Ever since Noel went missing and Monika was injured, Kira has been transferred back to various regiments. It might be luck or some unknown forces, every time before she's going to the battlefield with her regiment, she's just got transferred away due to unrelated reasons, the most ridiculous one was needing Kira to hand out some pamphlet about joining the army and stuff.
Kira is smart and obedient; she won't really question the orders that were issued to her. It's just annoying to pack up your stuff every few days. This time, she has arrived at the regiments that are under the command of Ria Ivor.
As usual, Kira drops her belongings in her dorm and heads off to the captain's office. She forces out a smile because she heard that the captain likes having to meet a smiling soldier. She didn't understand why but she's going to do it anyway. She holds her breath and knocks on the door.
"Come in." A light toneless voice replied at the other side of the door.
When Kira came in, she was shocked. Because they've met before, it's just Kira forgot about the name of Ria before she came to the regiment. The last time they met, Kira stole the car key that was taken by Ria. And Ria called her a 'brat' if she remembered correctly.
"Reporting for duty, Cpt. Ivor." Kira said it out loud with a voice that doesn't fit with her look because she doesn't want Ria to recognize her.
"Noted, before you leave. Why don't we have a little chat?" Ria crosses her fingers and puts them under her chin, she's smiling but in a way that makes people shiver from their back: "Kira Vatrix? Did I know you from somewhere before?"
"I do not remember under your command before…. Captain." Kira's body is tense, she's sitting perfectly straight and she's trying hard to disguise her voice, but it only made her throat hurt.
"You sounded funny; do you want some water? Bet the trip wasn't nice huh?" Ria takes out a glass from her drawer and pours in a full cup of water. Don't know why but Ria is acting extra kind to Kira.
Out of politeness Kira takes the cup and drinks the water, she's trying to avoid direct eye contact with Ria so she's just fixing her eyes on the glass.
"Kira, why don't you introduce yourself? Like what is your family like and who are your friends?" Ria likes this new quiet soldier who also looks kinda cute.
Just when Kira is about to talk, someone kicks open the door and walks into the room in a fighter-like manner: "Here's the report." Elaria drops it on the table and turns at Kira.
Elaria fixed her eyes on Kira for a few seconds and proceeded to leave the room. From that little encounter, Kira can already tell whoever that was is definitely a close friend to Ria and for her best interest she should not have anything to do with her.
"So rude huh? I heard she was under training from Nova but then she was transferred to me." Ria puts the report into the drawer and pours herself a cup of tea.
"Nova Terra?" Kira is a bit surprised, because if she was under training at Nova Terra then how come she still has such bad manners? Kira is a bit surprised Nova would let anyone behave like that in her regiment.
"Indeed, despite her being such a rude rascal but she's quite impressive during her mission. Can't imagine we already have superpowered soldiers in the army." Ria sips her tea.
"Superpower?" Kira is a bit unfamiliar with this word.
"My bad, just ignore it. I guess I like you a bit too much and it made me talk a lot more than usual. You are dismissed." Ria teasingly smiles at Kira.
"Thank you, Captain, I'll see you in the field." Kira then leaves the room and closes the door gently. Outside the door, her heart couldn't help but beat extremely fast. It was such a weird experience for Kira, she did not expect to meet Ria in this place and even work for her in the future.
Just when Kira walked towards her dorm, she accidentally bumped into something soft with her face: "I am sorry!" Kira lowers her head; she only sees a chest with a black tanker.
"Watch where you're going!" Elaria shouts at Kira. But soon she realizes this is the girl who was in the same room with Ria: "Ey, you. What were you doing with Ria?" Elaria suddenly changes her face from an angry frown into a taunting smile.
Kira was surprised by the sudden change of expression: "I a…. Was reporting to Ria because I just joined her regiment." Kira is avoiding eye contact because she doesn't want to piss off Elaria more.
"Oh ? Then you are in my group. The last guy died because he couldn't handle the training exercise." Elaria couldn't really hide her excitement; she loves to bully new recruits. Then she leaves Kira who's shocked in place.
Kira is terrified of Elaria, sure she's also scared of Nova but out of respect. Within a few seconds of talking with Elaria. Kira can already tell whether she's going to die horribly or be played with as a toy. She wanted to change her regiment, but it was never really her choice.
