It was standard training for the Administrators, training that took months of work. Training that, if she were being honest, Chun Liao had always resented, because it seemed cheap and dishonest. Yet after years of working for the Administrators, at just this moment, she gave silent thanks a thousand times over for all the efforts Ciddia and her trainers had gone through to make sure she could keep a straight face in any situation. It was designed to prevent escalation, in a world where any sign of aggression might worsen the situation. It was most useful when dealing with people who were... less than sane.

Elaine DeWitt was not by any stretch of imagination what Liao would call sane, but it wasn't quite the same kind of insanity her training referred to. The weapon she referred to in passing as a "plasma lance" was designed for taking out targets behind both shields and armor, the kind of defenses that nobody on Earth had seen in hundreds of years. The splash damage from a single firing of that weapon would mark the landscape for decades, and only the Administrators interceding would keep the fire from completely destroying Teddy Hellman's compound--which, fortunately enough, was the only flammable thing in thousands of feet.

Liao's orders were to ask this woman to turn over every dangerous weapon she had. Without her training in keeping a straight face, she would not have been able to even get the words out of her mouth, but somehow, in spite of everything, she managed.

"T-those weapons are not authorized any longer," she told Elaine, with her arms crossed behind her back to hide her fidgeting, as the other woman floated a good fifty feet up, observing her good work. "There is no need nor any use for weapons of that scale in the modern world, and we would like you to turn over any--anything you have that does not fit into the category of 'antipersonnel weapons'. And, as a reminder, th-there are no Archons for you to fight, either. High-energy and high-yield weapons m-must be turned over to the Administrators." She paused, but successfully fought back the urge to add, "Please."

Elaine, still balancing the six-meter-long weapon on her shoulder, looked down on the Administrator with a look in her eyes that Liao thought was very dangerous. She was not able to read the Archon's facial expression, but it seemed very blank to her, very... cold. It seemed like she could, at any moment, decide that the right thing to do was sneer at Liao and give her the finger, then walk away. The Administrators had nothing that could match her, so--

"Makes sense," Elaine said, interrupting the cold fear inside the other woman. "This one is spent, though. I emptied the whole battery with that shot. It needed it, too; I don't know if you guys were watching, but I'm pretty sure the first couple seconds worth of discharge was eaten up by their whole transmutation thing. But after playing the beam around a bit, the whole thing became unstable, and poof, it was gone." She sniffed, as though for emphasis, and one-handed, tossed the enormous tube to the ground, where the weight of the thing snapped it in half as it landed. "Let the scrappers pick it apart. It's just ansible tech anyway."

And then she was next to Elaine, in a different outfit, this one very... flirty. Liao wasn't sure what to read into Elaine's choices: oversized sunglasses, miniskirt, floofy midriff-baring white top, with an even shorter leather jacket, and sneakers? As Liao stood there processing the other woman's wardrobe, Elaine fidgeted for a moment, then started to look impatient.

"Well?" Elaine crossed her arms over her chest. "I trust you don't want me to leave the rest of my arsenal here."

So Liao triggered a gateway, this back to a restricted section of Saturnalia--technically a subspace attached to the station, one of many restricted rooms designed purely to hold things that should not be released. Liao would be able to get them out of the room, but once she left, only Ciddia could authorize her to get back in.

Elaine took the portal in stride, and didn't seem at all bothered by the lack of gravity on the other side--but then, Liao realized again, she had just jumped out an airlock and taken an orbital tour. While Liao herself barely managed to catch the railing as she stepped in, Elaine had precisely set herself in the middle of a number of weapon racks, the design of many of which completely eluded Liao.

Liao, but not Elaine.

Some weapon racks were obvious; Elaine split into many bodies, each dressed differently, each carrying a new piece of hardware, and anything with a rifle or pistol of any sort went in a rack that looked exactly like it should. But weapons like the six-meter plasma lance--and Elaine had many weapons of that size, if none exactly like the first--took vastly different racks. One rocket launcher, for instance, fit into a wall-mounted clamp, one that was apparently designed specifically so that it would only fit once Elaine removed the ammunition and racked it separately. She did, without even needing to experiment, as though she had seen and used them before.

Other racks were for things that didn't resemble guns at all. Staffs, swords, giant crystal arrays that Liao had never been briefed on at all, and numerous other artifacts that were completely unclear, plus sets of armor (which must have some kind of built-in weapons or other capabilities), and even whole vehicles, which Elaine lovingly set down (in the sense that she appeared carrying most of them, rather than driving them in this limited space, in spite of their massive size and weight) on what Liao had not actually recognized as vehicle parking spots.

Based on Elaine's highly variable hesitation to part with some weapons, there were only a few she seemed to really care about, or have distinct memories of. One was a needle-barrel pistol, which she handled lovingly for a few minutes before setting in a rack. Another was a hover-variant motorcycle, which on careful analysis Liao recognized as having dozens if not hundreds of weapon-launchers packed into every available surface, although there were no obvious controls--doubtless, they were designed to integrate into the Archon's mental controls.

