"Just don't fall. Please."

It was the New Year Eve. And once again, Tsune shuttled from kitchen to the big table that now took the entire center of the hall. But this year she had to hold food in outstretched hands if she wanted to keep it from staining her clothes.

With the heavy plate shaking every step of the way, she finally put it down on her side of the table. Placing all of her favorite food nearby was one of the minor perks that came with the task she was saddled with.

Pushing it closer to the center, the girl also moved her crystal glass and the ornate bottle with her favorite drink closer to each other. That way she could claim it.

'Next dish is ready.'

Hearing her mother call, the blonde went to the kitchen for the next plate.

-

Soon after they were done, her father returned from work and Lady Red waved for him to join the table.

'What took you so long? The food is getting cold on the holiday.'

Instead of an answer, the greying man took out a folded piece of paper and gave it to Tsune.

'I couldn't get it ready for your combat exam, but Happy New Year. '

Putting the present away, she looked towards her mother with a questioning expression.

In response woman slightly narrowed her eyes and made a question of her own.

'I'll give it to you in the morning. But where are our presents, my dear daughter?'

The girl already had a cheeky answer prepared.

'The photos from today that you'll have in the morning and my success in the academy.'

-

Tsune was finished with her meal, but there was plenty of time until the clock struck midnight. Looking around the table she didn't see anything she wanted right now. And since her parents were busy talking about someone she didn't know, her attention went to TV.

-The New Year has arrived to eastern border of the continent. The leaders of the following companies...-

Choosing to ignore the dry lists of businesses, their inventions and channels that showed their pre-midnight events, the blonde leaned back on her chair.

Feeling relaxed, Tsune looked through the surfaces of her glass into the depths of the transparent liquid. Rotating the self made water prism she inspected the refractions to see if there were any flaws in the surfaces.

But quickly driven to boredom by the factory made perfection, she switched to watching the screen. Except this time she looked through the water and tried to guess what was happening in the distorted images.

"I wonder if you can make glasses do the same as Crystal Resort's prisms? It'd probably be cool if you could make holograms inside them."

"But batteries would make the glass too tall or too heavy. Should it produce power by itself? Maybe with a thermal difference between the liquid and the hand?"

Her thoughts wandered around and searched for possible ideas as a way to waste time.

But it wasn't until her hand started to get tired that she found a possible solution. Instead of trying to power simple glass, she could make a glass out of a powersource. It was amasingly absurd, but nevertheless Tsune imagined herself carving a glass from the diamond that she saw in the old hangar by the sea.

-

The New Year has arrived and the family pinged their glasses together. Herbal drink for mother, a healthy drink for father and fizzy mineral water for daughter, because she already ran out of her favorite juice.

'New Year be praised!'

Soon, having fulfilled all the obligations to the holiday traditions, Tsune left the table and, several minutes later, the house. This night was the night of every business, mecha team and even separate people that wanted to launch fireworks or bought the right to project massive holograms into the air. Usually on clouds and artificial air layers.

The first firework blossomed in the sky, its light unfolding into her academy advertisement of all things. Smiling, the girl turned her phone to the sky. She was going to record everything.

-

When a sneeze nearly knocked the phone from her hand, Tsune finally relented. Turning away from the sky filled with light, she went back home.

With her hand already on the door handle, she heard a loud exclamation from the inside.

The girl put her ear to the door. Whatever her parents were talking about wasn't done with the best mood. She would even say that the voices sounded antagonistic. Deciding to act, she walked in.

'What are you arguing about?'

Her parents became quiet as soon they heard the door open but still intently looked at each other.

Soon her mother broke the silence and put a card, that she held, back into its paper fold. Then she left to the kitchen.

Unwrapping her present again, the girl took out the card. It had her photo and personal information, with a date of a single day marked by green.

'Father, what was that about?'

'Well, its a temporary pass to my lab. They wanted to refuse, but I said that it was for my daughter. And I want you to see it, even if only once.'

'Why would mother get mad then?'

'It's about work, don't worry about it. She always knows better than my machines ever will. Now, go take a shower before you catch a cold.'

"Father, you are full of surprises."

Unsure if she heard sarcasm in his voice or not, she left him alone.

-

The vacation time passed much faster than Tsune wanted, mostly because she did get sick during her night recording session.

But by the time of the laboratory visit, the coughs and sneezes were gone and she was ready to go.

When she took a thicker coat out of her wardrobe, it caught the clothing packet with her mother's present.

But the girl was energetic enough to catch it before it fell out. She was curious about the contents of that blank bag, but some things were better left alone.

Finishing her preparations, she moved before the mirror to brush her hair. At the same she tried to remember what was written about the upcoming event.

"Was it a visit to the observatory? Or was it the Laboratory's underground hangar? Or was that for the second visit?"

'Are you ready? The car is here.'

'Almost.'

Putting the brush aside, the girl left the room.

-

The ride was surprisingly short and just ten minutes later, the car was near the Red Labs complex.

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

It looked exactly like she remembered it from the game's intro; a big concave spire, in the center of a big square, with tall and thin beehive antennas that rose from the four corners. And if before she thought of them as decorations, up close they impressed her with the sheer amount of power they could receive.

The car went through opening gates and stopped at the main entrance with several guards in front of it.

'We are here. Let's go.'

Following her father, who passed by the guards with a single nod, Tsune entered the empty hall.

