Girls' Frontline Fanfiction: Tsar of the Mountain

A Faulty-Sung Lullaby

"I had no idea Griffin had my vocal quirks in their database, let alone that you'd actually memorize them." Now that she no longer had to hide herself, Alchemist went to work straightening her hair that had gotten slightly tangled on the robes that dematerialized. "We never actually met, so you wouldn't have a reason to look into that. Unless..." She narrowed her eye and sat in a more seductive pose. "You read my file and it was love at first sight, Commander?"

"..." Zeldri wouldn't even humor that with a response.

"The silent treatment won't work anymore now that I know you can talk to me," Alchemist said as she pouted.

"...If you must know," Zeldri knew she would keep probing until he gave her an answer so he gave in, "It wasn't just you; I looked into every Ringleader after Scarecrow raided the Mountain."

"Ah, yeah I skipped a bunch of time after that since I only cared about the code," Alchemist admitted as she relaxed in her seat. "Who'd have thought that me skipping that would spell my reveal?"

"You're also the only Ringleader specialized in interrogation techniques," Zeldri continued as he glanced out the window of the suspended Black Hawk. "That makes you the most likely suspect for my interrogator. Though, I'm surprised that Sangvis can spare the resources on me considering you've been practically wiped out by the KCCO and Paradeus."

"How perceptive, Commander." Alchemist followed Zeldri's gaze outside the window. "However, you're not completely correct."

"...?"

"While I am the best one for the job of interrogation, I'm not here on Mastermind's orders."

"...Right," Zeldri looked back to Alchemist who had a tired expression on their face. "You're doing this for Him; whoever that is." Mentioning Him made a knot form in Zeldri's stomach and his rage started to boil.

"That would be Minx, Commander," a new voice spoke to his right.

"!?!" Zeldri jumped and turned to see a small girl in a white dress sitting next to him.

"Greetings, Commander," Tsaritsa said as she looked up at him. "I'm glad I'm finally able to properly speak to you."

"Tsarit-?"

"Aw~," Alchemist whined and dismissively waved her hand at Tsaritsa, "You ruined my pronoun game."

"It's not a game if you're being forced to do it, Alchemist," Tsaritsa dryly countered and sent a glare at Alchemist. "For the same reason you had to hide yourself as the 'black-cloaked woman', Minx ordered you to not reveal who he was to the Commander."

"Killjoy."

"...Minx?" The throbbing in the back of Zeldri's head started to intensify as he tried to piece things together. "He helped us before..."

"While attempting to plant Zeratul personnel into the Mountain," Tsaritsa added. "He always made an effort to try and get you to accept his people as a means to infiltrate us. But, you always denied him. So, he had to resort to...extreme measures to get the codes to the Heart." Tsaritsa gave an annoyed sigh as she had to talk about Minx, and seemed uncomfortable elaborating what she meant at the end. "Though, to do this all for a nuke is-"

"He doesn't want the Heart," Zeldri interrupted her. His brain had been churning through what he knew and it finally connected the dots. "The Heart's the deterrent for the real prize of the Mountain; the Gavirul sample." He glanced over at Alchemist. "When I found the empty sample tube on level 01, you burst out laughing about how He would flip out if he knew. Zeratul is a pharmaceutical company, so they have plenty of resources to handle DNA samples. If he's with Paradeus that only makes more sense since they are heavily interested in Relic technology. A Gavirul sample would be invaluable to an organization like that. But, they couldn't risk its destruction via the Heart so they're using you, Alchemist, to get the code out of me which will let them take control over the entire Mountain without lifting a finger."