[$20] Patron's Prompt: Filling Out the Sideline: Unwilling to Fight (Beta Copy) (Patreon)

Her name was Lela De’Jour 

She was very proud of her name. It was the name she shared with her creator. The name she lived by, and after her creator had sacrificed everything to get them out of France during the mechanical riots, the name she would die by. It was one of the only things the A-doll had left. 

The company she worked for, a Private Military Corporation known as Griffin and Kryuger, allowed her to display her name upon her desk with a small paperweight. It faced outward so that anyone who approached would know that they were talking to the Lela De’Jour, esteemed gate guard of Kemerovo’s Griffin Command Center!

Lela just wished they also gave her a glass window.

Snow trickled through the open gap of her tiny plywood shack. The exterior gate looked as if it had been completely frozen solid, and Lela had to wonder if it would even raise if she did hit the big red button.

What an absolute joke. For crying out loud, she was an A-doll! One of the furthest advancements in technology that the human race had dared to imagine! Able to think, to feel, and to believe for herself, and her job was just to hit a button to open the gate.

Right now, Lela believed she needed a fur jacket.

She didn’t even need to hit the button if people were coming from the other side. Their base ID or delivery permit would do that for them. All she had to do was man her station and try not to feel the blood that fueled her internal systems freezing inside her.

She checked her watch, trying to ignore the poor condition the frost was creating on her brownie colored skin. When she’d got to Russia, she’d been almost sunbaked. Now she looked sun-starved, her purple hair was a mess, she could hardly afford her apartment and even less could afford the rags to cover herself.

Cars drove by on the street outside of the base. Nobody was really scheduled to come in today, on one of the rare relaxation days the company was able to afford in its poor condition. And the staff was shrinking by the month. That’s what happens when your company tries to wage an entire war.

Lela wasn’t an idiot. Nearly 150 humans had been killed within a week last winter, a single operation! And from what the rumors claimed of Griffin, most of those had been on the first day.

Even with the added benefit that G&K T-dolls could have their consciousness backed-up onto another device, Lela wouldn’t sign up for those odds. She wondered what they did to the girls that let them do that. It was doubtful that she’d ever find out… the most electronically conductive thing she had back in her apartment was a half-full sack of potatoes.

But a job was a job, and in Kemerovo, in Russia, hell in this world, you took what you could get. 

Lela focused on the familiar sound of the Tom river. She couldn’t see it from inside of her walls, but she could hear it. Despite the freeze, the snow, and the wind, the Tom river had been her constant companion, the only thing she could really believe would still be here in spite whatever happened. Kemerovo could be flattened tomorrow, but the Tom would push right on through.

But she heard something else coming through the wash of water. 

It was a heavy sound, the crunching of snow under a pair of heavy boots.

She checked her list. Only a few of the base commanders had come in today. Maybe Millar, or Bellows. Ugghhh… She hoped it wasn’t Alexeev. Which meant it probably was. A large man that was half the size of his ego, Alexeev made passes at her almost every morning when he strode through the gate. If he was coming to visit, she hoped he would at least bring some vodka, or maybe some chocolates. 

But it wasn’t Alexeev. It wasn’t anyone that Lela had ever seem before. A massive woman wearing a tubby trench coat that was stretching past its limit just to cover her tummy. A black belt divided her stomach in two. Above that she wore a black scarf along with a fluffy gray ushanka with a red star on the top. Her breath was huffing out in small fogs of steam, her red cheeks colored even more harshly by the surrounding snow.

Lela blinked before realizing that she had to open the gate. The woman had obviously gotten in and was now permitted to leave without challenge. She thumbed the release and let the woman trundle on through, gapping at her huge wobbling ass as the gate lowered back down.

“Who in the hell was that?” she asked herself.

The gatehouse had no camera. Only one single display embedded into her desk, which showed details of who scanned in with their ID and when. Otherwise, it was just the gate controller and a clipboard that Lela had come up with herself because she was tired of checking in the same white dude with a close-cropped military haircut multiple times each day.