During dinner with the group, Kira is looking everywhere to see if she can find someone she knows. But after looking around aimlessly for almost ten minutes she still can't find anyone that she knows. This is hopeless, she thought. She will probably die in daylight while being stripped and hanged somewhere because when Ria finds out who she really is and who's her friends, Ria is definitely going to lynch her or something. Just when her train of thought was about to go even further, someone tapped her on the shoulder.
"Kira? What are you doing here." Maverick is very surprised by the appearance of Kira, because the last thing he recalls about Kira is that she went to Lokhar with Monika and Noel.
"Maverick?!" Kira couldn't help herself but give a tight hug to Maverick, she's terrified about this place and it's only been a day.
"Woah, It's ok kid, It's ok..." Maverick pat her back a few times and pulls her to a seat where there aren't other officers around: " What happened?"
Then Kira proceeds to tell Maverick everything that happened today, from being weirded out by Ria and everything that's told by Elaria. After hearing this, Maverick couldn't help himself but burst into laughter.
"Why are you laughing? Don't you think it's outrageous that they can kill whoever they want?" Kira sounded mad; the main reason is that Maverick doesn't take it seriously.
"Oh… you are so cute when you are confused." Maverick clears his throat to make him sound more serious but he's still having a smiley face: "They are just joking with you. We do that to all the newbies as well. And guess what, they knew your relationship with red and Noel, so they are just saying those weird mean things for pranks."
"So… they are not mad because I am friends with Monika and Noel? " Kira is still processing the information.
"Yes, and guess what, they like you a lot. So…" Maverick snaps his finger and suddenly Ria and Elaria appear behind Kira with their dinner plate.
"Kira~" Ria called Kira with a soft tone.
"Maverick, please don't leave!" Kira is scared.
"Why would I leave? Aren't we all friends here?" Maverick looks at Kira in a confusing way.
Then Ria and Elaria both sit right next to Kira, making Kira squeeze in the middle. Kira nervously drinks the cup of water on the table, but she suddenly choked on that.
"Jezz, don't drink so quickly, you might kill yourself if you do it too fast." Elaria calmly eats her food.
"I am sorry…" Kira's cheeks are flustered, she's too nervous to do anything at this point.
"Kira, why don't you tell us about your little investigation with Monika and Noel?" Ria stops eating her food and pours Kira a cup of water. Her white hair is illuminating under the yellowish light of the
"Eh…" Kira blinks, acting like she doesn't know anything about it or at least she's not going to sell out her friends: "I don't really remember much, Miss. Monika and Noel don't really want to involve me too much in the mission because it's dangerous."
"Why are you calling Captain Terra with 'Miss '?" Elaria does an air quotes with her fingers:" What is she, your owner? Are you her pet or something?"
"Hey, don't speak badly about." Kira is apparently a bit defensive about Monika. At the end of the day, Monika saved Kira's life after all, but their relationship has always been 'weird': " I call Captain Terra by her name: because I respect her. Nothing else. Also, she's your superior, you better watch your mouth. Elaria." Kira emphasized Elaria's name.
Elaria just responds with an aggressive squint with her eyes and keeps eating her dinner, but deep inside Elaria respects Kira for defending her friend's honor. That's probably one of the reasons why Elaria didn't just flip off when someone is talking to her in a bad tone.
"Kira, where have your friends been doing these days?" Ria smiles while having crooked eyes.
Kira let out a sigh: "Monika came back to the capital a few weeks ago because of injury from a chaos ambush and Noel is still MIA. To be honest I'm really worried for both of them."
"Why do you worry about them? They are both capable fighters who can protect themselves." Ria sips her fruit juice while looking at Kira in a curious way.
"They are childish and irresponsible!" Kira's face is a bit flustered because of frustration: " One of them is so prone to love that she would abandon everything just to pursue it and the other one thought using violence would solve everything before even trying to find a pacifist way in the first place!"
"Damn, I thought you three are friends." Ria is surprised about the comment Kira made on Noel and Monika.
"That's why I'm saying these things, if they are not my friends then I won't even bother to care about their problems." Kira apparently is mad, this might be a good thing, she's been oppressing her emotions for too long, it is good from time to time to let it out.
"The comments you made on them are actually on point." Nova suddenly appears from the back of Kira. She was here to deliver a report and also visit Maverick.
"Lieutenant colonel!" Kira sounded like a startled cat.
"Continue whatever you've been doing, I'm just here for Maverick, but it can wait. " Nova puts her hand on Kira's right shoulder and winks to Maverick, she never really had the time to talk to Kira but now she's kinda interested in this black-haired girl who's been tagging along with Monika and Noel.
