Everyone was busy with their various tasks around the base. Zim himself had spent most of his free time in the hanger working with Black Star. He felt that he owed the Werk more of his attention now that he had come to realize that, at least to him, Black Star was alive. In his coming and goings, Zim had noticed that he hadn't seen much of the enigmatic Commander. He had assumed it was due to her injuries that she was placed on a reduced labor detail and commanded to bed rest while recovering. Despite this, in his thinking about her absence, Zim came to realize that he had no idea how Elise viewed the Framewerks they piloted. Zim decided then to send a request for a meeting, if nothing else, it would do well to see her. He was pleased to see the approved response very shortly after the request was sent. He viewed the details of when and where and entered it into his datapad. 

When the time came to meet with the young commander, Zim arrived a minute or two early and knocked on the door to her quarters. "Private Zim Hero, reporting for our appointment, Ma'am," Zim announced, waiting for a response before entering. 

A downcast voice came out from the other side: "Come in." Elise slouched in her chair in an unladylike fashion when Zim arrived. It took her a few seconds to realize he was in the room with her, upon which she made an effort to look presentable, sitting straight.
"You wanted to speak with me, Pilot Hero? What is it?" She asked while leaning on the desk with her elbow, holding her chin up. Her one eye looked at him with curiosity.

Zim cleared his throat as the commander adjusted her positioning and uniform. "Yes, Ma'am. I wanted, in part, to check in with you and see how you are fairing since your injury. I haven't seen you around the base. But, if I am being entirely honest, I am driven to ask about your opinion regarding the Framewerks. So, if you'd rather not discuss your recovery, there are other matters that I wish to discuss." Zim attempted to maintain eye contact with the good eye, but Elise would be able to tell that his attention was shifting between her eye and the red eye patch that covered her injury.

"Permission to speak freely?"

Elise leaned back and gave out a weak chuckle. "I don't mind that. In fact, I have yet to make an announcement to the squad about how I have been adjusting to my current condition. Well, I'll listen to you first. Go ahead." She picked up something resembling a bottle and uncorked it.

 "So, any indication of how long they think your recovery will take?" Zim started. He eyed the bottle as the girl uncorked it. He seemed to remember seeing a similar bottle somewhere in the past, he couldn't quite place it.
 
 "Well, it's still going to take some physiotherapy, but I might be good to go in a couple of weeks...Well, not that it matters." She took a swig of the bottle, a small cup, and poured herself a drink. Zim recognized the bottle to be some kind of fruit-based beverage, smuggled to the base illegally. Fortunately, it was alcohol-free.
 "Since I can no longer participate in operations. They think I'm some helpless cripple now."
 
"Really? So what are you going to do now?"
 
 "I don't know. Ritsu suggested some paper-pushing job, but I have no interest in that. Then again, I have nowhere else to go either; no family or friends, and no orphanage wants a war veteran." She took out another cup, and poured some of the drink to it, followed by offering the cup to Zim. "Here, take it."
 
Zim took the offered cup and took a small sip from it, hesitant. "Thank you," he mumbled after the sip. "I think you could still have an impact on the war effort, on the front lines, as an instructor... but why not a prosthetic eye like Pilot Ariin? Or why not transplant a cloned eye?"
 
 "Prosthetics and cybernetics would interfere with Pa-I mean, Prometheus. The system is...Unique. It's got a lot of power, but it has flaws, and one of them is that it requires a completely biological pilot to interface with it. It also has to be of the same genetic structure, or it would reject the pilot."
 
"I mean, I won't claim to be an expert, as I was a terraformer before the war found me, but isn't a cloned eye going to be the same genetic structure? Well, I'm sure that whoever told you that is smarter than me," Zim conceded, taking another small sip of the fruit juice. He noticed how she started to say one name and stopped when referring to her Framewerk. Now was as good a time as any to change the topic towards what his true intentions were.

"Speaking of Prometheus, what is your relationship with your Framewerk?"

Elise winced at the question and now drank straight from the bottle, before setting it down.
"Why do you ask that, Zim? They're...Machines. Built to serve and protect. Well, I gotta admit, if it wasn't for Prometheus, I might have already left by now. I just...can't leave him. Ugh, I thought this one was dry," she commented as she looked at the label of the bottle.

