It's well lit, comfortably cool and smells vaguely of rose petals when Adileh, Revilier, and Yin reappear. The three of them are still sitting on car seats, without a car around them, in what looks like a rather large workshop. Robots of almost every kind--there are no humanoids at first glance-- are working, tinkering with things, welding, or playing music on built-in MP3 players. Large windows peer outside, looking out over the Walloon countryside.

"Good afternoon," greets a soft, feminine voice. "May I assist you in any way?"

Its owner smiles at them, closed eyed, and tilts so her wide Serinian ears are at a cute angle. She's tall for a Serinian, at least five-nine, with flowing green hair and a tight jeans/rubber ducky shirt combo going in blue.

Yin looks around...glances at the woman. Is quiet a moment. Another one? She wonders if she's hyper-capable like Kaz, or hyper-powerful like Felina and clones. She finally just stands. "Where's Kaz?"

Adileh, meanwhile, looks around wide-eyed. Again? She stands slowly, banishing the startled apprehension from her face for a bland "I'm better than you but don't know it" expression she's been actively taught.

The Serinian puts her hands in her pockets, thumbs sticking out. She has no claws. "In his office. He asked me to speak with you first. Are you carrying any weapons we should know about?"

"Pistol." It's not like it's her primary weapon anyway, really.

"May I have it, please?" She holds out her hand, smiling that closed eyed smile again.

"I have one, too, and it doesn't leave the holster unless I'm shooting someone." He smiles right back at her. "If I don't need it, I won't use it. Right, Yin?"

She nods once. Cohesion is important to their public relationship, and she's happy to follow his lead.

"Well. Okay, but just this one time." The Serinian puts her hands back in her pockets, and turns, swishing towards the office.  She has an unusually curvy build for her kind.

A palm-print reader keys open the office, and the girl ushers the two of them inside.

"You should stay out here," she tells Adileh. "These are secret proceedings."

"Oh...of course." Adileh nods. She's horribly uncomfortable, really. Her wings still sway idly, fading slowly.

"You'll be fine." Yin smiles a bit at the half-angel. "It would be out of character for Kaz to order harm on an individual without a very concrete reason." She looks to Revilier, expression fading, and turns to head into the room in question.

The Serinian steps outside with Adileh.

Inside the office, a solemn looking Menayen sits in a rolly chair, idling spinning circles.

"Hi cuties!" He says through the solemn face. "How do you like my teleportation device?"

"Fancy. You've improved them quite a bit."

"Yeah, I know. Sit down." Menayen stands up. He looks taller, and Revilier wonders at the nifty tattoos on his face. His spots look more like tribal markings now. "How did you like my girl Sin?"

"She's very pretty." Yin sits, and crosses her legs. Honestly, all things considered she's half expecting some kind of metal bands to snap out of her and bind her arms and legs to the thing. "I notice she lacks the claws, though. Where's she from?"

"Here. She's an android." Menayen grins. "Fully functioning, her own AI, solar powered with an ultra efficient battery. Have a sex drive all her own. I made her after someone hired Contessa to shoot me."

Yin nods. ...Ouch. Someone so social making his own company can't be fun. She resists a comment about how loyal Contessa was to have ever agreed to something like that to begin with. She certainly couldn't have been hired to move against either Kaz or Alou. "You did a lovely job with her."

"She has your butt." Menayen waddles over to a cabinet. "You two want something to drink? Revilier, you look worried."

"You sound surprised," the general huffs.

"Yeah, you're right. Drink?" The Serinian runt smiles at both of them. "If I wanted you dead, I could've killed you already. You think just because I'm easily rattled and still love my friend Yin that I couldn't hurt you at any damn time, I guess. Dick."

"I could use one," Yin admits. She knows he knows what she drinks, too. She and Alou are easy, they have essentially the same tastes. Of course, she'd picked hers up from him, but still.

"Cognac. Cool." Menayen hands a whole bottle to her from a disgustingly well-stocked cabinet. "You guys are too much. Seriously. And I love that you're doing great. I want to apologize for shooting down Grace Tower. But in fairness, you did tell me to do what I had to do."

