Phantom drop ship, outer atmosphere of Calypso Four, March of 163 AL.
"WHAT IS HE DOING HERE?!"
"I had no-" Salem started, only to be interrupted.
"You are the Master General! The High King for Odin's sake! You could have any of a thousand AIs, and you reactivate HIM? He nearly KILLED ME! He bombed nine entire planets! Killed fourteen billion people and blamed you for it! Had you forgotten that?" She screamed at her husband. Augustus left the room, letting the Phantom's autopilot take over.
"You two sort this out," Augustus rolled his eyes as he left the cockpit, "I'm going to check for holes in the hull; we took a lot more bullets than I'd like."
"No, I-" Salem said, but he couldn't get a word in edgewise.
"Then why in HELL did you reactivate him? After everything he's done? He's a complete and utter psychopath!"
"Oh stop it," Hyde cut in, smiling, "You're making me blush."
"Skulls can't blush, bonehead," said Salem, growling quietly.
"Oh Jekyll, you amuse me with your puns, they are quite punny," Hyde chuckled to himself, feigning surprise at his "accidental" pun, "Would you look at that, there I go making puns as well."
"Shut it! I don't want to hear another word out of you," she glared at her husband, "You. Explain. Now."
Salem took a deep breath and recalled to her everything that had happened at the Jarl's palace, then the series of events following as they made their escape from Osmand's forces on Calypso Four.
"I had no choice, our communications array was damaged and none of their AIs could break through the encryption on the city's comms tower. We were outnumbered, and if we didn't get help immediately we wouldn't have made it off world," Salem couldn't make eye contact with her, his eyes settled on her clenched fists instead; they looked much more welcoming than her face at the moment. "I activated him because I had no other choice, but I will deactivate him as soon as I have the opportunity."
"That's optimistic of you," Hyde smirked, "You're under the impression I'll give you an opportunity."
"You did once," Salem turned to him.
"I am capable of learning from my mistakes," the hologram tapped ashes from the end of its cigar. "I'm not a complete moron, unlike some of us-"
"Quiet!" Korana hissed, crossing her arms her arms in front of her chest. "Just don't expect me getting anywhere near you in the foreseeable future. I can't trust he won't try to kill me, and I don't want to wake up to you choking me out."
"Really?" Hyde grinned, taking another drag from his cigar. "You never complained about him choking you in the past."
Soluna and Briarios looked mildly ill at the statement, Salem blushed and, as he always did, Hyde smiled; when he exhaled, the smoke came out in the shape of a heart.
"Hyde," Salem glared at the hologram, "I don't need you airing my dirty laundry in front of my children."
"What? You believe they didn't already know about that?" Hyde scoffed, "Come on, how long are they supposed to pretend they don't hear you two screaming and knocking the headboard against the walls?"
"I," Soluna said, pausing to make sure she kept her breakfast where it belonged, "Definitely did not need to hear that."
"Same here," Briarios added, "I'm just going, um, I'm going to go check on Augustus."
"I'll join you," said Soluna. Both seemed almost desperate to help Augustus, and Salem was sure it wasn't out of concern for their dear uncle.
Salem watched them leave the cockpit, and when he turned back to the screen he found that his wife had hung up. He sighed, shook his head at the ground, and joined his children in the passenger cabin after a few minutes, followed by the hologram of the family's ever-cheerful, seemingly omniscient homicidal maniac.
