A Tale of Two Cities

"Barbatos or something."

*When she arrives at the basement, Thiera isn't there.*
=========================================
*She hangs up.*

Topaz: <I don't think I know her. Why not try to find her instead of doing this, though?>

*Vega hangs up and flops down on the couch looking around.*

"Might be a good idea to clean up. Place looks like it was looted."

*He stands up and looks under the cushion where he stuffed the manuscript.*

"Because I think she's either dead or in a coma after some other guy turned up and thrashed her Megadeus half to death.... I don't really have a purpose anymore, so I'm doing this."

Topaz: <Woah, wait. Your father might still be alive. Why aren't you searching for him?>

"I have no idea where to search.... I wish I did, but I really don't. All I know is the ones who kidnapped him work for Barbatos... there's a guy, an older guy and a kid, I think. Seen them runnin' around town?"

[...That Beck guy?]

Topaz: <Just... stop doing this and follow me to my house. I'm sure we can figure out a way to find him.>

Zell gets out of her Megadeus and hauls ass to her room, where she last saw Lilith.

"Hmm... if I can throw one more car, it's a deal."

Topaz: <At least make sure it's a Paradigm-2 police vehicle.>

"Nope."

At that, Prolix Arma snatched another civilian car up and thrashed it on the ground until it was a ball of scrap metal.

"Now what?"

[That bi---]

Topaz: <Um? Oh, just follow me to my apartment.>

"Okay."

Luna follows inside Prolix Arma.

*Both robots parked in Topaz's garage/hangar place, she leads Luna up to her aparment, followed by her little brother. Once they walk inside, her brother fucks off to his room.*

Topaz: <A man by the name of Beck kidnapped my brother the other day. When I went to get him back, a large knight Megadeus was around, causing trouble.>

*There she finds Thiera sweeping up pieces into a pail & throwing them in the trash. The main body is conspicuously absent.*

Zell falls to her knees and begins to cry.

*Thiera pats her on the shoulder.*

T"Come over here, I have something to show you."

*She points to a laptop on the desk.*

T"Sit down & type, 'Hello, what is your name?' It'll make you feel a lot better, trust me."

"Well, someone stole my dad too and took him to a dam, or something. Then Barbatos, who gave me the Megadeus or something, reveals that she ordered them to kidnap him before trying to kill me.
After that, I basically got arrested, abused and left to rot in a cell when some guy came in, and busted me out. I remember he asked me something like 'do you want to tear this corrupt city apart?' and I agreed. Oh, and then I found this crap with my Megadeus."
Luna got out the manuscript and handed it to Topaz.

"But... but..." Zell said, her eyes leaking tears like it was going out of style. Meekly she sits, and types, "Hello, what is your name?"

*Topaz takes it and stares at it blankly because it really doesn't seem relevant.*

Topaz: <...Okay. We're calling Roger, he helped me negotiate with Beck. If that doesn't work, we'll call Thiera Psyche.>

*She then stares at Luna for a few seconds.*

Topaz: <You look familiar. Have we met before?>

Lilith writes: Lilith Psyche.
Lilith writes: Who are you?
Lilith writes: I can't see anything.
Lilith writes: I seem to have misplaced my body.
Lilith writes: ...
Lilith writes: I've lost weight, though.

*Meanwhile, Thiera is giving Zell a friendly back rub.*

Zell hangs her head and lets out a VERY long sigh, wiping away her tears.

"It is Zell. I'm glad you are well."
"Relatively speaking."

Lilith writes: I appreciate the sentiment.

"I don't know what happened here, but her memory circuits won't damage. I'll have to be up all night working, but I should be able to reconstruct her head. I think I can even hide the ripped synthetic skin from the bullet wound behind her hair, which is fortunate, because even I couldn't reproduce that component. Oh, one more thing."

*She presses a button & the light next to the webcam comes on.*

Lilith writes: It is nice to see you again.

"I'm sorry, Lilith... this is all my fault."