The last was a glove with a crystal on the back of the hand. Liao frowned, because something seemed off about it, but she didn't make a fuss about it. She did make a mental note to ask Ciddia, or one of the higher level supervisors if she was busy... but given that Liao was the one only with eyes on the situation, she suspected Ciddia would at least give her a debriefing. The crystal, to her, seemed to be radiating something, something almost... intelligent, but it was no more than a hint and a suggestion of something, and Liao, however perceptive she prided herself on being, had no experience with such things.

In general, though, Liao could only stand back and watch as Elaine went through the motions of leaving things behind. She had no way of telling whether Elaine had given up all, a majority, or only a small fraction of her arsenal, Given the sheer number of large objects she pulled out of nowhere, the potential that she was hiding something huge (in effect if not size) was non-trivial.

When finally, Elaine seemed to have set aside the last thing she was interested in parting with, Liao's bracelet buzzed and her holographic interface popped a message from Ciddia--two quick lines about two items she believed Elaine was hiding. Liao raised her eyebrows just a bit, but memorized the lines and swiped them away on her bracelet.

When Elaine stepped up to her, Liao kept her face as even as she could. "We believe you have a key to the Saturnalia King's Ground?"

Without a word, Elaine produced in her hand a flat piece of black glass with a black pattern stenciled on it, an effect that should by rights have been subtle. As Liao looked at it, though, she saw that while every color on the plate was black, they were so qualitatively different that from every angle, each color was distinct; some were glossy, others flat, others speckled with deep grays, others given surface textures of various kinds, and others that just seemed different in ways that were hard to qualify.

"I assume the King's Ground is long since decommissioned...?" Elaine seemed to be taking the situation in stride. "With no Archons, it's kind of pointless anyway."

"It was sealed," Liao replied as she examined the plate. "I'm not sure what Ciddia has done with it... but I believe the contents are somehow sensitive, now. Or perhaps, she just wishes to let the past remain the past." She looked up at Elaine. "She says you also have a Token."

With that, Elaine let a wide smile spread across her face. "True enough," she said. "I was wondering if you would ask. Though if you don't mind, I think I'd prefer to return that to her in person. I am... a little bit curious what she will say."

Then, suddenly, a message popped into Liao's display, and she saw a tiny twitch from Elaine at the same moment--as though they were both receiving it. "There is nothing to say," was the message from Ciddia. "The system is broken. Without the resources of the City behind it, it is an unstable element and should be left behind."

"Mhmmmm." Elaine let the sound of her disbelieving hum last a moment. "And that's why you aren't here in person--not because you know I'll call your bluff if I hear it from you in person."

Liao raised an eyebrow, but the reply that came seemed in good humor. "You can try using it if you wish," was the reply, "but you won't receive a Wish. I was intending to examine it and see if it can be salvaged, but I doubt it."

"That, without question, is a bluff." Elaine produced a coin from nowhere, which she flipped and caught idly. "We've faced off like this before, haven't we? My memories are a little broken, but I seem to recall a conversation very much like this." She flipped the coin again. "I am pretty sure I won that argument."

"You were always brazen," replied Ciddia by text. "Fine then, the truth. I cannot produce more and I cannot stop them. If they are broken, I cannot save you. If they are not, I cannot stop you. Yet as the last Blackhat I am responsible if anything happens. What am I supposed to do?"

"You would destroy them, then." Elaine tossed the coin again. "What reckless thing would you do, Ciddia, if I tried to activate it? Called your bluff?"

"That depends on whether it works, and what you ask." Ciddia's reply was immediate.

"Hm." Elaine let the coin rest on her thumb for a long moment, then flipped it again. "What if I gave it away? To, say, Teddy Helmann?"

"That depends on whether it works," replied Ciddia again.

"Do you think it will?" Elaine made the coin vanish from her fingers, and turned and paced back through the aisles of weapons she had racked. "Be honest, Ciddia. For goodness' sakes, I gave up all of this because it was the right thing to do. I would hope you could trust me."

"I don't trust anyone anymore." There was a pause. "Those systems were handled by others. I honestly don't know how it works. But I believe it was designed to work when the City was out of range, in case the Two Worlds would separate some day. But... the world is broken. The Nightmares are proof of this."

"You think it could create one of those monsters?" Elaine ran her hands over the weapons in the rack, one at a time, pacing back towards that Liao recognized as the glove with the crystal on it.

"That is the worst case," replied Ciddia.

"And that's why you won't let me out until I give it to you," said Elaine simply. "I bet you deactivated your girlfriend's exit, too. That's why you're not here; you'll wait me out if I'm stubborn." She paused. "I should warn you I intend to be stubborn."

"I thought you might," was all Ciddia said. To Liao, separately, a message window popped up, only saying, "I'm sorry."

Liao kept her face blank, but now she cursed the long hours of training that ensured that Ciddia's betrayal would look like it was all part of a plan.