She picked it up, re-reading her check ins for the day. Winters hadn’t checked out last night. She doubted he would tonight either. Millar, too, had stayed the last night. Cheng was still out on that squad trip… Alexeev was in, Kalina was in, Bellows was in, escorting in a truck worth of supplies that Kalina had ordered and that Lela ‘wasn’t allowed to check.’ Ivanovich was out, Vissarionovich was… a… man. What was she doing?

She restarted the list, looking only through the female staff members. Miss Kalina was in, Commander Frolova was in, Commander Netrebko was out, Commander Gorbanevskaya was out, Technician Filosofova was in working on reformative repairs…

She began comparing the mental image of each of the women to the one who had just waddled by. She couldn’t remember seeing any hair, just the pale body and a pair of thick ass thighs beneath the tan trench coat.

Commander Veronika Frolova, bringer of victory, was woman that was larger than life in every way except her body. At five foot nothing she matched the height of the figure, but was nowhere near that weight class. It’d be generous to call her a hundred pounds, much less four, so she was out.

Technician Filosofova was a more interesting case, but she was too tall and, again, too skinny.

That left Miss Kalina, who was… well, she looked like she was at least trying to still be skinny with the way that she dressed. Or maybe she needed to consider getting her own clothing upgraded since she looked like she was about to explode every button on her shirt.

No, no. Even Kalina was only maybe a hundred and eighty. Was it possible the girl had just… stuffed her clothing with insulation? Lela rubbed at her nose, trying to remember the girl’s eye color. Something besides pale, something besides super-sized. She had nothing, and decided she’d definitely be writing it down when the girl checked back in. She also determined to ask what in the world she ate, and where, if anywhere, Lela could find it in this city. 

Hopefully somewhere that didn’t give her hell about being a doll.

She had to be fair to Griffin. They at least tried to take good care of their people, and especially their equipment. Their T-dolls were known for being curvy, full figured, and some outright plump. The PMC had connections to other parts of the country and a seemingly limitless budget when it came to maintain what remained of the morale. Lucrative contracts, though it probably helped that they didn’t have the extra 150 mouths…

But down here, at the position that could be filled by a cold-resistant peacock, Lela hardly worked for Griffin at all.

“When did you become such a nihilist,” Lela grumbled at herself. “What would Miss De’Jour think to see you like this? You are living, yes?” 

She wasn’t so sure she could answer that question.

With a sigh, sat back in her chair, felt a pinch of pain in her back and decided that now was as good a time as any for lunch.

Lela opened the rear door to her shack, which resembled more a long distant cousin of solid material opposed to something survivable. Wind tore it from her cold fingers, slamming it against the back of the shack and pinning it open as she ventured out. She ducked her head against the gale and hurried into the snow.

A small snowdrift kept her sack lunch and fizzy soda chilled. She took them from their refrigerated spot, dusting the bag off and heading back into her protective paper walls.

Still facing down, Lela had a small moment where she noticed the huge footprints that had overlapped her own small ones near the entrance of her shack. She was still realizing what that meant when she bumped into a heavier than heavy, rounder than round, fatter than fat, gut. She did so belly first and was marvelously outclassed. She rebounded off of the stomach as if it were a trampoline, tumbling down onto her butt with a startled scream of surprise and pain.

In another second, she was being smothered. The belly had pounced on top of her, squishing her all the way up past her chest and trapping her legs beneath thunder thighs and a chunky ass. A pair of hands clamped onto her mouth, muffling her cries while the girl on top of her rapidly shushed.

It was then that Lela realized that it wasn’t a girl, but another doll. An A-doll from the look of her, but no, something was different. With long, flowing blue hair tied in twintails that now furled down to the ground, this girl wore a massive buckle around her exposed navel. Two holstered weapons were attached on either round hip. Stretched to full capacity just to cover down to her waist was a yellow tank-top with the word ‘UZI’ written in capital letters, looking faded from strain.

