"Look...help me out and I, uh..." Tiki sighed, as she made a desperate decision, "I'll tell you where the boxes of cookies I hid in the kitchen are."

"You hid cookies in the kitchen? When? Never mind, I don't even care anyways. Cut it out before someone actually gets hurt."

Tiki prayed on his sweet tooth, "White chocolate chip."

"Seriously?" Dante looked at her with a straight face.

"Strawberry dough with vanilla drops."

"You actually are serious."

Tiki heavily exhaled, "Limited cherry muffin flavored dough with cream filling and rainbow sprinkle topping, double cream stuffed."

"Deal."

Luna looked like she really started to get worried, looking back at both Tiki, who took her home-run position behind her, and Dante who held onto the chair.

"Should I not have a say on the matter, given the gravity directed towards me?" Luna asked.

"Nope, we're coming through that thick skin of yours. Now hold her!" Tiki prepared herself.

"It's ok Luna. I think it'll only take a second. Judging off your feats, I doubt this is gonna do much." Dante held on to the front of the chair.

Luna played her last card, "Could I perhaps have a sip of water from the table?" she tried to stall.

Dante nodded as he grabbed the water bottle and began opening it. He tried again and again and again but to no avail. The bottle remained closed and firm, despite him angrily squeezing and trying his best to pry it open. Tiki, however, went forward without any hesitation.

"Here I go!"

Dante jolted up, bottle at hand and not grabbing onto the chair, "Tiki, wait!"

Tiki swang her axe forward with all her strength, before realizing that Dante was standing in front of the chair. Both Luna and Dante were sent flying forwards, crashing into the wall as Tiki then realized what had happened, dashing toward them.

"Holy shit, you guys ok?! Dante, what the hell?!"

The chair Luna was sitting on was the first to come off the pinned wall, followed by a grunting Dante. The water bottle he had tried to open was still perfectly intact, imprinting its shape on his face from the sheer force of the impact.

"It would appear as if I am perfectly functional still."

Dante started getting up, "If someone ever says that I am a universe-consuming, invincible god again…ghk-", he got up, rubbing his injured parts, "I'll shove this goddamn water bottle down their throat!"

"So you let go to open that thing, and you didn't even manage that?" Tiki sarcastically said.

"Piss off." Dante threw the water bottle at her, but Tiki easily avoided it as it crashed into the wall behind her. Still flawless, the bottle looked like it didn't have a single dent on it even after the abuse it received.

"Interesting..." Tiki looked at the bottle briefly, before lifting Luna back up, "Yo, you ok?"

"I am starting to reconsider on multiple scales." Luna seemed to be angrily saying.

"Well, it was not in vain! Take a look at this. Clinical incision right there.", Tiki bragged.

A small cut had formed on Luna's neck, exposing what seemed to be a few metallic areas around it, giving Tiki access to her internal workings.

"Alright! Nice!" Tiki excitedly said.

"Ehm.", Dante cleaned his throat.

"I carved a small opening for a room underneath the microwave. Use a butter knife to open it because I don't want the entrance damaged, otherwise, it'll show. This is top-secret info by the way. Share it with anyone else and I'll kick your ass! Now be careful that no one is around when opening it."

"How the hell did you plan that out? Nevermind that, when did you manage to do all this without anyone noticing?" Dante questioned her.

"I have my ways...also I did it off-screen."

"Fair. Do you need me for anything else?"

"Not for now. I'll see what I can do with her system now that we've made an access point."

"Shouldn't you call Drima for this? He would surely be able to help a lot more than whatever you're planning to do.", Dante advised.

"Well...nah. We've got our reasons. Plus, you don't have to worry, it's not my first rodeo with technology."

"Except this is a highly sophisticated system, not a microwave. I'd really advise on Drima's assistance here."

"I would advise against you seeking to further indulge in a business that did not initially involve you. As a seasoned soldier, I would highly advise that you act upon given orders instead of questioning said orders." Luna angrily said, "Tiki, please, continue with the procedure as told."

