[b]Chizuru Yama-uchi & Natalie TreVayne[/b]
[sub]collab with [@Rawk][/sub]

Reddish glow emanated from the entrance to Eden, its artificial twenty-four hour light cycle trudging towards evening. Most visitors to the huge greenhouse would cover their eyes as they left the dim metallic glow of the ark’s ‘streets’, and those who were on their way out cast long shadows on the floor ahead of them.

Such a shadow, though exceptionally large, greeted Natalie as she drew near the entrance. What appeared to be a pitch black angular giant split into three distinct figures. But before she could notice any details about them, the middle one darted towards her, two red orbs flashing at her from the middle of its head.

“Your attacker. Where is it?” it hissed at her, its eyes slightly brighter than the light inside. The other two swiftly closed the distance with loud metallic footsteps.

The woman’s eyes shot open while simultaneously being caught flat-footed by the ominous figure, causing her to throw her arms up in a defensive position only to stumble backwards almost immediately due to an unbalanced equilibrium, catching herself with both hands. Immediately both security droid escorts intercepted their charge, putting themselves in between the woman and her assailant. “Stand down Ms. Yama-uchi.” The droid’s modulated voice demanded. Natalie, disoriented from the painkiller’s effects and panicked at the sight unfolding ahead of her, tried to backpedal along the ground, pushing herself away. 

“Wha…?  What is this?” Was all she’d managed to blurt out while doing her best to avoid whatever was happening.

“You want [i]me[/i] to stand down?!” the urgent, accentuated hiss now sounded very familiar. “Look at her!” And as the cyborg gestured at the fallen Ms. TreVayne she made a tiny step forward, grabbed one of the droids by the wrist and darted under its arm to stand on the woman’s other side. A perimeter was formed, at least until the guard droids’ next actions.

“I’d help you up but these guys would try to rip my head off if I touched you.” She said quickly, her flaming red eyes scanning the crowd. Some of them were now stopping to look at the unfolding events, while others picked up their pace and hurried home. Two security guards that lounged around at the entrance to Eden were now walking towards the four in a brisk pace.

“Just point me at your attacker, whoever’s threatening you. Hurry.”

Natalie's eyes darted from the security droids, to the spastic cyborg, and then over to the incoming Agents, all the while wondering just what the hell was going on. What did this [i]thing[/i] want with her? Why was she so concerned about an “attacker” when clearly she was the offensive one? And why was she being escorted by-

“Shit.” The woman then realized, through the haze of narcotics and the fast paced scene developing all around her, it was that cyborg who stirred up a shit storm of trouble shortly after launch. The one who'd been held in the brig. But what was she doing out here? Nat never had the chance to get caught up on everything pertaining to the case as much of it was classified or still being held pending further investigation. She had to assume that Ms Yama-uchi was out on parole until otherwise stated.

Both Agents stopped near the woman on the ground, one of which held out an arm to help her up. “Miss, are you okay? Has-” 

The Agent's eyes narrowed at the sight of the woman's bruise on the bridge of her nose, cheek, and the bit of dried blood near her lip. He immediately turned to the cyborg with a grim expression, only to turn back to Natalie.  “Ma'am, would you like to press assault charges?”

“Assault?” Natalie shot the guard a confused look and then looked over at the cyborg, as both droids flanked her, closing in to apprehend. The woman then held her hand out. “Wait, no. She didn't attack me. I don't actually know [i]what[/i] she was doing, but she definitely didn’t assault me. Maybe she’s just...I don’t know, [i]crazy[/i]?” Her words came out a bit slow and steady. “You'd think I know if I was attacked by a robot, or by anything for that matter, yeah?”

The Agent arched an eyebrow. “So...the marks on your cheek and nose were [i]not[/i] caused by any attacker?”  

“What?”  A half smile formed on her lips as though he were playing a joke on her, but then recalled having had an earlier accident. “Oh, no. I’d fallen in the transport on the way here, hit my face on...something.”  Her hand reached up and touched along a slightly swollen cheek, applying a little pressure on the bruise reminded her that there was, in fact, something there. “...but I guess I’d forgotten, since I couldn’t really feel the pain.” She snorted a slight laugh.”Does that make sense?” 

“Mhmm” The Agent furrowed his brow as though thinking for a moment. “Ma’am unless you can tell us what happened-”

“Look!” She blurted out. “Nothing happened, I was just on my way out to the Hub...I mean…[i]here[/i], I guess.” Surveying the area, she set her tired eyes on the entrance to Eden. “I just-I just wanted to get away for a little while.”  She then noticed the cluster of onlookers, and then turned back to the Agent standing in front of her, doing her best to focus on him. “Unless you have any further questions, Agent, I’d like to go now.”

The first Sec Agent looked over at the other, who simply shook his head and shrugged, before returning attention to the woman. “That’ll be all then. Just try to be careful.” He said, as he turned to the droids and nodded, before he and his partner made their way back to their post outside of the entrance to Eden. 

Natalie let out a deep breath of relief, as the last thing she’d wanted was to go through the hassle of being scanned and then questioned, considering who she was and her current state of mind would lead to even more questions that didn’t need to be answered. She shoved her hands into her pockets, and started walking toward Eden’s front gate, but not before stopping as she was about to pass the cyborg and two droids, pausing for a moment to mentally structure a question. 

“Were you trying to protect me?” She finally asked plainly while staring at the female’s face.

Chizuru was silent for a while, her eyes narrowing to their usual dots. Then she leaned slowly towards Natalie until their faces were two inches apart. “Yes.” she said suddenly, straightening herself. “You look hurt, afraid, unfocused. It was obvious to guess there might be some hidden revolt going on while Mr. TreVayne is away.”

She looked both ways, as if still expecting to find a hidden assassin, and spoke a bit quieter, “What is their status, anyway? I have not eavesdropped on Security since leaving my cell.”

The woman recoiled slightly at the abrupt face-to-face the cyborg had insisted on, unsure of what she was implying with the words that followed her hushed voice. Was the mechanical female suffering from some kind paranoia? Had these tendencies been noted in her previous psychological evaluation with Doctor Larson? Was Natalie in any kind of real danger? Several odd thoughts entered her mind, mainly due to the pain killers and their ability to lower ones inhibitions and logical mental processes. Maybe [i]she[/i] was the one hallucinating?

“Hidden revolt?” She paused for a moment, curious if the cyborgs reference to Gavon and security-related intel indicated that she knew her identity, considering this would not be a normal conversation held for any random civilian. Unless…

“Miss Yama-uchi…” Natalie did her best to focus on the female's eyes and “dead” visage, not wanting to draw attention to the fact that she was at an uncomfortable distance from the other. “What are you up to?” She knew that was a mistake to ask, but was it? It was true that she wasn't quite in her right mind, nor lucid enough to care much about matters of security, but she only thought of her husband and his welfare at that moment.

“I am on a break!” Chizuru announced cheerfully, gesturing at the entrance to the greenhouse. “Just on my way back to prison. Kind of you to ask.” She stared at Natalie expectantly for a few moments, then frowned. “Wait. What do you mean?”

“Nevermind.” Natalie let out a long sigh. “In fact, let’s just pretend we were never here as this evening has already become too bizarre.” She turned and continued to walk off toward Eden’s entryway, not bothering to look back at the droids. Behind her, the mechanized trio smirked to each other, at least in Chizuru’s head. “Eavesdropping it is, then.” she said to herself, leading her escorts back in the direction of the brig.