It was a T-doll. A soldier, a weapon.

“Shhh! Shh shh shh be quite please!!” the fluffy warrior whispered. “Pretty please, pretty please be quiet with sugar on top or they’ll find us!”

Lela stopped struggling, instead looking up at the T-doll’s smooth double chin and her pleading green eyes.

Suddenly she could hear voices coming from outside. Male voices calling out, “She came this way! She’s trying to escape!”

“How could a fatass like that get the drop on you?! You said she hasn’t been out in weeks!”

“She kicked me in the nuts, sir. I was a little too busy collapsed on the floor to get after her.”

As they drew closer, Lela could recognize Commander Alexeev’s burly voice. “Look at these footprints! They have to be hers!”

The girl, Uzi, squirmed uncomfortably while moaning pathetically. She sank back on her rear, crushing all the air out of Lelah’s belly. “Oh no, oh no, they’re gonna put me back in the service department!” She looked like she was about to cry. “You’ve gotta help me,” she quivered. “I-I don’t wanna fight no more! They’re gonna disassemble me!”

Lela couldn’t have called out if she tried. All the wind was being squashed out of her by two gigantic buns. Her hands batted uselessly at Uzi’s sausage-wrists, then at her waist.

The girl’s doughy belly flubbed and jiggled as she poked it, provoking an obscene reaction. Uzi’s knees tightened, digging into Lela’s ribs, and the short-stack clamped down on her lower lip with her teeth, fighting back a moan. An abrupt shift from panic to heady pleasure with whiplashing speed.

Lela’s eyes widened further, but she slowed her kicking, then stopped. 

“S-s-sorry… um… my tummy’s… sensitive…” Hesitantly, Uzi lifted her hands from Lela’s mouth.

“Сволочь!” Commander Alexeev shouted from outside. “She’s out. Do you have a tracker on her?”

Uzi’s bright eyes sparked, terror leaping back and smothering the heat of her blush.

“No, we removed it when trying to access her identity center. I told you, the wipes aren’t working. This one always remembers wh-”

There was a meaty impact and then the sound of a large weight falling into the snow. “Сука Блять!” the Commander growled. “Of all the times… Gate guard! De’Jour!!”

The jittery, jiggling fear had returned to Uzi. She clasped her hands in front of her, pleading with Lela, bowing her head down and backing off of her body.

Lela watched her sink back onto the ground, sliding back until she was beneath one of the desks. She was shaking, holding herself tight, trying and failing to lift her legs to her chest when her belly just got in the way. She was on the verge of tears. 

The young doll mentioned being disassembled, which meant that Griffin would take her apart and salvage her for bits like the A-dolls in the West. 

Lela was… almost positive that G&K didn’t do this. A worker at the convince store where she got her groceries was an ex-Griffin T-doll. But that pink-haired beauty wasn’t over four-hundred pounds of blubber. And if Commander Alexeev wanted her… Lela assumed it wasn’t to serve her discharge papers.

“De’Jour!” he bellowed.

The way that Uzi shook, how she hugged herself and tried to tuck into her own butterball body like it could protect her, made even a girl as big as her look overwhelmingly small. Lela instinctively remembered France, remembered the socialist party that called for the destruction of all A-dolls, and how she only barely escaped.

She got up from the ground. She left her soda and flattened lunch bag behind, walking to her station.

Commander Alexeev waited for her. A Russian gorilla in the suit of a man, his red and black uniform were marked with flecks of snow. He wore an uncommonly serious expression, dark eyes filled with repressed frustration. Behind him, a small man wearing a bright tan coat and white lab jacket was holding his head as he got up from the ice.

“What do you want, Alex?” Lela asked, trying to sound casual. “I was just getting my lunch.”

He had no time for his usual brevity, instead almost coldly hostile. “Did a T-doll leave the base recently?”