"I don't think it's appropriate… they are my superior after all.." Kira is more respectful of Nova than actually scared of her.
"Don't worry, I will give you permission to trash talk about them. Monika is my sister and Noel is my subordinate, so say whatever you want about them." Nova sits next to Maverik and supports her chin with both of her hands.
"Both of them eat sugar all the time instead of some real food….?" Kira is testing whether Nova is a bit bothered by what she's saying. But Nova still has that emotionless grin on her face which makes people feel cold from the core of their souls.
Then Kira proceeds to complain about almost everything that happened during their trip to Lokar but she intentionally hides about the parts where most of the people related are demons. Nova of course knows about it, but it is best to not let anyone else acknowledge the appearance of demons in a major city of this imperial world.
In the middle of the night, Noel suddenly woke up. She looks around her surroundings and there's nothing she's recognizing. She checks her body and there's really no change besides there are some bandages around her chest and stomach. Just as she got out of bed to assess the situation, she felt something soft and warm was right next to her.
Noel is a bit startled, but the training she's got tells her that this is not the moment to panic, instead she summons out her revolvers and switches it into lighting mode. From the back of her head, Noel feels like this is someone she knows. Then she proceeded to check on the person's face. She's a bit surprised that Monika is sleeping right next to her but the way she sleeps is a bit off. Usually, when Monika sleeps, she usually takes over the majority of the bed, but this time Monika is sleeping quietly and isn't even moving every dozen seconds.
"Why did you turn on the light, Alice?" Erin feels the light is directly shining on her face. She then moves her face towards Noel, she sees Noel have a gun pointing at her. Erin immediately sits up and corns herself on the bed: "What is that you are holding?"
"You are not Monika?" Noel is very confused because she looks exactly like her childhood friend but soon after she sees Erin's chest size, she immediately knows this person is not Monika: "Who the hell are you?!" Noel points her gun and switches it at firing mode.
"I am Erin! Don't you remember me? Alice." Erin pulls the blanket and covers half of her face.
"Who is Alice? My name is Noel. Is Alice with you? And why do you look like Monika, are you an imposter or something?" Noel has so many questions at the moment, but her emotion isn't really stable, that's what scares Erin the most.
"I will tell you everything you know, but can you please stop pointing at me with your gun?" Erin is almost in tears, she can't understand why the person she's been with for the past few weeks suddenly starts yelling at her and asking strange questions.
Noel sees Erin is not even near being a threat, she just pulls away her revolver and stands upon the ground, then she does a hard stretch. She's trying to remember what the last thing was she remembered, but her mind is still not clear enough for thinking straight, she misses her parents her friends, she feels scared in this strange place and the only person apparently knows her at this moment is a random girl called Erin who looks exactly like Monika but have the cup size is different.
Then for the next hour, Erin explained everything that happened between her and Noel. After hearing this, Noel is terrified, she can't believe that there's an alter-ego version of her that can defeat Nova Terra. The worst thing is that she knows Nova would have her revenge at some point because Nova never lets anyone beat her and walk away free.
"So… where are we?" Noel asks Erin.
"Somewhere outside of the capital, we've been hiding in the woods for weeks until we were rescued by a nearby village member," Erin answered honestly.
"Outside of capital?" Noel then proceeds to look for her hat, she carries it with her almost everywhere, but she doesn't really wear it as well.
"What are you looking for?" Erin asks.
"My hat, I have a map in there." Noel is checking every clothes drawer in the room but can't find anything.
"I think the hat was lost… because when you showed up in my house, you didn't have anything on there besides your uniform. " Erin calmly said to Noel.
"Aw, man… I have had it since I was in high school…" Noel looks a bit sad. But she then pulls herself together and sits beside Erin on the bed:" I suppose I owe you an apology..."
"For what?" Erin is a bit curious because when Noel is known as 'Alice' she never even bothered to say thanks most of the time.
"For bothering you all the way and thank you for taking care of me." while sitting with Erin Noel puts her hand on Erin's hand. It is warm and Noel craves warmth at this moment.
Erin chuckles a bit, she kind of likes this version of her friend: "it's fine, Noel. But I do have a question though… Who is Monika?" Erin blinks a few times because she's heard Noel mention this name multiple times and all of them are towards her.
"She… " Noel paused for a few seconds: " Was my best friend."
"Was? What happened between you two?" Erin is curious about Noel's life.
"We had a fight and I hurt her badly. I could have talked it through but I was too selfish to admit my mistake..." Maybe Monika would never expect Noel would think it is her own fault that she messed up the whole thing.