"I...ok. I won't bother you two. Just make sure you clean up. If the noise hasn't alerted anyone else, I won't tell anyone else. Pray that Hikari isn't the one to find this first. I heavily dislike this, I don't think any more secrets will serve any of us well here. I mean, hell, I don't even know why you started tempering with Luna's systems in the first place here."

"Yet you went along with it for a box of cookies," Luna said.

"Hey, they're really rare cookies."

"I promise I'll tell you everything at some point, meatbag. But not now."

"This 'but not now' pisses me off. Look, I won't say a word for now. But at least, until tomorrow, do tell me why. Please?"

"I can see where you're coming from...and with all this happening just yesterday crew it. I'll tell you. But let me take a hold of this situation first."

"Fine by me. I'm off...and Luna. Hope this pans out ok."

Luna took a trusty look back at him, "Thank you...Dante."

With Dante leaving the room and the two of them left alone once again, Tiki took the scanner again and began to zoom towards the incision made on the back of Luna's neck.

"Ok...what's this? I see...connection all the way up to the thalamus...damn. This is actually a little bit out of my jurisdiction here. It's way too advanced biotechnology, but I do know a lot about this subject myself so...I'll try. I assume there's a firewall or something?"

"Yes. However, it only exists within the inner area of the thalamus and is connected to the frontal lobe, where the main system is located."

"Then...I dunno what to do here. Unless...what I can do is intercept the line between your neck and the main system with a plugin and it might work as a mediator between it. But mediator means I won't really be able to directly act in any way. Information wise though, that's another story."

"If intel can be gathered from the main system's location, then accessing the H.I.V.E. and all its data can result in finding the instruction manual handed out to Augmented soldiers."

"Can you not access that thing directly yourself?"

"Negative. My full integration was incomplete, therefore while I am connected to H.I.V.E., I am unable to access it."

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"Alright then...sit here again. I'll be right back."

"Please, do hurry as suspicion from others might arise."

"I'll go as fast as I can. Good work is not necessarily fast work, and I don't want to risk frying your brain here."

"Then what about you attempting to chop it off?"

"Ah, bite me. Your exterior is extremely durable anyway. Do you think I wouldn't know after I properly face you twice? Now sit tight."

Going to the arsenal and then proceeding to the kitchen, Tiki sat on a chair and layer a big-looking gun on the table, accompanied by what looked to be a baton. Dante looked at her with interest, as she opened a small tool case and began tinkering around with the equipment.

He ate his cookies, "So uh...what is all this?"

"Just making a little something, but I'll need you in a sec.", Tiki put on a pair of visors, focusing on her work.

"You know, you have blown me away over the past few minutes. Didn't think for a moment you could...well..."

"Not act like a total, shit-mouthed jackass? What can I say? I'm an enigma."

"That and also be so...compassionate? Understanding?"

"If one of us needed help with something, wouldn't you help?" she took apart the baton.

"I mean..."

"No need to answer now. I understand it can be hard to do so since I know how you feel. But once you fully recover and don't act like a butthurt emo on the internet, then we'll talk about this."

"I'm not a butthurt, emo. And in any case, don't you think that speaking of help, Drima should be involved?"

Tiki sighed, "Drima is partially responsible for Luna's and Lina's mechanization. The prototype surgery he used on you to seal your memories was used as a base blueprint for whatever the hell kind of thing they did to them. Obviously, Luna is...in a weird place right now. Telling you this might piss you off even more, but you owe me one, so if you want us to be even, you'll not do shit...for now."

Dante exhaled deeply, "And how do I owe you?"

Tiki lifted her once broken arm, still focused on her work and giving Dante the obvious queue instead.

"Alright...I won't. But shouldn't it be the least bit alarming that now two of us have it out for this asshole?"

