Once more into the fray. [Silmeria] [M]

[ARAD V1.0]

Everything in the room seemed to go cold. Slowly. Arad sat down again. A deep and slow sigh came from him. "What ship?" Was all he asked. His voice colder and even harsher than before. He didn't even give a shit whether Sibiu had the intelon him.

[SilverLuna]

''I merely found her. I do not know yet what ship. I merely know her state of living because it is registered in a slave database. I can not just find that ship here. First I need to go to the database itself. Hack it. Secure all of the files regarding your mother. Find the name of the ship which has her now, and then we can actually find the ship. I can not do this here since I lack the machine power. And if I do not do this discreetly I might as well just send the Institute a message where we are.''

''Sibiu is right. Accept my offer of allowing me to bring you two to a safe haven to live for a brief time.  The safehouse has enough power for Sibiu to hack into whatever she pleases. And if Arad, you truely need to let go of some steam I might have an assignment for you regarding one of the Institute members.

[ARAD V1.0]

"Good. Let's go." Arad stood up, his hand finding the collar of the man and pulling him half over the table. "I do not work for you. Got it? I work for myself. And wich assignment. I want all the details."

[SilverLuna]

''Arad.. easy.'' Sibiu spoke. Only a lot less kind and patient then before.

Remarkably the man stayed calm. ''Safehouse first. We will talk there. We can use my ship. It is best to leave the one behind you arrived in.''

''No need.'' Sibiu replied. ''I purchased a new one. Not nessesarily the way I wanted to do it but the ship we arrived in is already being investigated. We can not return to those docks. A ship is waiting in dock Y.''

''Understood.'' the man replied.

''You have a new ship too. I had already sent a request for the posessions in the ship to be placed in the Century Sparrow. I also recommend to leave your lackeys. Give them a usual order such as going to the ship. They do not know about the ownership transfer.''

''You are good. No wonder you were one of the top Institute members from a young age. Although of course you were unaware from unauthorised living being research.''

''You know to much about me.'' Sibiu replied coldly.

''Afraid to look into your own files miss?'' the man asked.

''We meet at dock Y.'' Sibiu replied and placed a hand on Arad's shoulder. ''Let's go''

[ARAD V1.0]

Arad tilted his head, his grip on the man's collar loosening, before he released him alltogether. "The local authorities would be occupied with identifying the remains. If that'd even be possible." He let out a slow snarl. Not caring for the interactions. He wasn't good at all this subtle things and manipulation. He was one hell of a killer. His combat abilities easily surpassed Sibiu's.

He felt the hand on his shoulder. She didn't know of his experimenting? That meant she wasn't responsible either. That did make her slightly better in his books.

He nodded slowly. "Let's." He agreed, turning around.

[SilverLuna]

First Sibiu left with Arad to their new ship leaving the man behind who turned to his lackeys. ''If you decide to kill me can I at the least asl of you to kill me last?'' she asked clenching the briefcase in her hand as they walked to the docks.

There did not seemed to be any fear in her voice. Only regret.

Dock Y was many times more fancy and the ships even larger. ''I assigned thisone to us.'' she said as she gestured to a rather fancy ship. Meant for a crew of ten at the least. Sibiu showed an identification pass to the dock worker present and let her and Arad pass without question after checking it in his machine.

Inside there seemed to be a lot of high tech equipment as well. Including robots and droids whom all were turned off. ''This bodes well. All of these are empty shells.'' she said softly.

[ARAD V1.0]

Arad put a hand on her shoulder. "You were unaware. As he said." He snerked slowly. "I'm not killing you." At that, he turned towards their destination again and remained silent for the entirety of the walk.

As they entered the ship, he looked around, but shrugged. "Can you hook them to yourself? Share your conciousness avross multiple bodies?"

[SilverLuna]

''Yea I should be able to. But I'd like to make sure these are virus free. If I connect myself to them and one has a virus I am kind of screwed. I will need to make a backup of myself to be safe. Although if I get hit by a virus I will of course not remember anything that happened between the backup creation and the reinstallation of it. But if they are all good I can make a kind of research server. My hacking will go faster too as long as I am connected. I will look into it when we are at the safehouse.''

Sibiu shut the door and went to the cockpit. Hooking herself up to the screen and in no time footagefrom security camera's displayed themselves on her screens. ''Our guy is almost at his ship. I seized control over his computer and communication. He wont be able to warn anyone in case he decided to backstab us.''

[ARAD V1.0]

"He won't. He pisses his pants when I'm around." Arad snarled. "He might seem calm
 But I smelled his fear. He knew I could've killed him there and there and gotten away with it." He let out another snarl. "People react differently when they're faced with death. He kept a calm outlook."

He joined next to Sibiu. "What.. Do you want out of all this?"