Lela sank into her chair. She affixed her nameplate. “I don’t know,” she replied. “I don’t get to ask who’s leaving, only who comes in.”

It was only after that she realized what he had said. Leave the base, not come to her shack. Like the rising curve of the rounded moon, Lela remembered the fat woman that had waddled by earlier.

“Lela,” his burly voice commanded. “I need to know, who has left?”

“A-actually,” she stammered, taking her clipboard and tapping indiscriminately on a blank space with her pen. “There… yes, here we go. A woman left just a few minutes ago.”

“What did she look like?”

Lela tried to remember, then forced the girl hiding under her desk into the outfit. She wasn’t sure it would fit. “Uhhh, well… she had… blue hair, long. Maybe about five feet ta-”

“Was she as round as a cow, or not?” Alexeev asked bluntly.

Lela swallowed. “More like a pig, ahaha… You know those human women. They eat so much bad food.”

“Commander,” the scrawny man in the lab coat had pulled himself out of the snow and was hobbling along to his side. The right side of his face had already begun to bruise. “I-if she’s out in the city, then-”

“Then you must pray we find her. De’Jour, open the gate.”

“You’ve got it,” Lela nodded, doing her best unquestioning peacock impression and thumbing the release.

The gate whined as the latch came lose. The gate separated in two, lifting up into the air.

“Let’s go, Nika,” Alexeev put his ape’s paw on the smaller man’s shoulder and guided him out. “She may be heading for the market. Hope that we may secure her before Commander Frolova finds out.”

“Y-yes, sir.”

They hurried out onto the street, the gate thumping down behind them.

From behind Lela, a sudden pop of air hissed free. She turned to find the tubby T-doll on her doughy knees, looking at her with wide eyes. In her hands she held Lela’s fizzy drink, which now bubbled up to the top.

“Eheh… err… s-sorry…” the girl sweat, sitting back on her legs and lowering the soda to the ground. “Hungry…”

Lela narrowed her eyes, looking the girl over. She realized that what she thought were socks that only came up to the girl’s mid-calf were supposed to be leggings. The casual outfit would have fit a girl that was about half of her size, but her long twin-tailed hair held back by pretty bows at least attempted to be cute.

“So… um… I-I didn’t really think I’d make it this far?” Uzi swallowed. “Hello…”

“Hi,” Lela said, getting up from her chair. She walked over to Uzi, who remained on her knees, her belly pinched at the waist. “Aren’t you cold wearing that?”

“I-it’s a rest day,” was Uzi’s reply. “They let me dress in my comfy clothes. I wasn’t planning on… uhh, escaping.”

“Escaping from who?”

Uzi looked up at her, then out the window, looking confused. “From Griffin!” she said, as if it should be obvious. “I’ve been in holding for months! They keep trying to wipe my memory, but nothing works. I can still feel my old body, almost like it’s still alive!”

“Your… old body?”

“Yeah, I got…” Uzi shook her head, her long braids twisting around her. “It’s a long story. Commander Alexeev is being a big bully and keeping me grounded until they can figure out how I got so frikin fat.”

“I assume that’s cause you try to steal other people’s lunch…”

“N-not on purpose!”

“How would you accidentally steal something?”

Uzi made a high-pitched noise that sounded halfway between a cry and a squeak. “You try being this stupid hungry! Do you have any idea how good this food tastes?!”

“Yeah, it’s my lunch.”

“Not this… you’re getting me all twisted up!!” Uzi crossed her arms over her chest and collapsed back on her weighty rear with a loud, “Hmph!”

“Alright,” Lela said, bending down. She picked up the drink and lightly tossed it to Uzi.

The smaller girl screamed in alarm and tried to duck out of the way with the speed and grace of a whale breaching the surface. It was hard to miss the broad side of the barn, and the drink impacted directly above her naval, eliciting a much heavier “Oof!” than it warranted before Uzi fumbled and caught it in-between her legs.

“Haha!” Uzi called, pumping her hand in victory. “Got it!”