"It's alarming as far as you go. It's easy to want to paint someone in red to have closure. I'd know. Think of it like how Izuko was like. A victim of circumstance...it took me years to actually realize that Neker's death, the guy that had his DNA robbed to make your amulet, wasn't entirely his fault. I can keep backtracking more and more to reach the source, but at that point...why even? Think of Anya for example. She has all the money in the world and every door wide open. But did she do what her dad did? Hell no. A weapon or creation isn't good or bad. It comes down to how you use it, isn't that right?"

"It's the same cookie-cutter bullshit you hear from everyone on repeat. Come on Tiki, you know that there are a lot more variables in play than just "this used like that". You can't always insert the absolute at something."

"Unless you've got the full image, right? You are indeed as weird as Enemy said you are."

"Seriously? Siding with her now too? I honestly never expected someone like you to say anything like this."

"See? You came full circle to my words. Not everything is black and white, Dante."

"Yeah, more like a solid grey. At least the way I see it."

"That or because it's actually a little bit grey, to begin with. What, you think the war started with a couple of old shitheads on a fancy chair pointing fingers and ended because of some ink on a paper? It's normal, to be honest. I might've been alone in Corosta, but I wasn't detached from the world. War with weapons, war with cash, war of ideals. Really, I don't think we've ever stopped fighting. You want my opinion, it's just that it only starts to show when we reach a breaking point. Case in point: today's date and time."

"Hmm...Then what's the point? If we are going to fight for something that's just going to plunge itself back to fighting? Just save the world from being nuked, then do it again because nobody ever gives a shit about learning from their mistakes?"

Tiki chuckled as she briefly paused from her work, "Man...You are so romantic. And I love that."

"The hell?"

"You think that the word romantic only refers to lovely dovely kissing, touching and potentially rumbling down? Uhh…Could be. Depends on how you see it. The way I see it, 'romantic' is a way to describe a dream. This dream that you try to deny will ever happen while holding onto it and wanting to make it happen. That is the reason I followed you in the first place. Not that I don't want Corosta and demon demi-humans reputation restored but...I want to actually come close to that world. It's definitely hard to make it happen, but god dammit, 24 years in this world, I hate seeing it be the way it is. So I'll change it. Don't you?"

"No...I don't. What even is the point anyway? Save it to see it get destroyed again? It's the same shit. Just look at how they tried to hunt down Obsulyte users. I killed Cecilia that day...I murdered my own mother. Why would I save a world to have some other bastards go through it? I've read a lot of stories, always epic and shit. Because they always follow a main character with a life of adventure. What about all the other normal people in that imaginary world forced to suffer through his actions?"

"You took Cecilia out of her misery. It is ironic that you hurt her to stop her from hurting more, only to hurt yourself. Same shit with Neker, like I told Luna. I'd rather he never returned from that mission over seeing him hurt every day for it. And as far as the stories you read go think of this: The average person will always get affected by the hero's actions. Then how much more or less would they hurt by him being a transient? I've asked myself that several times...several painful times while back in the army. I still don't have a clear answer. Maybe you'll find one before me, or vice versa. Let's just tell each other our findings when we do, right?"

"Right...now what did you want me to do?"

Tiki looked back at the weapon, "Yeah, right. Grab that core real quick and pull it out." she took a step back.

Dante did as told, "Like this?" he grabbed a glowing blue core from the weapon.

"Oh, nice! Didn't blow up.", Tiki stepped in front and grabbed the core, sitting back down and continuing her work.

"Blow up? Did you use me as a dummy again?" Dante said, irritation clearly showing on his face.

"I mean you aren't that unfamiliar with taking hits, so what's the matter?"

"Screw that...whatever are you making anyway?"

"I used the core and parts of that pulse rifle to extend the button and make it much more accurate as far as energy blasts go. That way I can make a localized EMP blast on Luna's neck to shut down the general area around it and implant an information-transmitting device without having her boosted immune and computing system interfere. Maybe I can collect some info from her database and use it to my advantage to figure out exactly what went wrong with her. She had a little bit of an episode back at the café we were at."

"You really need to tell me how the hell you know how to do all this, considering you showed absolutely zero signs of it."

