Welcome to Gaia! ::

So the part of the teleportation 'extender' that was meant to actually function did function. That was always good. Ana couldn't really quantify the further testing that it would need. It reduced energy draw enough that a Captain--who could teleport two, maybe three times maximum normally--could almost double their teleportation capability. She felt certain that, in her meeting with Sakuradite today, they would appreciate her advances in the subject.

Last night, she'd stayed up late on Mistral, using the technology there to sink as much of the ambient energy of her Wonder into as many devices for Order as she could. The knight communications upgrades, the senshi app installers, the teleportation inhibitors--these she could make in her sleep, but corruption sensors were delicate things when one had to ensure that the resistance's Dark Mirror allies didn't set them off. No one needed that kind of scare out there in the wilderness.

I wish I was there with them. Anything would be better than here. She settled back in her wheelchair--the price she paid on those times she returned home to her Wonder, those rare times--and turned the collection of pendants over in her lap. There had only been enough Rift crystal to make six, this time. Someone would have to go and get her more, if these were going to the rank and file.

She picked up the largest pendant of them all. It paid to keep Sakuradite on her side, and so she had made her mistress a special pendant. She'd fashioned this one after an antique hairpiece in the Destiny City Asian History Museum, pale translucent sheets of Rift crystal carved and sanded into a delicate flower. It wasn't ready for its special purpose yet, none of them were, but... Anabel looked up at Sakuradite's desk, her mouth a thin, dark line. She would make up for all of those children she'd handed over to this woman, this monster. She would make up for them, avenge their suffering--suffering she had caused, suffering she had watched--when she sent Sakuradite to the Shadows.

Someday. For now, Anabel smoothed her face as the door behind her opened. "I'm sorry for not rising, General-Queen," she said. "I stayed up too late working on these so I would have something to present to you today. The crafting took longer than I thought, I ran out of the materials I needed and I had to redo the equations..." And one of her Lieutenants was maybe catching on to her, and he wasn't one of the ones who had cautiously expressed traitorous intent in her hearing. This one, though, had priors. And Sakuradite was well known for her devotion to science.

She could play on them. It was an opportunity she couldn't dare to miss. "Illyrionite has been stealing my platinum and copper wire again. We don't have enough of it for him to play with, ma'am." Was that too impertinent? She was only human to this woman. Revealing herself a knight would only make it worse, and if Sakuradite wanted to go for a starseed fondle... Babylon wouldn't be able to get here in time to help. No one could. It was a game and she had made a gamble and hopefully it would pay off.

"I apologize, ma'am," said Anabel. Once upon a time, she had shuddered at Sakuradite's touch. It was true that the General-Queen's hands were always cold, but that wasn't it. Anabel had started wearing a fleece jacket inside the lab in her second week of working there. It was fear, the kind of thing that used to keep her up at night, and still crept up on her without warning. Even fear became passe after a time, though, and today, Anabel did not shudder. Not even when the woman's hands squeezed her shoulders just a touch too tightly. "I'll be more careful in the future."

The pendant in her hands weighed heavily for a moment. Anabel sometimes, in the whine of the stone-cutter or the screech of the sander, heard the screams of the senshi and knights she handed over to Sakuradite. Sometimes she hoped they were dead. Other times, she was simply glad she was not yet one of them. She had seen the… end results… of Sakuradite's science before. None of them were pretty. "I would appreciate it if you spoke to Illyrionite," she said. "It stresses me when I can't complete my work for missing materials." At least this gamble seemed to be paying off.

She lifted the floral pendant, but did not presume to offer it to Sakuradite. "I made this one for you," she said. "I know General-Queens have near-unlimited teleportation abilities, but it seemed… wrong to have the Generals receive one before you did. I hope that's not too presumptuous."

Sakuradite's compliments didn't fall on deaf ears--like any artist, Anabel loved to hear her work was good, even if it was from someone who wished her and everyone she loved dead. It was better that Sakuradite like her, like her work, like the craftsmanship that went into it, than Sakuradite become suspicious due to ugly, hacked-together prototypes like the one she had tested on Sarras.

Too bad that it didn't work the way she needed it to. She could make it happen, though. It would just require a remote signal, a… contrasting pull from the Rift. That would be easy enough to do, she'd done something like it before with the inhibitors…

"Thank you," she said. The sincerity in her own voice shocked her, because--she hated Sakuradite. Hated her with every fiber of her being, but… there was a part of her that loved the woman, too. "Coming from you, that means so much to me."

Okay. One more risk before she excused herself to get back to work on the next plan, the next goal. "I would like to get a pass out of the city," she said. "Just for a few hours. I used to go hiking in the state park all the time, and… I miss it. If it won't detract too much from my next assignment, may I have a day to go?"