m capable of consuming liquids.” That answer satisfied him with a
shrug as he strode away to get our drinks.

All a bit more comfortable around each other and helped by the music thumping around us, we got
into small talk mainly about each other so I’d get to know them better. After a bit we’d gotten our
drinks and began to sip them at our leisure.

“So this may be a stupid question and all but if you can drink alcohol, can you get drunk XJ?”
Whisper was a bit more talkative and relaxed now that his drink was beginning to affect him.

“I don’t consider it to be stupid.”

I was cut off by Torque who quickly interjected her own thought.

“I do however.”

“No I’m afraid I can’t become drunk, however I think that’s for the best, I don’t think having a
heavy robotic soldier getting drunk would be a good idea.”
We both laughed at that as I took another sip of my swirling green drink, feeling a pleasant buzz as
power thrummed within my ‘heart’.

“What’s it like working with your squad and my sister?” I was caught a little off guard, I didn’t
think torque would really talk to me much.

“Well it’s only been two days bordering on three but in just a short time they’ve made me feel like I
have a family In them. They’ve treated me with kindness and respect even when I hadn’t earned it.
That said however, my first interaction with Violet was hilarious to say the least.” I chuckled,
rubbing the back of my head out of a subtle habit.

“She automatically called me out as a traitor and doubted my credibility understandably so given
what I told them and what Shen gave them from her time studying me. When words couldn’t
convince her, I challenged her with a bet and ignited some kind of unholy competitive spirit within
her.” Torque let out a stuttering hissy laugh, surprising Whisper a bit judging by his reaction.

“Many of our sisters are like that, incredibly competitive to a fault if any kind of challenge peaks
our interest.”

“I challenged her to wrestling since I saw our facility had a massive wrestling/boxing ring. If looks
had power, her crazy expression as I said those words would’ve melted me down to slag, and the
winner selected something for the winner to do, it was just simple and nothing malicious allowed.”
Everyone seemed to get interested now, probably wondering how a fight between a viper and mec
soldier would go in a non-lethal bout.

“It was a rather close fight if I’m being fully honest, despite my brute force, she used her agility
and flexibility to nearly tip me over multiple times and to batter me around. It went back and forth
for a bit but she admitted defeat after seeing I hadn’t grown tired.” I showed the footage of our
fight to them as it happened from my perspective in a similar manner to how I showed my battle
with the stranger to Leopold.

Torque seemed a bit annoyed that her sister had lost but that didn’t seem to discourage her.

“Just because she lost this time doesn’t mean she’ll keep losing to you, don’t underestimate her,
she’ll learn from her mistakes and find a weakness to exploit over you.” I was happy to hear that.

“What weird shit did you have her do then? And if I don’t like the answer I may have to choke you
out.” She was a little tipsy by now after she was downing a second glass of her drink judging by
her tone. The others seemed curious about it as well.

“Nothing as bad as you’re think Torque, I required her assistance in some very personal
maintenance, it was a show of trust as I had her hold my reactor core, had she wished to do so, she
could have interfered with the energy flow and killed me as she still had doubts about me.”
That certainly widened Torque’s eyes in surprise.

“So you trusted her with your life while you fixed yourself? Damn that’s pretty hardcore and
cheesy in a couple ways.”

“I did help her to warm up to me. She treats me much better than before, which is nice, I didn’t
want to have issues between myself and my squad mates.”

“Well spoken, it was tough at first for all of us at Chimera squad to figure out how to work with
and more importantly, how to understand each other. It is as you said, we’ve gone from being
individuals that must work together to considering each other as family.” I nodded at Verge’s
statement, the feeling of finding a family like that while not of blood, but by purpose was a
touching one, and one I felt deeply.

After another hour had passed with more chit chat between all of us about hobbies we all had and
our interests besides simply fighting and combat. I found my attention pulled away by the current
song that had been playing, I could feel it tugging at something in my mind, so I focused on that
feeling with everything I had to try and locate its source. In that moment I opened my eyes and a
memory so vivid I began confusing it for reality. I remembered it’s name, Shoot to Thrill by
AC/DC. I was in a room from that house I visited within my memories. That young man was there
but he wasn’t scarred.

“Come on Gabe! We gotta practice our moves in synch if you wanna impress Vanessa during prom
dude, quit zoning out already.” He sounded much younger and happier, my body moved on its own
as we began to practice dancing in synch with each other to the song.

“Sorry sorry, just trying to think of how I’d ask her to the prom, I don’t wanna do something corny
and risk scaring her off. I’m working out how to be smooth and classy.” I spoke yet it wasn’t my
voice as I knew it, this voice belonged to a human with vocal cords not a synthesizer.

Just as quickly as the memory came, it disappeared like smoke slipping through my metal fingers.

“I know this song, I remember....” I muttered to myself, my chassis began to slightly swing in a
way reminiscent of the dance I just saw.

“You some kind of dancer or something?”

Cherub seemed genuinely curious at my swaying and vibing.

“Not often in public but in private it’s something I do as It’s enjoyable to move so fluidly, though
I’m not fully sure as to why, it just is.”

“Would you give us a demonstration of how good you are then?” Whisper said, chiming in to tease
me.

“Ohhhh no I’m far too shy, I couldn’t do that with everyone watching me. I’d lock up from
nervousness.” I held up my hands and laughed at my own shyness.

“Oh so what you’re saying is that you’re a chicken? What a shame, Violet talked highly of your
fighting ability from what she’d seen, only for her to now have to find out that dancing in front of
people is what cripples you? Tsk Tsk Tsk.” Torque shook her head in disappointment and clicked
her tongue.

“Hey hey hey, hold your horses there, me? A coward? I don’t think so missy. You wanna see what
dancing really is then? Because I’ll damn well show you some fantastic art.” I had no idea where
this fiery spirit bubbled up out of nowhere but it felt like it was a part of me.

“Good, if it’s actually impressive I’ll tell you a bit about Violet that you definitely wouldn’t know.
Now give us a good show soldier.” She slurred while smirking smugly at me. The others except
for Verge were really starting to feel the effects of the alcohol now.

I promptly stood up and scooted out from the booth, walked over to the dance floor as the DJ
played another electrically charged song that must’ve been something newer. This close to the
speakers I could feel the base vibrating into my chassis and tickling my core, calming my nerves
over what I was about to do with all these people, their eyes on me. I shook my head, I just needed
to get lost in the music and forget about their stays and my anxiety, to flow with the music and find
my calm. The current song took a sharp turn into an energetic and raging blast of sound, I latched
onto the sound and focused on it, letting anxiety fade from my thoughts. It was like second nature
to my limbs as I twisted, contorted, and vibed to the music that thundered all around. Despite my
size I made sure to avoid striking any innocent dancers with my metal limbs as I moved more like
an organic being than one of servos and cold steel, I felt truly alive in this moment. I couldn’t help
but laugh slightly at the irony in that.

I gave myself a few more songs after that, enjoying every second of it despite a few odd glances
from the others on the dance floor though now I paid them little mind. It wasn’t until I felt a clawed
hand grasp my shoulder and gently tug on it. It was Torque with a grin on her face, she gestured
back towards our table as it was difficult to hear over the booming music. Following her back, I
could see that the others were growing tired from their drink and fatigue, it was time to go.
“Ok I admit it, you’re certainly no coward when given the proper nudge in the right direction metal
head, those moves weren’t too bad either. I’ll say you’ve earned what I promised, but let’s pick
these guys up first and get them back to HQ for some sleep.”

I checked my internal clock, we’d only been gone for two hours but it was now two in the morning,
although I didn’t need sleep I understood they must feel very taxed. I helped Cherub up to his feet
and offered him an arm to steady himself on, though he hadn’t drank, he was definitely ready to hit
the hay. All in all, this was a nice first interaction with Chimera squad.
 On Patrol
Chapter Notes

Apologies for the wait, sometimes I get stuck on how I wanna craft the story and what
direction to take it. I do hope this chapter's length makes up for the wait.

Chapter 7: Chimera Squad (XJ-5)

It’s been a week now, Ivan and Dmitri have recuperated finally and are on their feet again, Ivan
was back to his old energetic self as soon as he could walk without assistance. Dmitri had the two
of them introduced to the rest of Chimera squad with me, it was a rather nice meet and greet. We
assured them that we’d make ourselves useful during our stay within the city, one of their group, a
human who’s referred to by the others as Patchwork funnily enough, was particularly interested in
my sentience and we’ve been talking at length whenever I have free time to do so.

As for Xavier and Violet, the doctors have told us that they’re making good progress on recovering
from their wounds thanks to their enhanced biology which made for a speedier recovery. Xavier
can speak without much difficulty now and can move around with the help of a cane however the
doctors discourage this despite Xavier not heeding their warnings unless Dmitri is there to strongly
insist with his fatherly presence. Violet is still in a coma but the doctors believe she’ll wake up any
day soon now, when I’m not dealing with routine patrols with Chimera or talking with agent
Patchwork about myself, I’m sitting by Violet to keep her company with the others or just by
myself while they sleep in our accommodations in Chimera’s new HQ.

After my night out with Whisper and the others a week ago, my talk with Torque proved to be
rather informative, she certainly held up her end of the bet. I now know that Violet has a hidden
love for reading and watching old western films, and books associated with that era, apparently
because of Xavier showing it to her. She’s also a sucker for many different art forms, from painting
and drawing, to poetry of any kind, especially that of romance. I haven’t really talked to anyone
about these feelings that have begun to slowly develop within my ‘heart’ for my fellow teammate,
out of embarrassment and also because of all these strange revelations I’ve started to uncover about
myself. I wouldn’t want to scare her off or make her go back to hating me like before, yet holding
them in as they evolve hasn’t felt much better. After all, who’d want to hear that a possibly
mentally unstable AI suddenly developed romantically inclined feelings for you and is wondering
if the feeling is mutual?

I shake my head to bring myself back to the present and out of my deep thoughts. It was late
afternoon and the day was winding down once again, just another uneventful Monday but I
couldn’t complain as it was better than the worst alternatives I could think of. I’m with Violet by
her bedside, from some quick checking in my databanks I’m aware that those in comas may still be
able to hear what’s going on in their surroundings, so I spend my time when I can coming here and
talking with her. I suppose it also helps that she can’t comment back as I’ve been talking to her
about things I’m sure she’d tease me about if she weren’t comatose.

Xavier had gotten out of bed and decided he would get some light exercise by walking around the
hospital, giving me a perfect opportunity to read a book that Torque gave for just this purpose. It’s
called ‘Lonesome Dove’ and was written by a man known as Larry McMurtry. I began to describe
the synopsis in a calming tone, trying to emulate what I thought a narrator would sound like. The
story is one about two friends that traverse through many hardships and perils during a cattle drive
over a vast distance.

As I spent the next several hours steadily reading to her, I’d change my vocalizer to give the
different characters their own voice, bringing the story just a little more to life for her or so I hoped
as I wasn’t one hundred percent certain that she was hearing this. I was beginning to see why
Torque had recommended this one to me, as I was also finding myself slowly growing invested in
the story as I read on for the both of us.

Eventually I decided to pause our little reading session so as to not burn out on it and go through it
too fast. Besides, I felt my mind drifting away from me again, I closed the book with a sigh trying
to summon up the courage to talk to her.

“I found my answer finally, I don’t know if you remember when I mentioned it to you a few days
ago but Gabriel Lanaway did exist—had one brother and two parents just like I’d been told he
would, he lived a relatively normal life, as normal as you can get under ADVENT control. I wish it
ended there though, but the hole only kept getting deeper and increasingly shrouded in mystery.
Both Gabriel and his brother Andrew disappeared under unknown circumstances, I’m not sure how
or where it happened yet but reports to ADVENT police by their parents went unanswered. That
was almost six years ago now, and sadly it seems that both of their parents passed away shortly
after due to the grief of losing their sons.”

My search for truth to the answers I’d been given by that ‘being’ within my mind had been proving
enlightening but part of me was desperate to have it be false, perhaps because the identity behind
what I thought I was is less terrible than the unexplainable feeling of dread and foreboding I get the
deeper into this I go. Dread for the actual truth to be that I may be a reflection of something ugly
and cruel that was done to an innocent young man and his brother, killing a happy family.

“I’m so damn nervous at what I’ll find when the truth is revealed to me. I don’t want it to be
something stupid like I actually was unknowingly an ADVENT spy or doomsday weapon all
along, some cliche like that. Especially now that I’ve found a place where I’m genuinely happy,
somewhere that’s given me a feeling of belonging. If you can hear me I’m sorry for dumping all
this on you, but hey if you need more proof I’m not a traitor.” I chuckled at that, thinking back to
when we first met just over a week ago now.

“I know you understand that, both of us were at one point we’re just puppets dangling on the
strings of the elders, passengers in our own bodies as we could only watch in horror at what they
made us do like loyal beasts. I never want to go back to that, and learning that could be a
possibility scares me to my core.” I couldn’t help but think of what she’d say in response if she
were able to.

“I know what you’d say though ‘Why are you afraid? You have the squad XJ and we don’t give up
on each other, and how can you let Ivan see you scared like this. For him and the rest of us you
have to be strong.’ And that’s something I will always be grateful for.” I unconsciously rubbed the
back of my neck, not even thinking as I did the gesture.

“Well I think that’s enough of my worried ramblings, thanks for listening even if you never
remember we had this conversation. I’ve never had anyone to be there to listen to my anxieties and
all that, so I appreciate it.”

I sighed and slumped back into my chair trying to relax now that I’d gotten that off of my
shoulders. It was nearly midnight, I'd patrol with Dmitri, Ivan, and Axiom. I would prefer to stay
here and continue to keep an eye on Violet but duty calls, and I don’t want to make Ivan sad by not
coming.

“Sorry Vi but it’s about that time again, I’ll come by after my patrol in a few hours. Hurry up and
wake up for us ok? It’s not the same here without yah, especially for Ivan.” I gently rubbed her
shoulder before rising up out of my chair and making my way out of the busy halls of the hospital
to the bustling streets outside.

It didn’t take me long to reach my intended destination, right outside Chimera’s HQ. Waiting right
outside of the main entrance were the rest of my squad, Ivan waved me over with much
enthusiasm. All together finally, Dmitri radioed Whisper and let him know we were heading out to
which we received his confirmation.

The temperature was quite nice out, perfect for a patrol, the skies emphasized this with barely a
cloud in sight despite the lack of sun shining brightly down on the people below, all going to
somewhere in a hurry. We for our part didn’t seem to be very out of place among the massive
crowds as we went onwards following the predetermined route set up for us by Whisper. Despite
the species diversity of our patrol I didn’t notice us receiving many odd looks from the citizens,
though those that did, did not offer much more than cold stares that were mostly directed towards
Axiom or myself.

“Hey Axiom, what is it you wanted to tell me earlier yesterday before you got taken away for that
talk with Whisper?” During a talk I had with Axiom about the strange soldiers, he had mentioned
having something new he found out though Whisper had interrupted unexpectedly.

“Oh yeah that’s right! Thanks for reminding me. It was from the debrief right after the attack. We
were in the middle of it when we got interrupted by a transmission from Xcom’s commander, as
you know they were sitting back to make sure the coil didn’t try anything else in case this was a
diversion. Turns out that may have been the case.” He kept his voice low to ensure no passerby
could overhear our conversation.

At this point even Dmitri seemed to be paying attention to the conversation, did that mean even our
squad leader was also in the dark about this?