"You cost my nation millions of dollars--"

"But how many lives?" Menayen asks, smiling at him.

"Two." 

"Really?"

"... none."

"That's what I thought. Jacktard. And I noticed neither of you thanked me for saving all those people from Radivishe Moorn with my sentry bots." Menayen sits on his chair again.

"Didn't find that part out until the next day, and at that point I figured you were pretty upset and needed some time to think." This is actually true. She'd been distracted by Revilier when they had fired and unconscious before turning around and seeing them. And she hadn't been on her feet for a couple of days afterward, and not for very long until Revilier had been able to replenish her power bit by bit over the next few days. Not that she hadn't been a busy, busy pseudo-national-leader-ish person from a seated position. "But thank you on both counts." The second count is the drink she's currently accepting.

Menayen's ears press back a little.

"I miss you so much, Yin. I miss being your goofy little buddy. But I had to get out of there or I'd be dead right now." He looks at Revilier again. "Right?"

"Probably, yes."

"So tell Yin why you felt the need to murder me." Menayen sits back, sips a bottle of chocolate milk. "I got all day, cookiepants."

Revilier sits up, proudly. "With the codes to that weapon you were a serious security risk. The only person I could trust to control it was me. If I took control of it from you, you would have destroyed it. Your loyalties have always been to spiders ever since you had your little affair with Tuleau Dastier."

Menayen goes white.

"What," Revilier smiles at him, "did that slip your mind?"

Yin's eyes close, brow creasing just a bit at his reaction. Great. There's a secret she hadn't really felt like deciding what to do with. It may be better to keep, though. She just sips her drink, and says nothing. It may explain why Tuleau and Alou hadn't married despite their line of work, though.

"We're not here to talk about me," Menayen hisses, ears way back. "Fact is, I want to broker a truce with you. Stop trying to kill me."

"What's in it for us?" Revilier quickly demands. He looks at Yin, curious to see if she has questions.

"I won't pretend I'm not biased," she finally notes, slow and measured. "But from a purely pragmatic standpoint, Kaz may be the foremost force in the world in terms of firepower and potential firepower, and it's in Julen's best interests to not be at odds with that. On the political side, though...the majority of the world considers you its foremost terrorist. Any association can't be public or we'll see embargoes tomorrow and likely declarations of war not long after." She gazes staunchly into her drink throughout this.

Menayen wilts. "I don't want a public truce. I just want you to be my friends again."

Yin's quiet, and finally looks over to Revilier.

"Absolutely not," Revilier shakes his head. "You're dangerous. We both know that."

Menayen looks at Yin, eyes pleading. Please don't just sit there and let him do this without even trying. Come on, woman!

Yin looks down. Back to Revilier. "He is dangerous," she observes softly. "But by that same token, what are we we risking by choosing to stay at odds, especially with so many other nations wanting so badly to take us down in a time of perceived weakness, eager to enlist the aid of anyone who can do that...Kaz being the number one candidate? The only strike against a truce is a deep, if legitimate, grudge, and a debt."

Pause. She sips her drink when she thinks of it...resisting the urge to chug the damned thing.

She looks to Kaz. "Menayen. You've helped Julen a lot before the Arbiter existed. And yeah, it was wrong that you were hired with the plan to eliminate in the same breath. And I'm sorry, I really am. But whatever the cause, taking down the tower was a massive strike, and a massive debt for the nation. It's being rebuilt, of course, though it's an expense we really, really didn't need right now, when we're already in the red." It has to be, as a symbol to the whole world. "You're a resourceful guy. In the interest of restoring good relations, can you find a way to provide significant, legitimate funds towards rebuilding it?"

Menayen sips his milk. "You want me to buy back our friendship? Lemme make sure I understand that."

She closes her eyes, brow finally scrunching a bit. Damnit. Damnit, damnit. No. No, that's not what she means. "No. I'm looking for a way that you and Revilier could reach an accord so solidly in the nation's best interests that it couldn't be shunned, so that it would be possible. I don't actually have a say in this. Only my opinions."