[SilverLuna]

''Frankly... I do not know. I somehow feel it is my own fault you ended up like this. When I was diagnosed with my illness I thought wether it was possible or not to transfer my consciousness into a different vessel. Wether that idea was something the Syndicate already had or not I do not know. The volunteers were all dying people. But I do not believe you have lost your humanity. If you truely had none left you would not have responded like you did when you learned your mother still exists. Or what my role at the Institute was. I am afraid to look at my own files regarding that. What if I was some kind of monster.'' she looked at the empty vessels and shook her head.

''I will help you fighting your enemies. And hopefully you will allow me to rebuild your human body or at the least a vessel that looks human. Speaking of which I should fix that hole you made in your chest.''

[ARAD V1.0]

"Then we're alike. Two monsters." Arad let out a low growl as he stood up, the blade iding from his hand. He held it up infront of his face ans looked at it with a sigh. "I've always been a killer. Now I am just more proficient." He osed his fist and looked at Sibiu. "This is my last warning to you. The place I'm headed only has death."

[SilverLuna]

''Well. Death it may be but monsters should stick together right? Besides. It would be a shame if the Institute got to you before you could complete your task. You lack reason. And I, am an infiltration unit. I can get you a lot of usefull things.''

She held up a hand which formed a puddle of nanomachines. The way they acted seemed like a pile of ants. ''You can tear some of the reinforced metal off one of the empty shells and my machines can fix that hole with it. It is possible without but it will only thin out the material you are made of. Also regarding that. Do you want another body, or not. I'd say... bullet proof at the least for the most part and multi EMP proof. Of course it is not finished in a week, take that into account. They do not know I exist yet for as far as I know so it would be a pleasant surprise for them too if they attempt to take you down with weapons that no longer work on you.''

[ARAD V1.0]

"I don't need reason. I have a goal." He snarled at Silmeria, before tearing some material of the closest robot.

"Here. And I do not wish to transfer to yet another body. Upgrade this one. And make sure my pain inhibitors are overidden."

[SilverLuna]

''Fine.'' Sibiu snarled back. ''If I upgrade your actual body you'd better stay still then during the time I am upgrading you mister crankypants. She grabbed his hand, bringing the hand full of nanomachines on top of it which spread on the metal and Arad's body like an unholy swarm of wiggling matter.

''Our guy entered his vessel. We are good to go.'' Sibiu said as she focussed on releasing the two ships from the dock. Still keeping an eye on all security camera's and also one in the cockpit of the Century Sparrow. ''Alright mister contact person. Where are we headed.'' she asked.

''To Aedolis. I will send you the coördinates.'' the man replied. ''Is this ship not to big for one man?''

''No. I hijacked the ship my nameless friend. If you backfire I will initiate the selfdestruct. I hope we are clear on that.''

''Y-Yes... quite. And hopefully you will learn to trust me like your father did.'' the man said. It was true he did not seem to be entirely comfortable.

[ARAD V1.0]

Arad didn't even seem to care in the slightest. "I will disengage my servos and hydraulics, if that is what you're asking." He did listen to the following scene between Sibiu and their contact with a dark chuckle. It was amusing, to say the least.

[SilverLuna]

''Coordinates received. To Aedolis we go.''Sibiu said with enthousiasm and set both ships on autopilot. She then got on her feet. Looking at the nanomachines fixing Arads hole.''You know... I found your mother. I could find other people you once knew. Friends and enemies. More family...'' she walked towards one of the empty shells, taking out a cable from her arm.

[ARAD V1.0]

"She's the only one alive.. I don't have friends and only one enemy." He looked to Sibiu. "And that is the Syndicate."

[SilverLuna]

''Well... the enemy has a lot of heads. Still... I wonder who my father is... if he is still alive.'' Sibiu said as she connected herself to the empty shell. She plugged it out soon enough though and went to another until she had them all.

''Well. Most of these do not have a single operating system installed so... we can program them. I will have to clean out those who are programmed. It does have some suprisingly heavy coding.

''Oi Arad. Assuming that this... is a protected line, want to talk about the job I have for you? I do will need you to shut down Sibiu for a moment if you want to hear it here rather then at the safehouse.'' the man spoke who seemed anything but comfortable.

[ARAD V1.0]

Arad clenched his fist slowly. "I'll slice all of those heads off." He looked to Sibiu, shaking his head. "I left no man standing back there. I was in a panicked frenzy due to my submission programming. He is dead." He didn't really care for the programming of the empty shells and trusted her judgement.

As he heard the voice crackle through the intercom, he snarled slowly. "Sibiu is allowed to know about this. I trust her more than I trust you. So tell it now or keep it for the safehouse."

[SilverLuna]

The words that her father was dead actually seemed to hurt her feelings. ''A.. are you sure? I mean... maybe he had included someone else... maybe he was not there on the ship..'' she started.

She then however clenched her chest. It hurt. Was it supposed to be doing that?

''Now I do recommend to vocally shut her off. Sibiu has an actual humanity switch. Her programming put anything emotional on a drive she can shut down.'' the man said and sighed. ''The moment she turns it off, she most likely will become like you. Not to badmouth the way you act but... you need Sibiu the way she is. I'd rather not resort to the secondary programming to put her to sleep mode.''