“According to the commander five different locations around the globe were attacked
simultaneously. Each site was hit by only one soldier, all of which had similarly matching
descriptions to the two soldiers you guys encountered during the attack here. It’s still unclear why
they stole what they did but each of them took something from ADVENT black sites that Xcom
had been guarding and looking into.”

“Were you informed of what they stole and perhaps what they look like?” Dmitri’s intrigue was
growing just as I saw that look Xavier had told me that he gets. It’s when he takes something very
seriously.

“I can bring up the list for you but I’m definitely not going to try and pronounce the names of
them, I prefer sticking to what I can handle in that department.”
He gave an apologetic chuckle before pulling up an image of the list Xcom had made of the stolen
items.

Sending it from his wrist device over to Dmitri’s and myself, I quickly poured over the list while
making sure not to accidentally plow someone over. I did not need a repeat of earlier memories.
The items ranged from a prototype military grade power core, some advanced computer
components, an ADVENT tank chassis, the glass lenses made for space telescopes, and four
aircraft engines.
“Any speculation as to what they’re using these components to build? I’m trying to wrap my own
mind around it but I’m not seeing anything specific even from my time at my own ADVENT black
site. The only thing I could venture a guess at is some kind of vehicle perhaps but I doubt it’s that
simple.”

“I wish I could say but so far it’s all felt pretty random, Xcom’s best hypothesis is that it’s for some
kind of weapon that only this group has the knowledge to build. What worries me is that each raid
was conducted by a single one of those strange soldiers, in the security footage Xcom salvaged and
showed us, nothing was able to stand against them. Those black sites were heavily fortified, but
clearly not enough. After patrol I’ll show you the footage.”

Even with the new information coming to light, I still found myself getting more questions than
answers, it feels infuriating. Ivan seemed to have picked up on this and decided to change the
subject.

“How are things going with the repairs to the city Axiom? I can’t imagine how seeing that happen
to your city would feel.”

He could use his powers to empathize with him but I learned that Ivan has been training himself not
to reach out to glance at minds. Dmitri had told me about it and I had been somewhat aware of it
from my time under ADVENT though it was never of any importance and thus I never looked into
it. Sectoids mainly speak amongst themselves using their psionics and it’s common amongst their
culture to touch the minds of their family and those around to feel what they feel and understand at
deeper levels. However I can see why species unlike that aren’t very accustomed to getting that
intimate with another they haven’t met.

“They’re going great, everyone from around the city has been helping to rebuild the homes and
workplaces that got hit in the attack. From emergency services to even those at the Viper’s nest,
it’s rather beautiful to see everyone coming together like this.” A soft smile growing across his lips.

“I’m just happy to be lending a hand after how you aided us, especially Violet and Xavier. I was
terribly worried for everyone when those things joined the battle.”

“The feelings are mutual sir, it’s not the most exciting thing that’s for sure, but the police force
need all the help they can get to make sure no one is causing trouble for the citizens during a time
when they’re spread pretty thin.”

It certainly wasn’t as bad as the others had made it seem, it felt right....doing something to keep
people safe after not being able to do anything for the many taken from gene clinics to suffer at my
previous site of indentured employment.

We’d just begun to round the corner of the bar to our right when we heard a rather heated argument
between multiple people. It sounded like a job for us to take care of. We all nodded at each other as
we picked up our pace to a jog and made it around to the cramped alleyway that was wedged
between the bar and a three story business building of some kind. It looked like two vipers, both
had the typical orange and yellow scale patterns, arguing with two older human males wearing
strange clothes, judging from their slurring they were both drunk.

“What the hell is wrong with you two?!? Seriously that’s disgusting, this is the last time I’m
warning you ghouls. Stop following us if you’re not gonna start acting with some damn common
sense, I will bite you if I have to.”
The two men simply giggled drunkenly, barely phased by the viper’s threats and continuing their
advances. I was quite surprised they hadn’t already resorted to more violent measures to stop this, I
began wondering why that was. Axiom was the first to speak up as we all backed him up, this was
his city after all.

“Alrighty what seems to be the problem here gentlemen...” he stopped dead in his tracks for a split
second, mid sentence as he caught a glimpse of something, I wasn’t sure what it was but he quickly
recovered, he angrily muttered something under his breath.

“Why is it that you’re harassing these women here? You’re both clearly drunk so don’t make
things more difficult on yourself boys.” He stated sternly and with an aura of authority about
himself, all helped by his considerable bulk and confines of the alley. Now they seemed to hesitate
in their drunken behavior.

“These creeps have been following us ever since yesterday after they met us at a club, at first we
figured they simply were interested in us given how flirty they were being with us. Things started
to get weird though the more they drank until they began to really explain what they meant by and I
quote ‘wanting to see what viper really tastes like.’ You can understand what we got out of that.”

Dmitri had to stifle a chuckle as Ivan quietly asked his father about what that meant.

“Ey now! To be fair we weren’t lying when we said those things, ish not my fult you and yer friend
misconducted it.” One of the drunkards stepped up to give Axiom a wobbly look-over as if he
figured he could size him up.

“Now that I’m thinking about it, I’m wundering what Muton tastes like Tony, maybe we should
give it a shot.”

Now that I could see more of his torso I found the clue I’d been looking for. A patch sewn onto the
side of his leather bomber jacket, a skull with twin scythes crossing over top of it. It all made sense
now, they were or must have been part of the reapers, those disturbed ‘cannibals’. They swung
their hands down to their hips, their coordination was very off still, no doubt due to being
inebriated. Axiom reacted quickly as we rushed forward to assist him, my extra limbs attached to
the walls of the alley and threw myself up and over so I was behind them to cut off any potential
escape routes.

Axiom delivered two swift jabs to their guts as they desperately fumbled for their guns which had
been well concealed behind their clothing, both quickly dropped to the ground groaning in pain
even though he’d held back against them. I made it my first priority to swipe their firearms from
them, two mag pistols, heavily modified to meet reaper specifications I assumed. Dmitri and Ivan
checked on the two vipers to ensure they were alright, they quickly came to adore Ivan as they
spoke, while we produced two pairs of handcuffs for the drunkards.

“We can’t thank you all enough for helping us with our stalker problem, I don’t want to think about
what would’ve happened if you didn’t show up.” The other viper was much more shy than her
friend who seemed to speak for the both of them.

“We’re just happy no one got hurt and that you’re both alright, as long as me and dad are here our
squad are here you shouldn’t be bothered again, so please be safe out there.” Ivan was as cheerful
as always, even in such a bizarre situation. I wasn’t sure if he was beginning to enjoy their attention
for him or what as he’s a smart kid but they couldn’t get enough of his sweetness.

“I can’t believe how much of a sweetheart you are kiddo, I’m sure in no short part to your role-
model here, and don’t worry we’ll be extra safe with you around.”

After that short burst of action things returned to a calm state, we had to wait for the local police to
arrive so they could get statements from the vipers and to take in the troublemakers so we all talked
amongst ourselves, learning that the more talkative viper goes by Penny and her sister the quiet one
goes by Cali. Once their statements had been taken, they wished us goodbye and happily made
their escape from the alley, though not before I noticed the shy one whispering something to Dmitri
and handing him something with a wink who then hurried to catch up to her friend. Dmitri, for the
first time to me, had a rather confused look on his face about what just happened, staring at the
object he was handed before putting it away in his side pocket.

“What was all that about boss? I’ve never seen you make that expression before, everything
alright?”

“Hmmm? Oh yes it’s fine, I was just genuinely surprised, which I haven’t felt in quite some time.
Cali made an attempt to flirt with me and gave me her number. I may not be a spring tiger anymore
but it seems I’ve still got it.” That got everyone to laugh together, but I was happy something good
happened for him.

That was the last of our excitement for the day though, as the rest of our time on patrol turned out
to be peaceful. We ran into a child that had lost her parents and was crying from how scary the
situation was, so Axiom allowed her to ride on the shoulders of his robotic sidekick. He handled
the situation well and failed to hide his snickering as he referred to me as his sidekick.

I couldn’t refuse such a request anyways, guess I’m going a bit soft, the irony not lost on me or the
others, and she told us her name was Emma. While we searched for her mother and father, I let her
see how my body worked, showing her how she could play with my four extra arms and made a
game out of searching for things that matched the color description of what she was thinking of.
When she began to talk to Ivan since me and Dmitri were side by side, they started to spark up a
budding friendship.

She too was interested in video games just like Ivan among other common interests, and oh boy did
they go on and on. It was cute to see Ivan and her getting along, even if he wasn’t human that fact
didn’t seem to make her hesitate in treating him differently one bit. Axiom called the situation in to
Whisper and it wasn’t long before we found the police station where the girl’s parents were for a
teary eyed reunion with their daughter. Before we left she quickly got Ivan user name for one of the
games they both played and was excited to play with him later. All I could think was that he was
just like his dad.

Finally the end of our shift came, it was around 8am and still the sun shined on. Walking without
pause for that long proved to be taxing and both Dmitri and Axiom wished to return to the base for
some well deserved rest. I offered to let Dmitri ride on my back but he respectfully declined my
offer while holding in a chuckle. Once we reached the sanctuary of Chimera’s HQ Dmitri excused
himself to his room to take a nap and a large glass of cold water.

Ivan, ever the energetic youngster, was still full of life and gave his dad a big hug before parting
ways.

“Hey XJ wanna do some of my GameCube with me now that we finally have the chance to play?”
He had a lot of excitement in his voice, while I would like to check on the others at the hospital. I
wouldn’t neglect my best friend either.

“Of course bud, though you’ll probably kick my butt at first. So don’t skimp out on teaching me.”

I knelt down so he could climb onto my back and had him lead the way to his room where he’d left
his gaming setup.
Though they weren’t much to look at, after humanity started to get back to normal when ADVENT
fell, entertainment was one of the first things to come back into demand. This being one of their
solutions, these little marvels of technology were quite the heaven for those that liked playing
video games and I could understand why with the features they held.

“So what did you have in mind dude? I’ve not really had an opportunity to look into what games
have actually been made for this gaming platform.”

“I was thinking something simple since you’re a beginner, and Minecraft is always more fun when
you play it with someone!.” He rummaged around for a moment in a small backpack until he had
found what he was looking for.

Running back over he handed me a controller and began to instruct me how each button and stick
worked and what it controlled. Soon enough the holographic screen flashed to life and Ivan got to
work picking out a world for us to try out. Since I knew nothing about the game he put us in
creative mode and loaded us into the blocky world.

“Starting out I’ll teach you about the materials and things that are a part of the game, once that’s
done we’ll start actually building things. There are many things you can do in Minecraft but I’ve
found I like building stuff the most out of them all.”

“You’re the master here Ivan, I’ll follow your lead.” I was starting to get excited to try something
new, yet again I felt like I’d been here before, perhaps I’d played with someone else before.

I was beginning to understand this sense of deja vù more and more as time went on, I’d been using
it through the week to try and see if it lined up with things Gabriel may have done. Trying to find
the truths or cracks in it to test if what that stranger said was really true or not. Gabriel must’ve had
fond memories of gaming with someone from his past if I’m feeling it now.

Pushing it from my mind, I wanted to enjoy my time with Ivan, and it was very fun to say the least.
Ivan showed me all the unique types of creatures that existed within the game, my favorite being
the Iron Golem for obvious reasons. I also learned how to trade with the non playable characters
known as the villagers, I found the noises they made quite funny. The best part of his teachings
though was definitely us building whatever we could think of. They started out small, from little
statues of each other and judging our accuracy to the person leading to much laughter. Eventually
we combined our efforts to build a medieval castle on a grand scale, it took a good bit of effort but
we completed the project in record time.

“Hey XJ, you mind if I ask you a question? I don’t wanna stop us from having fun but it’s been on
my mind for a bit now.”

“Of course Ivan, I’ll take it seriously, what’s up?” I hoped everything was alright, maybe it was a
girl related question regarding the friend he made, I’m not sure that I’m equipped to answer such
things.

“I haven’t done any intruding without asking....but the emotional aura coming off of you is thick
with turmoil and deep contemplation. Do you wanna talk about it? I understand if you don’t want
to, but whenever dad is feeling that way, I’ve found it helps him to talk about it and to have
someone to listen and be there for him.” Damn, guess it was only a matter of time before
something like this happened.

“Yeah....it’s about a few things, I’ve just been reflecting hard on what I’ve been processing. Just
please promise not to tell the others about it for now at least, it’s a bit embarrassing.” I let out the
approximation of a sigh before preparing to tell my friend about the issues that plagued my
thoughts.
Ivan held out what would be his pinky finger and offered it to me.

“Here dad taught me this, it’s called a pinky promise. It's for serious matters between two people.
Just do the same and my lips are sealed.” He giggled at the irony of his statement.

I mimicked the gesture and gently gripped his finger with my own before shaking it slightly, with a
nod from Ivan, I began to explain.

“Well first off, this started when I first arrived and started to get to know you guys better. Right
when you, me, and Violet all went out for dinner. I found myself feeling strange on our way back,
at first I was confused about what I was feeling until I was in my room and began to ponder on
them. I came to the realization that what I was feeling was infatuation and that it was being directed
towards....Violet.”

“I’m not too surprised, I could sense it as well, though I wasn’t sure if it was in general or at
someone in particular. I honestly think that’s sweet XJ.” I could tell Ivan was smiling from the look
he was giving me.

“But what’s stopped me from telling her was something I’ve been trying to investigate about
myself. I'm unsure if what I’ve been told is the truth or not and I wanted to sort it out first before I
made any advances towards her. With how things are going though, it’s looking like what I’ve
been told may very well be the real truth.” Ivan nodded in understanding and waited for me to
continue.

“Back when I was fighting that super soldier, he was able to kill me but when I did my
‘consciousness’ was dragged somewhere, I think within my subconscious or something hidden
from my waking mind. I met a stranger that gave off the sense that I’d met him before, he
explained that I was more than what I seemed. I managed to meet him again when I powered down
when I came to you guys in the hospital.”

“Did I interrupt your conversation with him when I woke you up?”

“No no, I think he was the one that ended our conversation. He told me that I was formerly a
human, someone called Gabriel. At first I scoffed at the idea since Shen and myself studied my
chassis extensively when I was with Xcom and found nothing to prove that true. He hasn’t yet told
me how Gabriel became what I am now, but so far I haven’t found what he’s told me to be a lie
yet. I didn’t know if it was an ADVENT trap or not, and the last thing I want is to hurt Violet
because of that. That and I fear she may not reciprocate my feelings for many reasons, mainly that I
may be just an unstable AI and she doesn’t need such things in her personal life.”

Ivan drew close to me and rested his right hand on my shoulder plate and rubbed it to attempt to
console me.

“If you want, I could take a look into the deeper parts of your mind, maybe I could free up some
memories that are being hidden from you, if none are there then perhaps it is just a trick someone
is playing on you and we’ll deal with it together. Besides all that, don’t think down on yourself
XJ.”

“Thanks bud, I appreciate hearing you care. I couldn’t ask that of you though unless you’re very
certain, if they do exist, I’ve been told they are very gruesome. I wouldn’t want you exposed to the
nightmares that may have happened to me if it’s true, you’d never be able to unsee it.”

He gave me a stern look and stood up to be eye level with me since I was sitting down.
“This is what best friends are for XJ, I know you’d do the same for me, besides I’ll have you there
with me so I won’t be alone against it all. The same goes for you, I’m not letting you go through it
alone either.”