“You know that it is open, right?”

“Eh?” Uzi glanced down as soda trickled over her tiny shorts and thick thighs. “Ahh!”

She scrambled while Lela began chuckling, sitting down on the floor and watching the meaty girl trying to slap the liquid off of herself. It was almost hypnotizing, how heavily she jiggled.

She glared at Lela before unscrewing the rest of the top and lifting the bottle to her hungry, soft lips. Her double-chin grew thicker as she tilted back her head, chugging from the bottle and crinkling it with both hands.

Lela watched Uzi’s massive tummy throb, spilling out over her lap and almost entirely obscuring her pants. It bounced like jello with every swallow until the bottle was empty and Uzi dropped back with a satisfied sigh.

“Unnngh, thank you,” she bowed her head. “They’ve been giving me water. For weeks! I wasn’t allowed any sugar, and I was still ripping my top apart… Do you know what it’s like to watch your boobs shred an outfit?!”

Lela watched her speculatively as she massaged her pillowy breasts. 

“It’s not fun! And I didn’t even get to eat yummy stuff!” she struggled to get to her feet, nearly tipping over the entire wall when she used it for balance. Then she began wobbling around in pudgy rage. “All while my old exploration teams all moved on without me, my old Commander promotes a new adjunct, which is the position I was absolutely lined up for!! And somewhere out there, I can still feel someone poking my dumb old body! How is any of this fair?! All I want to do is go home and… I don’t know. Eat fried dough? What is it that fat girls do?”

Lela looked around, and then down at her waist. “Uhh… I wouldn’t know,” she said.

“With all the money Griffin pays us, I’m probably super rich by now! Just let me retire and get my own place, I’m so done with this!!”

“… How much do they pay you guys, exactly?” Lela asked, still looking at her skinny waist and her raggy clothing.

“Huh? Oh, I don’t know, but it’s never like I spend any of it! Everything we get here is free, Commander Alexeev even got me pizza once when I was still allowed in the medical bay. It made me break my belt… And he still hasn’t gotten me a new one!”

“But… but you could retire from Griffin any time you wanted, right?” Lela remembered Negev. “Or, be separated?”

“Do you mind?!” Uzi stomped a heavy foot, causing a seam in her shorts to burst at the thighs. She didn’t seem to even notice. “I’m trying to be upset over here!”

“Oh… sorry,” Lela sat back.

“Where was I? Oh, and now if I so much as smell anything vanilla, I’m drooling for like an hour! It all tastes so good, it’s not fair at all! What can’t some other T-doll have gotten fat instead.”

In that moment, it clicked for Lela. The girl who’d left earlier didn’t match any human records because she wasn’t a human. She was a T-doll, one who was keeping her identity secret. One who knew she couldn’t be recognized, but different from the one that Commander Alexeev and that other guy were both hunting. She swallowed, trying to figure how to tell Uzi this when the girl’s wide belly rumbled fiercely, louder than even the swell of the wind as she looked at Lela’s lunch bag with fluttering eyes.

“V-vanilla,” she repeated. The fire had disappeared from her tone, replaced with an almost reverential emphasis. A light trickle of drool began to pool at the corner of her mouth.

“Hmm? Oh! Uhh, yeah…” Lela dug into her pack. She withdrew a small cup of vanilla pudding, frowning at the burst open top. “It must have popped open.”

Uzi’s belly roared louder than the girl had even screamed. The little girl looked away with bashful eyes, tapping her fingers together. She was obviously making a huge effort for control of her hunger, and very obviously losing.

“Do you… want it?” Lela asked.

Uzi looked up, then back down. Her entire face had turned red, her belly visibly quaking as it rumbled for the sweet snack. “M-maybe a little…”

Lela breathed a small chuckle at her cute, hungry display. She got up from the floor and crossed over to Uzi, holding out the cup. “Here. I’ve got a spoon in here as we-”

She nearly jumped as Uzi’s piggy fingers snatched the cup from her hand, tearing the remainder of the lid away and digging into it with her fingers and her tongue. Her tummy rumbled again even as the messy eating decorated it with white gooey goodness, Uzi scooping out so much and shoveling it into her face that more seemed to get on her cheeks than into her tummy. 