"A curiosity of mine, I admit. There seems to be a spectrum in the squad ranging from Utilitarian to Familial. And I must admit that my position on that scale is changing, crazy as that may be. So let me ask you this," Zim said as he set the glass down and inched forward slightly, "Do you feel that our Framewerks have a form of sentience or at least a little free will?"

"You're being awfully specific there, Zim. That sounds like crazy talk. But you know what, I might be crazy." She leaned in again, her hands gripping the desk. "I've felt something in Prometheus. I don't know why, but it reminds me of someone I used to know. Probably just combat stress, but there's that. I do know that I've sometimes made moves I didn't consciously think of. Maybe they have some secret AI to assist at critical moments, but it has saved me a couple of times."

"I've experienced similar 'phenomena' myself, which is why I find myself asking these questions and digging for proof. However, you are the first person I've talked to who has sensed something familiar. Care to share who he reminds you of?"

Elise simply glared at him, obviously not liking how he was basically prodding at her private life. But then, she took a deep breath and sighed. "This is getting really personal, and I might have you sent to cleaning duty for that, but you seem to believe me, so screw it: he reminds me of  P-" She hesitated. 
"-my father." Zim could see how her lower lip trembled a bit as she said that. "I know that's impossible, but it's how I feel. "

"Interesting," Zim responded, his demeanor showing his apologies at prodding. He didn't need to ask, anybody who looked at the pilot could tell that her father was most likely dead, why else would she be nearing tears? The trembling lips, the grip on the desk. She was barely holding it in. It was obviously time to back away from that direct line of questioning. With this information, Zim would go back and look for anything similar with Black Star, but then again, it might just be a projection if he is looking for someone.

"So what do you think about what happened with Serah and Atty? Given that we both believe there is something to these phenomena," Zim turned the questions another direction, hoping to give his commander a reprieve, "I've looked through the combat data, there was a pretty serious drop in Synchronization rates with all the pilots in the room, but none worse then Serah. Is it possible that when our Syncro rates get low enough, whatever it is that is controlling these machines goes berserk? Meaning that it wasn't Serah who attacked our comrades, but rather Atty itself."

Elise calmed down as the topic shifted, but she was still at unease from the previous discussion. "I've read the reports, but I don't believe them. Serah's not the kind of girl to turn on everyone like that. Must have been a Cruxi trick or something, those damn bugs." She gave an angry glare at Zim and leaned closer as she spoke in a lower voice: "You might know about this, but I have a history with some of the folks here, including upstairs folk. That Colonel who gave us the last mission? I know the guy. I heard him talk with some Galactic Navy folks, about Serah and the other girl, and it's not good. The geezer's gotten flak for acting like a pompous ass and thinking Solaire is his personal playground. The fat cats at HQ are gonna send him a message by executing the two." Elise looked dead serious as she said that, waiting for his response.

"Is there anything that can be done to save them?" Zim asked, his tone matching that of his former commander, "I'm no fan of Lorenzo, brilliant as he may be, but killing two pilots simply to prove a petty point? Who are we fighting in this war, and what are we trying to protect?

"To them, we're just numbers, a statistic. All they want is to use the geezer to build them more weapons to blow stuff up with, and not fiddle around with toys. However, Cain's been arguing against that decision." By now she had stopped drinking, having set the bottle aside as her fiery spirit came back to her. "You know, Maria's been pretty transparent in her efforts to collect data on what happened at the station. If you guys did find anything useful as evidence to show they're innocent, I can send it to Cain."

"Cain, huh?" Zim asked making mental note of it, "I'll pass that information along. Thank you for answering my questions, and thank you for being willing to pass this information along to someone who might be able to assist. Before I go, is there anything I can do to help you with?"

Zim drank the rest of the juice in his cup before setting it down, preparing to leave.

Elise stood up, her shoulders barely reaching over the tall desk fitted for adults. "All I want in return is that you guys vouch for me when I ask to stay in the unit; Ritsu has agreed to let me collect reports on my performance from you guys and see if I'm still fit to stay despite my disability." She handed out a small device with an LCD screen and saluted. "And even if I can't fight with you guys, I want you to continue doing your best. For everyone's sake. Dismissed."

Zim stood up when Elise did and took the device with a nod, "Of course." He saluted and made his way out of the quarter. He needed to find Maria and let her know what was going on, and the sooner the better.