Cambio Protocol? More like Cambi-Oh, every last trace of your organization's been trashed- Protocol

[pulledplug]

Well... I guess we did it.

[Even with Beatrice defeated and now getting to spend the rest of her life in a world that had rejected her attempts at "improvement" at every turn, and VIPER similarly thrashed, Roy's really not feeling entirely at 100%.  And that's not just because his drone body's got tons of cybernetics showing and the Wagner proper's in need of getting patched upa gain.]

'cept...well...

Ya know when you think about it, Dakova was like my second parent.  Boss man wouldn't have made me without it, couldn't have even made me in a million years.  And we couldn't have stopped Finally-Out-Of-Tricks like we did without it.



And then there's Jen and everything with... with Nancy the Nasty Ninja still.  Like yeah... she saved a crapton of people and made that ninjalady finally pay for everything but like...

There's all those clones out there, right?  Things being all set up so they just think they've gotta pick up the torch some day and be total psycho hose-beasts just because that's how the original was.

And you know?  That's... just not fair.

Comments

[holdthefuture]

[Lenore nods at that last bit.]

I almost feel lucky that my originals aren't like her...

[pulledplug]

Yeah. They're really cool people.

An' so're you.

[Have an outstretched fist held out to offer for a fistbump.]

Thanks for helping everyone out there too.

[holdthefuture]

[She stares at the fist awkwardly for a second... then reaches out to put her hand on it. This is what you're supposed to do, right?]

I still owe everyone here for what happened before...so, it's the least I could do.

...Are you going to be okay?

[pulledplug]

[... That's... well that's SOMETHING you can do. But Roy's not gonna correct her right now.]

I'll manage. Least I think I will.

This body's got a pretty long-lasting batteries, so the mechanics got all the time in the world to fix up the Wagner.

But regarding the other stuff? Like... who we lost? I'm just gonna have to. Jen and Dakova made their choices to help save everyone. Like... if Dakova hadn't decided to just take that dive, I woulda been toast too.

And I wouldn't want you or anyone else getting too bent outta shape that I'd had to die to help save the world. Not gonna call for a party or anything but we're all okay 'cuz of them. I'm gonna respect that and appreciate it and not take it for granted, you know?

[holdthefuture]

I know...but I can't exactly help it.

Dakova was being controlled all that time too. I wish there was another way, but this is better than that woman using it as she pleases.

[pulledplug]

Yeah...

And besides...

It came back once before. The whole thing was... really weird, and our ideas on life and everyhing was as weird to it as it was to us.

Maybe in some way it's still out there?

[holdthefuture]

Maybe.

After all that though, I don't blame it if it wants to take a break for a while.

[star_of_sad]

No. It isn't. It really isn't fair.

I guess there's nothing fair about the world. We can only try to make it more fair. But it's rarely easy.

[pulledplug]

Got that right. And it sucks but...

... Well if it were easy for us, it wouldn't be fair for everyone else, right?

[star_of_sad]

I wouldn't mind if it was easy every once in a while.

Say... do you think there were many of those clones prepared?

[pulledplug]

Well, maybe but Miss McNinja also certainly was only going so far as to say "I'll return to wreck your stuff someday!" And if they were ready, she might've been cool with dying then and there.

[star_of_sad]

She sounds really arrogant.

She was looking down on VIPER the whole time, wasn't she? And it's true that they were really horrible people, and did things in ways that were far from efficient too.

But I think she'll find it really hard, to do anything by herself - without help of other people at all.

[pulledplug]

Yeah...

Well... she'll have an even harder time too since we know that's what she wanted to do. And maybe even stop it before it gets going.

[star_of_sad]

You're right. Cambio Protocol might be gone, but that doesn't mean our work is done yet.

And that means, we'll do our best to make the world a safer place.

[brought_it_back]

She'll try to do this again, you know.

Beatrice.

[pulledplug]

Yeah, she'll try. And then she'll get to see "oh wait, I'm totally alone and that freaky alien I enslaved chose death over helping me and blah blah blah blah".

Hope she breaks down crying after that.

'sides, that all hinges on her not getting executed for all the crap she pulled.

the feeling of getting dumber just by talking to someone

[brought_it_back]

...she was able to attract allies the first time around...

...I suppose I'll have to settle for pushing for her execution, then...Though I'd prefer if things hadn't come to this.

[pulledplug]

Well, the thing is she didn't "attract" allies at all. She just tried to pick up the pieces after I killed her boss lady Lilian. And she ran it all into the ground.

And yeah, she's gotta pay, don't get me wrong. But I wasn't just going to let her die up there like some sort of soap opera end to some beautiful dream of hers. That'd be way too easy. Way too soft on the crap she did with messing with people's brains and then going "oh, this'll make the world a better place!"

She's gonna see that the world gets better on its own, through actual effort and people respecting each other. The world she thought she was better than's gonna be the one to pass the sentence.

[cloningblues]

Killing Dakova... Felt like we put it out of its misery.

[pulledplug]

We were. And it sucks... but maybe it's still alive somehow since it was so unlike everything on Earth?

... Probably not but... I wanna believe that. None of this was its fault, and it deserved a heck of a lot better.

[cloningblues]

If it's alive, hopefully it's somewhere else. It wasn't its intention, but Dakova's presence on Earth still caused lots of suffering.

...We still know so little about that creature, huh.