Chapter Text
For once, Elsie isn’t alone on her solo patrols.
There’s someone else with her. They're an unusual company. An exoframe fashioned after an eliksni, four-armed and towering, has been watching Elsie from a distance. They haven’t acted hostile, or tried to get close, so Elsie continued to mostly ignore them. They were both in the Deep Stone Crypt. They both felt like intruders. Elsie occasionally glanced over her shoulder at the stranger.
It was impossible to tell their gender. Or there was a way, and Elsie wasn’t familiar enough with Eliksni anatomy to spot it. Or whatever tell Eliksni possessed hadn't made it onto this one’s exobody. She didn’t know. This one, the ‘Exoliksni’ as The Drifter would probably label them, was always a couple dozen feet off. She could tell they were in some later stages of DER- past the point BrayTech would usually reset exo- by their movements. Sometimes they would get too used to walking and fall into the pattern, running into a wall. Sometimes she wouldn’t hear them behind her, and turn around to see the poor thing turn to face her, then turn back. Over and over, until something broke them out of their trance. It was dying. A death unique to exos and likely a first for their kind, but a death nonetheless.
Elsie herself wasn’t too well off, either. One of her arms was under her cloak in a makeshift sling, one of the motors had broken. The motor in this arm was unbelievably stubborn. It kept giving out against her own gun recoil, or when she caught herself with that arm, or when she exerted it in any way whatsoever. The damn thing had finally given up when she took a tumble recently. So she was off to one of the last places with fresh exo parts. ‘Fresh’ was maybe too nice a word, ‘not weathered beyond use’ would be more accurate. Exo parts were getting harder to come by as the years ticked on. Hell, mortal exo were getting hard to come by. Elsie basically only had Banshee left, the others she knew had died. Then come back again, in some cases. But guardians didn’t need spare parts, so the supplies continued to dwindle. Turns out man-made immortality was far more complicated than what it said on the tin.
Maybe she liked the strange eliksni. She usually absolutely loathed being in The Deep Stone Crypt. It felt like cutting an old scar back open, being in these old halls again. They only got more ruined as time went on. And she knew some of the corpses littering the ground. Every time she saw a familiar name and number she looked away and pressed onward. With the eliksni here, she wasn’t alone this time. Even if she didn’t know their name. Or why they hadn’t tried to kill her yet.
She stopped, turning around and entering a door mostly neglected by guardian and salvation raiders alike. It led to spare exobody storage, the corpses she wouldn’t feel bad taking apart. She almost let the door close behind her, then thought about the eliksni. Maybe they needed something, too. Their entire exobody was nonstandard, but maybe they could salvage something. Elsie stuck her arm to keep the door open, and nodded to the eliksni.
They tilted their head, chittering something. Elsie didn’t have a clue what they just said.
“Go on. I won’t hurt you if you don’t hurt me.” She responded as if they could understand. They didn’t.
The Eliksni’s head remained tilted. They both stood still. They pointed to Elsie and spoke, then pointed through the door. She remained still.
“C'est en sécurité là-dedans, je le jure.” Elsie spoke in French. It had been ages since she spoke with anything other than modern pigeon in any extended form. It’s not like what language she spoke mattered. The Eliksni wouldn’t understand either way.
There was another series of chitters that Elsie simply could not understand. The Eliksni finally walked through the door. Elsie followed after them. They walked side-by-side through the dark corridors in an uneasy silence. It was almost pitch black, but both were exo, so that didn’t matter much.
“Cet endroit était rempli de scientifiques,” Elsie started, still speaking French for the sake of comfort. “Jusqu'à l'arrivée des Vex. C'est entièrement la faute de Clovis, il a fait ça.”
Despite it being meaningless venting, the Eliksni perked up at a few familiar words. They repeated ‘Vex’ back at Elsie, pointing to a corpse in a test tube. Elsie nodded, pointing at the corpse and repeating the word back to the Eliksni. They both nodded at each other, then kept walking onwards.
Eventually, Elsie came to stop when she spotted an exo corpse laid on a table nearby. When she turned, the Eliksni kept walking. They kept walking until they tripped and had to recalibrate, realizing Elsie had turned. They rushed back to see what had stopped her. Elsie had set one of her bags of tools on the dead exo’s torso, blocking his smooth crotch for the sake of his non-existent privacy.