Menayen nods. Okay. That's how it is. "And you fluffles? What do you think?"

Revilier smirks. "About 1.4 billion euros should cover most of the damages."

Menayen nods. "No."

"No deal, then."

"Hear me out, you bleached buffoon. I'm on a shoestring budget here. Belgium has been happy to fund me on even trade. My robots do work for them, I create efficient housing for their people, and let them in on a few trade secrets. I don't have money to burn like that. However. I can put robots at your disposal to assist in the cleanup."

Revilier looks at Yin. He figures that, since they'll be wed before long, she needs a bit more say in things.

She's busily doing some calculation in her head. "That's worth about fifty million for the labor, closer to two hundred if you factor in the fact that his robots should be able to cut out a lot of the machinery costs for cranes and hydraulics, especially in the higher levels. We may also be able to finish sooner than otherwise possible, which would look impressive to the humans," her voice remains soft. She finally looks back up to Revilier. "Especially if we alleviate the potential threat of coming to blows with Germany and allies and then seeing Kaz's technology backing them...it's nothing to sniff at. I think we should consider it" She's trying so, so hard to keep her personal feelings out of it and keep Julen at the front.

Of course she wants to be speaking to Kaz again, even if it wouldn't be the same as before.

"Alright, fine. I won't try to kill you anymore." Revilier nods. "You do not get this in writing, though."

Menayen nods. "Fair enough. If you try it again, I'll end you, regardless of Yin. And I swear to Vishnu, if you tell Alou about me and Tuleau, I'll skin both of you." He smiles. "Friends?"

Yin has to smile a bit, and nods a little. "I do hope we'll get there again." She squeezes Revilier's hand, smiles at him briefly. Thank you. For taking her opinion into consideration, too.

"Now. I do have one more question." Menayen touches his ear, listening to something on an earpiece. He snickers. "Did you two know you're traveling with an angel?"

"Oh. Yeah." Yin looks over to him. "Half, according to her. Her name's Adileh. We're still trying to piece together the details of that. She showed up at the explosion at Ground Zero this morning. About that. Alou said there was another one matching the description in Stuttgart this morning. Did you turn up any other like her?"

"Yeah. It was big. Similar, but not quite the same. Your friend's had a little boom, scattered, displacement stuff. The air got changed from place to place and popped real loud, BANG! for your friend. The one in Stuttgart was a lot neater, and almost definitely targeted. I lost the energy signal that came out of there, though."

"Hmm." Yin finishes her drink, and considers this. Yeah. It strikes her as a show of good faith to share some of their limited intelligence on the matter. "Well. We're looking for a minimum of four more of these people, her family." She smiles a bit. "Whatever that may end up meaning to the rest of us."

"I'll let you know if I find anything. Now, unless there's something else you want to tell me, or ask me," Kaz sips milk, and has a little on his lip, "you guys should go."

Yin nods, and stands. "We have people to assure that we weren't in teh car...and I have a dress fitting in forty minutes, anyway. Will you be sending us back the same way we came?"

"Yup. Hey, blondie. Remember. We have a deal." The kitty-fellow smiles brightly. "Don't go back on it."

"We'll see," Revilier smirks.

"Sin," he calls, and the door opens. "Escort them out."

The android Serinian looks in on them. "Excuse me," she says, calmly, demurely, "there's a power source approaching the city. It's similar to this young lady's." She gestures to Adileh.

Adileh blinks. "Pardon?" Kohim? Ararat? "Where can I meet it?"

"It'll be stopped at the gates. We'll check into it, first," Menayen tells her.

"I'd like to go with whoever checks," Adileh ventures. This isn't the "I'm going to get this done myself" Yin would have demonstrated. It's more like a question by someone who has no blessed idea how to phrase it as a request.

"Sin will go. She's much stronger than she looks. Yin, Revilier, care to leave this one with me for a while?"