It was like watching a lioness attack a gazelle, or perhaps more accurately, a really chonky housecat finding the world’s fattest mouse. Lela couldn’t take her eyes off the massacre that was occurring before her, Uzi using both hands to shove the cup over her mouth, licking at the container hungrily and violently.

When she finished, the cup fell to the bare floor almost spotless. As a rumbling burp escaped Uzi’s mouth, the same could not be said for the now-sticky girl. She made satisfied purrs as she licked her fingers and then her lips, her green eyes staring somewhere that was worlds away.

Her belly joined her in a satisfied rumble, bringing Uzi to sink down onto her tubby bottom and lean back against the wall. She was breathing heavily, almost panting, and Lela could very faintly hear her whisper, “More…”

“What in the world happened to you?” Lela asked.

******************************************************************************

Uzi had become nearly catatonic after scarfing down the pudding, though when offered she munched through the rest of her lunch while on auto-piolet. Lela had questions for Uzi, ones that wouldn’t be able to be answered by someone who was so simply knocked out, so she decided the best way to make a new fluffy friend might be to feed her to bursting, and then take her home with her.

If the girl was as rich as she seemed to think… Lela might have an out of her crappy job and her crappy apartment. With that prospect dangling in front of her face, the chocolate skinned A-doll was happy to close up the gate for a few minutes while she traipsed out to the nearby corner store and secured a 12-pack of vanilla pudding cups.

Negev, the pink haired former T-doll wearing two Stars of David clips in her hair, greeted her at the counter. “Hey, good afternoon! How are things for you today? Find everything alright?”

“Yeah,” Lela reached into her pocket, withdrawing her wallet. “All good. They’re having a rest day at the base, so just making another snack run.”

Negev giggled. “You know, I used to know a girl that loved these!” she grinned. “Watch out though, they’re bad for your diet!”

“Uhhm” Lela sweat, “Y-yeah.” She paused as Negev rang up her total. “Do you… ever have anything like that? Cravings, for food, I mean?”

Negev glanced around the empty shop before raising a hand to her mouth. “All the time. We stopped carrying my favorite candy because I would eat it all, and the owner got mad about me buying at half price.” She straightened back up, putting her hands on her waist and grinning broadly. “I’m lucky I have such a good workout routine! Getting let go from Griffin has been honestly really good for me, and those benefits are great!”

Lela noticed the ‘getting let go’ part, but was more than hesitant to ask. “Y-yeah…” she said. “Alright, well that’s… good. I don’t really ever gain weight though, I think it’s cause my work.”

“You’re an A-doll, right? That makes sense then.”

“It… it does?”

“Yup! That’ll be ₽359, oooorrr…330 gems, please!”

Lela scratched her purple-hair before shrugging and withdrawing her gem voucher. She scanned it, subtracting the gems from her personal account. 

“Thanks for stopping by!” Negev bowed cheerfully. “See you next time!”

The snow had started back up, falling in chunky, Uzi-shaped flakes. Lela tightened her collar, wishing she could have some clothes with a hood, or maybe a cute little brown and white hat that she could dress up her clothes with, but didn’t want to dream about something like that just yet. 

She made the short walk to the base before scanning her ID and opening the gate. The bag swung from her hand while she circled her shack, head down to the wind, and pulled her door open. It nearly brought her with it, slamming against the exterior wall and causing her to tug backward with both hands to get it shut.

“Ugh,” she groaned. “It’s freezing out there…”

“Almost as cold as it is inside,” a heavy male voice responded.