I grunted my confirmation, leaning forward so he could more easily access my head. Pressing both
of his hands against the cool metal of my head, I could feel his mental presence begin to probe into
my mind. My eyes dimmed as I was brought with him as he sifted through my mind with purpose.
‘Standing’ together in what could only be described as a mental landscape, Ivan extended a hand to
me and I quickly took it to keep him very close by.

It was a dark and vast expanse, all around us large windows that displayed memories from my
databanks rolled past us. Ivan hummed to himself as he used his psionic powers to begin pushing
them away and looking for the bottom of my mind. Eventually we were faced with an opaque wall
of bluish light, vaguely we could make out the moving forms of more memories behind it, small
cracks all over the wall.

“XJ.....they exist. The memories that person told you about. If they didn’t exist this mental block
wouldn’t exist and we’d simply be at the moment you awoke off the assembly line.” He looked up
at me, he didn’t have to ask the obvious question. Did I want to know what was behind the wall?

“We’ve made it this far, do you think you can tear the wall down? I haven’t heard from my
informant at all this week and I’m tired of waiting, but only if you can do this, don’t do it if it’s too
much Ivan.”

He thought for a moment, taking a measure of the wall before responding.

“I can’t remove it fully yet, but for right now I can definitely punch a nice hole through it and get
whatever we can from it before it seals up again.”

“Let’s do it, but if I see anything remotely gross or inappropriate I’m covering your eyes ok? The
last thing I want is for you to get scarred by my demons.”

“I’d like that actually, alright now get ready, I don’t know how much we’ll get from this. Best to
prepare for a blast of memory just in case it’s bad.”

With that Ivan began to summon up all his strength into a psionic ball of energy. Condensing it into
a compacted ball for making the hole. I readied myself by his side, preparing to shield him from
whatever terrible sights might be hiding behind that wall. He shouted out to signal he was throwing
the ball, it was like puncturing a balloon, as soon as his ball of energy collided with the wall a
massive gap was blown into the wall. Judging by Ivan’s surprised reaction, it was more so than he
had expected it to be. In that instant a torrent of memories poured through and played out at high
speed before us. Many of which were just as terrible as I feared from my brief glimpses at them.

Immediately I crouched down and held Ivan against my chest and hid his eyes and where his ears
would’ve been to prevent him from witnessing the memories. Sounds of agony and torture rang out
from people being experimented upon in monstrous and inhumane fashions, with matching
gruesome visuals. It was difficult to look away, I was glad I didn’t have a stomach or I may have
vomited on the floor at what I only saw in quick flashes. These were horrible memories and I could
understand why the stranger had wanted to keep them from me now, thankfully Ivan wasn’t seeing
any of it.

Just like that we were out of my head, Ivan jumped back and was gasping frantically for air. I
pulled him close and did my best to calm him down.
“Hey hey buddy it’s ok now. I’m so sorry you saw any of that, it was worse than I thought. Tell
me, how much did you see or hear Ivan?”

“Only....the beginning, thanks for shielding me. It was so scary, I couldn’t begin to imagine having
to sort through that....if you need help though you know you always can ask me.”

“You’ve done more than enough Ivan, I’m the one who should be thanking you. I won’t expose
you to any more of that though. I’ll let you know what I find out when I look through them.”
I hugged him gently to show my thanks, he was a courageous sectoid for one of such a young age, I
admired him for that.

“Also I thought I’d mention something now that I remembered it.”

“What’s that Ivan? Something important?”

“Mmm kinda, definitely don’t let Violet know I told you this buuuut, when you had her hold your
core and help out with your maintenance, she had reached out to my mentally to talk. I don’t wanna
get too specific just so she can eventually tell you, however I can say this. At some point you
should tell her about those feelings, ‘something’ tells me it won’t go as you think it will.”

He gave me a mischievous look and laughed, it helped to lighten the mood again and gave me
something else to think about. Did that mean what I thought it meant? Ugh I really needed to stop
overthinking everything.
 Returning for Duty
Chapter Notes

I won't be abandoning this story by any means, the next chapter I'll be working on
after this will be for another story I've wanted to work on, which I think would also
grab your attention if you like space ninjas.

Chapter 8: Returning for duty (XJ-5)

It had been two more calm days after my memory incident with Ivan, on one hand I’m glad that
he’s ok and didn’t become scarred from what he briefly saw, but now I’ve had to sift through what
we retrieved. So far it’s only been terrible answer after answer. I was in my room while Dmitri and
Ivan were off checking in on Violet which was fine by me, I wanted to finish going through the last
of my memories without having to be a bother to anyone. So far what I’ve found has been the
missing pieces to the dead end I hit with Gabriel’s story. He went missing with his brother during a
visit to a gene therapy clinic, I’m not sure as to what specifically had been found in either of them.
It was however enough to warrant them being abducted to a black site, a fate I could regretfully
recall befell many poor human souls, more so than I wished to know about.

I began the all too familiar and dreaded process again. Retreating into my mind, to that landscape
of memory and picked up where I had left off, the pair had been horrified at their surprise
abduction and it was a heartbreaking thing to have to watch. Quickly I started to understand where
they were being taken, I could never forget the layout and structure of that cursed compound
hidden by lush vegetation. They were taken to the black site I remember guarding during my years
of servitude, I could feel a deep sense of dread creep up my reinforced spinal cord.

The memories shifted to what the brothers were forced to undergo, one part of my being wanted to
turn away and not look at what I was seeing, but I willed myself with everything I had to stare at
them, I couldn’t ignore this no matter how much I wished not to. From what I understood then and
now, it seemed that they’d been taken for viability gauging for project avatar as they must’ve
scanned positive for whatever the elders needed humans to have for them to get taken away. But as
the memory played on it seemed the elders for whatever reason had different intentions after
looking into whatever made the brothers special to them.

Both of them were subjected to cruel and bloody experiments, I’m unsure as to what end just yet
but I’m determined to find it out. They were cut open, cut apart and put back together again many
times. Injected with strange cocktails of drugs and things I couldn’t even begin to identify, only
that it was excruciatingly painful and brought great joy to the surgeons performing the sick deeds.
The only thing that kept the pair sane was each other during the short breaks they received.
One month into their treatment was when the physical changes became apparent in them. Both
having metallic scaly patches sprouting around randomly over their bodies, their eyes were
becoming less human looking, taking on a more cybernetic like appearance. Their finger and toe
nails had turned a dark silver and their once brown hair was now jet black. At that stage things
were only getting more confusing and gruesome.

The surgeons hadn’t only been working on the brothers but other human subjects and alien troops
that were deemed “defective” in the eyes of their masters. Similar growths and mutations were
visible on these subjects as well but far worse and out of control like some form of techno cancer
of the worst caliber. Each time one of the brothers was sent into a controlled environment with one
of the subjects they were instantly set upon by the sickly lab rat. This was the biggest eye opener to
me, from what I could tell, only the two brothers had survived whatever the ADVENT surgeons
did to them and they were being tested against failed attempts.

In the first test with Gabriel, he was set against a defective muton. The alien given into pure rage as
soon as it saw something alive and chased him all around the cell. I wasn’t sure by what means or
how he’d escape but then I saw it. The muton managed to catch Gabriel and held him by the neck
like a rag doll against the wall. I could hear his thoughts and feel what he felt, it was sheer fear not
of death, but if leaving his brother without someone to protect him. As that one thought flooded his
mind something awoke within him.

Suddenly his hands were gripping the muton’s muscled arm, his arms shifting in an instant from
flesh to an almost liquid metal substance. His fingers piercing and sinking into the massive arm, a
soft silver color quickly spread visibly through the creature’s veins and it began to rapidly shrink, a
twisted grin formed on his face as he reduced the muton to a simple sack of skin and leftover bones
on the floor.

As I watched more of the tests with Gabriel it became quite clear one of the major effects this test
had one him as he and his brother began to change more as time went on. He could drain anything
he managed to get his hands ‘into’ but it was strange. As the testes evolved over time he was given
more opponents at once, every time he’d focus himself on those that were had the deformities or
any hint of the odd metallic growths that must’ve come from the same line of experimentation as
he had. Almost always ignoring those that didn’t have them unless provoked otherwise.

Though I wasn’t able to witness what his brother was capable of, from memories of them talking
together when they had time alone, it would seem that he had similar abilities like Gabriel but his
differed somehow. I’m still uncertain how though.

That was it for now however, I was at the end line of memories Ivan had freed up for me.
Returning to the land of the living, it took me a moment to get used to being back in control, that
always was such a strange thing to experience no matter how many times I did it. I checked to see
if anyone had messaged me while I was out and also glanced at my internal clock, it was almost
noon. Thankfully it didn’t seem like anyone had called or messaged me, no emergencies. Today
was one of my free days, so no patrol or anything of the sort, perfect I could pay Violet a visit and
give her some company.

My room was still dark thanks to the lack of windows, I wasn’t sure why but I found it relaxing
and peaceful when I wasn’t bothered in it, residual feelings from Gabriel perhaps. Heading out into
the hall and towards the main exit, the hustle for everyone else didn’t seem to stop. People had
places to be and things to do, I didn’t see anyone I knew but I did exchange a good morning or two
when someone felt inclined to say it to me when we crossed paths in the hall.

I didn’t mind talking to others but I was thankful to be on my own for right now while I kept a
leisurely pace to the hospital. I’d still been mulling over what Ivan had told me when we discussed
my feelings for Violet. Perhaps she’d talked to him at some point about this? What had she said or
thought of me? Ugh I was complicating things again. Ignoring all that for the moment, how would
I even broach the subject of it with her? I didn’t particularly trust using the new internet to try and
search for advice though only as my last resort. Perhaps I should ask Dmitri and Xavier, but can I
let them know it’s about Violet?

I was taken out of my train of thought when I looked up from the sidewalk to see the parking lot of
the hospital right in front of me. Guess I shouldn’t keep a lady waiting, perhaps I’d find a way to
talk about it if she’s still asleep, not that I wanted her to be in that coma any longer. Stepping
through the automatic doors I gave a nod at the receptionist, we’d become familiar with each other
over the past week due to my frequent visits.

Things weren’t all that busy as they had been thankfully, which meant things were slowly
beginning to heal for the city. Soon enough I was at Violet’s room, I gave a gentle knock on the
door before entering. There was no one there except the sleeping obsidian scaled form of Violet,
the damaged she’d suffered was looking to have healed up nicely. Scales were appearing where
they’d been missing the first time I saw what had happened to her and her breathing came easier to
her.

“Hey there Vi, finally back again. Sorry for the wait and all, I was sorting through a few things.” I
spoke quietly as if I might accidentally wake her up from a deep sleep.

“Mind telling me about it knucklehead? It’s not like I’ll be going anywhere anyways.”

“Of course I’d love to Violet——Wait Violet!?!? You’re awake?!”

I was completely taken by surprise, she was awake finally, just a moment ago she was sleeping.
Now I was staring into those blue glowing jewels that were her eyes, but did she know what I’d
told her about before? Oh boy this was going to be an interesting conversation.

“Ummmm does that mean you heard about what I’ve been talking to you about while you were....”

“Hmmmm maybe——maybe not. Who’s to say.” She giggled softly and gave me quite the shit
eating grin.

“Well first off how do you feel? Is there anything I can do? I should call the others and let them
know!” My mind was going far too fast for my words to catch up.

“Slow down there! I’m fine big guy really just a little sore. Now relax, what you can do for me is
answer my question. What’s bothering you? I can see it in the face of yours.”

“I’ve just been doing some investigations into a missing person, and I’ve found some security
footage about what happened to him. It’s not pretty stuff and it may be related to where I worked.
I’ve just been trying to process what I had to work around and not being able to stop it.” It wasn’t a
lie but I couldn’t be sure if she truly did remember or not just yet.

“You shouldn’t let it burden you down soo badly XJ, we both know what it’s like to not have the
free will to stop what we did or happened around us...once I’m out of this hospital could you do me
a favor? I think it would do is both some good.” Her tone was surprisingly soft and calming, I had
no idea she could use it with me.

“Of course, if you’re hungry for some real food or something I could run and grab it for you.”

“No no it’s not that——well ok maybe later but what I’m actually referring to is that I want a
rematch with you in the boxing ring like last time. Except I’ll win this time around.”

I couldn’t help but break out in a fit of quiet laughter as to not bother the other patients next door.

“Why am I not surprised, very well Vi, I’ll accept this challenge though I won’t go easy on you just
as before.”

“Pssssh as if! I’ve already got a few plans on how to do so. But first could we figure out how much
longer I have to be here? I’m sick of laying down already, I wanna stretch and begin to get ready
for kicking your shiny arse.”

I gave her an amused roll of my eyes before hitting the button near her hospital bed that called the
nurse station to come to the room. Soon enough we were talking to a relatively young doctor about
when Violet could be discharged after he’d given her a good look over to ensure she was fit to be
let go, she had an odd look about her when he left but said nothing initially. Violet also wanted me
alert the rest of our squad to her awakening.

“So what was with that odd look the doc got out of you? He didn’t seem that bad to me, I rather
liked him.”

“It’s....rather embarrassing but he had the unmistakable scent of one of my sisters on him.” I was
still confused however.

“I mean I think that’s to be expected since he works in a interspecies hospital so he’s probably
checked up a few vipers.” She cut me off before I could continue.

“No no—I could smell certain scents that only happen when we—you know, have intimate
relations.”

“Ohhhhhh, huh I hadn’t thought of that. Uhh sorry for not catching on earlier.”

She laughed heartily before having to catch her breath. I moved in closer to steady her and make
sure she didn’t hurt herself accidentally.

“No I actually love these innocent moments of yours, they never cease to get a laugh out of me.”
She was smiling now and simply staring straight through me.

I felt courage building up inside my chest, I would tell her about the feelings I’d been having. I was
going to do it! However Ivan immediately burst through the door and jumped up into the open
arms of Violet much to her happiness. He was quickly followed by Dmitri and Xavier, both ecstatic
at her improved condition. Defeated for now, but I’d try again later.

It took another day but after getting checked over and thankfully finding nothing wrong, her
enhanced biology and the work of the hospital did the trick. She was advised to not do anything
strenuous for the next few days but she was free to leave. Leopold was informed of this and we
were told to enjoy a few more days off before returning to base. We had a small party with
Chimera to celebrate Violet’s recovery, mostly consisting of us playing different board games
together.

It was the morning after that I noticed something incredibly wrong. I was powering up after
enjoying a relaxing couple hours in low power mode, I was checking my internal clock when
something off caught my attention and jolted me off the ground as I examined my body. This
definitely wasn’t a dream or strange vision, My limbs were changed, no longer of metal and
armored plates, but of flesh and skin?!? I panicked and rushed for for the light switch to flip it on
and stoping in front of the mirror to examine my reflection.

Immediately I was struck by how drastic I’d changed, I was fully human now. Albeit with a skin
color of gun metal grey which definitely wasn’t normal for a human, then again nothing about this
situation was normal by any stretch of the imagination. The next thing that startled me was the
uncanny resemblance this new form matched up with the pictures of Gabriel Lanaway. Just another
piece of evidence supporting that voice’s claim about my true identity.
Trying to calm myself down with a little bit of success, I began to run an internal diagnostic of
what the heck happened while I was in power down. The results providing few answers at all but
even that was still welcome over none.