"I'm sorry, I bet you two were really good friends." Erin gives Noel a cup of water.
"We were… But knowing her personality, she would definitely get pisssed and leave me forever… She and her sister aren't really that different from each other." Noel's voice is full of sorrow.
"Who is her sister?" Erin wants to know more. But it might be her biggest mistake.
"Nova Terra, she was the commander of my squad. We work for the Astra militarum." Noel didn't recall that it was Nova who killed Jack who was the fiance of Erin.
"Wait, does she have blonde hair and blue-green eyes? She's a bit taller than you and having a cold smug face all the time?" Erin's voice is a bit shaking when describing the person she hates the most.
"That's exactly it! How did you know that?" Noel couldn't read the change of micro-expression on Erin's face.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
Seeing Noel knows nothing about it, Erin decides to not tell Noel the truth, she doesn't want Noel to have a damaged relationship with her friends, and besides, this is personal between her and Nova: "I guess I've seen her before, I bet she's a really accomplished soldier."
"She's a good soldier but she's mean. I never really liked her, but since she's my best friend's sister, I kind of need to manage the relationships somehow…" Noel is a bit too simple for her age and her rank.
"Do you have a family or anything like that?" Erin grew up in an orphanage, she never had a family, she only had friends and foster family but none of them didn't really mean anything to her until she met Jack, a man who drops the life of prosperity to achieve his dream. But that also died when Nova showed up.
"My parents are government officials and I have two older brothers and one little sister." Noel's memory is still intact, she figured out that the 'Alice' version of her doesn't share her memory, this is why Erin asks those questions because 'Alice' knew nothing about it. Noel is glad this is happening because she doesn't want to put her family in danger.
"Oh? Sounds like your family is quite noisy most of the time." Erin is a bit jealous of Noel, to be honest.
"No.. all of my siblings are all in different boarding schools because of 'tradition'." Apparently, Noel doesn't like how her family works: "Most of the time I'm with Monika and we had a blast when we were young."
"This 'Monika' person, what does she look like?" Erin is curious because not from only one occasion has Noel called Erin that name.
"You look just like her!" Noel slightly raises her voice, she's a bit excited to finally find someone who would listen to her and actually form a conversation with her. Even better is that this person looks like your best friend.
"Like where?" Erin is a bit weirded out by Noel's excited expression but she's kinda glad that the Alice she knew has a nice and upbeat version.
"Your hair, your eyes, and the way you giggle." Noel didn't realize she could talk this much to a complete stranger.
Seeing Noel is just a normal girl, Erin feels a bit relieved because when Noel is in her 'Alice' alter-ego every day is like living on the edge. Sure, they can easily fight off the beasts that would come after them, but Erin felt like at any moment Alice would kill her just because she pisses her off or by accident.
After a few days of recovering, Noel could feel better already. This time also gives her a bit of time to check around the village, from the surface this place seemed to be really well organized but she couldn't help but realize that none of the guards are from any imperium of man organization. They also don't look like chaos tainted traitors. Years of training tells Noel that this place is not somewhere they should dwell any longer, sure they might not harm the interest of the imperium but in the codex, they said: Heresy arises from idleness. It's just a matter of time before this place is going to be bombed by the imperial air force or occupied by the imperial guards. But right now, Noel is too tired. After thinking about moving away, she fell asleep again.
On the other side of the continent, Nova is doing some exercise in her home. Maverick is out for a scout mission, and she's got her rare day off today. Unlike other people who would go traveling or sightseeing, Nova always prefers to find a quiet place and do something that she enjoys. This is probably the few days in a year that she doesn't need to worry about her work or family issues. Nova does some basic warm-ups before doing yoga. She doesn't really do it in the gym of the military barracks because this is something that requires harmony, and the constant glance of soldiers on Nova's body isn't really helping the cause.
Nova lowers her body into a warrior's pose. She reaches out her arms to seek balance, she does yoga just for the sake of relaxing her nerves. Just the absolute silence and the peace of her mind.
But today is not her day, suddenly a rapid knock on the door broke the peace. Nova closes her eyes and frowns her forehead and decides to ignore it. So, she can pretend she's not home. But the knock is getting harder and harder. After a few minutes of getting annoyed, Nova breaks off her stance and barges towards the door.
"What?!" Nova sounded mad, these are the few occasions in her life that she would be mad about, which is ranked after her sister dating a scumbag alien overlord.