The Eliksni knelt at Elsie’s side, trying to lower to her level. They chittered at her.
“Son nom était Flame-3. Je ne le connaissais pas.” She remarked. She didn’t know if that was the question, and the Eliksni wouldn’t know if that was the answer.
The Eliksni pointed at the corpse, then at Elsie, then at themself. They clicked at Elsie again. Then they pointed at themself. “ Atraks. ” She spoke.
Elsie mimicked the motion. “Elsie-” Here she paused, then held up one finger to mark version. Atraks copied the finder motion, Elsie was pretty sure she missed what it meant. Which made sense, with how she was moving. This would probably be good for the poor Eliksni, working around the language barrier would keep her mind working a little harder.
She pulled one of Flame-3’s arms away from his body, awkwardly unscrewing the forearm panel with one hand. “J'ai besoin de pièces de rechange. Il n'a plus besoin du sien.”
Atraks extended one claw, holding the limb steady. Elsie thanked her, for as little as they understood each other, and pulled the panel off. She started unplugging the desired motor, fumbling with her lack of arms to accomplish the task at hand. Atraks had an overabundance of the desired limbs, but no idea what to do with them. Elsie was sure Artaks could figure that out, if she had figured out how to operate the various machines required to become an exo, but she didn’t know what Elsie was after. Or how to find it.
“Now what are you up to?” The Crow suddenly spoke from a few paces in.
“Putain de merde!” Elsie shouted, jumping up from her spot. Atraks let out a similarly startled series of chirps, reaching for her gun.
The Crow responded in his own series of chirps, pulling his gun. Atraks snorted, chittering something at him. Elsie firmly gripped the table, glancing between The Crow and Atraks. She said something to Elsie in Eliksni. Elise looked at The Crow, who told Atraks something, still in Eliksni.
“Je ne sais pas ce que vous dites.” She spoke in French on reflex. Atraks nodded knowingly, as if she understood a word Elsie just said.
“Come on, I know for a fact you can speak english!” He leveled his gun at Elsie. She started to slide down the table, reaching around for something to threaten him back with. “And you’re the exo expert here, so what’s going on?”
“How the fuck did you find me?” Elsie snapped, finally grabbing what she wanted- the standard gun stashed inside most BrayTech worktables. In case of Vex incident. It was a small, weak gun. She could wield it with one hand, and if she shot right, she’d take down The Crow and give herself time to run while Glint revived him, and that’s what mattered.
“Come on, you know better than to do that.” He took a step forward. Elsie tried to scramble backwards.
“Don’t come any closer!” She snarled like a wounded animal. In a way, she was. She didn’t know how he had found her or what he wanted, but she wanted him gone.
Atraks backed her up, stepping her massive body between The Crow and Elsie. She growled at the Guardian, clicking out something unhappily. The Crow clicked and chirped right back. As the two spoke, Elsie swung her legs over the workbench and booked it. Atraks tried to move to block The Crow, but he jumped over her. Elsie kept running, trying to do the calculations to figure out if her exobody was in shape to outpace a lightbearer. Atraks probably was. But Atrax was currently scrabbling to chase after The Crow, she couldn’t get between him and Elsie before he caught up.
“Why do you have to be so jumpy?” He sounded exasperated as he ran after her. “And who’s your friend? And again, what are you doing here?”
Elsie turned a corner, and vanished into a different timeline. Timeline-jumps were useful in an emergency. In this timeline, the station was practically untouched. Like a floating mausoleum to unethical science experiments. She ventured in the opposite direction, walking past the now empty workbench, and vanished back to her current timeline. Distantly, she could hear The Crow curse as he looked for her. She had just panicked back there. Hard. He probably hadn’t meant anything by it.
“Sorry!” Elsie called as she walked back towards him. She couldn’t see Atraks anymore, either. She might’ve slipped away in the commotion. “You spooked me.”
“I’m used to that.” The Crow sighed, turning back towards Elsie. “Do you know where your friend went?”
“Atraks? No.” Elsie shrugged. “When you know this place well enough there’s plenty of places to hide.”
“To hide a full grown Eliksni made of metal?” The Crow raised an eyebrow. “Also, can Exo teleport? Because that’s what I just watched you two do.”