‘Systems suffered anomalous power surge at 1:34AM originating from with the unit. Power surge
caused unit to shift into pretender mode, M-cog energy reserves depleted. Unit is mode-locked
until reserves recharge to nominal levels.’

Pretender mode? What the hell is an M-cog? I tried to see if I could press for further information,
I’d never heard of a mech having anything like this.

‘Morphing cog allows for unit form shifting selected from different forms within physical
limitations of unit and power reserves. Altered state is referred to as pretender mode, serving
whatever purpose unit may require such as assassinations and espionage.’

What changes has this done to my chassis as a whole then? I’m hoping nothing very drastic.

‘Current form limits full strength output to further the illusion of the pretender form, unit durability
increased with condensed nanites reinforcing unit’s skeletal structure. Weapon loadout changed to
fit unit’s desire for stealth. SD-66 silenced SMGs, Concealed razor disk launchers, Ice pick blade
configuration.’

Damn that actually sounds cool, but how am I going to explain this to everyone else? Hmmmm I
bet Ivan could clear this up.

Reaching out with my thoughts, I hoped Ivan would pick up on them and respond quickly.
Thankfully it seemed that he did and he came as fast as he could to my room.

Being sure to remain unseen as I opened the door for him, I made sure it fully closed before turning
to show him what had happened.

“Is that really you XJ? I didn’t think you could do something like this, you sure you aren’t a mecha
faceless like from one of those Animes?”

“Yes it’s me more or less, apparently some kind of internal power surge did this to me. I’m heavily
starting to suspect what that voice in my head told me is true, I’m much more than a simple mech.”

“Certainly not, but what is it you needed me for XJ?”

“I figured with your psionics and ability to read the mind that things would be easier to explain that
it really is me and not an imposter or something.”

“Ahhh alright, don’t worry XJ I’ll make sure they don’t think somethings wrong. Soooooo what
can you do if you’re able to change forms? Can you turn into a hover craft or sectopod?”

We walked into the hallway to get something to eat and meet up with the others. I myself trying to
seem as casual as possible so not to draw anyone else’s attention.

“I’m not really sure yet, I’ve got to wait for the mechanism that lets me do this to recharge. I’m
curious about that too though, that would be the coolest thing if I could. We should try that out
when they are.” Ivan got very excited at the notion of that.

“Also why is your skin grey? Not a very natural tone if you’re trying to blend in.”

“I was wondering the same thing actually, let me check now.” True, I’d almost forgotten to check
on that fact.

‘Skin pigmentation error due to anomalous power surge, error can be corrected when reserve power
recharges in 48 hours.’

“Appears to be a system error when whatever caused my transformation happened. Guess I’m grey
for the time being.” On a better note, despite the fact no one was giving me any odd glances just
yet.

The prospects of this were certainly strange indeed, I was nervous for what it could entail as I was
still missing that crucial puzzle piece to whole picture of this mystery I found myself in. The piece
that connected me to Gabriel. If I really was him then what kind of monster had ADVENT twisted
me or him to become? Did that mean I really could be a sleeper agent of some kind? Just when I
was so close to feeling free from those damned elders and making a life that was my own
something had to come and uproot it all.

Least of all hurt my squad—my family, especially that dazzling obsidian viper who made my core
skip a pulse. It was difficult even now trying to just get over these worries that continued to plague
my mind, I think it was visible enough that even Ivan could tell.

“XJ—please don’t worry about those things you’ve had to rewatch and think on, we’re always
going to be there for you no matter what just like I said before. I won’t let it make you think that
it’s what defines you.” I truly don’t know what I did to deserve having these people as my
comrades, but I’m glad I was among them and to have their camaraderie.

“I’m simply sorry you have to put up with this still, and never feel afraid to need to lean on me
Ivan. I’ll always be there to be a shield for you.”
 Cat and Mouse
Chapter Notes

Im real sorry about the wait for this chapter, moved around at work for a few weeks
and got kept busy from chapter writing due to it and my other writing projects. Thanks
for your patience with me and I hope this chapter's length makes up for it guys!

Chapter 9: Cat and mouse (Violet)

It was refreshing to wake up on a normal bed once again, don’t get me wrong, I’m thankful for the
work the doctors did on me to keep me alive but being constrained to a bed in a state of in-and-out
sleep while sometimes being able to hear what was going on around me got old fast.

It reminded me of the past I want so very strongly to forget and move on from, being a prisoner
within your own body isn’t an experience I’d wish on anybody. Despite having the urge to get up
and actually do something my body did not want to leave the cocoon of covers I was wrapped in,
too warm and comfy, it melted the mind and I nearly fell back to sleep. It was the growling of my
stomach that finally got my lazy tail to slither out of the sweet embrace of my bed and begin to
groggily put my clothes on.

It wasn’t too cold in the base but as it was still summer they kept it constantly cooled which my
cold blood didn’t appreciate much this morning so I threw on one of the casual long sleeved shirts
from the closet. No doubt from Torque given it faintly smelled of her when I flicked my tongue
near it out of curiosity as I knew we hadn’t packed to stay here at all, I’d have to thank her later.

Properly dressed now and ready for something to eat that wasn’t just hospital food, I slithered out
into the clean white corridor and instinctively moved towards the mess hall. This place certainly
was a step up for Chimera. I had to admit that, Torque told me of the new HQ they’d gotten and I’d
been looking forward to seeing it back then. Not the most ideal set of circumstances for me to have
gotten to see it but I couldn’t complain too much.

My mind wandered to the others as I continued down the hall past other faculty members of the
base. I wouldn’t want to be alone there, being a part of the squad with that feeling of belonging, it
felt so odd to not be with them. It’s like the feeling I share with my fellow sisters even though we
aren’t all clones, we still see each other as a large family. This however feels unique and in a sense
stronger even more so than that, and I never thought that would be possible for a viper.

Opening up my phone I sent out a message to the others letting them know about meeting for
breakfast. I was delighted to see everyone responded that they’d be on their way shortly, though a
small sense of something I couldn’t place formed within when I didn’t see the message going
through for XJ. It struck me as odd that a being with their communications device built into their
mind wouldn’t respond let alone not even receive the message.

Bumping into the mess hall’s push doors startled me out of my thoughts as I hissed reflexively and
prepared for attack, only to meet the threatening doors. I was still jumpy after what happened with
that strange super soldier, I hated being jumpy, being prepared for combat at any moment was one
thing but jumping at a door annoyed me for how ridiculous it seemed. I paused for a moment
though still a bit worried, sending a quick message to Ivan to check in on XJ for me since he was
most likely closer to him than I was right now. I was relieved to see he would do so at that very
moment.

I was probably worried for nothing, with another growl from my midsection which cried out for
sustenance, I pushed my way through the medium sized navy blue doors and was greeted by many
delicious smells coming from all directions. It took a great deal of focus not to let my control
flicker in and out of my mouth so frantically in public. I didn’t take long to get into line with a tray
and mentally select what it was that I wanted.

I felt the hand on my shoulder before I was able to recognize the familiar scent behind me,
drowned out by the smell of sizzling bacon and cooking of crisp pancakes.

“Hey sis! Did you get some good sleep last night?” It was Torque joining in line right behind me.

“It was nice to sleep without having any worries for once, what about you?” It was nice to see her
after such a long time.

We'd spent a good chunk of the previous night after I got out of the hospital talking and catching up
since we’d last seen each other.

“I didn’t really want to sleep honestly, I was too excited just seeing you again and talking in person.
I still want us to continue it afterwards when it’s just us, and you have to tell me how that plan of
yours goes when it happens. I mean it sis, I want every. Little. Detail.” Her overprotective and
sisterly nature never failed to rear its head.

I tried to get her to speak a little quieter, making hand gestures to get the point across, it was
embarrassing but thankfully it didn’t look like anyone heard.

“Shhh I know and I will, but don’t say it soo loudly in public, I don’t know if he could overhear it
or not.” Despite my worry, the smell of food was helpful in pulling my attention to selecting what I
wanted.

I began to swipe bacon and other breakfast meats onto my plate with a bite of hot sauce, I couldn’t
help it, I enjoyed the spice of it with meat.

“Your team isn’t even here yet, don’t be nervous about it sis, it’ll be fine. I mean no plan goes
exactly according to plan, you’re excellent at improvising when you need to do it. Just focus on
keeping it pointed towards your end goal and you’ll be fine. Most importantly though, don’t
overthink it just like Ivan told you.” She was right about that.

Too much worrying would ruin the plan, it was a difficult thing to overcome but I’d have to
overcome it if I wanted to get what I sought after, and I wasn’t about to let it slip away from me
now.

“I’ve just not felt this way before and while it’s lovely it’s also frightening because it’s unknown
territory for me. Thanks for helping me through whatever this is.” I didn’t know what I’d do if it
wasn’t for my sisters, especially Torque.

“That’s what sisters are for Veve, no matter what I’ll be there for you, except for the good parts
but you know what I mean.” I couldn’t hold up well to her teasing and use of that damn nickname
she used for me, I blushed as we made it to our seats.

Just in time for Xavier and Dmitri to pass through the push doors. Torque noticed this and changed
the subject of the conversation to something else, she may love to tease me but at least she
wouldn’t do it in front of my squad with these matters. I calmly waved them over to our table after
they’d taken the time to grab breakfast.

“Mornin’ girls, hope the morning has been treating you well. Violet how are you feeling?” There
was no getting past that fatherly nature of Dmitri’s not that I was complaining.

“Yes much better, I was thinking of actually heading to the gym later to get some exercise after
sleeping for such a long time.” I mused.

“Don’t go doing anything too crazy, XJ and Ivan would probably have a collective heart attack, or
whatever the equivalent of that would be for a robot.” Xavier shrugged as he pondered on that
idea.

“Speaking of which.... I think there is something we need to discuss about the boy. I trust XJ no
doubt about it but something is off—I can’t particularly place it just yet but ever since we fought
that odd super soldier on the wall, referring to XJ as his brother. On top of the second one that XJ
fought that also called him brother. I don’t take him for a liar but the implications worry me.” The
mood around the table shifted to serious as Dmitri finished his point.

“I—recently went to check up on him a few days ago in his room, I’m not sure what I walked in on
but I don’t think he noticed or he just hasn’t mentioned it. The lights were off and he was just
sitting on the floor in the corner of the room. His eyes were softly flickering and he seemed to be
mumbling things under his breath. I made out a few words though a name I think, Gabriel and
Lanaway. No clue who that would be if it even ‘is’ anything at all.” Xavier rubbed the back of his
head and spoke up.

I was about to say my piece when I saw Ivan entering the cafeteria but it’s what we all saw next
that left all of us at the table at a loss for words. Ivan was riding atop the shoulders of a rather short
human, but what was truly vexing about it was that his skin tone was almost identical to Ivan but
less blue. They seemed to be talking but it was difficult to tell what due to how far we were from
them.

I half expected Dmitri to go over to check how was with his son but he didn’t, he simply sat back
observing with a focused gaze not unlike a hawk. This newcomer got the both of them something
to eat before turning towards us and leisurely heading over, a soft smile on the stranger’s face as he
locked eyes with me for just a second or perhaps it was just my imagination.

Once at the table he set Ivan down so he could sit with his father, the stranger took his seat next to
an eerily silent Xavier, giving him a little bump on the shoulder with his fist. No one said a word.

“What’s wrong? You all seem like you’ve seen a ghost, it’s the skin isn’t it? Don’t worry I don’t
find it offensive but it wasn’t entirely my choice. Hey Ivan wanna see if I can eat now that I’m like
this? Would I be foolish or should I just do it?” He broke the silence, that voice—it certainly felt
familiar but no it couldn’t be could it?

“No cowardice! Do it XJ!” Ivan couldn’t contain his excitement and simultaneously caused
everyone’s jaws to drop at that nugget of information.

“You got it buddy, if I can’t though then you’re helping me clean up the mess.” He chuckled to
himself and began to take a whole pancake and completely inhale it, it kinda reminded me of how I
ate actually.

He didn’t seem to pay attention to the table’s reaction to the revelation as he easily swallowed
down twelve more pancakes in the span of fifteen seconds.
“Dang turns out this form really means to sell being human, I can actually eat and drink. Hell I can
even taste for real, even more acutely than I could before. This is too cool.” ‘XJ’ chirped happily.

“Ok explanation now, what or who the hell are you?” Torque was the first to actually ask what we
all were thinking, no doubt.

“Oh sorry I thought it would’ve been a bit obvious given the skin color. It’s just me, XJ. I seem to
have stumbled across some weird ability and now I look like this. Apparently I’m supposed to look
fully human but I glitched or something and the skin color turned out grey and I’m stuck like this
until further notice.” He explained very casually like it was nothing new.

“It really is XJ guys, I can tell from his mind that it’s him and he’s telling the truth. It’s pretty cool
honestly, we’re trying to figure out if he could become a tank or sky ranger next!” Ivan exclaimed
like a child at Christmas.

“But if you’re human how do you expect to do anything then?” Xavier inquired.

“I only look human and function like one but I’m still fully mechanical. Metal skeleton, synth
nanite skin, just proved I can eat food. It does suppress my full strength a bit to keep up the
appearance but I’m more agile and got some new weapons to boot.” XJ got a sly look and
matching grin as he looked straight at me.

“Don’t get any ideas though Vi, just because I’ve shrunk and gotten a little weaker doesn’t mean
you’ll beat me in our rematch.” He gave a wink before continuing to finish his food.

Xavier chuckled at that and Dmitri seemed mildly amused and continued to browse the news on
his phone.

“If that’s the case then would you let her select the type of competition you’ll have for the
rematch?” Torque interjected into our conversation.

“Sure that actually sounds like fun, taking her out in wrestling was wild but something different
would be a nice change of pace.”

“Wrestling? You didn’t tell me it was wrestling, he beat you at sis, now you really have to win this
time or I’m gonna have to get some of the others with me to tease yah mercilessly.” Why did
Torque have to be like this in front of XJ?

“Fine fine, then how about a game of competitive tag? Does that sound good to you XJ?” It was an
old favorite of mine anyways.

“Tag? Isn’t that a game that children often play? I don’t think I’ve ever done it myself.”

“Yes but if you have a good obstacle course it can actually be a good way of training for chases
and other such situations. It’s pretty fun in my opinion, we could flip a coin to see who is the
pursuer and who is the runner. Whoever can tag or successfully avoid being tagged by the pursuer
is the winner, pretty basic rules.”
I had actually done this a lot with Torque and other sisters in the distant past.

“Well It is a new experience for me, so yes, let's try that, if you think it’ll be fun then I trust you.
Same stakes as last time then?”

“Naturally yes, I have to get you back for that last loss. We could check the gym now if you’re not
too chicken to start now if the course is free for use.” I don’t think it’d take much to motivate him
to go right now but I was feeling bold and still had a reputation to uphold.
He gave me a smirk in response and rose from his seat to put away his tray before heading towards
the exit with the myself going after him. The others followed suit and we raced to try and arrive
first, it didn’t take me long to catch up to him after he pulled his little stunt to get there first.
Thankfully the obstacle course wasn’t in use, it was even bigger than Torque had made it out to be,
It certainly beat the old one they had. Dmitri, Xavier, and Ivan all took seats in the nearby
bleachers that could be used to observe the training exercises from a safe distance but mostly for
the occupants’ amusement.

“So how are we gonna do this Vi? Flip of the coin? Rock Paper Scissors?” XJ strode over as I met
him near the course’s entrance.

