[center][h1]Vulpine Space Command Centre, Île de la Tempête, Reunion [/h1][/center] [center][h1][color=lightblue]Skye Rosalind Lyons[/color][/h1][/center] [center][h2] Rebirth [/h2][/center] [center][h2] 0650 Hours [/h2][/center] [b][url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_p2NvO6KrBs]Soundtrack: M83 - Solitude (Felsmann + Tiley Reinterpretation)[/url][/b] Pulsing on the floor, Skye watched as Ebrima arrested Zhao, the words barely leaving her, the ringing in her ears still piercing, despite her outburst from earlier. He was breaking fingers in the process. He was just the monster she thought he was....exactly what made him perfect for Raven. Experienced enough to know when to smash things to pieces, smart enough to know how to use it. And yet, doing something she wasn't sure what to think. Because she barely knew what to do. Apart from crawl. Watching her old body get a rag over it, she saw her face for the last time, not in mirror, but in flesh. The blue face paint, the red hair and black helmet disappear, as she crawled, fumbling a little on her knees as it felt like she was getting used to, looking up, staring him in the eyes as she cuffed him to the wall, and then took him away, pistol in hand. Every thought pulsed in her head. He better come back, she thought to herself. Put me out of my misery, now, or I'll hunt you to the end of the earth, her mind roared. And anyone else who thinks this is a good idea. Oracle too. And held that thought back in horror. She wasn't like Rose. She was never going to be. Ebrima did what he had to for the safety of the team. Much like she would have done. A decision she didn't like, but ultimately, was one that served a good. Like she'd told him. Turned him into what she sculpted. Just like Zhao said...prophetically. And she had to fight that inside her. She had no power. No choice. But that wasn't what held her back. Even having a little less muscle density than her usual self, she still knew exactly what she was capable of, and coming to realise the stakes were so much bigger than her own self fuelled that. And she looked on, crawling to her body, peeling the FN FNX out of her holster, scooping mags, and taking any other personal possessions, as if she was scavenging the old bits of her to leave behind the new. Positioning herself onto her knees, wiping the crap from her eyes again, exhaling, looking on, the freezing cold touch nothing against her new heart pounding in her chest, as she looked down. The scars, cuts, bruises, the marks that made her who she was, gone. She patted her neck, and no mark, nothing at all. It was strange. Dead yet alive. And thinking to herself she was being left by Ebrima now. Had he just left her to die? To be discovered like Rose, was this betrayal? Was it him, tided over by the promises of Zhao, realising in the final hour, in the final moment, something she hadn't? Comms in his ear, promising him something she would never give? Something she'd missed, something so obvious, someone driven by money, profit, the thrill of this, rather than service, honesty? Or just a realisation of what she'd told him to do, the greater good, knowing that it certainly meant something Skye couldn't have wanted less? All that came to an end, as the pistol rang out, and the M1014 rang out. And swiftly, he returned, carrying a coat, Skye like a rabbit in the headlights, taking her Scout-styled knife and tactical watch off her oldy body's wrist, crawling a little more, trying to stand but fumbling, looking on. His comment reassured her, as she shook her head, not saying a word given the feed, which promptly, Skye cut out, killing the storage capability of her old tactical glasses capability remotely, to stop it falling into enemy hands or worse, Oracle's. Getting picked up, Skye chuckled at the thought of what she was now, wrapped in the officer's coat to keep her modesty, and what Ebrima had done. Still in shock. And she looked back one last time, one final time at Skye 1.0, the woman she'd always been. And would never be again. The tattoos, the pain, the hurt, the paint, the woman that was unbreakable, finally, broken. Dead here, and wrapped up in a black exo she knew that Sam had spent too long on. And now, a distant speck in the room, no light in there, nothing left. The whole concept of consciousness transfer really unsettled her. Was she even really the same person, was this just a run-on of Skye from that body or something else, just an end there and a beginning now? She had no idea. But the memory, the feeling, the want, it was still inside her. None of this made sense. None of it all. Could she have died ever before and respawned like that when she was an operative before Raven? Or was Zhao