"How long have I been out?"

"It's been about 2 hours miss Terra."

"And what happened to Dax?"

"He left, said he was gonna be back in a few days to complete the treatment or remove the prosthetics, Russell had meetings to attend so he left me in my care."

"Like he always does, give me a hand will you?"

Extending her prosthetic hand towards the head maid Elise, it was not meet.

"Russell have instructed me that you remain in bed until he returns."

"Is that really so?"

Standing up on her own, Terra quickly put on some light clothes.

"Where's my sword?"

"Did you hear what I said?"

"Yeah I did, just decided not to care about it

"Please stay in bed! Don't your new limbs hurt!?"

As Elise desperately gasped her hand as she was about to leave in search of her sword, Terra momentarily stopped as she breathed a sigh.

"Yes it hurts, like always. It constantly feels like my face is on fire and my arm and leg cry out in pain constantly."

"Then why do this!?"

"Because I'm done waiting for someone to fix this for me, done just stuffing while doing absolutely nothing, I'll make myself stronger, even if there is suffering in the way of it I hope I'll get to a place eventually where there's no pain."

"Is that really what you believe?"

"Yes."

As Terra answered with absolute determination in her voice and posture, Elise saw most of her memories raising Terra to adulthood in place of her mother. All the pain and suffering, happiness and joy.

(You've finally recovered my lady, no raised above even.)

Shedding a single tear, Elise once more voved her loyalty to Terra in her head.

"In that case I'll take whatever punishment Russell will have for me miss Terra. Do you need any a.s.sistance?"

"Do you know where my gear is? And not just my sword."

"Your armor was given on to a promising young ranger, only the sword was kept. Should I collect it and meet you at the training fields?"

Instead of answering Terra remained silent as she s.h.i.+fted her head slightly.

"Who's sleeping in the 4th guest room?"

"That would be miss Alice."

"Hungover?"

"Extremly."

"Change of plans."

---

"UUUuuuuuUUuuuurg, ah my f.u.c.king head..."

Waking up in a unknown room, Alice was. .h.i.t with a head splitting headache and immediately turned you the bed she laid in and hurled, right into a tacticaly placed bucket. Thankfully she didn't puke on her hair, as it had been tied up, but that didn't make her feel better at all as she started to remember what happened earlier.

"Why does this always happen when I drink.."

Feeling her head splitting open and throat completely dried out, Alice regretted being lured into drinking by Dax and quietly promised to never drink again, but youth being youth that would never last.

"Water."

With a weak and hoa.r.s.e voice Alice feebly asked for water to sate hangover induced thirst, looking around the high cla.s.s guest room she found a crystal pitcher and gla.s.s both filled clear, pure and cold looking water.

"Thank all that's holy in this cruel world"

Drinking the gla.s.s of water, Alice's body reminded her that she had just puked up all her stomach contents with a large rumble.

"Food..."

Controlled completely by her basic functions, her body required water, shelter and food. Having filled the first two requirements her body now sought the its last need.

Looking around the room she didn't find any however, and she was about to embark on a quest of epic proportions when the door opened.

"You really sound do pathetic."

Taking the form of her salvation was Terra, Alice's long time friend and former senior instructor and teacher that she went through countless life and death situations with. That werry Terra now stood in front of her, looking like a holy savior, food in hand.

"Teeerraaa!"

Forgetting her own hangover, and the food her savior currently held in her hand, Alice leapt at her holy savior.

"WHA!-"

Not expecting the mostly incapacitated Alice to leap at her, Alice hit Terra with high a speed hug and tackled her to the floor, with food included.

"Kyaa! Alice get off me!"

"Teerraaa!!"

"You really are a crybaby… Okay, just a few minutes."

"More!"

"...."

"Meanie!"

"... Fine. Let's take a bath after..."

After patting the crying Alice on the back for a few minutes, Terra and Alice realized that they were both covered in food and went to the bathhouse to clean and sober up.

"That arm really looks like Dax's.. How is it?"

As they both got in the bath, Alise took the opportunity to examine Terra's new arm.

"It's almost too good to be honest, I've forgotten multiple times already that it's not my own. It's the same with my leg too."

"You mean you can there's actual feeling in them?"

"Yeah. Has something to do with this collar, but I don't quite understand it. All I know is that it hurt really, really bad."

"I-is that so? Dax really is amazing."

"Oh not you too Alice… Why do everyone think he's so good?"

"T-that's…"

Not finding the words, Alice sank quiet as her face slowly reddened.

"Are you for real... Why?"

"H-he's…. Nice"

(Oh for f.u.c.ks sake… And her heartbeat is all over the place so it's real.)

"Oh lord.. So have you made any moves yet at least?"

"N-no.. Oh s.h.i.+t I did"

"What do you mean oh s.h.i.+t?... Don't tell me you had too much to drink and did something really stupid?"

"UUuuuuuuuuu"

"For real?"

Breathing a sigh at the pathetic state of the young gra.s.shopper in front of her, Terra decided to give some advice.

"So what did you do?"

"I-I made him pat my head.."

"..."

"and compliment my dress when I was drunk.."

"..."

"P-please say something."

"..."

"Terra? Please say something"

"Can I hit you now?"