“Hmmmm...I do know Rock Paper Scissors, so let’s do that to determine who’ll be ‘it’.”

We both drew our arms back in preparation for the simple battle of chance. I hadn’t played such a
game with him before though I was already trying to determine what hand sign might he choose
first. Given everything I knew about him being a solid being I knew both metaphorically and
physically. With that being the case I decided to go with paper to take a chance on him going rock.

“Rock....Paper....Scissors...Shoot!”
We both shouted in unison and cast our hand signs.

“Darn looks like we gotta try again hahahah.” XJ laughed and prepped for his next move.

I couldn’t show it just yet but annoyance and my competitive spirit were beginning to build, he had
cast paper just like I had. I hated when predictions I was so sure of not coming to fruition, I knew it
didn’t do me any good and have been trying to get over that issue but it’s proven difficult to say the
least.

“Lucky move but I’ll show you this time knucklehead.” XJ giggled at that attempt to tease him.

Once again we counted down three times before casting our hand signs and....YES I got him, he
went for paper again and fell into my trap with scissors.

“Looks like you’re ‘it’ then. So what’ll be the setting of this match of ours? Time limit and things
like that?” Even in defeat he was in high spirits.

“As before it’s basically tag but more extreme, there will be a five minute timer for the overall
match. If you can evade me for the entire duration then you’ll win, if however, I am able to tag you
three times then victory goes to me. I’m only able to tag you with one limb and have to wait at least
five seconds before being able to tag you again.” I believed this would make for a good enough
explanation.

That being said, I ushered XJ into the first set of clear sliding doors and stepped back as the
training course powered on.
“Welcome to the EPTF obstacle course. Timer set. Combatant number one please take your ten
second head start before Combatant number two is released. Begin!” The electronic voice of the
computer rang out clearly.

XJ wasted no time as soon as the doors in front of him opened for his head start. This course was
truly massive and full of multiple levels of obstacles that allowed for feats of parkour and
gymnastics to push one to their limits and beyond. He wasn’t wrong about the bulk he lost, despite
that loss he was weaving and twisting his way to get to the higher levels of the course. It reminded
me of how Xavier moved in combat, perhaps he was emulating what he’d seen Xavier do
previously though his form was still a bit unrefined for now.
I didn’t linger in thought for long however, after his ten seconds were up the doors slid open in a
flash, in a single motion using my tail to blast forward like a compressed spring, I began to navigate
past barricades of concrete and vehicles. It looked like this level was meant to simulate a city type
battlefield. Flicking my tongue out I picked up on XJ’s distinctive new scent, it was like a mixture
of a fresh sky ranger interior and soap from a car wash, not unpleasant but it certainly didn’t do him
any favors to hide himself from my tracking abilities.

I could sense him another level above me, I wasn’t letting anything slow me down as I moved over
or ducked under everything that was in my path. Reaching the large turn in the road that became an
incline leading to the next level, I slowed my approach slightly and made sure to keep very quiet. I
remembered what the second level was like from my view outside of the course. It focused more
on jungle styled obstacles and even looked like a contained forest. It must’ve slowed his progress
given how stronger his scent was growing. Getting past the incline and turning the corner
cautiously I was faced by incredibly dense foliage, creeping down low to the roots of the giant
trees I began to stalk quietly towards his scent.

Despite being covered in obsidian oil slicked scales, the shadows created by the tree leaves proved
helpful to aid in camouflaging my approach. Realistic sounds of the forest including birds and other
varieties of creatures which meant an easier time sneaking up on him. The small camera that
showed off what we were going through hovered far above but thankfully wasn’t giving any of us
hints or the others location.

Reaching the location I smelled his scent the strongest, I prepared to pounce and get the first point
off of him, right behind a wide tree trunk. I shot around the corner with my left arm extended and
ready to grip him. I couldn’t hold back a sound of surprise when I was greeted by nothingness, only
a wet mark that looked as if something had been smeared on the tree.

“You know the weakness of someone that relies on just one sense to track? It can be turned against
them if played right. Come on now Vi, I thought you wanted to win and finally beat me!” XJ called
from another tree next to me from above.

Due to the mixture of surprise and confusion just momentarily it gave him a damn opening, XJ
jumped down and rolled over towards me before kicking off of a trunk and quickly though gently
pressed a soft, human finger against my snout before running toward the next incline at the end of
the forest. He let out a “Boop.” as he did so.

Confusion was replaced by anger and embarrassment at that simple action, that dumby thought he
could get away with that stupid boop the snoot thing?!? At least it was by him though....I quickly
launched after him, not wanting to let his actions go unpunished. This was my terrain, while it was
not much of a hindrance to me, it was giving XJ a bit of trouble due to his feet.

As soon as he saw me swiftly catching up to him I heard him let out a terrified but playful yelp and
increased his panicked pace as he desperately tried to push off of the trees to go faster and reach the
next level without getting caught but I was determined as steel to make him pay for being so cocky.

Snagging a sizable rock up from the ground as I continued to hastily pursue XJ, we were nearly out
of the forest so I had to make this shoot really count. Twisting hard as I took careful aim at where
the next branch he was launching off of, I threw with all I had at it. We were both met with the
satisfying crunch of wood as my shoot found it’s mark and splintered the branch that would’ve
acted as XJ’s springboard.

I acted swiftly as he flailed about trying to course correct himself but there wasn’t much he would
be able to do. With the momentum I’d built up from our chase I caught him out of the air with a bit
of difficulty due to his thrashing. I couldn’t restrain the arrogant smile that crept across my lips but
it just felt soo good to get him back even if I hadn’t won just yet.

“Gotcha slowpoke! Your welcome by the way, no need to thank me though, I know you would’ve
done the same for me and this is for booping me.” I quickly set him down and brought up a clawed
finger and ever so carefully returned his earlier gesture.

He didn’t stand still for long, realizing he needed to use his five second immunity before I charged
after him once again. I could’ve sworn I saw those grey cheeks grow navy blue as he turned to run,
perhaps just my imagination though.

Once he reached the third level was when I noticed why he hadn’t gone any further, he was in a
similar gateway like we were in earlier that separated the both of us with that same heavy duty
glass. Beyond this point was level three, everything inside was made up of metal and plastic jungle
gym bars with different kinds of varying sized raised platforms. The doors adjacent to XJ hissed
open and waited for me to enter.

Once inside the robotic voice chimed in again. “Welcome to level three. Combatants will be
released at the same time. Survival will be determined by your ability to outmaneuver and outsmart
your opponent to reach the next level.”

Immediately after finishing their sentence the doors flung open, XJ shoved off of the back set of
doors and started to tuck and slip through the maze of bars. This was one level I think I’d enjoy the
most, the bars not proving much of an issue as the platforms were slowing me down compared to
XJ.

“Come on now don’t get all slow on me now Violet! You’ve only got two and a half minutes left
and I’ve still got two lives left.”
His words only served to fuel my motivation even further unfortunately for him.

Getting up to the highest platform available, I perched over the edge for just a moment to plot the
proper route before taking the plunge downwards. It was certainly a very risky choice if he was
able to avoid or dodge me but if he couldn’t...then he was in for a bad time. I could see him having
trouble slipping through a certain area that was in the shape of a school bus and knew that was my
chance. Pointing myself in the proper direction I let gravity take me, only shifting and slightly
changing direction to silently glide through the maze of bars towards my unsuspecting target.

“The hell? Where’d she go? I need to get moving before she spots me in this stupid bloody bar
hell.” It was all he was able to mutter to himself before it was too late for him to do anything.

I had to swerve just before the moment of impact to avoid splattering myself into the ground but it
wasn’t enough to save himself. In the span of a few seconds I’d curled around the bars he was
wriggling through to escape and locked him inside. I took a little longer than I would’ve liked to
savor the moment. Victory would be mine and he wouldn’t escape me.

“My my my, who’s slow now? Not so easy is it when the odds aren’t particularly in your favor
huh? Better be careful with how cockily you speak now that you’re stuck in that human form XJ.
The perfect chew toy for any viper that happened upon you.” I had no idea where that last bit came
from, it slipped out before I could register it in my confidence.

Not wasting more of my precious time to the drain I poked XJ’s forehead and loosened my coils
giving him his chance to run but what he did next surprised me. He did nothing at all.

“I concede you’re just too good at this Vi. I know when I’m beat, that was some really impressive
stuff you did to catch up with me.” He chuckled and sat back against the bars, he could sense I was
getting pouty at how he denied me true victory.

“Youuuuu! Why must you do this to me?!? I was gonna catch you one last time! This isn’t the
same.”

“I know I’m sorry but I’ll make it up to yah. You still would’ve caught me regardless, this is a well
deserved win.” That did perk me up just a bit.

“Hmph...true you can actually, I know what I’ll have the bet be. There’s a little spot around here I
haven’t been to in ages, a nice spot to eat out. Would you take me out for a bite?”

“Is that all? Gotta admit I was expecting something more extreme from you Vi but I’m not
complaining. Sure that sounds like something new I wouldn’t mind trying. When do you wanna
go?” I couldn’t fault him for that given how competitive he’s seen me.

I finally let myself relax and gave myself a moment to catch my breath as the exhaustion from our
workout set it slightly. I was a bit jealous at XJ’s ability to not have fatigue get to him from this.

“Does dinner sound good? Their dinner food is the best in my opinion.”

“Then that’ll be the plan, just call or text me whenever you want to head out. Now I don’t know
about you but I absolutely stink, I never knew humans could smell like this due to sweat, imma hit
the showers.”

“At least you appreciate the importance of hygiene now that you have a nose, so I won't have you
smelling poorly for dinner. It’ll be fun, you'll see, just trust me.” I felt a bit of a flutter at how
casual he’d been about that and that I actually managed to say the bet.

We leisurely made our way to the hidden elevator to reach the ground floor so we could more
easily reach the showers. I noticed the others passing around a bit of cash, probably from bets made
during the chase with XJ. Torque gave me a curious look but said nothing as she slithered up next
to me as everyone began to go their own ways. I gave her a thumbs up and a timid smile. Torque
clapped me on the back with her right hand and pulled me close with the same arm.

“You’re doing good sis, I’m happy for you. Just remember not to dive into it too fast though, don’t
wanna get hurt or frighten him away.” Torque spoke in a quiet tone.

“I know, I’m not that naive but I appreciate the advice sister, I’m just nervous but In a good way.
I’m taking him to that spot by the water.” I couldn’t hide my smile as I thought back to the
memories that brought forth.

“Ohhhh I see how it is. You must really be getting ready to turn on the charm. Never knew my sis
had such a side to her.” She teased and gently threw a punch into my left arm as we made our way
back to my room.

“Sh-shut up Torque you know we’re both skilled at many things but socializing never was one of
them. Just for that though I’m going to show him ‘and’ you just how charming I can be!” I huffed,
moving to sit among my coils in front of my desk to start making the reservation on my laptop.

“I know you will, Veve. I have no doubts there. So whatcha thinking of wearing it? Planning on
coming off hard and heavy or are you going for something a little more modest?” I could hear her
suppressing a giggle as she spoke.

“I’m not going in whatever it is you’re imagining nor am I attempting to come off that easy. I have
something in mind I got a little after I got out of the hospital. It's in my closet to the left.” I made
the off hand gesture pointing to the left of my closet though my eyes were still on my screen as I
finished reserving our spots for tonight.

“Ohhhhh very nice choice, best of both worlds in this. You’ll look lovely in this sis, I’m a little
jealous, you definitely gotta show me where you got it afterwards.” I appreciated her words.

The rest of the day seemed to pass slower than I would’ve liked it to, the anticipation of it all was
driving my mind crazy. I couldn’t find anything to help me focus or to take my mind off of
thinking about it and all the things that could happen. Possible scenarios playing out with a
multitude of different outcomes, even if I didn’t want to think about it they would come anyways.

Eventually I got up the courage to do my favorite activity out and see if it would help with this
issue of mine. I knew worrying wouldn’t do any good for my mental health, so perhaps art would
help channel it. Torque had always encouraged it when I first found I had a knack for drawing, and
ever since I’d go to it especially when I felt troubled. It is a difficult thing to describe how I can
just get lost in it all, forming the image from the mind’s eye into reality with precision and care, or
sometimes fluid and random.

Reaching into the bag that I had brought with me initially for our mission here, I felt the familiar
form and gripped it, my notebook I used for small scale drawings. Retrieving the pencil I kept with
it, I dove straight into it. The first thing that came to mind was the memory of when I’d first met
XJ, strange and suspicious, beginning by trying to capture his original appearance. Certainly a
challenge with the many different intricate and intriguing pieces that made up the ADVENT
machine chassis of his body and limbs, glowing circuitry and large ballistic armor plates.

Before I knew it time had flown by and my worries melted away as I became lost in my work. It
wasn’t until I heard a knock on my door that I even considered checking the time. Setting my
notebook and pencil down quickly, I moved to the door and slid it open, I knew just who it was
judging by the scent.

“Hey Vi! Are you ready to go? It was getting close to the late afternoon so I figured I’d drop by
since I hadn’t heard from you.” XJ was here though what ‘did’ surprise me was how nicely he’d
dressed.

“Wow you came together pretty well, where’d you get the clothes though? I don’t think you ever
had any clothes when we came here?” Not that I was complaining.

“Xavier took me out into the city after he heard about what you wanted. He wouldn’t say what he
was chuckling about while we were shopping, just that he was very happy with your idea for the
bet.” XJ shrugged and gave a smile.

“I’m happy he helped you, give me just a sec and I’ll be all set to go, sorry to make you wait, I got
caught up in some drawing.” He gave a nod and leaned against the opposite wall in the hall as I
closed the door and hurriedly got dressed.

He caught me a bit by surprise but hopefully I’d get him back with my dress. It was something
simple and red, nothing like what I’ve seen human females wear during nights on the town but I
was confident it would still work even if we were completely different biologically speaking. Ugh I
was overthinking it again.
Squeezing just a hint of perfume out of the small glass bottle and letting it gently embrace my
scales, I was ready.

Slipping out the door and into the hall for XJ to see, I wasn’t disappointed by his reaction at all.
His jaw fell just a little bit when I came into his view but he quickly recomposed himself before
speaking.

“So where is it you’d like to go Violet? I still never heard where specifically we’d be headed
because you said it was a secret.” He asked curiously.

“It’s still a secret, but I’ll lead the way just trust me on this, you’ll like it I can guarantee it.” I was
extremely excited the moment was finally here.

I didn’t give him a chance to object to this as I promptly grabbed him by the hand and at a pace
where he could still follow, raced out of the building and into the busy afternoon streets of city 31.
The path came as easy as my muscle memory for disassembling a plasma rifle to clean it. Ducking
and weaving through the crowds of human and alien alike, through a few shadowy alleyways, it
took about twenty minutes of slithering but we made it eventually.

The building’s look matched its age, old peeling paint that had most definitely seen better days,
sun-baked and faded signs from whatever business had previously the building were scattered all
over, and a general look of abandonment. As I wise man once said however, never judge a book by
its cover, in this case a building.

“Not to be rude but this place looks like where you’d take someone so that they’d never be seen
again. Is it where you wanted to go or is it just behind that building?” I couldn’t fault him for being
confused, I stifled a giggle at his comment.

“Yep that’s where we’re going, but trust me on this one, it’s not what you’re thinking. Despite how
it seems, it's pretty nice inside.” I pushed on ahead without giving him time to make a comeback so
he could just see for himself.

