Safe And Sound

"Yes, of course. Thank you, Ted," she said with a sigh, placing her phone back on the clip attached to her hip.

"Team?" Elisabet looks up and over at her Alphas, working hard on Project Zero Dawn. "Double time. We don't have much of it left. The Faro Plague is on it's way—and fast,"

"The team at FAS couldn't control it?" The Alphas were anxious upon hearing this news.

"I even went over there to fix it. There's nothing we could've done," she looks at each team member. "Hartz-Timor messed up. I can't directly blame it on the FAS team,"

"But the team there owns the Chariot line, now!" Samina—one of the Alphas—squawked angrily, "You'd have to blame it on Faro and his team—they found the glitch and yet, couldn't put a stop to it!"

Sigh. She was getting nowhere.

"I know," she looked over at the start of the overseer of Zero Dawn, GAIA. "What are we going to do?" She said to it, as if it, too, was a friend. "Let's get back to work. We've gotten this far since the glitch was found. We can't give up now,"

The team nods and they would return to being hard at work, Elisabet included.

Months of this went on, and on, and on. You could hear the clanging of the metal Chariot machines outside every so often.

CLANG, CLANG. WHIRRRRR. The team looks up from their workstations, shock and fear in their eyes. "What was that?" Travis asked, going towards one of the few windows in the facility. Elisabet followed him, cutting him off as he got closer. "Travis, please don't come any closer,"

"Elisabet—"

"Let me see. If it's anything serious, I'll go out there and make sure you all are safe,"
"You don't need to do that," he responds. "We'd rather you be safe with us,"
"...On top of that, I want you and your families to be safe," she barked, "please get back to your work. HADES is waiting for you,"

He huffs. "Fine,"

She looks through the small window, seeing a few Scarabs approaching the facility. "Scarabs," She'd say, quiet enough for only herself to hear. She feels the wall around it, making sure there's no damage from the machines. "Good. No damage yet,"

She returns over to her workstation, turning on GAIA's hologram.

GAIA was 99% complete by now. The turning point was to make sure that she could do her job — and sadly, she would never really know if that would be. She was confident, however, that Zero Dawn would pull through.

"GAIA," she hummed.

"Query: what can I do for you, Elisabet?"

"I'm worried we won't finish in time,"

"I have faith in the team," her hand would reach out towards Elisabet's shoulder, phasing through her. "And you should, too,"

"Of course I do, GAIA, it's just... The Plague is so close,"
"It's been close for months!" Charles interrupts, starting to get frustrated at Elisabet's constant stressed-out and worried state. He would immediately get back to making sure everything was in order with ARTEMIS.

"Enough, Mr. Ronson!" She hissed, then looking back at GAIA, "I'm sorry for him. He's usually so much better than that," she muttered.

"It's a stressful situation, Lis,"

Elisabet hummed at the sound of her nickname being used. "You think I don't know that?"

"Sorry, I just thought it'd make you feel better," GAIA's voice sounded worried.