"Hello, Ms. Terra~" Trazyn leans on the door frame and gives out a bright smile.
Nova's expression didn't change, she just proceeded to close the door. But Trazyn's hand is blocking the frame.
"Hey, that's rude." Trazyn clears his throat: "May I come in?... wait. Why are you wearing that?" He's a bit surprised by what Nova is wearing: "And why is your heart rate faster than usual? Were you doing something inappropriate?" Trazyn has a smirk on his face.
"You have 10 seconds before I kick you out. " Every second Nova sees Trazyn, her blood pressure is rising like a rocket taking off from the planet.
"Wait! I am here to discuss something important. I don't think it is a good idea to talk outside. So… may I come in?" Trazyn behaves seriously this time.
Even though Nova doesn't want someone like him to taint her living space, it is still better to listen to what he has to say. Nova just nods and closes the door behind Trazyn. Instead of talking to Trazyn she just went back to her yoga mat and continued whatever she'd been doing.
"What is this 'form' you are performing? Is this like a welcome dance for your humans?" Trazyn sits on the couch across Nova.
"It's called yoga and just to let you know, I would never do something to 'welcome' you anywhere." Despite Nova's harsh tone, her stance is still perfectly still and stable.
"Hurtful, even after I've done so much in favor of you or Monika? Didn't you take Monika as the closest person to you? So, me taking care of her is equal to taking care of you, no?" Trazyn is looking at the photo on the wall. It is a picture of both Monika and Nova in the graduation ceremony of Academie.
"What exactly are you doing here again? Just to talk nonsense and try to blackmail me? Just tell me what you want, and I'll give you a 'no'." Despite doing something to tend to relax one's mind, Nova is still vigilant towards Trazyn.
"I guess you are not a person for small talk…. Shame. Monika always told me that you are the one that talks all the time. But I'm here to propose something." Trazyn leans back and looks at Nova confidently.
"And what makes you think I would even consider whatever you are going to spill at me?" Nova sits down and stretches her legs.
"As you know your former subordinate Noel Vermillion has gone missing and she's got some powerful weapon with her. I don't want to point out the obvious but I'd like to help you." Trazyn said
"I can take her out myself. Your help is not welcomed here." Nova replied without even hesitating.
"I'm doing it not for myself, but for Monika. Please do understand." Trazyn sounds serious.
Nova giggles sarcastically: "You? For Monika? Cut the crap, I know exactly what you want. You want to help me to defeat Noel, so you can take advantage of all of us is not able to deploy hastily. So, you can take away the Tesseract that's down in the D2 facility."
"Wait, how did you know that?" Trazyn is very surprised, because he's been keeping his eyes on that Tesseract for a while now, the reason he's not trying to obtain it right is that he doesn't want to confront Nova in a battle.
"You are getting predictable Trazyn, remember the first time we met you were smarter than now." Nova chuckles lightly, the truth is that Minka told Nova about it. And the motive of Minka is still unknown. But Nova would love to have this opportunity to trash talk Trazyn: "That's exactly I would never trust you. You are a thief and trickster, I still can't figure out why you approach Monika but trust me, if you dare harm her in any way, I will hunt you down to the edge of the galaxy."
"I guess I have to do it nicely then…. Nova, I need that Tesseract." Trazyn's smirk is gone.
"Why?" Nova is a bit surprised by the sudden change of attitude.
"I owe it to Imotekh the storm lord. I usually will not even ask but knowing you for this long you probably prefer to hear the truth." Trazyn doesn't sound like he's lying at this moment.
Imotekh is the name that will immediately catch Nova's attention, ever since she and Monika returned from Mirriodin, she's been trying to trace the trace of Imotekh for a long time. But there's no news about him even from other star sectors: "What does Imotekh want with the Tesseract? I know it is an item that contains some mysterious energy."
"Not energy, it is a living being imprisoned inside the Tesseract. Imotekh would break the planet just to get his hand on it. I was summoned by him not very long ago and this is why I came here to discuss this privately." Trazyn crosses his hands under his nose. Maybe Trazyn might not strike to be the caring type, but whatever happened in the past few years has made him grow fond of this human planet. He doesn't want to see it destroyed by the storm lord.
"So… you propose that I turn a blind eye when you are trying to take away a top-secret item which is only known by a few people? You do know that they can easily find out it is me who told you about the security details?" Nova is thinking realistically.
"Just blame it on me, I don't need the information anyways. All I need is YOU not to be there." Trazyn looks very confident about his ability.