Rounding the corner to where I remembered the entrance to the old building would be, we were
greeted by the sun in our eyes from the sky and the rays that reflected off the golden water next to
us. Both of us had to shield our eyes with an arm to be able to see the doors which I could see were
flanked by two formally dressed vipers, one of which held a clipboard. As we approached them so
I could get us checked in, I saw what seemed to be a look of recognition on XJ’s face as he got a
clear line of sight on the vipers.

“Penny? Cali? Is that you? What a small world it is, you guys! Vi I know these two! I helped them
out while on patrol with Axiom.” XJ exclaimed happily as we got closer, the two vipers looked
confused though I believe I knew why.

“Your voice sounds familiar? Were you with those soldiers that saved us from those drunk idiots
on the ally? Because I don’t seem to remember a grey human with them but you sound and smell
familiar.”
The one XJ referred to as Penny spoke up.

“Well my appearance may have...changed just a bit but it’s me! The big mech unit that helped the
muton who went by Axiom.”

“Well....appearances aside, it’s nice to see you again, but now you have to tell us, who is this lovely
little lady you’ve brought with you to our little place of business? If I’d known you like your
women scaly and venomous, I would’ve taken you here myself.” It took a good deal of self control
for me not to slap my tail down in annoyance at her flirting.

“The name’s Violet, I’m the one that made the reservations not him so don't get the wrong idea.”
She simply chuckled seeing my reaction and waved us past as her friend gave her a disapproving
nod.
“Sorry sorry old habit of mine, I won’t steal him away from yah, you two have a good time now,
oh hey tin man! Don’t let her intimidate you! She’s a softie I can tell.” She cackled loudly at her
own antics as I pushed XJ up the steps as fast as I could to avoid the rest of that interaction.

Once inside I continued to lead the way. Here you were expected to know where you booth was
located since you’re the one that chose where you wanted to be seated. I hadn’t said anything yet
out of the burning embarrassment I could feel on my face, making our way passed a few corridors
that gave brief glimpses to other booths inside the rooms, happy couples sitting together.
Descending a small flight of stairs and taking the first right that we came across, we strode straight
across the floor and into the left corner booth of the room. Finally I had a moment to decompress
and my embarrassment melted away when I saw XJ take a seat across from me and smile at me.

“So do you wanna tell me a little about this place? You were right about it’s inside appearance
being lovely. The red wood walls and flooring match well with the gold metal of the trim and
warm atmosphere of this place. The fish tanks are also pretty interesting if I do say so.” He
gestured to the room in general.

“I first found out about it when I was stationed here for a few months with Torque, she showed it to
me. A nice place for vipers to go without being harassed by xenophobes or weirdos with strange
obsessions, no doubt like what you helped Penny and Cali with. That would explain why you see
so many vipers here. I just thought It’d be a nice spot to get a bite to eat since it has sentimental
value. I spent many nights here with my sisters when things got tough trying to integrate into this
new society and train to be a new kind of soldier.” I couldn’t but get a little lost in my memory
again as the swirling neon water of the fish tank hypnotized me.

“Thanks for doing that with me, for showing me a piece of yourself. I kinda wish I could do the
same but...you know how it is being forged and all.” He laughed softly and shrugged his shoulders
before returning his attention back to me.

Before I responded to him, I tapped a small button on the center of the wall in our booth to call a
server over whenever they could come.

“Speaking of which, I wanted to talk to you about something XJ, it’s nothing bad but I thought it’d
be better with some privacy away from the others.” I tried to read his reaction but his expression
didn’t give off much besides a soft smile and a nod.

“I wanted to say thanks....for everything you did for me in that hospital, it really kept me sane, for
most of my stay there I was awake, couldn’t move or speak up for myself though. I gotta admit I
was shocked when you came in that first night and just talked to me about what you were going
through personally even though we’d not known each other that long yet, and then you had to go
and read to me. I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed that, I don’t know why but reading is just a
little bit more relaxing to me when someone can read it back in a good fashion like you did.” That
did seem to catch him by surprise, his eyes widened as soon as the word hospital was mentioned
and his jaw opened just a bit.

“I...knew that you being conscious might have been a possibility but...I have to admit it’s a little
embarrassing that you were. I’m so sorry you had to listen through all my rambling.” He chuckled
to himself and rubbed his neck but he refused to avert his peculiar robotic gaze from mine.

“You stop apologizing for these things, it means a lot that you felt you could come to a teammate
and open up like that even after how I’d initially treated you. We...especially myself, don’t care
who you may truly be, who you are now is the ‘person’ we have come to trust. You can always be
honest with us, the team sticks up for its own.” Before I could finish my thought, our server finally
arrived and placed down two menus, one for each of us.
“Sorry for the wait, I’ll be your server tonight, you can call me Vanilla—wait, Violet? You didn’t
tell us you were back in town, and with company!” It wasn’t an unpleasant surprise to see another
old friend again but you never want your friends telling the embarrassing tales from your youth to
the person you like.

She twisted herself to face XJ and gave him a hard look over. I knew what she was trying to do,
gauge a reaction and see if he would be intimidated among other things.

“Oh hello there! My name is Gabriel, it’s a pleasure to meet another friend of Violet’s. We had a
little physical competition, I lost the bet and so Violet settled on coming here as her choice for
winning.” I did my best not to give into the urge to curl into a ball and hide my face from them all.

I knew he did that on purpose to get back at me for my teasing of him in the VTOL ride here.
Vanilla turned to me and gave me a suggestive look with a high raised brow.

“Shut upppp, it isn’t like what you’re thinking Vanilla, it was a training exercise that was just a
game of competitive tag.” I couldn’t salvage this in her eyes.

“I’m sure it was Vee, he’s polite though and doesn’t seem afraid of us, I’ll give you two lovebirds
a chance to think over the menu while I grab you something to drink.”
She leaned over as she passed by XJ, she whispered something to him before disappearing down
into the corridor before he even had a chance to state what he would drink.

“What did she say?”

“Hmmm? Oh nothing much, though I did actually want to ask you something now that we’re alone
again.” I could see that he had something weighing on him this time.

“If it’s not the case then don’t worry but I felt I’d bring it up since you felt like being honest with
me so I’ll do the same with all that’s gone on. From the point when we took Ivan out that first day
at base to afterwards, I wasn’t sure what the feeling was at first but over time with much thought I
found it to be a growing fascination and infatuation with you. Yes, even with how you initially
were with me, it was the first time I couldn’t fully understand why I was feeling a certain way.”
All I could do was nod and listen as he continued.

“It’s not some unhinged obsession or something I swear. I’ll try to describe it and perhaps that’ll
help you understand since I sometimes have a hard time understanding it myself still. I enjoy being
in your presence, I feel at ease and peaceful like the worries and concerns have melted away in my
mind. Competing against you is incredibly fun, but more than that I find your competitive spirit
inspiring to see in action. Bantering with you never fails to get me to smile. I know you don’t have
to feel the same for me but I thought I’d put it out there and ask what you think of that.” He still
had a smile on his face though he’s cheeks are certainly a darker shade of blue this time, that I
could confirm, but it was the same for me as well.

“I—uhhh, you truly feel that way? You mean that? Even though I’m not enhanced in the ways you
are or even human?” I couldn’t hide the nervousness in my voice as I felt my heart skip a beat.

“To be fair, I’m some kind of robotic crime against nature that much I’m sure of, the fact you’re
not human doesn’t particularly bother me. If anything....I like you as you are, scales and all. Your
pattern continually mesmerizes me, especially when it reaches your hood. I do hope I said that
right, I don’t think I’ve ever really flirted before and the internet isn’t very helpful so I’ve found
when I tried to learn about how to do so.”
He shook his head trying to rid himself of his blush as he looked to me for my answer.
“If I’m being honest now, it happened when you asked for my help in our first competition, when I
was helping you with your heart, it spoke to my inner hapless romantic, Torque called it when I
explained it to her because she knows how I am. I was having a conversation with Ivan when we
did that together in your room because of it, that’s why I was so quiet. You may think yourself an
abomination but if you want to know what I think? I know for a fact that within that metallic
exterior of yours lies the kind and caring heart of a man, not a monster.”
 Interlude 1
Chapter Summary

A certain Viper's backstory and just how she became who you see today.

Chapter Notes

All credit for this interlude goes to my friend who was the one that got me into the
rabbit hole that is snussy, he did a great job on this and I couldn't be more proud of his
imagination. Thank you Drew.

Interlude one: Serpent’s tale (Violet)

Violet slowly blinked her eyes open as raindrops land on her long slender frame, The realization
came over her that she was alone. Violet was alone surrounded by the remains of her squad at the
edge of a crater. The crater formerly being the facility they were assigned to guard. "Damn what hit
me?" she quietly said as she picked herself up off of the ground before checking her comm to find
all of the formerly ADVENT broadcasts were now occupied by civilian broadcasts "And what a
beautiful day it is after the defeat of the alien Elders who were intent on harvesting the human race
for use in their" the broadcaster pauses and audibly flips through some pages before continuing
"Avatar project. However Xcom still has their work cut out for them trying to deal with all of the
various creatures still stuck here on the planet Earth. And they have publicly stated that they wish
to unify all of the species under a single banner. Good luck to you brave heroes in your quest for
unification. In other news sightings of a strange creature in siber-"

Violet turns off her comm unit after hearing of the fall of ADVENT "That's certainly an
unexpected turn of events" she muses to herself as she makes her way to cover from the rain which
had begun falling more heavily. "Guess I finally got out of guard duty" she thinks as she makes
herself comfortable and prepares to wait out the rainstorm.

After roughly an hour passes the engines of a dropship can be heard overhead, Not quite ADVENT
issue but similar. Violet pokes her head out from under her cover, A still standing guard tower with
the wall smashed by various pieces of debris that were thrown from the explosion. What she sees
flying overhead is one of the Xcom skyranger VTOLs. They were searching, For survivors maybe?
"what happens if they find me?" Violet thought to herself before ducking behind her cover as the
ship once again buzzes overhead.

"Shit, Not many places to go" she says under her breath as she looks around for more cover to hide
behind as she makes her way out of the area. A few more moments of observation reveal that the
dropship is coming in for a landing "This looks like my chance" Violet thinks briefly as the ship
touches down behind another sundered structure. "Now to give them the slip" she once again says
to herself as she makes her way to a half destroyed car and then to an advent sensor pole.

"just a little bit further now" she whispers under her breath before beginning her next move
towards the edge of a wooded area. Before she even makes it half way she feels a thunk into the
back of her armor immediately followed by a strong electrical shock, Shortly afterwords she loses
consciousness.

Once again Violet's eyes flutter open but this time to a concrete ceiling, She sticks her head up and
looks around, She's in a holding cell stripped of her equipment and armor, Instead left with an
orange top and a long slender tube pulled tastefully over the lower half of what could be considered
a torso. Upon further inspection of the room she finds the usual amenities, A toilet, A bed, And a
desk above which on the wall sits a television. "Well, This isn't so bad, At least they didn't kill me"
she says to herself as she sits herself upright on the bed she found herself lain upon. "about time
you wake up" calls a voice from outside her cell, Violet turns her gaze towards a figure beyond the
alloy reinforced hardlight window that sits between the cell and the hallway "that arc thrower must
have been set too high" says the figure as he steps closer to the window

he looks down at a clipboard before he continues "I'm here to guide you through processing seeing
as the Elders have been defeated and we would rather you not keep fighting for something that
doesn't benefit anyone anymore."

"My name is Doctor Phil Smith, And I'm working with Xcom to help struggling individuals adjust
to the society we hope to build, Now we're just going to have a nice talk about yourself, Your past,
And what we hope to do with that society, And where we might find a place for you in it."
Declares the man beyond the window

Violet replies "I'm not really looking for any trouble, I would have just gone off into the woods and
made a life there had your guys not shot me in the back"

"that's a common one actually" says Smith before noting it down on his clipboard. "Just a few
questions, Would you start with your name?" he continues

Violet pauses for a moment, Confusion visible on her face. "A name? Like the designations we
were given by ADVENT and the Elders?"

"That will serve for the time being" Smith replies. "V-103T was the designation given to me by
ADVENT" she says

"I see" smith writes something on his clipboard before speaking again. "May I call you Violet to
ease the interview process?" Violet looks deep in thought for a moment "I will accept this name"
she declares

"Excellent" smith says as he writes something else and then continues "Were you hatched on
Earth?" Violet thinks quietly to herself for a time before replying "Yes, I was hatched in South
America"

"And where was your last station with ADVENT?" Smith says from behind his clipboard "I was
last stationed in Germany to guard a checkpoint, At which without warning there was a large
explosion that left the place a smoldering crater" Violet says as she adjusts her position

"That must have been quite the experience, Miss Violet" Smith states as he scribbles on the piece
of paper on his clipboard

"It definitely caught me by surprise" replies violet, Still unable to get comfortable on the tiny bed
she was placed upon in her cell, Tail hanging more than two meters over the edge.

"Hey can I ask you a few questions? What do you plan to do if I don't pass this test or whatever?"
Violet asks.
"There's no failing this interview, You'll do fine Violet, I assure you." Smith states as he scribbles
something else on the page "alright Last question, Have you ever personally participated in an
ADVENT raid on a resistance cell?" he says as he lowers his clipboard. Violet returns with a flat
"No, I was only ever placed on guard duty"

"Alright Violet, Congratulations you're done with the interview" declares smith as he puts the
clipboard away in a carrier bag that hangs from his side "Now you're going to be here for another
few hours before we can secure you an apartment within the city. In the meantime make yourself
comfortable, We'll send someone to get you when it's time" he adds before turning on the spot and
heading up the hallway

Violet adjusts her position a bit more before she hears something clatter to the ground. Upon
inspection she finds a television remote "So this is what's been bothering me" she says as she picks
the thing up and presses a button at random. The television flicks on with a satisfying clicking
noise and beings playing an advertisement for not-dogs before returning to an episode of breaking
bald

several hours pass before Violet hears a fizzle noise as the hardlight window is deactivated and a
door is opened "come along miss Violet" says a short human man poking his head through the
door.

Violet removes herself from the small bed and slithers her way after the small man

"So I'm a civilian now? Just like that?" she asks the man

"Yeah, It really is that easy, Congratulations miss Violet" he replies

After about 5 minutes of walking the pair make their way to a set of double doors. The man leads
the way through into an office where Doctor Smith is standing with a small briefcast in hand and
stack of folded clothes in the other "Ah there you are, I would imagine you wouldn't want to wear
orange out of here" Smith hands violet the stack of clothes and motions towards a door that leads to
a changing room.

"And after that we'll have you driven out to your apartment" he adds as Violet begins heading into
the room to change into the pile of clothes currently in her hands. With very little trouble she slips
out of the orange fabric tube around the lower half of her torso and replaces it with a navy blue one,
Whereas the shirt is replaced with a white I heart NY Tee. Violet looks herself over in the mirror
before deciding she's happy and heading back out of the changing room

"You said something about an apartment?" asks Violet "Yes we'll have you driven up there now"
says Smith as he motions of the small man from earlier to take Violet to the car "Oh one more
thing" he says as he hands Violet the briefcase "This contains four more sets of clothes and the key
you'll need to get into your apartment, As well as a few recommendations for employment
opportunities" Smith adds

Violet and the small man make their way out to a dark blue car that runs on stored solar energy,
Violet climbs into the back seats while the small man takes the driver's seat and starts the vehicle.
About 10 minutes of driving later the pair arrive at a lower medium end array of one story modular
homes

"This is your stop miss Violet" the small man says as he shifts the car into park on the side of the
road in front of her building

"Thank you" she replies as she climbs out of the car and begins slithering her way up to the
building before she digs the key out of the briefcase, Unlocks the door, and heads inside

The interior is fairly sparse, Few furnishings to speak of at all. Violet makes her way to a table and
places her briefcase before pulling the page of employment recommendations from one of the folds
"Damn even now I can't escape guard duty" she exclaims as she looks over the page, The top five
recommendations of which being guard positions at pharmaceutical companies and warehouses.

