“Yes?” Nisha’s voice asked, after my call had been answered.

“Good afternoon, Nisha. This is Diana, do you have a moment?”

After a moment of pause, Nisha answered. “I do, what is this about?”

“Could you meet me at the workshop where we met yesterday? In, say, an hour?”

“Yes, I can.” her voice was a little apprehensive. For the first time, I realised that she was far less self-confident when talking over the phone.

“Great, see you then. Bye.”

“Bye.” I ended the call and started pulling off clothes. I needed a shower. Galatea had cleaned me up, to the best of the nanites ability, but just the thought of a shower was sending sending tingles of joy through me. It was not about physical cleanliness, I doubted that an ordinary shower could do better than a swarm of nanites, it was about an emotional cleansing. Or something. I stopped for a second, making sure that nothing that would be damaged by water was exposed and that every opening that should not be there was watertight. Getting water directly into my windpipe would be very uncomfortable, or even worse, if the water somehow managed to breach the cover around my left shoulder or the plug in my chest. Both were quite vital to me.

But, the shower worked just as hoped, even if I had great difficulty cleaning myself without a left arm, I would have to manufacture myself a suitable replacement, soon. I already had a mental list of projects I wanted to pursue and re-arming myself was at the top. Or, rather, two of the top three were re-arming, number one was getting a new arm, number two was the distributed power network anchored to my bones so nanites could help with every cell in my body, not only when linked to the pseudo-nervous system Galatea had linked up and number three was building myself a suitable device to welcome Clark, if he ever dared to darken my doorstep again. Maybe a rifle-version of my railgun, longer rails should reduce the recoil-shock to the point that I was able to use it without my armour, just with my strengthened body.

Dressing myself was another challenge but simple clothes made it far easier. Not that there were no challenges, buttons were a pain and I resigned myself that I would wear sports-bras until I made myself a dexterous arm. The cludge Galatea had thrown together during the night had little more dexterity than a pair of salad tongs. That thought sent her pouting a little, to my great amusement. She always had emotions, but now that we shared a mental space, either her emotions became more pronounced or she just felt more emotions. It was something that we would have to explore in the future.

When I looked into the mirror, dreading the task of applying makeup, I was surprised to see an incredible change. After she had fixed my throat as good as she could, she had now taken the time to use the nanites to clear away the blood that had escaped the proper channels when Clark attacked me, forming bruises. My face looked just like it should and now she was slowly working her way down my body, taking care of the bruises that were hidden by clothing.

The others were no longer in the common room, so I simply left, heading over to the workshop. I was far too early, I had made my estimation with the assumption that I would have to apply makeup, but like this, I had enough time to make sure the workshop looked fine. And I could plug myself in and recharge the crystals in myself.

About ten minutes before the hour was up, I suddenly had a rather interesting idea.

“Could you drive for a bit and pretend to be me?” I asked Galatea. She instantly understood what I was planning and accepted, thinking it would be both a good experiment and a good prank.

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I deliberately focused my entire mind on the project to design myself an artificial arm, with at least as much dexterity as my normal arm and felt my mind slide into a trance, leaving Galatea to take control. There was still a part of me in our shared mental space, allowing me to perceive our surroundings and communicate with Galatea, but the rest of my mind was totally focused. Still like a pond and emotionless, at least I hoped so.

Five minutes later, my phone rang and Nisha asked if I was running late. Galatea assured her I was not, that I was already in the workshop, and got up to open the door, allowing Nisha entry. She looked at me with a mixture of fear, apprehension and confusion.

“Hi, Diana.” she greeted me, her face a barely controlled mask. She was desperately trying not to openly show her emotions.

“Hi, Nisha, thank you for coming.” Galatea answered, using my voice and a pleasant tone. My voice box sounded almost right again.

“Impressive, I can’t feel you at all. Is it some sort of psychic shield, masking your emotions? If so, you’ve got some excellent work there.” Nisha asked, her curiosity breaking to the surface.

“No, nothing of that sort.” Galatea answered and I slowly pulled myself out of my trance, evaluating the experiment as a success.

“Now, I can feel them again?” Nisha tilted her head in confusion. “And you don’t hate me? That is good.”

“No, I do not hate you. We both kept things secret and I have no doubt that will remain true in the future. But, I should introduce myself once more. There are times when I am called Metis.” I told her.

“Metis? I’m not familiar with the name. But, I assume from your words that you will remain my friend?” she asked, her usual composure slowly coming back.

“Yes, I will. I am not surprised that you never heard of me, I was mainly active in a single city and mostly went after a street-gang. Well, and against the local Heroes’ League and they tried to smear me, anyway they could.”

It had been something I had thought about quite a bit. At the end of the day, being friends with Nisha gave me an advantage. Maybe I would even be able to gain asylum in India, if I ever needed to flee from the Guild, similar to the way Clark was using his country. It would just depend on the way I marketed myself and the inventions I had and would have in the future. The fusion-reactor should be an excellent negotiation card in itself.

Now that she had told me the truth, we could have a mutually beneficial relationship and keep our friendship.

Nisha looked me up and down for a moment, before stretching her hand towards me, to shake. I was having none of that and gave her a hug. She looked rather surprised at that.

“You know, we could not do your calculations yesterday, would you like to do them now?” I asked with a grin.

She blinked, her confusion even stronger than before.

“I don’t have the needed material with me. Could you tell me what happened today? Yesterday, you have been distrustful but now you are willing to embrace me, literally.” she asked, her voice soft.

“Well, I got myself a meeting with the Guild today, because of the attack yesterday. To make a long story short, I was recruited.” I explained.

“Congratulations. That means someone thinks you can be an asset.”

“I sure hope so. And I had time to think. I do not think you kept something back out of malice, you kept something back for the same reason I did. Security and to find people you can trust for your inner circle. I think we can be good partners in the future, maybe not with me as subordinate as you might have hoped, but I have no doubt that a connection with you will be very beneficial to me. At the same time, it will be beneficial to you, making it the best kind of business-relationship.

"And once the question of a business relationship was out of the way, I could ask myself if I wanted to throw away a friendship because you have done the same thing that I did. The answer is no, I do not want to throw away our friendship and I hope you do not want to do so, either. Or, I have just made a fool out of myself.” There was a smile on my face as I finished my explanation.

“I can see that. And yes, I want to remain friends with you. In the future, we can see what kind of deals we can make, I will even be so brazen to ask for help while we are still here, at the Academy.” she exhaled, tension draining from her.

“Now, tell me about your recruitment into the guild!” she demanded, visibly excited.

It was good to have friends.