right? Trying to prove a point in his own ego? Was any of what he said true? Could it have been? And how the fuck did Oracle accept that offer? Were they hoping Skye would be killed here, or would understand a greater good? Like always? She had no response to that, as Skye looked over to Ebrima's head, tapping him on the shoulder, sighing, coming to an alcove before Adam's position. "Wait here. Let me try and move." She retorted, as she slipped the mags into the coat pocket of the officer, as well as the FNX. A personal possession to keep. "Fucking hell. Thank you. I don't think I could have done that better myself...guess we're about even." Skye's words may have carried like a hug, as she sighed, buttoning it up for her modesty, the sizing for someone significantly fatter, but about her height. The sarcasm echoed back to when Skye first found Ebrima, and that first firefight. How the tables had now turned, as she leaned against the wall, like a toddler learning how to walk, but her vocal cords were coming into fruit. "Oracle's smart enough to know what happened. But smart enough to realise we're the only asset that stop the end of the world. Stick to the story." Skye retorted, sighing, hearing the sound of gunfire intensify, the bunker cleared but the fight outside coming to a climax, and no doubt, the lights working to get to the hostages. Looking up at him, she rested against the wall, stretching her legs, exhaling hard. "Leave him to me....blimey, you have a heart in there, Ebrima." Skye retorted, hearing the clattering of footsteps come closer, the Scot turning and ready to react. Adam cleaned the corner, LMG raised, stunned at the sight of what he saw, as he saw Ebrima next to Skye, one kitted as normal, the other clad in nothing but a PLA officer's coat. "What the fuck?" His voice pierced, the LMG staying high, just in shock horror. "Boaro, this is..." "Skye Lyons to you. Zhao activated a dead man's switch the moment we hit his office. Only reason I'm alive is because PLA forces killed the bastard before we got him and Boaro made sure I came back to life. In another body mind. It's an extremely long story. But believe me....it gets more messed up. It's like being hungover." Skye retorted with dry humour, knowing Ebrima most likely wanted to explain, but it needed to come from her accent. Her voice, her sound. "How in the fuck is it possible? This is a miracle, it's....it's exactly like her." Adam retorted, his slight break in English coming through, as Skye shook her head, still wrapping her head around it. "Well, it turns out I've got the neural link bedded into my head, same as hers, different body. Local transfer, and it near enough went instantly." Skye retorted, as Adam kept the LMG in a position to fire, but lowered. "Holy shit." Adam barked, as Skye shook her head. "Yeah." Skye dryly commented back, the silence broken by gunfire in the distance, as Adam broke to the next topic, almost unable to keep forming any rational thought, interrupted by another rattle of the bunker, from whatever the hell was going on outside. "Sure you aren't going to do what....well, do what she does?" Adam asked, as Skye shrugged. "I have no idea. Dying's new to me, and fuck knows if there are any more bodies. Or if he pulled a gambit on me, before one of them popped a few rounds in his head. I don't know, Adam. This is all a bit fucking mental. All I know is, they wanted to make sure Zhao was dead before us." Skye replied, as she drew attention to matters at hand. "We need to regroup. Shadow should be going after the hostages....Artemis troops will be looking after them, so they won't give up easy given they're on Rose's payroll. Or else, any chance we have of a launch is off the cards." Skye retorted, coming back into focus, standing up, just about, Adam walking over, checking her over, head at level with Ebrima in his exo as he snapped his eyes at his. "I fucking know what you did, Ebrima. And I hate to admit it....but it was the right thing to do. We stick to her story. Or else we all fucked. We'll figure out where this rabbit hole goes when this is finished." Adam coldly retorted in his typically Polish accented voice, looking to Skye, curious to see her thoughts. "You have a long term plan given our situation?" "Kill the bitch up there, after that, I have concepts of one." Skye retorted, Adam chuckling, shaking his head as he scooted a AK-12 off one of the dead Artemis mercs and passed it up to her, along with a vest. "That will be enough for now." Adam looked to Ebrima, loading in a new box, checking the FN over. "No more contacts left down here. But there's another path to the control room, more of them between us and them. I'm going to need help. Boaro, you with me?"