Several months pass and we find Violet, Guard captain at a warehouse owned by Xcom and used
to store old ADVENT robotics

"And so we need to be extra vigilant tonight, We've had a few too many suspicious characters
around the past few nights. And remember, Arc Throwers should be used first, Not firearms."
dictates Violet to the rest of the guard, Two humans one male and the other female, and a sectoid.

A few hours pass and about midnight the sound of smashing glass is heard "What happened?"
echoes Violet's voice across the comm "It sounded like a window shattering, I'm heading to the
location right now" replied a male voice over the comm.

"Negative, Dean. Take Alyss with you" said the sectoid in reply "I'll meet you two there" he added

"I'll head over to the smaller door on the side of the building and make sure they can't escape" says
violet in response

In two short minutes our part gathers at the scene of the broken window to find the marks of treads
from at least three different sets of boots

"that's a real bad sign" says Alyss in reaction to the boot marks on the ground before telling Violet
over the comms "confirmed at least three different sets of tracks, request permission to enter the
warehouse and perform a sweep"

"permission granted, Dean keep watch to make sure they don't escape, Everyone else inside and
sweep the warehouse" Violet replies over the comm

"Damn, Looks like you guys are gonna have all the fun" Dean says in a bemused tone

"This situation strikes me as more tense than fun, Dean" replies the sectoid as he hops through the
window

"It's a figure of speech Gray" Dean sighs "Be careful in there guys"

"You be careful out here, Dean" says Alyss as she hops through the window after Gray.

After about three minutes of searching the lights come on and one of the turrets whirrs to life
followed by maniacal laughter.

"So the Xcom lapdogs have come to stop us from recovering what belongs to US, Well if you
intend to stop us then just try"

The voice is emanating from a figure perched atop a presently deactivated Sectopod, A hybrid
wearing an ADVENT officer helmet with a shattered face shield

The turret begins firing on Gray's position as he quickly takes cover "It's got me pinned" he
exclaims as he begins hunkering down

"Dean we're going to need your help" says Violet over the comm "A little busy at the moment
boss" replies as gunfire can be heard from the background of his comm "we're surrounded, It's not
looking good"

All the while Alyss has been moving in on the turret with her arc thrower in hand, Having set the
device to lethal levels of charge

"You want me to stop you? How about this numbnuts" Violet unhinges her jaw as she spits a ball
of poison at the man atop the Sectopod "So much for your visor, Probably would have helped" The
ball of poison begins shedding poisonous gas in his general vicinity

"I'll get the turret" exclaims Alyss as she unloads the arc thrower into the control panel that was
placed on the back of the turret, blowing up the arc thrower in the process, sending shrapnel
directly into her left leg, but frying the turret "FUCKFUCKFUCKFUCK" she shouts as she falls to
the ground grasping the wound

"Gray go help Dean" shouts violet as she makes her way towards the man atop the sectopod

"with pleasure" replies Gray as he jumps out the window and hurls a lance of psionic energy at the
group harassing Dean

"Now I'm going to make sure you get a nice taste of my tail" shouts violet as she swings her tail at
the hybrid

still struggling with the poison he just barely manages to duck under the tail before pressing a
button on the device in his left hand "It's too late, We have what we came for" he says weekly as
the sectopod activates "unfortunately the plan doesn't call for killing you today" he says as he
presses another button on the device and the sectopod makes a hole in the wall by simply moving
"but make no mistake, When we meet again, You will suffer our wrath, Traitor."

The sectopod stomps past Gray and Dean and the gunfire slows to a stop, When they peer back
from behind their cover they find the combatants they were fighting are simply no longer there.
"This is going to be one hell of a debrief with HQ" sighs Dean as he slinks down with his back to a
car

"Filing this paperwork will be a very unpleasant experience" says Gray

Back inside the warehouse Violet rushes over to Alyss "You're a fucking idiot" Says Violet as she
looks over Alyss "well it worked didn't it" Alyss replies in a pained tone

Violet grabs her comm unit and makes a call to HQ "we've just had a breakin at warehouse 201...
They stole a Sectopod. There were enough of them to have the whole building surrounded, One
wounded"

"We'll send a skyranger right away, Hang tight until then" replies a man over the comm

It takes no less than 10 minutes for a dropship to arrive with medical personnel who pick up and
carry Alyss to the dropship

several heavily armed Xcom personnel step off of the skyranger "you four are expected at HQ,
We'll make sure they don't come back" one of them declares at Violet

The three pile into the dropship along with Alyss who is presently on a stretcher and fly back to
HQ over the course of 10 minutes

Upon exiting the dropship they are met a senior officer "You four are lucky to be alive, You just
had an encounter with the Sacred Coil. And from the sound of it they're planning something bigger
than we thought" "But in the meantime, Violet, You've earned a promotion. And all of you have
earned some rest." The officer declares

Everyone but Violet either heads off to the barracks or is hauled off to the infirmary "Sir, What
exactly does my promotion entail?" asks Violet "You're being reassigned to a sort of anti-terrorist
program. Patchwork squad." replies the officer.
 Interlude 2: Project Apollyon
Chapter Summary

A visage from the past of one of our heroes. A crucial piece to the puzzle that is his
unknown history.

Chapter Notes

Hope you guys enjoy this latest interlude, Im sorry for anyone who was looking
forward to more viper themed romance and the upcoming violence for chapter 10, but
I'll be getting to that very soon. As always I appreciate being able to share this story
with yall.

Interlude 2: Project Apollyon

“Drone, begin recording. Add this to the rest of my logs as per the usual.” The feminine yet
commanding voice rang through the dimly lit laboratory.

“By your decree Grand Architect.” The small hovering machine chirped to its master.

With a confirmative beep, the drone dutifully followed a tall yet spindly figure, draped head to
levitating toe in thick robes of crimson and white for the headdress. Making her way over to the
center of the laboratory where a large examination table sat, tools from various locations where
they’d previously been left by their owner now flew to her and orbited around the table slowly,
held up by her willpower alone.

“Stage one of the metamorphosis has proceeded better than initial projected results had stated.
Subject Apollyon has taken to the new batch of melding nanites quicker than I’d thought, results
are....nothing short of fascinating. We’d initially come to this planet seeking a cure to our own
affliction and yet...I found a species with even more potential than even I expected. The
possibilities I’ve seen, they’re practically endless with the right genetic lineages, if only the other
members of my race weren’t so shortsighted.”
The Grand Architect let out a weary sigh, multiple hands branching out from her robed body,
plucking several instruments from the air, she leaned over the table that subject Apollyon was
calmly strapped to.

“Subject has become fully docile after extended mental reconstruction during the melding process,
mental faculties have also increased in efficiency and overall power by one hundred percent.
Storage space for additional information of any kind will now grow as the subject evolves, a rather
ingenious function of my own design if I do say so myself. Subject even refers to me by an
adorable little name that seems to be a remnant of the host personality.”
The ethereal softly chuckled to themselves, using a small plasma bladed scalpel with surgical
precision, cutting open multiple locations of particular interest to her all over the subject’s
unmoving body.
“No sign of host organs either, just one hundred percent nanite composition and the base body
structure is holding up remarkably well against plasma scalpel. Formation of the Amalgam-shifter
unit can be confirmed, and I’ve already programmed several preset forms into it for testing
purposes later based off of data from those the subject cannibalized during earlier testing, these
include the standard ADVENT mech unit, Titan Viper, and a human based on the host
appearance.”
Jotting down more notes into a holographic touchpad she’d grabbed earlier, she moved onwards to
inspecting the subject’s cranium, forgoing her scalpel for a device that looked similar to an
oversized magnifying glass.

“Mother...may I ask a question of you?”

A soft voice that was generated from a very sophisticated synth voice box came from the being on
the table.

“Of course Apollyon, ask away darling, what is it you wish to know?” The ethereal spoke softly
but remained unmoving from her work, adding more notes to her glowing data-pad.

“What is my purpose? Why have I been created? I am unable to ascertain this answer for myself
with my limited knowledge.” He spoke honestly with his emotionless tone.

“An intelligent question my dear Apollyon, you’ve been reborn as you are, and continue to be
molded by my hands to serve a different purpose than your siblings. As you’ve no doubt become
aware from my own rants I've had with you, the Ethereals don’t have much time left in this
universe unfortunately. Inbreeding is to blame for that mostly, it’s why we came to this planet of
yours, for a cure that was found in its people, the humans. Yet also within you there is more than
just a cure, so much more. But fear...will always limit the progress of scientific advancement
towards the future.”
Another sigh could be heard in the quiet laboratory.

“Unlike the fools I’m related to, that cower like younglings at the looming specter of death, I shall
stand defiantly in its face until the bitter end. I don't, however, intend to leave without doing
something worthwhile, and that is where you and subject Azrael come into the proverbial picture.
If it is the will of fate for our race to come to an end, then another should rise to fully fill the
vacuum and I believe that should be you my dear. Your people don’t always fight for the good of
their whole race as of yet, that is why I’m building you and your brother the way I am. Your other
siblings won’t understand this unfortunately, too rooted in their own ways to submit to you two, it’s
one of the reasons I named you the way I did after all, it's a bad habit I have. Either way you two
will conquer all that lies before you, and hopefully prosper better than we did.”
Finishing her work at the behemoth’s cranium, her weightless form glided around the table to an
adjacent workstation covered with crystalline beakers and containers full of strange liquids.

“Hmmm...thank you for that answer mother. I am sorry but I do have one last question for now.
When might I see subject Azrael again? I feel strange for not having seen him in such a long time
yet I can not explain why I feel so. I have detected no external stimuli, physical, or mental, that
could be causing it.” His question did seem to surprise the ancient scientist slightly judging by the
slight pause in her movement before she recollected herself.

“Soon my child, soon enough. Think little of it for now Apollyon, it’s not something that will harm
you, if it were something to consider then I’d tell you. Now please prepare yourself, as I’ve
completed my checklist for you, you’re ready for the final stage of your metamorphosis process.
You’ve melded yourself with your new body, now you just need the fuel for your growth into what
you were always meant to be.”
Turning away from her chemical storage cabinet, with several syringes in her grasp filled with
different glowing mutagenic cocktails sealed within each one.

“The process will hurt a bit but it’s nothing you can’t handle my child, because of that I will not be
able to sedate you for this part, but you are of the strong and will not require it.” Placing two
syringes and securing them to each pectoral muscle, she then affixed the final two on either side of
his thighs.

The subject relaxed himself as best he could on the cold and sterile examination table, knowing it
would hurt less when he softened his outer skin layer and synth muscle structures. Giving ‘mother’
an affirmative nod, she proceeded, tapping a button on her data-pad causing the syringes to activate
simultaneously. In an instant the colorful liquids drained into the subject, spreading quickly with
the help of the nanites that compromised his very being.

Results immediately began to show themselves as the growing pains began to rack his body. All
over his cybernetic body different sections pulsed, shifted, stretched, and convulsed violently as
they changed. The squelching of flesh as the blank nanites received new orders from the chemicals
could be heard along with the snapping and reshaping of his metal skeletal structure. Subject
Apollyon clamped his jaw shut tightly at the pain to bear it quietly, he wouldn’t...couldn’t show
any sign of weakness to mother after she’d placed such expectations on him like that, even as
protrusions of metallic bone were forced through his skin layer in order to reshape themselves
properly he wouldn’t utter a peep for any to hear.

“Drone, end recording, I have what I need for now.” Mother made the offhanded gesture to cut the
recording, the drone flying off to deposit the recording in a safer location just as it had done for the
past week per mother’s orders.

As the drone quietly hovered away to perform its menial task, mother let one of her arms drift
away from her side and ever so gently stroked Apollyon’s scalp, even with such a thick protective
outer layer of synthetic skin, she could still feel the transformation that was happening deep within
the head she held in her long fingered grasp. She wasn’t sure why exactly she did that but withdrew
her hand slowly as the question pulled at her thoughts. Even Apollyon himself had found himself
slightly surprised by the soft gesture, forgetting his pain momentarily as he strained to move his
head up to meet her hooded gaze with his discolored eyes. As they continued to stare into each
other for what felt like an eternity to each other, it came as a jolting shock when the soft pinging of
the door sensor was activated, bringing mother out her introspection.

Shaking her head slightly, she took her time gliding over to the polished white doors that led into
her laboratory, thumbing the button on the wall panel to slide them open. Light flooded into the
poorly light room as a very familiar figure stood before mother. Tall and spindly like Mother,
wearing faded blue and black metal and cloth armor that had a mix of cultural markings and those
of ADVENT in the identifiable bright red. The pale blue figure regarded mother with large pits of
black for eyes, speaking telepathically.

“Grand Architect, I’ve come in person this time to request an audience with you...since previous
attempts via drone messengers have gone unanswered.” A voice that could chill the air spoke into
her mind. Though the figure before her had a nearly expressionless face due to his lacking of a
mouth. The tone he spoke with, dripped with dark emotions that the ancient scientist knew he was
attempting to conceal.

“Ah, Val’duna, well since you’re here I suppose we can talk then. Please come in, to what do I
owe the pleasure of this visit?” Mother did little to hide her own displeasure at the visit she
dreaded would eventually come to her from, who she considered to be the most tiresome of her
creations.
“Thank you, mistress, please forgive the intrusion, I know you’re busy with your work and...other
projects. I wanted to speak to you because well to put it frankly the others and myself are
justifiably curious about the newest additions to our ranks. Would you permit us to see them in
whatever conditions you deem fit?” Val’duna clasped his hands together and gave an exaggerated
bow towards his creator, though his creator couldn’t place if it was out of his spite for her or his
eccentric nature, she settled on the conclusion that it was both.

“I haven’t allowed you or the other chosen to visit these two because they’re still being worked on.
I thought I made that very clear in my responses to your requests, did they, in the galaxy’s
mysterious nature, not make it to your ears? Either way the answer is still the same, Apollyon and
Azrael aren’t ready yet. As you can see and hear hopefully, Apollyon is undergoing his final
metamorphosis, you may ‘watch’ if you like but do not ‘touch’ him or you may end up losing your
limb to his hunger, he’s quite ravenous when I conduct tests on him.” She chuckled at the thought
of Val’duna losing a hand to her Apollyon as a novel thing to see. Moving back to her desk nearby
the examination table, tapping away at her data-pad with one set of her arms.

Without responding to the confirmation from the architect, Val’duna let himself drop softly to his
feet, two well muscled toes pushed him up as he quietly strode over to the exam table to look over
what would soon be a new addition to his team. Staying a distance he deemed safe enough to
observe the hulking form that was writhing and reshaping before him. Taking a moment to glance
back at the architect to ensure she wasn’t looking, when he saw she wasn’t, he slowly and steadily
began to move a slender yet sculpted hand towards Apollyon’s distorted face that was still
violently changing itself.