"Then you should've probably looked around a bit more on how I made that underground bunker back in Corosta and battle plans for Izuko. Attention is always in the details."

"Why did you not consider telling us to get back even? What if we were the bad guys all along?" Dante sarcastically said.

"I've seen a fair share of bad guys. You definitely didn't look like the ones. Considering you were the definition of the losers club anyways. You might go around like a crying little emo bitch, but I see right through you."

"Yeah right, bite me. Then why become a member of that club?"

"Because I like it."

Dante turned around, wanting to avoid an obvious argument, "Just tell me exactly what the hell even are you someday."

"I will...someday. But for now, I'll keep trying to help Luna by performing pseudo-torture."

"I'm glad it's Luna and I know for a fact she's more durable than any of us. I think I'll go crash in my room and play some games." he looked inside the box, one cookie remaining, "Hey, uh...there's one left and I'm full. You want it?"

Tiki seemed to softly smile while working on the device, not letting it show, "Yeah, sure. Bring it here, I don't want to oil up any dangerous parts."

Dante went up and gave Tiki the cookie, softly placing it in her mouth while she held onto it with her teeth. As he left the room, Tiki lifted her head up and ate the entire cookie, rounding up her device while whispering to herself.

"Attention always in the details..."

Just as she discarded the rest of the parts and got up to test her device before using it a familiar figure stepped behind her, standing at the door.

"Thought you went to sleep, meatbag. What is it, you want that fight I offered now?"

"I'd like that...but first, we need to do a little bit of our own talking, don't we?" Terna proposed.

Turning around, Tiki was stunned to see a newly rekindled Terna standing before her. No more flashy jewels, no pinker idol uniforms, rather than a simple everyday outfit she never thought she'd see her in.

"Terna? What the hell happened to you? Where were you?" Tiki asked.

"Back in Dirunon. Had some rounding up to do...I see you picked up being a mechanic while I was gone?"

"Engineering, thank you. And how was your...change?"

"It was...reminiscent. I've already checked in with Drima and Magi beforehand. They're both busy with the legislation papers for this new thing we're doing and I had to of course deliver the answer I promised."

"So?"

Terna extended her arm forward, waiting for Tiki to grab it back. Not wanting to leave her hanging, it didn't take Tiki long to respond to the gesture as she grabbed it back.

"I'm in. And Tiki? Thank you. I've long realized what you did...no more idols. No more going around like an idiot, spouting magic tunes. I'll use my talent the way you do yours...to write my own songs."

"Hmph.", Tiki tightened the grip on her hand, "You better not die...because you make a hella good teammate anyway. Had my eyes on you for far too long."

"Keep them on me and I'll do the same...though, I'd be lying if I didn't say I'm still a bit angry at you for what you said. Despite my realization."

"I know the feeling. But remember to do this for yourself, not me. Let me go shoot Luna and we can go have a couple of rounds. You need to give Drima combat data anyway."

"Uh...do what with Luna?"

"Long story short she went 'kaboom' and I'm fixing her."

"By shooting her?"

"Should've seen how I axed her throat a few minutes ago."

"Right..."

"Hey, judge me later! Now I've gotta do this before Luna gets too bored while chained up on that chair."

"Sounds good! I'll go back to my room and start preparing it anyway. If Lina is missing, tell Luna she's with me. She was all too eager to help with the decorating. Can't say no to her."

"Decorating? What, now you became a fashionista?"

"Not really..." Terna gave Tiki a sort of annoyed but understanding look, "Drima gave us the go-ahead to personalize our living quarters. I've ordered a few things from my funding with my...previous 'career'. Turns out, this will be a full-blown operation, so he wanted us to feel like home...and Magi threatened him."

"Nice, I can finally get some proper weights in there! Now I'm pumped, I'll come back shortly!"

"I'll be there."

A few moments of relaxation were all that they needed to finally revitalize, for the day before them gave them time to prepare. Only a few days together, it seemed like they would want much more of them to come...but they would have to, of course, fight for it all.