Through the heart

[jianai]

[1 - locked to Argos Flight]
[Immediately after the mission ends, someone is checking on VG's downed TSF.

VG himself can see a weird person appearing in the entrance to the cockpit, looking at him with a concerned expression.]

Are you wounded? I know you didn't die, but it'd be a shame if you were hurt because of me.

[2]
[Later, back at Unity Group Bases, someone is making a video introduction.

That someone is an individual with horns and an unchanging smile on their face. Ren switched the old robe to standard, baggy technician overalls. The reason for that is simple: the robe had a gunshot hole at the heart, and was stained with blood - Ren's blood.]

Hello, my name is Ren Ubuntu. I am really grateful for saving those ESUN soldiers. Let me explain. Hmm, where should I start? Ah yes. These...

[Poke at the horns.]

They are real. No, I am not a demon or anything supernatural like that. I am an artificial human-like being, birthed from a cloning pod. I'm afraid that my kin, beings similar to me, are after me. They want to, well, kill me and eat my flesh. I am not too concerned for my own safety, but they started to target people around me as collateral.

So I'm turning to you for help. I know Unity Group is powerful and can defend itself against my kin, and your Commander-in-chief agreed to grant me asylum, at least for a little while. I have a little bit of skills I learnt here and there, so don't worry, I won't be a freeloader. If there is a way I can help you with anything, I will.

This introduction feels... impersonal, but I'll gladly talk to everyone in person. I'd like to get to know all of you better.

I'm sure you are all wonderful people.

[The transmission ends there, but Ren is easy to find in person. They don't exactly blend in with the crowd.]

[3]
Several people have died that night. So many more could've perished, but even that few make me sad. It's a tragedy.

[Ren found the memorial, and puts a lit candle in front of it.]

I know most of them were not members of Unity Group, but I hope it's alright if I remember them this way.

Comments

[empress_without_a_throne]

It's fine. You're the one who set up the candle, after all. And there's a difference between doing something in memorial for the dead and obsessively throwing yourself into something in the aftermath...

[Be it excessively crying or damn-near destroying yourself through brutal training.]

You seem like someone who's put a lot of thought into this sort of thing.

[jianai]

You could say that. I have witnessed a lot of suffering during my years of life.

But also a lot of joy and other wonderful things.

[empress_without_a_throne]

Indeed it does. In spite of my... contradictory nature to most life on this planet, I've still managed to get by too.

[She points to her ears.]

These aren't fake.

[jianai]

So you're not a human either, I take it?

[empress_without_a_throne]

No. Rather... you can think of me being on the opposite side of a coin face that represents humanity. My story's a bit longer than yours was though... though the gist of it was I was meant to be just another weapon in an entity's war against Earth.

While I was still "in development" as it were though that war got scrapped. Ironically I wound up being taken in by the very people that I could've wound up trying to kill.

[jianai]

It sounds like there is a long and interesting story to tell here. I'd love to hear it, whenever you have the time.

Do you enjoy it? Living among humanity, even though you are not one of its kind?

[empress_without_a_throne]

Well... there are things that I wish weren't issues because they can be irritating; how myself and things associated with the Sun don't really get along very well. But humanity as a whole isn't one of those things.

It's thanks to them that I've had friends, a reliable source of safe food, and the chance to do something good of my own free will.

[jianai]

I feel really happy for you!

I wish everyone would be willing to put their differences aside and live together like that.