Girls' Frontline Fanfiction: Tsar of the Mountain

Alone With You, 150 Miles Away

"...Mmm?" Zeldri cracked open his eyes as his phone's alarm clock rang on the nightstand next to him. Picking up the phone, he saw that it was six-thirty in the morning. "...Time to get to work," he half yawned out as he sat up and got out of bed. It had been two days since he opened sub-level five, and Zeldri once more went through the events of that night in his mind. The reveal of the Heart of the Mountain. The papers he'd collected from that room still sat on the table in his room where he left them after returning for the night. Their existence, both the papers and the Heart, could not be revealed. "...Just what the hell did you expect me to do with this, dad?" Zeldri complained to his reflection as he finished brushing his teeth. The reflection gave no answer. Luckily, no one else was with him when he entered sub-level five so no one likely knew it was opened, or that he had the codes since he made sure to immediately return to his room after he collected the papers...right? "...?" That was right, wasn't it? He opened the door, saw the Heart, collected the papers, and returned to his room. Nothing else happened. So, why did he -

"Commander?" A voice and knock came from his door, interrupting his thoughts. When Zeldri opened the door he was met with AA-12 standing in the hall with a rather bored expression on her face. "You shouldn't think about difficult things too much."

"...What?" Zeldri's train of thought was gone so he tried to focus on why AA-12 was in front of his room.

"You have this look on your face like you're thinking about something annoying." She popped a sucker into her mouth. "It's too early for that."

"I see..." The AA-12 line, from what he'd read, had a pension for being lazy, so he guessed their words were coming from that. "Unfortunately, as the commander of this base, annoying things are usually in the forefront of my thoughts as that usually indicates something's wrong." She stepped aside to let him exit his room and the two started walking down the hallway.

"Hmm." The sucker clacked around in her mouth as she continued to follow him. "Sounds like a waste of time."

"In your eyes, maybe. That said," Zeldri glanced back at the t-doll to see that she wasn't particularly rushing and instead seemed to be meandering behind him, "Was there something you needed from me, AA-12?"

"Nothing in particular," she spoke in a disinterested tone that Zeldri couldn't get a read on. "I just need an excuse."

"An excuse?"

"To get out of training, I told StG44 I'm escorting you, today."

"..."

"..."

"...And, they let you?"

"Mhmm," AA-12 nodded.

"Huh." Zeldri was genuinely surprised. StG44 seemed like a very level-headed AI, so to imagine them encouraging AA-12's slack-off habits was weird. Unless... "If you're escorting me, then we'll first go to my office. There's some paperwork I need to start doing."

"K." AA-12 was paying just enough attention to not bump into anything so she probably didn't even register what he said. But, Zeldri had a hunch and wanted to test it. When they arrived at the office, Zeldri sat down in his chair and started going through the day's reports. While he did, AA-12 idly wandered the room looking at what little was there for decorations.

"Rather sparse," she muttered to herself.

"I like to travel light," Zeldri responded as he kept an eye on her out of the corner of his eye.

"Mmm." Her interest was done, AA-12 moved next to his desk and peered at the reports he was completing.

"..." Zeldri strategically gave a yawn and slightly turned his chair so that it looked like he had his back to her. And, his hunch was proven right as he watched out of the corner of his eye as AA-12 silently adjusted the stack of papers. She also quickly finished two reports before moving away from the desk and returning to wandering the room. Zeldri had, over the past week, noticed AA-12 was talking back less when he gave orders, and more easily complied with his strategies. StG44 had pointed out to him that this was a sign of her increased loyalty towards him. He wasn't sure whether he should smile or feel disturbed at a machine feeling affection for him. Brushing those thoughts aside, Zeldri readjusted his seat to face the desk and went for the stack of reports as he figured AA-12 hadn't done much other than straighten them out in a pile. But, to his surprise, the stack of reports was split into three piles with each stack seeming to be how important they were with the far-right reports being the ones he should finish immediately. He quickly looked over the two reports she'd done and found them filled out adequately. Was AA-12 one of those types of lazy people that become extremely efficient so that they can be rightfully lazy? Zeldri remembered something Annika had mentioned to him a while ago. "...Say, AA-12?"