“What? No. I didn’t teleport. And she probably just used a transmat.” Elsie walked back towards Flame-3’s corpse, deciding she didn’t need to elaborate to The Crow.
“What do you mean you didn’t teleport? I saw you vanish and then you reappeared over there.” The Crow followed along after her. “Is that invisibility? Did you turn invisible?”
“Yeah, sure, close enough.” Elsie used her one working arm to check that the motor remained undamaged. The Crow was hovering, that somehow bothered her more than Atraks hovering. He watched her struggle with the part for a while.
“You’re hurt, aren’t you?” The Crow remarked. Elsie remained silent. “I’m sure someone could help you in The Last City. You don’t have to pull apart a corpse just to feel better.”
“There’s wait times in The Tower. And besides, they get all their parts from scavenging too.” Elsie finally freed the motor, holding it up to inspect it. She then stashed the motor in her bag, carefully wrapping it in a rag.
“Can’t we make parts?” He asked.
“It’s Golden Age tech, Crow. And it’s specialty tech. It’s hard to make, easier to scavenge. Not to mention, most mortal exo have learned to repair themselves by now.” Elsie paused in thought, thinking about Atraks. She couldn’t have been an exo for very long, could she?
As if on que, Atraks materialized next to Elsie and lifted The Crow off the ground by the back of his cloak, growling at him. Elsie whipped around, staring at the two, dazed. There was a short conversation, and The Crow was dropped back on the ground.
“She wants to make sure you trust me.” The Crow gasped.
“He won’t do anything stupid, if he knows what’s good for him.” Elsie nodded. Atraks huffed as The Crow translated.
“She says she’ll trust you on that much. She also wants to know what you’re looking for.” The Crow spoke for Atraks.
“You can tell her I’m injured, and there’s no good place for repairs. Atraks, are you also here for maintenance?” Elsie sat on the workbench, taking her broken arm out of its sling. Her shoulder and hand still worked fine, but watching her elbow limply move with gravity was unnerving. Both Atraks and The Crow flinched at the sight.
“I keep forgetting your mortal.” The Crow remarked. Elsie rolled her eyes. “But, anyway, Atraks says she’s here to get parts for her Warren. Says there’s more… pale-shelled ones, I think she means exo?”
“More…? Atraks, if they are machines like you, they are Exo. I’m not sure what set of equipment you’re using, but have you got anything for resets?” Elsie asked. Atraks tilted her head as The Crow translated the question back to her.
“She doesn’t know what a reset is. Actually, I’m not sure if I’m clear on what a reset is, either.”
“That’s inconvenient. So- do you know what DER- short for Dissociative Exomind Rejection, is?” Elsie asked. Again Atraks shook her head. “Great. That… explains why you have it. So you didn’t always used to be an exo, right? DER is when your brain realizes that you aren’t in your body anymore. You develop a Cotard Delusion.”
“Cotard Delusion?” The Crow asked. Mostly for himself, but Atraks didn’t know either.
“So you know how you feel like you’re a walking corpse? Like you’ve already died?” Elsie asked. When Crow translated, Atraks looked startled, nodding. “That’s a Cotard Delusion. Your brain isn’t getting the same signals back from your body, so it’s assumed that you died. That you are a walking corpse, and you are immortal, since something cannot die twice. It’s one of the later symptoms of DER, it’s before your brain fully rejects your body but after the point of no return.”
“If it was just- say, getting caught on sentences every now and then, you could delay it. If you treat a case like, I don’t know, zoochosis, and give yourself things to distract from your body. But once you’ve got symptoms they don’t go away. And it progresses, you know how you keep walking without realizing you're still moving? That means it’s time for a reset. Hopefully, a reset will fix DER for good, but no guarantees. You might need your exobody tweaked, if it doesn’t fit right.”
“Elsie, what the fuck?” The Crow stared at her, wide-eyed. Atraks had a similar expression next to him. “What do you mean- is that, like, normal for exos?”
“Resets? Not unless you’re Banshee.” Elsie shook her head. “And DER hardly happens anymore. I think Ghosts stop the exomind rejection, and the rest of us have just been around too damn long for it to be a risk anymore.”
“Atraks wants to know what a reset is.” The Crow translated.
