Repairs

Myxine gritted her teeth in frustration; she couldn't believe her luck or lack of it. "Ambrosia, what are you doing here, and where is that human?!" She asked again, not wanting the usual nonsense from the Honeycomb Queen. Unfortunately for her, Ambrosia felt like being coy.

"I could say the same thing about you." After she gave a mischievous smile, Ambrosia dropped from the tree branch and landed on all fours. She started circling the Hagfish Queen with a hungry look in her eyes. "Hmm, what do you want with him? Did he break your heart or something?"

Myxine's nostrils flared as she tried to keep her temper in check. "It's none of your concern!" she snapped harshly at the other Queen.

Ambrosia whistled in amazement. This wasn't the usual depressed Myxine she knew; it was an angry, bitter, frustrated, and-" Is someling hungry!?" The taller Queen teased.

The Hagfish Queen's left eye twitched in anger. Without warning, Myxine charged forward and locked horns with Ambrosia. "Shut up and tell me where he is!" She added more force to her push, but Ambrosia didn't move an inch.

Ambrosia's usual happy grin disappeared after that reckless attack. She looked at the younger Queen with a critical eye. This wasn't the stoic, logical, and slightly depressed Queen, but a Queen on the brink of starvation. With a single order from the hive mind, The Honeycomb hive's drones stood down and kept watch on their counterparts.

With a serious look, she gave Myxine her best grin and told her."No can do; you're not in the right mindset, so I need to show you some tough love." With that said, she head-butted the younger Queen causing her to back away in pain. Ambrosia wouldn't kill her, but she would enjoy every second of it.

Memento, second floor

"Raven~ Don't stick your fingers in there, Ah!" Maya moaned.

"Oi stop moving; I need you lubricated; now lift your leg; you're still stiff," Raven commanded, and the nasod did as she was told."

"OH! right there! That feels so good!" She squealed in delight.

This continued for a few more minutes until Raven thought she was ready. "I think you're ready. This might hurt." Raven brought out jumper cables. And what were these cables attached to? An ancient relic of great power; A car battery.

"W-wait, I don't think I'm rea-" But it was too late; Raven attached them to her breastplate. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH"She screamed as electricity surge throughout her mechanical body.

After ten seconds, Raven removed the jumper cables, leaving Maya a twitching mess. "That should do it; how do you feel, Maya?"

" Flight Code: Online" Was her first response, followed by an annoyed groan. "That shouldn't have work, and I really should smack you for that."

"But it did, and I expect a thank you later today." Maya just sighed and lay there in defeat.

From a third party's perspective, all of this would sound raunchy, but truthfully it was Maya's long overdue maintenance. Raven replaced damaged parts, lubricating stiff joints, and kick-started her flight code. Currently, Raven was putting the old Nasod back together. "Now, tell me, how did Megan come into being." Like always, the former captain got to the heart of the matter.

"Her full name was: Megan G Williams; out of all the failed attempts, she was the only success."

Raven felt a pit form in his stomach but asked the Nasod the obvious question. "What did Add do?"

If Maya could, she would have snorted in amusement. "He modified the plant restoration project on the sixth floor. He created an AI and told it to recreate the Human DNA sequence. Next, it needed to create a living Human being, preferably bipedal, with working vocal cords." Oh shit! Those were some rather vague requirements. "Anything that wasn't up to standard was 'recycled.' As you can imagine, this took a while."

"So why stop with Megan? I didn't see any other sign of humanity around." From what Raven could remember from Eve's mad ramblings, the girl was weak.

"Simple, really; at age seven, we found that Megan could not resonate with the El and was promptly kicked out." Raven gave the female Nasod a dirty look, which she shrugged off. "I was overruled by the Ai and could only watch as the L scouts chased her out. Just be happy she wasn't 'recycled.'"

Raven was thankful the ponies found the poor girl afterward. "And let me guess, Eve, woke up and went on a rampage on the lower floors and took the El."

"Correct, with the core leaking, and excuse my language, but everything has gone to shit, and I'm not sure how much longer those blast doors will hold them off." Maya grimaced at the thought of the newest creature from the restoration project. "Especially that new creature that is running around in the lower floors eating anything it can get its tentacles on."

"..."

"..."

"Raven."

"Yes?"