Nova rolls up her eyes then lets out a sigh. She's still thinking about whether to trust Trazyn or not. From what he said, it means that he had some solid information about the top secrets in the military, but she's still skeptical about the Stormlord part, if what he said is true, then this is not a simple stealing case. This might be concerning planetary defense, and this is way above her paygrade.
"I will let you know in a few days." Nova stands up from her yoga stance and stretches her arms.
"Sure. Oh, by the way." Trazyn acts as he forgot about something: "Your sister's birthday is coming up soon, maybe you want to 'surprise' her?" Trazyn knew about this because he accidentally came across Monika's birth certificate.
"We don't celebrate those things." Nova is not into celebrating anything, to be honest.
"That's why it is a 'surprise'. Maybe you want to celebrate you are finally getting along with Monika?" Trazyn's beatable smug on his human face is the most uncomfortable thing for Nova.
"No, also from now on. If you meet up with me privately, don't come with your human form. I don't like it and every second I'm spending here with you is like torture." Nova crosses her arms and looks at Trazyn fiercely.
"That's hurtful…. I spend so much time on this human form, but thanks for the feedback anyway. 'Sister-in-law'." Trazyn quickly closes the door after he finishes the sentence.
Nova frowns her forehead; it is not because of what Trazyn said but what she is going to do about this information. She takes out her phone and starts dialing a private line. After a few seconds of waiting the line connected. The whole report is short and simple, her hand is shaking a bit after talking to the person on the phone. This is bigger than the personal issue she has with Trazyn, or rather bigger than any of them.
Monika stands on the mountain next to the unnamed village where Noel is currently living. It didn't take long for her to track to where Noel is, after all she's a track and pursuit expert. Nova, however, on the other hand, is more of an executioner, and Monika is like the spotter for the sniper. They would've worked perfectly with each other if it wasn't for the personality conflict between these two.
Trazyn is behind her, he doesn't understand why she isn't confronting Noel directly. But at the end of the day, Trazyn is never the strategy person. He's here because he promised Monika to bring her friend home.
"Any news about your friend?" Trazyn kicks the stone next to him. He's bored.
Monika puts down her binoculars: "Just be patient, I don't want to fight her like Nova. I need to make sure that Noel is in her vulnerable state so we can take her down if anything has gone too far." Even though Monika is having the intent of not fighting Noel, she's still planning for the worst-case scenario.
"You know I can just do a bioscan right?" Trazyn points at his eyes, even in his human form there's still a lot of inbuilt technology inside of him.
"Just… be quiet, there's a lot of recon things we need to do before any action." Unlike her usual self, when Monika is getting serious about work, she's a clear head and always plans for everything.
After twenty minutes of recon, Monika finally found Noel. Apparently, she's with a woman who has brown hair, the exact facial structure is hard to see because they are very far away from each other. Monika can recognize Noel because the way Noel walks is like she's always going to fall on the ground on the next step while having her hands on the back.
"You want me to teleport us?" Trazyn stands up and does a stretch, it's not necessary for him, he's just doing this because he's bored.
Monika nods, then green lights surround both her and Trazyn, and then they are in the valley where Noel is going to pass by. Monika is a bit excited and stressed at the same time. Because it is kind of her fault that all of this is happening, but Trazyn just pads her on the shoulder to ease her mind. He can tell because of how tense Monika's expression is.
As Noel and Erin entered the valley, all four of them froze in place. Every single one of them is thinking about something. In Monika's mind, she's a bit curious why there is another person that looks like her, and she's with Noel while holding hands. Noel is curious because she's not in her Noel personality, thus she's wondering why the crimson reaper is in here at this very alley and she's preparing to fight at any second. Erin, however, is just shocked because she has never seen anyone that resembles her this much. Trazyn is just there thinking about something else. He noticed something interesting was about Noel, he couldn't help himself but narrow his eyes to get a better scan on Noel.
"We come in peace." Trazyn's words broke the silence.
"What are you doing here Reaper?" Noel's tone is cold, Monika was right about the way she walked but she did not anticipate the change of personality.
Monika can tell this person in front of her isn't the Noel she knows. Just about her having her sword in her hand, Erin suddenly walks between them: "Please, do not fight. I can explain this to each of you."
"Who the hell are you?" Monika's bad attitude is coming out.
"I'm Erin, can we please not fight at this moment. I can explain everything!" She repeats herself again.
