Week 30: Directly after the mission.

Darya had been quiet as they returned from the confusion that was Keelung. Occasionally she ran her fingers down the scar down the side of her face, but apart from giving a direct account of what happened, she didn't say anything. When everyone else left the room, Darya remained for a few minutes before slowly getting up and leaving, heading outside.

Ace was outside the room, waiting for her when she left. He was leaning against the wall, sunglasses covering his eyes despite being inside. He seemed to be lost in thought until the Darya emerged, then stood up and fell in beside her as she walked.

"Darya? You’ve been very quiet. Are you ok?"

"The cult have family." Darya said weakly. "The cult...the cult have family. He wanted us to be...he wanted that for us. Cult. Family." she seemed in shock and confused as she looked at Ace. "I...I always thought he was lying, or that he was just weird for cult...cult don't have family! Cult are big and swing chainsaws and circular saws around and attack people and rip out their cybernetics! Not...kids! Not raising a family! That isn't how it works! That isn't how it works!" the last bit of her speech came out in a wobbly manner, like a child confused and upset by something. She leaned against a wall and look tired.

Ace hesitated for a moment, and then wrapped his arms around Darya in a warm embrace. He didn't say anything for a long moment, just trying to comfort her with this simple gesture, then he pulled back and looked her in the eye, his wrap around shades concealing his own eyes.

In a low and quiet voice he asked "Do you want to talk about it?"

Darya nodded and led Ace into her office and shut the door. It was filled with all her stuff from Seoul Waste Away, with her sleeping bag stretched out in a clean spot. She sat down on the bag herself and began to pull out the chip locked box that used to be under her bed in SWA.

"I've told you about my sister, Natasha. What I didn't tell you is why she's been in the hospital for eighteen years."

The words were in english, and shaky. "I...when I was growing up, I lived with my family in Russia in a spire till I was eight, then we moved after my da...my fath...Taras Baranova got a job at Tracer Li. Then...cult started showing up with Tracer Li tech. I was attacked." As she said this, she pulled up the bottom of her shirt, showing Ace her belly, and the scar that went diagonally across it. "When my family was in hospital visiting me...mum, sis, bro...Taras told us the truth. He was part of the cult..."

She stopped talking for a moment.

Following Darya's lead Ace sat on the floor opposite her. He was a little saddened to see all of the contents of SWA in one small place, and tried to suppress the wave of grief that was suddenly upon him. He sat and listened and when Darya stopped he gave her a silent nod of encouragement, a gesture that was WF sign for "Go on, I'm listening intently."

"He...he called himself, or itself, or what they use, Altruism. Altruism...wanted us to join him, in the cult. Want us to be a family. Like those guys. We refused, and he got angry. Chimera's came in. Grabbed us. Took us to another room one by one. They tried..."upgrading" us. Mum and bro didn't make it. Sis...survived, just. I was saved, Malenbrach arrived. He escaped."

She sat on the sleeping bag and made deep, shuddering breaths, tracing the scar again. "That's when I got this. Altruism was going to put stuff in me, but was interrupted."

Ace couldn't sit dispassionately any more. He moved over to sit beside Darya and put his arms around her comfortingly again.

"Oh.. oh Darya. I'm so sorry, I didn't.. No wonder you are shaken, seeing what you saw today."

Darya didn't say anything, just leant into Ace and lay there for a while. She was crying a bit, and she felt very tired and possibly...angry? The world wasn't supposed to work like that. Cult families, peaceful cult were what the cult used to get people involved. Cult were big, hulking monsters who ripped people apart for their cybernetics then left them half dead at the side. They didn't raise kids. The world wasn't working properly, and it angered her.

After around five minutes, she looked up again. "Ace...I'm going to be visiting Natasha, my sister soon. Would...would you like to come?"

It was an unexpected question but Ace answered with out hesitation. "Yes. That sounds like a good idea." He could feel her resolve returning even slightly at the thought of her sister and Ace had promised to look after her if the worst should happen. Ace didn't expect anything would happen, but then he hadn't expected Pinkie's end either. If seeing her sister would help Darya now then Ace would be by her side to offer what comfort he could. He sat with bear on be floor holding her, comforting her and waiting for her to make the next move.

Darya didn't say anything for a few more moments. The question was on a whim, really. Speaking of her family had reminded her of Natasha, and how she thought she should introduce Ace to her sometime. Presently she stopped crying and pulled back from Ace, wrapping her arms around her legs. "I messed up." she said. "I should have checked more before we went in there. I was going to, but then Pinkie died and Sosie locked herself in and us out and Ida's disappeared off..." she tailed off, aware that Ace knew exactly what she was talking about.

"I should have followed them invisibly, like Shap did. Not just barge in. I keep doing that, and I never learn anything from it. I...I wanted to know what they were doing there. Where they were getting the cybernetics, what they planned to do, what they were doing with the shipment of Ai Jinn weapons...I don't even know what happened today."

"What happened was unexpected. We all went in there expecting cult. Regular Cult. Monstrous, hulking Cult doing unspeakable things. We didn't expect what we actually saw. We could have spent more time researching the situation, we could have scouted it out better but we didn't. We were impatient, and we are going to have to learn from that.”

Ace closed his eyes and lay down with his back against the floor. He took a few deep breaths before continuing.

“I know everything has been hard recently, but we have to move on. To accept what has happened, embrace it and move past it. I've spent the last few weeks with the Order in Jerusalem. The people I have met there have been incredibly supportive and helped me to cope. We'll get through this, together. I'm sure you'll track the Cult down again."