Yin pauses, and looks to Revilier. It's not as though they're very involved in it, and it may be just one more complication that they don't need. On the other hand, Menayen's convenient timing may indicate that he knows something they don't.

The general shrugs. "Send us back, then." The general hands a phone to Adileh. "But I'll be in touch."

Yin observes the angel's reaction a few moments. "If it rings, open it up, put it to your ear, and talk into it. Close it again when the conversation's over."

Adileh smiles sheepishly. "Thank you."

Yin smiles, and nods. "Alright. We're ready to go, then."

Menayen chuckles softly. "Bye bitches." 

He holds up a remote--one of many he carries around-- and presses two buttons at once.

Blue orbs scatter from nowhere, enveloping the ruling couple, and in half an instant they're gone, sent back to the scene of the car crash, right by the road.

Sin lays a hand on Adileh's shoulder. "Is there any way I can assist you before we leave?"

"No...thank you. I just want to find my family." The half-angel's having a very confusing day. Staying goal-focussed is the best she can do.

"Yes, I understand," Sin purrs for her. "We will depart momentarily. Please go outside by the door on the left side of the next room and wait by my motorcycle."

"By your..." Pause. "Nevermind. Yes." She looks for the door, and just heads out as bidden.

When she steps out, is to what may be the cleanest large city on earth. Trees stand in absolute symmetry without the first power line obscuring the skyline. Cars whiz by, but they pour no exhaust, and the predominant scent is the warm aroma flowing from the chicken and waffle hut next door. The buildings are mostly brick, but coated with something that makes them shine a bit and serves as a fabulous insulator.

A sweeper bot beeps past her, picking up a cigarette and devouring it inside its metallic body.

Sin steps out of the office, her ducky shirt covered by a leather bike jacket, a helmet under each arm. "Would you like the blue," she quietly asks Adileh, "or the pink?"

Adileh, of course, has no idea what they're for. "I...like the pink one."

Sin holds it out to her and, sensing that Adileh has little experience with these, straps her own over her head... noting the convenient earguards. "Like this," she smiles.

Adileh smiles a touch in return, and follows her lead. It's an interesting day, if nothing else. "Yes. Shall we?"

"Yes." Sin leads Adileh to the curb, where a navy blue, shiny-as-hell crotch-rocket of sorts sits on its kickstand. It's shaped a lot more like a solid bullet, very future-y, with two seats and what looks like a wagon end in back, with a bucket seat. Sin slides into the front seat and pulls the throttle, roaring the motorcycle to life.

"Sit behind me," she purrs, "and hold onto me however you like."

"All right." Again, Adileh does as bidden...she's unusually passive right now. She wants to get to that "energy pattern" and find out who it is. God she hopes it's not Jensuela.

Sin turns the throttle again and, once Adileh's secure, she signals and shoots into the sparse traffice.

"It is five miles to the source of the... four. Two. Error?" Sin looks up only minutes after they take off and flips a bitch, swinging the bike to a stop at the sight of the glorious woman flying above the city, sweeping and searching.

"Is that your family?" Sin asks, looking at the porcelain creature above. The soldier.

Adileh shrinks a bit against Sin's back...her reaction isn't so much concerned, though, as disappointed, and angry. "No. That's one of the traitors who sent us here," she hisses.

"So she might know where your family has gone?" Sin asks this quietly, looking up at the sky--all the while transporting images to Menayen through her optic connections.

"Yes." Adileh stands shakily on the strange cotraption, just managing to plant a foot on the seat before springing into the air, tossing aside the helmet as her wings burst into being, streaking towards the creature far above.

Sin blinks, staring up. "Wow," she murmurs, "so pretty... um, Menayen, this might end badly for her. The other woman looks like a dragoon with angel wings. Yes. I understand."

Sin sits complacently until a fight breaks out. If a fight breaks out.

Jensuela peers into the mechanized city below, marveling. "What a wonderful place this is," she purrs silkily, very Yin-like. She's so ravished by everything that she doesn't notice Adileh's approach at first.