“Huuu.....ngerrr....” the garbled words left Apollyon’s lips, barely audible to the chosen that stood
hunched over him.

“What was that little monster? I couldn’t quite hear you.” The chosen replied below a whisper.

“Hunger! Soooooo hungry!” Apollyon shouted in a crazed state as his growth exacerbated his
hunger to sate the new requirements of his nanite body with anything it could use for fuel. Lunging
forth with arms raised and his jaw opening wider than seemed natural as the sound of metal teeth
cracking down and the rustling of armor slightly startled the architect back to reality.

“What did I just say Val’duna?!? Do I really need to fix something with your hearing today?” She
found herself massaging her head from the inside of her protective hood, contemplating melting the
bothersome chosen down to make another one, someday but not today, she was too busy right now.

“I wasn’t going to touch him, I simply wanted to see if he could talk, heh certainly a fierce one I’ll
say that. Nearly bit the entirety of my head clean off if I didn’t dodge. Anyhow, there is another
matter I wanted to speak to you about that’s very important.” Val’duna’s tone changing to a more
serious one, all pretenses dropped as he moved calmly towards the architect’s desk to present the
matter for discussion.

As he said that, five other figures in various types of armor and clothing, each unique in their own
way, each one a different alien species, all gathered with Val’duna to speak with the Grand
Architect.

“Very well if this matter requires all of you to be present to discuss whatever it is that is clearly
very important.” She looked up from her work and set down her data-pad. Wondering what it was
that was so pressing.

“Mistress...I’ve heard some rather distressing things going on around the base. Treasonous things,
whispers that would cause great uproar with the ruling council.” A gentle voice spoke, it sounded
as if it were coming from all around them, carried by a soft breeze.

“Really? Do you know who in particular is involved in this Borealus? What is the severity of what
you’ve heard?” The architect leaned forward very interested, though subtly preparing for things to
go very wrong quickly.

“I’m afraid the person involved....is you yourself mistress, your purpose for creating the two
newest chosen. You plan to betray us all to those wretched aliens.”
The airy voice turned angry and filled with malice, each word cracking like thunder, the air within
the room began to warp slightly.

“What?!? How dare you accuse me of such things, your creator no less. Even if that were true, my
brethren wouldn’t take your word over my own, they have too high an opinion of our race to view
you all with any true respect. Trust me I know how it feels.” She exclaimed loudly in an attempt to
salvage the situation, it might still work out for her.

“Hmmm...they said you’d respond like that, at least they were accurate in that sense. That may
have been the cause mistress, but the council has also found proof of your betrayal and misuse of
your talents. The only reason we asked in the first place was to gauge your reaction, sadly you’ve
failed the test mistress. The council doesn’t like loose ends and thus they sent us to put a stop to
you.” Val’duna spoke once more, his voice was brimming with barely restrained glee at this
dramatic turn in her situation.

The air grew eerily still as the Grand Architect slowly rose up from her chair, her eyes coldly
locked with Val’duna’s, causing him to reconsider his next moves carefully. Even with all of his
chosen there, would they be able to kill their creator?

“If you all leave now then I’ll consider forgetting about this on my way to the council chamber as I
have a chat with my brethren.” Her voice came out coldly and confidently, she may have been at a
disadvantage but she would be damned if they thought she’d go quietly like some withered
faceless.

“Regrettably that won’t be happening mistress, we’ll be carving out our own path now!” Val’duna
struck first with a savage surprise attack against the architect, a pillar of blue psionic energy
formed in an instant right before her, crashing into her with disastrous force and blasting her into
the adjacent area, the outdoor courtyard.

Rushing forwards with the rest of the chosen in tow, the battle had begun. The architect shakily
rose to her feet, having just barely formed a protective barrier in the nick of time, though the strain
from the surprise and force of that attack, combined with the fatigue of many all-nighters was
taking its toll on her. She wasn’t being given a chance to recover however, summoning a weapon
forged from her own willpower, the architect was onset by a flurry of attacks by Borealus, the short
chosen moved around carried by the wind he commanded. Striking in several spots at one, using
his control over the air itself to increase the speed and power of his attacks. All the while she
danced and twirled around to avoid the others. Sindaine charged forward with his terrifying
hammer at the ready, despite its great size, he swung it as if it weighed nothing, she knew one blow
from any of them would spell the end for her. This compounded by the fact that Borealus was
faster than Sindaine to the point he simply shifted his fighting style to work with Sindaine’s,
proved to be a challenge even to the ethereal. Unleashing more of her power to saturate her body
further, she could move and think faster though more strain was creeping over her mind. With twin
weapons of old ethereal design, she held her two children at bay, with a huff, batting away
Borealus after correctly predicting his movement path and slashing across his face, across his eyes
sending him to the ground causing him to lash out with rage for his blinding.
The trees shook violently as the wind tore them from the ground, hurling themselves at the Grand
Architect, forcing her backwards as the storm of giant sequoia trees aimed to crush her into bloody
pulp. Following not too far behind her, Sindaine, Valistra, and Tiamat, attacked in one motion,
having practiced many such tactical strikes thousands of times before. The architect was able to
parry Sindaine’s hammer strike and send it flying into Valistra just as she threw a second volley of
her explosive scales, her third attacker however would strike their mark. Tiamat used her
monstrous claws to tear off two of her four arms in a terrible swiping motion. Her screams echoed
back to her lab, reaching the newly formed audio-receptors of Apollyon. Hearing the screams of
mother, his eyes shot open and he launched himself hard off of his examination table, landing on
the floor with sleek new legs, allowing him to feel the cold tile of the lab floor.

Twisting on his feet towards the hole, where he’d heard the screams and sounds of battle coming
from. He was still groggy from awakening from his metamorphosis. He could feel that he wasn’t
fully complete yet, a quick internal diagnostics check showed that a good portion of the nanite
software wasn’t at one hundred percent functionality yet, he’d just have to take what he could get
then. He wasted little time, power surging from his core, transferring to the synthetic muscles in
his legs and increasing their density, took off in a rapid dash towards mother. Immediately he was
awestruck at the power his new body afforded him, traveling like a bullet through the kilometers of
carnage the ongoing battle was wreaking on the once beautiful courtyard. Willing the power to his
optics and enhancing his vision beyond that even a sniper scope could offer, he saw Mother in a
losing battle, missing two of her arms on her left side. Currently fending off what he assumed was
Tiamat judging by her titanic size and beastial features and Val’duna who was keeping himself
concealed behind the final chosen of the group, Ghornstellar. Even outnumbered, he wouldn’t let
them do this to Mother.

His body shifted on its own, his subconscious making the decision for him. He felt himself
growing longer and bigger, his legs twisted and melded together to form one appendage, his arms
grew thinner and condensed with more musculature, his neck and head lengthened and flattened
out. His skin rippled as the nanites obeyed the command and changed their structure from acting
like skin, forming into interlocking scales of armor plating, all of which were jet black. Giving into
the unfamiliar, feral instincts as he closed in on the unsuspecting group, Apollyon let out a deep,
guttural sound that resembled that of a snake’s hiss but this one being more robotic in nature,
coming off as otherworldly. It shocked the remaining chosen and the others that’d been injured
were left in the dust, Apollyon went for the biggest threat that presented itself first, Tiamat, who
was about to unleash a devastating swipe into mother’s head. Thanks to his growth spurt he was
roughly the same size as the twenty five foot chosen, coiling himself up and tightening his
muscles, he burst forward but stayed low to the ground, writhing around when he was close enough
to Tiamat’s feet, catching the giant off guard with his strange maneuver and successfully knocking
her flat to the ground using his thick coils.

The Grand Architect didn’t give the surprise assistance a second thought, happy for the brief
respite it gave her. With Tiamat engaged with Apollyon in his titan viper configuration, the two
madly thrashing about in a battle of claws and strength. The Architect refocused on her last two
opponents, Val’duna and Ghornstellar. No words or witty banter were exchanged, there was no
need for them, it’s how she’d originally intended for them to act after all. In a blur of motion she
was on top of both of them without giving an opportunity to counter as she closed the distance,
clashing two of her remaining psi-blades against Val’duna’s bladed staff, energy crackling and
sparking around them as she pushed her assault, adapting a more rooted and solid fighting style as
she was rapidly becoming the one at the disadvantage. Ghornstellar wouldn’t take being ignored
very well, he was the most physically adept of the chosen despite not being the largest among their
ranks.

She held her ground well against Val’duna’s attacks, keeping his deceptive attacks at bay with one
arm as the other tried to swat Ghornstellar away or to at the very least keep him from getting within
melee range. She successfully managed to deflect several of Val’duna’s own attacks towards him
as she’d done to Sindaine, much to Val’duna’s increasing frustration and rage against her.
Ghornstellar however, took these blows in stride, using his bare hands to gracefully avoid being
struck with his comrade’s own weapon. Not wanting to risk it but at this moment, the Grand
Architect knew it was now or never. Summoning up every once of psionic energy she could dredge
up, and condensing it into a small sphere in front of her chest. She spared the faintest of moments
to glance over at Apollyon, seeing that despite his power, he was fighting a losing battle against a
chosen with countless years of experience over him, even as he begun to adapt using his enhanced
brain. She knew that she had to unleash power within the psionic sphere, and with the simple
thought of letting it slip from her mental grasp, a sound like a rifle shot cracking against stone
could be heard by all before being blinded by a flash of brilliant light from the tiny purple sphere,
followed by an explosion and pressure wave of such intense magnitude that it blasted some of the
clouds in the sky away and left a gnarled scar on the ground around them.

Apollyon finally began to regain consciousness after being shocked out of his battle with Tiamat by
a sudden explosive that came from mother’s general area as he recalled. Still in his viper form, his
tongue shot out rapidly tasting the air, the nanites mimicking the Jacobson’s organ and giving him
the data from it. He could still smell the scents of the others, swiveling his head all around himself
as the thick smoke began to clear. He didn’t sense the other chosen moving, but neither could he
sense mother’s body moving either. Pushing himself up, he winced slightly in pain, his scales had
protected him but he was missing some while others disintegrated into fine dust, showing off deep
claw marks in patches all over his large frame. The majority of his nanites focused on internal
repairs from the damage caused by the shockwave. Ignoring the pain through a gritted maw, he
slithered over to where his tongue had detected mother to be laying, and sure enough she was there.
In a crumpled heap on the ground were the shattered bodies of Ghornstellar and Val’duna, thrown
back about eighty feet. Fear pierced into Apollyon’s heart, he’d thought nothing to hurt mother this
badly and he was having a difficult time telling if she was still functional or not, he did not have
any data on how to understand the life functions of an ethereal. Carefully he curled himself around
her brittle body and gently held her in his coils as he turned her over to face him. His slit eyes
scanned over her for anything he could think of with the data he did have about other species life
functions in the hope something would be similar enough to help him, but nothing he used or
looked into seemed to help.

“Please mother....say something...I cannot lose you too. I won’t give up on you, not after
everything you’ve done for me and Azrael.” He pleaded softly, resorting to one last ditch attempt
to awaken her.

Using his clawed fingers, he dug them deep into his palm to draw out the more active nanites that
were repairing his battered body. Pulling the claws out of his palm with a slight wince, Apollyon
pressed the oozing palm against mother’s face, pulling her hood back to get the blood soaked cloth
off of her. Hurriedly he willed the nanites to her, diffusing through her skin and burrowing in,
spreading quickly but to what effect he did not know. As he focused his attention on observing
mother’s condition, color slightly began to return to her face. Apollyon was, however, ignorant to
the hovering form that was stalking up from behind him. By the time the shapeshifter had realized
Val’duna’s body wasn’t where it had been blasted back, it was too late. tendrils of blue psionic
energy were already ripping their way into Apollyon’s mind as the chosen chuckled
condescendingly in triumph.

“You really don’t know when to quit, do you? Losing to Tiamat, even if rather slowly, wasn’t
enough to show you that you’re pathetically under-equipped to deal with the likes of us? If you
think I’d ever let the scum of humanity overthrow us, then you’ve got another thing coming you
abomination. But even trash can have a use, what is it you humans say? ‘Another man’s trash is
another man’s treasure’? You’ll prove to be useful to us right after I tear apart and rebuild that
smooth brain of yours ‘ape’.”

The shock along was enough to break Apollyon out of him viper form, reverting him back to his
base humanoid form from before, writhing in mental agony as nightmarish vision from a past he
did not recognize as his own, images of a family, of a brother whom he lost and old fears, flashed
before his eyes. The intensity and mental pressure slowly increased as Val’duna wished to savor
his victory with slow burning cruelty.

As the pressure continued to mount on his psyche, the agony growing closer to its apex, Apollyon’s
body took measures into its own hands to defend itself from shutting down from the foreign
intrusion.
‘Psionic attack detected. Initiating drastic protective psychological countermeasures.’ Is all
Apollyon could hear within his torment before the something within him changed, feeling the
effects with such force that his body stumbled back into the dirt. The images were still the same
but rather than eliciting fear from him, the only emotion with pure, unadulterated fury, his nanites
manually activating the fight response over that of flight. This was enough to bring Apollyon back
to his senses though in what kind of condition was questionable. His screams changed from pitiful
cries, to blood curdling roaring. Now his primal instincts were taking control of his consciousness,
forcing him to his feet and turning to face the now frightened and surprised chosen, who was
flabbergasted at this complete 180 flip of the fight again.

Apollyon’s body pushed itself to its limit for whatever time it had left to take care of the threat to
its well being. He was upon Val’duna in mere seconds, closing a gap of thirty feet in a blur, he
gave the chosen no reaction time, his fingers growing into a perfect copy of Tiamat’s terrifying
claws, he brought them down on the chosen in a brutal crushing motion, leaving him in an even
more bloody mess than he’d previously been in, Apollyon rage filled expression being the final
thing he would remember. That was all he would be able to manage however, his body finally
reaching its stopping point, the threat now over, he collapsed to the ground with a resounding thud
as a warning began to play in his mind.

‘Warning extensive damage to unit’s neural net has been incurred. Two minutes remaining before
complete systems wipe and restart occurs.’

Being so completely drained, both physically and mentally, Apollyon couldn’t find the energy
within himself to care about the issue. He was content to lie there while weakly trying to claw his
way back over towards mother.

“My child....I’m so sorry for how badly I’ve failed you...” those were the last words Apollyon
would hear before another figure came into view, Apollyon was unable to look up to see who,
before they violently tossed him over towards mother, more of his body turning to dust as he
crashed next to her.

“Sorry to keep you waiting brother, took a while for the finalizing of my metamorphosis to take
place thanks to Val’duna. Sadly I won’t be letting you leave either, orders are orders after all, you
understand that don’t yah? Ah well you probably don’t understand what I’m saying anyways.
Sorry mother, looks like I don’t need you anymore now that I’m all grown up, can’t rely on the
parents forever now can I?” Azrael cackled, plunging his jagged obsidian blade into mother’s chest
in one quick motion. Her screams brought Apollyon back to alertness, who shouted out for her,
grasping her hand as he couldn’t even manage to get to his feet, his body not responding to his will.

“I...won’t let you...have him too...” was all she could say, her voice a soft whisper. With the last bit
of her power, she held Apollyon’s hand tightly and focused it onto him. In a brilliant flash of
purple energy that erupted skywards into a column of light, he was gone just as Azrael attempted to
block it from happening.

Please drop by the archive and comment to let the author know if you enjoyed their work!