Lela twisted around. Sitting at her station was the ape himself, Commander Alexeev. He was large enough that he bent the rolling chair beneath his muscular bulk. His beret rested on her desk, his jacket unbuttoned and his tie loose. In his lap he held a small submachine gun. Lela recognized one of the micro-uzis that had been attached to Uzi’s inflated hip.

“You weren’t at your station,” the Commander shrugged, “so I let myself in. Then, I noticed through your window, the pudding cup on the ground.” He nodded to the discarded litter to Lela’s left side. “I would say ‘you will never guess what we found trying to hide beneath your desk,’ but by seeing your bag, I think that you might.”

Lela gulped. She wondered if he would shoot her if she made a run for it. There was no way to get over the barbed wire at the wall if she did, but if she managed to get to the Tom river, she could cast herself in and likely only probably die.

Weighing her options she asked, “What do you want, Alex?”

He smiled kindly, his gorilla grip folding over the small weapon. “What I have always wanted. I wish for you to join Griffin. I have a position opening up for my adjunct and would like someone to take along to a company event this weekend. A party in Volgograd. If not you, I will have to promote 47, and she is too…” he searched for the word. “Difficult. Hot-blooded, for my liking.”

“It sounds like she’s a lot like you.”

He laughed, nodding along. “So you see the problem?” he winked, then sighed, sinking back in the chair. “I was advised to threaten you,” he said before shrugging. Then he did something unexpected. 

He placed the weapon on the counter, then shoved it off of the windowsill and into the snow. Lela watched it tumble.

Alex put a hand on his chest, holding the other up in a vow. “I do not wish for harm to come. To either of us, and especially not unto Miss Micro-Uzi. But if other T-dolls learn that they can be broken, our business is at risk. The war for humanity, and our country’s security, will be at risk. If T-dolls can be proved to be as dangerous as we know that they are… they may all be destroyed.”

Lela swallowed. She said nothing, remembering Miss De’Jour.

“We cannot allow that. I ask you to join us and swear by my honor that you will not have to fight.”

Lela sighed. A moment ago she felt like a mouse that was trapped in the corner, and was willing to try and snap back until the cat offered to be her friend. “I don’t have time to consider this, do I?” she asked.

Alex’s lips tightened, looking almost sorrowful. “We are being watched even now. No, I am sorry.”

She looked up, out into the snowfall. She found herself nodding along. “Alright…” she said. “Alright. What do I have to do?”

Just then, a sudden crack echoed. For a moment she thought she’d been shot until she realized it was the gate unlatching. Alex spun cautiously in his chair and Lela came close. He was looking out the window when she read the display. It flashed at her, an orange warning.

Gate 01 open. Card ID 404C. 

Gate Guard Lela De’Jour, stand up and face towards the back wall, now.

“Who is com-”

Lela shoved him roughly, the chair flying backwards and slamming him against the rear wall. “Get down!” she briskly ordered. “You can’t see her!”

She spun around, the flashing warning ordering her compliance under the rumored threat of full disassembly. She stared at the back of the shack, saw Alex’s sudden glare turn to a look of mixed surprise when he saw the fear.

“Don’t look. If they know you see them, they’ll terminate you too.”

His eyes narrowed but he didn’t look away. “It is a black vehicle.”

“Of course it is. That’s…” she reached over, snapping in front of his face. “Hey! That number is for Squad 404. It deletes itself from the log every time. You can’t see them, or they’ll remove you next.”

“I didn’t see them,” Alex shrugged. “I saw their car.”

“Yeah, well, you better hope that isn’t enough. One of the other A-dolls told me she’d seen them before, and now I’m working her shift. So just don’t look, okay?”

“Alright, fine,” he shrugged, sitting back in his chair. “You are the protector, yes?” he huffed. “Saving me from Kryuger’s black squad in their little black car?”

Lela rolled her eyes. She listened to the car pulling away, further into the base. When it was no longer in earshot, she allowed herself to turn around.

The flashing orange warning had vanished, as had any information from the log.