“Oh, this is probably going to sound… almost worse then DER? But I swear, it’s harmless.” Elsie thought for a moment. “But a reset is going to cut out a part of your memories. Not quite all of them, the vague feelings you get from things and people still remain, but everything else is just… suppressed.” Elsie waved her hands vaguely. “I swear, they’re fine. I’ve had… one and a half, just about. Most have more, I got lucky with my exobody.”
The Crow and Atraks looked at each other after he finished translating. Then Elsie. Then back at each other, then back at Elsie. “...Do I want to know what half a reset is?”
“Oh, that. I tried… something, not sure what. So Clovis cut the memories of what I did and how I did it out of my brain. Clovis Bray I, he built Braytech.” Elsie shrugged. “Half-resets don’t really happen anymore. They were more for corporate convenience then functionality, that’s why they don’t increase your number.”
Atraks seemed to process this as The Crow relayed it to her, turning and snapping something in eliksni at Elsie. She flinched back. Elsie was still wounded and Atraks was still far, far larger than her. Any sort of conflict could end badly. Before Atraks could lunge, or make any sort of aggressive move, The Crow put himself between the two. There was a short conversation, during which, Elsie pressed herself further against the workbench.
“She wants to know if it’s really necessary to forget everything. If you know how big of an ask it is to leave behind her people.” The Crow looked at Elsie like she was the one who’d said something wrong.
“I didn’t say that! I know resets and DER are all alarming and scary, but it’s all standard process with Exos!” Elsie defended herself. “And you’ve already had one! That -1 in your name? That’s a counter for resets!”
Atraks growls, picking Elsie up by the neck and slamming her against a nearby wall. Elsie yelped in alarm, and The Crow began furiously chittering, trying to get Atraks to set Elsie down. There was an entire conversation happening, but she couldn’t understand, or really care to try. She yelled, struggling against Atraks. She wasn’t being choked, she didn’t have airways to choak, but Atraks was still definitely capable of dealing damage to her. Or killing her. Elsie had experienced her fair share of close calls with regular mortal eliksni captains, and with two functioning arms she could usually force herself free. But against another Exo who was easily twice her size? That wasn’t happening. Unfortunately, it was human instinct to kick and scream when held up by the neck. This was incredibly painful, even if non-lethal.
The structure on Atraks’ back unfolded and twisted, and her whole body lit up with Arc energy. Elsie screamed, writhing in pain as her systems began to automatically shut themselves off. She began to flicker across realities, unable to concentrate enough to escape to any one timeline but desperate enough to try. Maybe this was were this loop ended, though. Maybe she’d have to try again.
Before Elsie could begin to spiral, The Crow fired a shot, and Atraks tossed Elsie to the side. She banged against the wall, hitting the ground with a clatter. She yelled in pain, a brand new array of injuries lighting up across her systems. There was more banging, shots being fired, the sounds of two people trying to duke it out. She attempted to worm herself off to the side, since standing up was no longer an option. Her balance module was shot, and she could feel that something in her spine had come loose. Plus the busted elbow. The wrist in her already damaged arm was now also broken, so instead of trying to tuck the arm away, she let it drag after her as she wormed towards a corner. Bullets hit the wall above her.
There was the sound of electricity crackling, and Atraks vanished. The Crow ran over scooping up Elsie and yelling at Glint to transmat them both to his ship. Elsie shouted something about needing to grab parts from the dead exo nearby, but The Crow ignored her, frantically trying to pack a bandage into a radiolaria leak flowing out from a joint in her side. Elsie groaned, grabbing The Crow’s arm to stop him.
“That’s a joint, it’ll hurt like a motherfucker if you stick anything in there.” She spoke, removing the edge of the bandage from under her armor. “If you’re worried about radiolaria contamination, just cover the leak and put me in something solid.”
“I’m not worried about that! You’re hurt!” He smacked her hand out of the way. “And this is like- basically your blood, right?”
“Yeah, but the leak’s in my spine, that’s just the closest joint.” Her vision was starting to get blurry. She dismissed several pop-ups about incoming and complete emergency system shut-downs. “The Drifter knows how to fix a leak and stick Radiolaria into something. I’ll be fine. I’ll just pass out first.”
“That sounds like blood loss!”
“ Exo blood loss, we’re better at that!” She protested. The Crow finally just tied the bandage around her side, listening to her advice. He picked her up, teleporting them both onto his ship.
She was out cold by the time they were both aboard.