And it wasn't just the lack of people, or furniture. The floor, walls and doors were painted into monotone white. Their surfaces were completely devoid of anything that would make them stand out.

If it wasn't for windows, that were few and far between, she wouldn't have been able to guess which wall was the outside one.

Despite all that her father never doubted in his path, quickly leaving one door after another behind them.

'Not very guest friendly is it?'

Hearing her question, he mildly laughed in response.

'You get used to it after a while. And it works against all possible intruders.'

Soon they stopped in a nondescript hall and her father took out his buzzing phone.

'Emergency? But I'm... I see, I'll be there.'

Turning to her, he pointed to the nearest window with some hesitation.

'I'll be back in a couple of minutes. The pilot of Destiny mech is preparing to meet us.'

'What?!'

The perspective of meeting the pilot, whose character was the reason Lyle was a devoted fan of his game series, was hard to comprehend. But If that was the present her father has prepared, it was the best present she could receive. 

'Meeting him is my present to you.'

'Okay.'

With a sigh, born from the delayed meeting, the blonde turned to the window.

-

An hour later, Tsune finished counting all the windows that were visible on the spire above and below. With no other distractions, she had to accept the fact that she was still here and not going anywhere.

That acceptance was a minor thing, but it was enough for her patience to snap. Despite the promise she was forced to watch the evening slowly roll in to waste her chance meeting. And she wouldn't have it.

She took out her phone to call her father, but in an unpleasant turn of events, it was outside of network reache even near the window.

"Just great. What a great present this is."

She thought of leaving the building and waiting for him near the car, but there was a problem. She didn't remember their way here. And wandering a building with no communication was an idea that would get her lost.

"Wait."

The girl realized where she was and almost felt disappointed in herself for not thinking about this sooner.

She was in the Red Labs. The place where the protagonist spent most of their time exploring the halls to research upgrades, customize mechs and interact with the cast. The building whose map stayed the same in every game.

Looking out of the window again, she roughly determined her position. And when she looked back, the doors around suddenly gained purpose. She was in the third bonus crew quarters that player could unlock if they wanted to recruit everyone possible.

"I can still see him!"

All she had to do to seize that opportunity was to move forward. If she met anyone, she would show the card pass and ask for directions. Otherwise she'd walk to the top half of the spire. To the room where the game's professor Red unveiled all of the completed upgrades and met important guests.

The journey started with passing through second and first crew quarters to reach the first crafting workshop.

There, behind the window that stretched for the entirety of the corridor's length, was the manufacturing room. Conveyors of different sizes held their assembling hands up, looking like strange trees, and the idle multi tool drones covered the floor like cobblestone.

After spending several minutes looking at the machinery, the girl moved on. The stairs, that were hidden behind one of the doors in an empty hall, led her to the second workshop. Ignoring it and the secondary research lab, she soon reached the lift that went through the thinnest part of the spire.

-

Entering the exhibition room she saw several stands made from multiple jointed mechanical arms. Some of them formed flat tables, others converged their top pieces to hold smaller items of different sizes, as if there were rings with the gems taken out.

Suddenly several men walked in through the doors on opposing side. One of them was her father, another was unknown, but the third was unmistakeable despite his average build and looks.

'So, what do you say?'

Tsune felt her heart skip a beat when she heard his voice. The baritone she clearly remembered even after two and a half years in this world. But he paid her any attention even when he started to speak.

The unknown man looked at her father, as if waiting for approval, but nothing was given. His lips turned into a thin line and he made a brief movement over his tablet.

Soon, a robotic voice answered the question made by the pilot of the colossal Destiny robot.

-According to movement and eyesight focus data gathered so far, the observed person knew where she was going and the purpose of rooms she passed. But according to the observation done after entry into this room, she has no information on the targeted missing item.-

'How interesting.'

Turning to her father, the pilot continued.

'So, professor, do you still insist on your project? I'll personally lobby for the mildest course of action that will solve this problem as fast as possible. If I can avoid doing what I have to do.'

'Yes, I insist on it. And another esteemed scientist, you should know about her.'

Her father stole a glance at his daughter and paused until the other scientist nodded in agreement.

'He also insists that you should look for the cause elsewhere.'

Taking a big breath, the pilot steeled his expression and said in an even formal tone.

'Then, by the authority given to me, I relieve you from your position, professor. Now that you all have heard and agreed to this temporary solution, you are free to go. But you are still expected to fulfill all of your duties in the laboratory, of course.'

Having said that, the pilot and the other scientist turned around to leave. And Tsune, rather dumbfounded by this turn of events, couldn't even ask a single question until the chance was lost. So she turned to her father, who remained in his place as well.

'What was that, father?'

'I cannot tell, daughter. I was afraid of what might happen if you found this room, but I'm a bit overjoyed too.'

'Don't speak in riddles. What is this?! Why was the pilot of Destiny here?'

Braving through the barrage of questions, with an expression that looked like a hidden smile, he came closer and showed a piece of paper with a secret stamp on top.

'My late real present.'

"To investigate the theft in the pilot training academy, academy will temporarily grant the pilot of  Destiny full access to property and data upon his request."

"First people gossip about Mapo being used stealing from pilot inventories, then this."

She looked up to him, but he weakly waved, trying to speak first.

'If you are mad, despite having a chance to meet the top pilot every day, save your angry words. I and your mother will tell them to myself twice over.'

Confused even more, the girl returned the paper and followed her father out of the building,

"Just what are you up to, father?"