The princess, absolutely furious, is more than happy to introduce herself with a powerful backhand. "Jensuela! Treacherous bitch! How could you?!"

The crack of the blow is like a piece of liver smacking the sidewalk from ten stories up. Jensuela gurks and spins out fluttering toward the earth with a pained cry.

Sin smiles. "I am so turned on, all of a sudden."

Jensuela's ethereal wings fold and snap out, catching her, and her eyes jerk up to see if Adileh is following up.

She's not. Adileh remains where she is, faintly glowing fists clenched and literally trambling with rage, face a barely-controlled mask of the same. But she'd asked a question, and she's waiting for the answer.

Jensuela rubs her jaw, and forces the fury from her eyes.

"The Diaspora worships cattle, Princess. Have you not seen them, milling this planet in droves?"

"The Diaspora worships the gods amongst them," the princess spits in return, "the innovators and the far-sighted, the adaptable and imaginative, responsible for nearly everything we rely on in our daily lives! And they follow those who have led them through it all without fail. Royalty cannot be maintained through theocracy, you simpering idiot! It can only be supported through the success of many generations as leaders, else it would be throw via mass uprising! Without that to support a power change, you morons are setting the Diaspora up for a cataclysmic civil war!"

Jensuela stiffens. "That was a very royal rebuke, Princess. But don't you understand? Jericho has a following. He is like you, but not. He is a cosmic traveller, and his blood is every drop as impure as yours."

"For the Diaspora's sake, I do hope that you're right," Adileh snarls. "But in the meantime, where is the rest of my family?"

"I don't know. I have been searching for them... this was not supposed to go like this. You were all to be sent away for a short while, not flung to the stars."

"For what? What were you supposed to accomplish in that time?"

"Revolution. Bloodless revolution." Jensuela reaches down to her side, where her crystalline longsword gleams in a fitting. "I still want that."

"Then keep your hand away from your sword," Adileh growls, defensive. "Revolution...for what? All our citizens have adequate food, even the disabled or uncared for. They have shelter. They get to own their own property and businesses. For the last few generations, they even have social mobility. What have we done so wrong?"

"You've been complacent, and the sword is so you don't strike me again." Jensuela straightens up, wings unfurling beautifully. "The Diaspora is crowded. The worlds of this universe are ripe for terraforming and habitation, but only a select few of us even know of their existence!"

"Then petition for funding and pretsent a case for it! Rally people behind you and secure funding from both the Treasury and private backers to set off and explore the idea! It doesn't take social upheaval to accomplish that!"

Adileh...nearly growls, honestly, eyes squeezed shut, body trembling, teeth and fists clenched. "Nevermind...nevermind. I give you this one warning to never return to the Diaspora once we've restored the order of things. I will personally see you executed and so hurry you on your way to hell. I hear that they have a special place for traitors."

She's done. At this, she flaps once, turning an easy circle in the air, and glides quickly back towards Sin, livid as all hell. These people...they'd found Jensuela, accurately. They're her best bet to find the ones who matter.

"Hey, Princess!" Jensuela shouts. "You have a lot of mouth for knowing nothing about the way your family handles colonization! Ask them sometime!"

Sin is waiting when Adileh returns, patiently, just smiling.

Adileh pays absoltely no attention to the Judas, alighting on the ground near Sin. "Are you able to find the others as well?" She inquires simply.

"Yes, now that we have two samples to base our readings on. Do you want me to terminate her?" Sin smiles again, just beaming prettily.

"No. I implied that I would not have her killed if she did not return to the Diaspora, and true royalty never goes back on its word." Adileh picks up the dropped pink helmet--scratched, but not dented--and slips it back on silently as her wings fade away.

"Oh. She is flying this way." Sin looks over Adileh's shoulder at the diving Jensuela, whose sword, blazing with divine energy, trails white and red light behind.

Adileh's eyes snap wide. "Oh shoot move!" She shoves Sin hard and springs backward herself, nearly perpendicular to the ground before a second kick sends her streaking up and back.