"I'm scared. It's growing stronger every day."

If a Nasod is scared, they were in deep shit, indeed. Swallowing the lump in his throat, Raven asked. "What does it look like?" they might as well have a good idea of what they're going up against.

Maya shook her head. " I cannot comply with that order; what I would have to describe would be a cognitive hazard to living creatures." Lovely, if Raven had to hazard a guess, they're dealing with a creature that mutated to the point where it became otherworldly.

Why was it always him? Why couldn't it be easy? Raven started rubbing his temples and wondered for the tenth time where it went wrong. " How long do we have."

"I give it a year from today before we face another end-of-the-world scenario." Maya cursed to herself, not wanting to witness the world end again.

Meanwhile, Raven was cursing up a storm in his mind. "SHIT! FUCK! MOTHERFUCKER! WHY IS IT ALWAYS ME?!"The former captain breathed in deeply to stay calm. "All the more reason for us to get stronger... Should we tell them about it?"

"For now, this stays between us; if we haven't made significant progress in six months, we tell them." She narrowed her eyes and gave the Human a pointed look. " And I don't need to tell you not to tell the Equestrians about this. If any other nation had a hint of what's in this place, they would stop at nothing to get in here. Do I make myself clear?"

"I understand." He didn't like this one bit, lying to his children, but they would panic if they found out about this. Hopefully, within those six months, they will mature, or the problem will be taken care of. As for the Equestrians, he didn't care if he had to lie to them. Why? Because they've proven to be a pain in the ass since he woke up. "Anyways, that should do it." Indeed Raven was able to repair Maya's core and put her back together.

She got off the repair bench without prompt and floated a few inches off the ground. Her metal skin didn't have a single scratch, and her outward black and inward green hair was flawless. The cables attached to her back were gone, allowing her freedom of movement. In a flash, she summoned her two floating chakram-like weapons that thrummed with power. Maya flicked her hair to the right, which smacked Raven in the face. "Acceptable."

Raven's single eye twitched in annoyance. Only a few days ago, she was nothing more than scrap metal. The only reason why she's in pristine condition was thanks to his hard work! "Just let it go."He would let it go for now, but he would make her pay for it later. He gave the ungrateful Nasod a crooked smile. "I'm glad, so tell me, what is your current fighting proficiency?"

"100% When near the El, and it drops to 75% using only ambient magic without those modifications you talked about. But more than enough to take on those filthy Alicorns. After all I held off the entirety of the El Search Party." This is true, but she couldn't continue in the end and they got past her.

"Uh-huh." He casually dismissed that claim, causing Maya's hair to bristle at that. "I'll test you myself sometime later." Honestly, he wanted a decent sparring partner. "Also, you'll be taking the position of Commander once again, so I expect you to defend New Elria with your life. Understood?"

"Of course, Sir!" Her programming kicked in, and she saluted her new leader. "But I'll need underlings, preferably second-generation Nasods. I'll even help with their creation." She had no delusions of getting any CODE_C, B, or D units anytime soon; they didn't have the resource or the time for it yet.

Raven nods. "Of course, I had a few in mind, and with the twin's progress, we'll have the second generation up and running soon." Maya's right eyebrow twitched at that.

"You can't be serious, they're children, and they don't even have hands."

"Tsk, don't underestimate them, children they may be, but they've made remarkable progress." It's true; the twister twins are absorbing the information like sponges and already tinkering with first-generation Nasods. "Until that time comes, you'll have to work with Queen Ambrosia."

She would have clicked her tongue in disgust if she had one."Understood, Sir."

"Now le-" Raven was cut off by a holographic screen popping up in front of his face. "What now?" One of the L scouts broadcast live footage of Queen Ambrosia fighting another Changeling Queen. "For Fuck's sakes!" Raven grabbed his brown bag, and Maya grabbed him before he could run out the door. "I'll teleport us there."

"Eh?" They were gone in a blink, along with Raven's breakfast.

[Raven carrying Oleander]

[Art by Redahfuhrerking]

Author's Note

Sorry for the very short chapter, but I did this for a reason. I just wanted to get back into the groove of things. Also, a bit of insight into how fucked Raven is if he doesn't play his cards right. stuck between a hard place and a harder place.

Also, again amazing work by Redahfuhrerking!

Thank you guys for reading my story.