Monika leaves her fighting stance and the same as Noel. But Trazyn is still glancing at Noel occasionally, he can sense something is different from this 'childhood' friend of Monika.
Erin leads them into her house. While everyone sits well at the dinner table, she quickly rushes into the kitchen and prepares some hot drinks. Then she finally sits down and starts talking: " I know you guys are a bit confused, but I know that you are Noel's friend. In fact, I know you are her best friend: Monika."
"And how did you know about that?" Monika starts talking in her sass tone, she didn't learn it from Trazyn, she always talks like this when she's clearly unhappy but forced to hide it.
"Noel told me…. You see… she has two personalities…" Erin holds Noel's hand because right now Noel is staring at Monika.
"I am aware, but it still didn't explain how you knew about me." Monika stares at Erin. She's trying to avoid direct eye contact with Noel.
"Well… Noel told me herself that her best friend looks like me… and from your look, I figured…" Erin's voice is trailing off because of Monika's piercing stare. But she then takes a deep breath and finishes off her sentence: "Right now, she's in her what I call the 'Alice' personality… she apparently fought you before, but she also helped us to fight off a group of imperial guards."
While they are talking, Trazyn keeps rescanning every inch of Noel's body. Something is off with this girl but he's not going to tell Monika, at least not yet. It is not about Noel's god-slayer armor but something else. Something that's in the very base of Noel's body.
"So, do you have a way to switch personality? I want to talk with my friend." Monika sounds like a kid who's also mad at the same time.
"No can do, in fact, you should leave." Noel suddenly spoke to Monika in a bad tone.
"Alice!" Erin suddenly squeezes Noel's hand; she doesn't want to see them fighting.
Seeing her childhood friend is unstable like this, Monika is both mad and sad. Mad because she's jealous of the action between Erin and Noel. Sad because she knew that this was all her fault and there's not a lot of things she could do.
"Hi, i'm Trazyn. I'm Monika's boyfriend." This is the first time he introduces himself as Monika's boyfriend to anyone: "Maybe we should cool off a bit of tension. But are you sure you can't switch personality at all?" Trazyn is here to help Monika and isn't trying to let Monika escalate the situation. Sometimes she doesn't even realize her bad tone.
"It is all random, I guess you guys are unlucky. So, both of you should leave." Monika is Noel's enemy, at least from the original settings. That's why Noel is aggressive to both Monika and Trazyn.
"I am not leaving without you. Even it…" Suddenly Trazyn cuts in before Monika could finish her sentence. Then she signs Monika to talk outside for a second.
"What are you doing?! I need to bring her home!" Monika's face is flustered.
"The situation is very difficult to resolve here, it is very hard to make any deal if both sides just want to rip each other's guts out." Trazyn is right, the more they talk the more likely they are just going to fight.
Monika knows Trazyn is right, but she wants to redeem her action so badly, and Monika is not known for her patients: " What do you propose then?" Monika crosses her arms and looks at Trazyn madly.
"Well… I was thinking maybe we can retreat for it and let Erin inform us if Noel became her normal self. And if we can make sure she stays that way while we are gone, it would be good. No?" Trazyn's plan probably is the best course of action at this point.
Monika breathed deeply while staring at Trazyn. Then she finally came back to her senses and nodded lightly: "Fine." Her response is short, but it still echoes in Trazyn's head. By saying that word, it means that Monika needs to overcome her stubbornness and guilt. That's why Trazyn didn't say more and instead, he just teleports both of them directly back to his gallery.
"It's been a long time." Monika looks at the expositions and has a small unnoticeable grin on her face. But suddenly an unfamiliar series of clunky metal walking sounds is approaching them slowly, she glanced at Trazyn but he didn't seem to be bothered by it.
The door eventually opened and a Necron cryptek walks in with his staff: "Foul creatures of living, how dare you step into the one and only Solemnace Galleries owned by our supreme overlord Trazyn the infinite, Archaeovist of the-"
"Alright, alright. Thank you Sannet. I appreciate your introduction while activating the defense protocol." Trazyn waves his hand and transforms himself into the human form.
"Lord Trazyn? How did you transform as one of those humans? My sensor detected two biological signals but now there's only one."
"I did it, Sannet." Trazyn grins. Necrons are not supposed to have facial expressions, but Trazyn is constantly grinning.
"Congratulations, sire. But who is this human intruder with you?" Sannet's single eye locked on Monika.
"This is a guest Sannet, she came here before that's why I forbade any intrusion for the past few years in the human section."
"Do you wish me to put it under the Terren sector?"