Over the next few days Alice and Terra couldn't be separated as they spent time training, bathing and even sleeping together while the two old friends once more where together again. Moving around Russell's back with the help of Elise, and Terra's s.p.a.cial awareness, Alice quickly learned that Terra's 'sight' might even surpa.s.s her own, and she once more grew to respect and relay on her.

"Like this?"

"No you're not using all your muscles still, twist and flex. And remember you back too."

"O-okay"

Finding themself at the training field once more, Terra instructed Alice that practiced swordswings. A bit away from them Russell sat and looked over paperwork while being served tea by Elise and pretending not to look at his daughter.

"This really feels strange.."

"That's because your not used to it, I can clearly hear way more of your muscles."

"Yeah I do feel like I'm striking with more strength, could you show me how?"

"Fine.."

Grabbing her own sword as she stood up, Terra striked the air in front of her a few times with considerable force.

"Like that?.."

"Why are you asking me?"

"I'm really not sure myself.. Like this? Or more like that?"

Cutting into the air in front of herself a few more times, Terra started experimenting with her own style of fighting.

"I feel like my strength is dropping, am I sick?.. No it's my prosthetics."

Examining her prosthetics, Terra noticed they were considerably worn, on the outside there were several spots where small parts had chipped off, and on the inside she felt like the joints were worn down considerably.

(s.h.i.+t.. When was it Dax was returning?)

Dax had left in a apparent fit of rage a few days ago, but Terra refused to believe that was the only reason. Every single time Dax had done something there had always been multiple reasons behind. And in Terra's opinion he had never acted out of emountion, no he was a being of pure logic when it came to furthering his own objectives. In Terra's opinion he would often act entirely without empathy when it wasn't entirely needed, as he had done so when dealing with her a lot.

But then it happened.

"What the h.e.l.l is that!?"

"It feels ominous.."

"WHA!- Elise contact the guard core at the outer wall now and have them mobilize at full aleat!! I will handle the inner guards! And you girls stay put, that's a direct order!"

A event suddenly swept the entire town of Black Hollow, every single mana sensitive resident felt a wave of disturbed and hostile mana flow over the city. Feeling calamity coming to the town, every single resident of the Williams estate reacted instantly to the state of emergency. Every single maid employed by the estate were former mercenaries, monster hunter or rangers, and they all sprang into immediate action. While 7 out of 10 went out into town to secure key locations that had long been predetermined and to start evacuation of exposed areas. The last part equiped heavy armor and weaponry and locked down the estate with veteran and dence killing intent. Having witnessed everyone except for themself spring into action, it took about 20 seconds for Alice and Terra to break Russell's instructions.

"What should we do?"

"Contact Dax."

"Agreed, but how?"

"He has that disgusting habit of surprising people with dose 'drones' right?"

"I'm not sure if it's 'disgusting' but what's your point?"

"There's still one of them left here right?"

"Ah."

Going over to the nearby storehouse that Dax had turned into a depo, Alice nervously knocked on the door, not getting a response.

"Are you sure there was one left behind?"

"Yeah I'm sure. And I can hear something moving around inside, let's just go in"

Opening the door, Alice and Terra found the room almost completely empty, only a small amount of sc.r.a.ps metals, the zero-g forge and a single drone remained.

[LEVEL 4 RESTRICTION IN EFFECT. VACATE OR FACE ANAIHILATION, YOU HAVE 5 SECONDS TO COMPLY.]

Pointing a powered gauss rifle at the closest target, the drone counted down in a highly mechanical voice.

"WAITWAITWAIT!! We need to speak with Dax, It's a engency!"

"There's a serious problem so we need to talk now!"

[SUBJECT, 'ALICE' AND 'DISAPPOINTMENT' CONFIRMED. LIFTING LEVEL 4 RESTRICTION.]

"I feel like that's a jab intensually meant to spite me, so not reacting would be the best option.. So can we talk with Dax?"

While silently containing her rage over the fact that Dax had in fact labeled her 'disappointment' Terra kept her focus and asked about what they came there to do.

"[I love how you always react exactly as I want, but then again that is a bit boring for a toy~ And I am aware of the current situation so just say put like the kids you are and the grown up people will deal with it.]"

"Dax you f.u.c.king!-"

"So you did hear us! Dax please return to Black hollow immediately!"

"[Already in route, you kids stay put. CODE BLACK NOW IN EFFECT - 5 REX DELTA 04, 20 GUARDIAN SPECTORS ADDED TO ARCHITECTURE, ALL RAM AND PROCESSING POWER INTEGRATED. TOTAL CONTROL HANDOVER COMPLETE. ICI ENTERING SLEEP MODE]"

As Dax's voice that came through the drone s.h.i.+fted completely mechanical, the drone left the storeroom and started sprinting towards the outer wall, leaving Terra and Alice behind in the room.

"Well that settles it. Let go get something to eat."

"Yeah you do that, I'll go ahead to the outer wall. You can join me if you feel like it"

"But Dax said-"

"Dax said that kids should wait here, so you do that if you feel like it."

Finally finding her sword, and finis.h.i.+ng up strapping basic leather armor over torso, Terra turned her head one last time towards Alice to see if she was following.

"OKAY, But this is a really bad idea!"

Both of them spending about twice the normal time to reach the outer wall because of all the panic and mobilization of troops. Reaching the top of the wall, they quickly found someone in charge.

"What are we up against?"

"Worst case scenario I'm afraid."