She looked out across from them, into the small field of falling snow. “Who was watching us?” she asked.

“Eh?”

“You said someone was watching us. Who is it?” 

She could hear the shrug in his voice. “Commander Frolova’s adjunct. It doesn’t matter, does it?”

“It does if she saw who was inside of that car…” she shook her head before turning to Alex. “We might be in a lot more trouble now.”

He grinned without any warmth, showing his teeth. “I am sure. Now, may we go begin the sign on procedures?”

Lela frowned. She felt herself scowling. “You humans have no sense of self-preservation… I tell you a witch has come by and you wish to retrieve an autographed picture. There are dolls out there that are designed to be in combat, you know this? That don’t have the normal restrictions about killing humans.”

He spread his arms wide. “And now I have you to protect me. Shall we be along, then?”

“Always insistent… fine. Let’s go. I will sign your stupid paperwork. But on one condition!”

She held out the plastic bag, waving it in Alex’s face. 

“You will give these to Miss Uzi. Do we have a deal?”

His eyebrows met before he nodded placatingly and grinned.

******************************************************************************

Lela skated through the papers on the electronic tablet. She didn’t bother to read any of them, knowing she had no choice in the matter anyways. Alex was annoyingly helpful, sitting across from her at his desk with his big monkey grin.

Office 213 could have been worse. The Commander’s desk took up most of the space in the back, but there was already another desk waiting for her alongside his. It also had a television and a couch for, what Alex described would be their downtime between reports and operations. 

The winter was slowing down Griffin’s advancement on Sangvis territory, and Lela supposed that was a good sign. Rather than sprinting to their deaths inside of the lines again, they were working on containment.

Though, Lela had to admit, the more she looked through examples of combat reports, the more she began to resent the Sangvis dolls. Attacks of communes and even wholesale cities were setting dolls apart from humanity, and likely were where a lot of the daily distrust came from. 

She did notice the part about salary and free food and clothing from the commissary, which was admittedly more of a comfort, and knowing she could spend her nights in G&K’s elaborate dorms rather than back at her old apartment.

When she finally signed the last line, she returned the tablet to Alex and followed as he led her from the room. They went to the first floor, with him pointing out several communal areas, including a very well stacked café that was currently closed due to the head T-doll being on vacation.

That little bit surprised and comforted her more. A T-doll that was allowed a more important position outside of combat duties. When she found herself entering the neural enhancement bay, she didn’t feel so much resigned as she did cautiously optimistic.

When she laid down on the table, when they attached the uplinks and began the procedures, her name had still been Lela De’Jour.

Saiga-12 rolled off of the table and onto her feet. When Commander Alexeev entered the room she greeted him excitedly. “Good afternoon, Commander! Are you going to take me to the range? I want to show you all the stuff I learned!!”

Alex chuckled, reaching a hand over and patting her head. The purple-haired girl nuzzled up towards it. “Not yet, little one. I have a stop I promised I would make, but soon. I will also talk with Miss Kalina about your clothing.”

“Ooo, can I meet with sister AK47 first then? I want to ask for tips on my Kalashnikov! My score in training has been very high, and the trainer said I was a natural Russian!” she beamed up at him.

“Aha, after my own heart already?” he chuckled. 

Saiga’s blush was immense. “U-umm, it wasn’t like that!! U-unless you…” she tapped her fingers together.

“Relax, little one. I will have your sister meet with you tonight, after she returns form her expedition. Does that sound good?”

“I’ll have to clean up first!” she sounded excited, but totally in control. “I’d love to take a bath, and some fresh clothes… or maybe Miss Uzi would like to join me?”

Silence. 

Very slowly, Alex turned around and looked through the glass window. He turned back to Saiga. 

“Umm, Saiga? What did you say there?”

“Hmm? Oh, Miss Uzi! She helped me a lot during training. I’d very much like to see her again.” Saiga held her arms behind her back, twisting from side to side. “Would you be able to help me with that, Commander?”