"No. She's a GUEST, not an exposition item." Trazyn pretends to clear his non-existence throat.
"Hi, I am Monika Terra." Monika was a bit confused about their conversation, but she's not really bothered by it.
"I am Cryptek Sannet of tomorrow. The assistance achaevoist of the solemnance galleries." He then looks at Trazyn: "Lord is this call of an event of utilizing your wine cellar."
"Indeed Sannet, didn't you say the wine cellar was useless because I don't eat or drink'?" Trazyn said it in a sarcastic tone.
"Being wrong never felt so right, sire. I beg for forgiveness." Sannet lowered his head.
"You are forgiven young assistant achaevoist."
"We are about the same age, Lord."
"It's a figure of speech, now go and prepare the event for our honor guest."
As Sannet leaves, Monika looks at Trazyn with a confused face: "Why didn't you tell me there are other people in your gallery?"
"Selfish reasons, I guess? I didn't want you to meet others, at least not yet."
"Ohhhh? Were you scared of others stealing me away from you? " Monika is smiling brightly, she never thought Trazyn would think about this far even back then the first time they met. She nudges Trazyn with her elbow lightly.
"You are thinking too much. I just didn't want others to find out I'm hiding a human in the gallery. So, I'm more embarrassed by you instead about worrying about anything else."
Monika makes an unhappy face, and Trazyn just pats the top of her head and pokes her bulged cheek. Monika then loosens her mad face, she's glad they can come back to this place once in a while. This just reminded her of of the first time they met and the stories that happened between them.
"Have you drunk any alcohol?" Trazyn asks.
"Yea, but mainly cheap booze and hard ones. I drank it to help me sleep."
"Does it?"
Monika remained silent; she didn't want to think about the horrible past. And right now, she just realized that while she was hitting rock bottom, it was Noel and Kira who stood next to her. And Monika in return yelled at her and disrupted Noel's pursuit of her life.
The knock on the door broke the silence, Sannet came into the room with a few bottles of wine: "This is the two hundred years fine wine, taken from the dying planet of Cadia. And the others are from various other planets that are already nameless at this point."
"Thank you Sannet. You may leave now."
"Yes, my lord." Sannet gently closed the door.
"You want some?" Trazyn asks Monika while pouring in his glass.
"Sure." Monika took the glass and tasted a bit, the wine tasted nothing like any wine she'd ever drunk in her life. It is so refined that it is hard to describe with words.
"How does it taste?" Trazyn is already in his human form.
"I can't tell if it's good or bad, because it went above my imagination or anything wine, I've ever tasted." Monika gives her honest opinion.
Trazyn however didn't really like this 'wine' thing humans called, this sour grape juice tasted nothing like how humans described it in literature or any recordings.
While Trazyn is reading the descriptions of the wine bottle, he hears the noise of the wine bottle being opened, within a few minutes Monika already drank all the wine Sannet brought. And she's just laying her head on the table half sleeping.
Those were not cheap alcohol; they were collections that were taken from various places by Trazyn during his years of adventure across the galaxy. Trazyn felt part of his heart was broken while Monika was drinking them like a thirsty person who had just found a pool of water.
Before Trazyn could say anything, Monika suddenly stood up and walked next to Trazyn. Her face is all red and her movement is not agile as when she was sober. She takes off her jacket and only has her shirt on and sits on Trazyn's lap. Her body is radiating heat like the reactor inside every Necron body.
Monika wraps her arm on Trazyn's shoulder and sits up, levelling her eyes on the same level. Monika's eyes are still as beautiful as the first time they looked each other in the eyes. She then holds Trazyn's face and pushes her lips onto his. Trazyn this whole time just staying still. After a few minutes of making out, Monika finally couldn't hold herself anymore and slept on Trazyn.
Trazyn didn't move because he was still processing what had just happened. There was no sign of any of this happening. Maybe this is the beauty of illogical. Something Trazyn is constantly encountering but lacks understanding of this 'force'. Right now, he can only just enjoy it while not understanding any of this. Trazyn told Orikan eons ago that he prefers to seek the past and preserve it to the present. Because he believes that everything exists for a reason and every item in the past has its meaning. Monika, however, on the other hand, has always been a force of unpredictability. Probably why fate has brought them to each other. Monika has caused Trazyn a lot of trouble, but all of this also made his unending life way more interesting than it should be. What's the point of even living when you can already tell what's going to happen in the future? This was probably why Trazyn and Orikan constantly fought against each other.