Someone else and a ton of questions.

After hunting and eating two deer (a feat which almost seems pathetically easy with his new body) des was finally full and they returned to the cave. 'Well we should probably plan at least a little ways ahead so we're not reacting to everything that comes at us' Theon thought. They knew they wanted to remain in the valley for a little while solidify their position, but how far did they really want to take the whole ruling everything idea? They had both been pretty content and their quiet retirement before their ****. Did they really want to start another campaign of blood and **** just so they could sit on another shiny chair? After an hour or so of debating with each other they came to the conclusion that whether it was because it had become too easy in their old life and was now more of a challenge and therefore an interest to be pursued or just because of des' new draconic instincts driving him to dominate and possess all he sees, but they realized that fire to rule had once again been reignited in them. But first things first he needed strong base and a standing **** he could lead into battle. This valley as he had seen on the map was fairly well set up to be a good starting point, other than the one pass to the south, there was no way in or out across land, and the only other opening was either over the mountains or in from the sea, and much of the northern coast had been labeled on the map as jagged cliffs, which didn't seem like the greatest place to land a boat. He knew that his plans would lead him south, one of the mercenaries he had heard speaking of another dungeon, if fate took his side maybe it would be close to the pass, with good sight ranges and the high ground so he could keep an eye on it. Figuring they had the next couple days mostly planned in their head they realized the priestess would need to eat before she left, since as far as he knew the adventuring party hadn't eaten since they left the village yesterday morning since Des had been keeping tops on them since fairly early in their hike, and he had not seen any of them eat.

He was about to leave when he realized he shouldn't just leave her alone and suddenly berated himself for leaving her alone the first time. As he thought about what he should do he realized that several of his old children would be perfect for the job, and he just so happened to have picked up a way to make some of them. In his mind he envisioned them as they had been, 6 foot even, bipedal humanoid, with a rifle for long range encounters and sword and shield for up close and personal work, digitigrade legs for naturally supplemented speed and jump strength, and one round ocular sensor, with a supplemental motion sensor at the base of their neck so nothing could sneak up on them, and made of metal to take advantage of the greatest aspect of synthetic life; no exhaustion, hunger or age, no feelings of regret or remorse. As he fixed the mental image and blueprint in his mind he felt the same warmth flow through his body as before and when he opened his eyes in front of him were were two two Steel-born warrior chassis, All hard edges and gray steel with the only differentiating visual cue that one of them had a red stripe down its right arm and the other one had a blue stripe down its right arm minus the operating AI, though from the description of the ability they had from Theon's interaction with Ariel, he knew they should be able to take basic directions and fill out tasks individually independently.

"You can understand me yes?" They both nodded once. "Good I'm going out to gather some things, stay here guard the cave keep her safe." He said gesturing at the sleeping priestess in the corner. They both started moving at once, and even though he had not thought about connecting them mentally they seemed to be working as one, one simply turning to watch the entrance, while the other quickly double check the cave for secondary entrances before joining the other one at the front. 'Steel-born, good call, but... will the rifles even work right?' Des contemplated the question for a second before stepping towards the entrance and pointing at a tree outside the cave. "Ruby, fire on that tree." the Steel'born with the red stripe lifted its weapon and fired, except instead of the bullet they were expecting, a singular bolt of lightning shot from the barrel and arced to the tree, scorching a large patch of it and turning a chunk into flying splinters. 'yep, works fine, id say.' Des just chucked mentally and agreed, taking off to run his errands.

Dees made several trips back to the spider layer to scrounge through the other adventurers gear, thankfully finding some cooking supplies on the druid-esque guy that had gone full bear. All that was left was to take down another deer, then gather up some fruits and vegetables to go with it. Once he had gotten everything back to the cave the fire had burned down to coals, so Des quickly butchered up several serviceable portions of meat, and swapped with Theon, as cooking was never Des' area of interest or expertise and it showed. Theon managed to fry up some of the deer into both venison steaks and something approximating bacon, while getting the vegetables steamed up and the fruit chopped into smaller bite-sized pieces. The priestess was starting to shift more in her sleep making Theon think that she was going to wake up soon. When he finished cooking everything he sat down to eat his own plate while he waited for her to wake up, and he didn't have to wait long. Once she did and sat up, stretching her arms out wide before she turned to look around the cave. Theon could tell she tensed that when she saw him sitting on the far side of the fire, he realized it must look like he was gobbling down venison steak like his life depended on it. He motioned towards the other plate, which he had already filled with food for her. He gave her an enthusiastic thumbs up and push the plate slightly towards her, without stopping from eating his own food. Looking back and forth between him and the food she slowly scooted forward and pulled the plate back to her with a look a confusion on her face.

"Who... Are you? Did you manage to kill the... Monster? Is it still out there?" Des immediately start to bubble rage into his mind and Theon hissed silently under his breath as he slowly swallowed the bite of venison in his mouth.

"To answer your questions in order, my name is Theon and then no and yes respectively. And if I could offer you some advice? Never call Des that again, especially in his presence He's... Not a fan of the implication. 'Saved her ass from sex slavery and that's the thanks I get?!' Des lashed, 'see if I help her out next time!' The priestess noticeably stiffened and looked around before squeaking out,

"oh God he's still here somewhere? Where is he, it sounds like hes standing right here..." her words made Theon stiffen in response.

"You can hear Des? Like right now?" Theon asked slowly.

"Of course I can, it sounds like he's right in front of me! Do you think I'm deaf or something?"

"No," Theon said with a chuckle "I don't think you're deaf. Just surprised. I didn't think you would be able to hear him because he's not physically here." 'Oh just tell her she seems halfway intelligent she'll probably figure it out pretty soon anyways.' Does huffed in his mind. "The thing is..." theon started, but paused after he saw the priestess was looking around for des again. "Hey, can I have your attention please? eyes front and all that?" She was back at him and managed to not stare back and forth as does chuckled in the back of his mind. "I'm sorry, what was your name? I don't think we caught it last night."

"It's Cassandra. And you wouldn't have caught it because he didn't ask and you weren't here!" Cassandra shot back, as her confusion continued to climb.

"Okay Cassandra well first of all it's nice to meet you, My name is Theon, and what I was trying to say was that I *was* here last night. Me and Des share this body, You're not hearing him in the room, You're hearing him in your mind, or rather mine, I assume it has something to do with the link formed by the mark of submission."

"You share your body with him? Why would you agree to that? why would *anyone* agree to that?"

"It's not something we " agreed to " it's just how we've always been. Like being born with a twin but one of the bodies got lost in airport security you know what I'm saying?" 'I don't think they have airports Theon so no, she wouldn't know what you're saying.' Theon smiled and shook his head. "What I mean to say is it wasn't a choice, but even if it was I wouldn't choose anything else. No are we ready to be civil? Or are we going to keep throwing accusations about things we don't understand?"

"I apologize if I seem to rude? It's been a lot to take in." She says she finally picks up her food and starts to eat. Theon just smiled.

"The meat is a deer, with some fruits and vegetables I scrounged up out in the forest. they aren't poisonous where I come from but I saved a couple whole for you to check in case it's different here.

after a quick look at the assembled fruit she muttered, "they all look fine, even without experience in forestry they're all fruits and vegetables I recognize from the city." The conversation died off as she ate and he didn't want to interrupt, but if she finished up the last of the bright yellow fruit Theon spoke up again,

"So? What will it be? We can either get you back to town or you can ask for questions. I'm an open book, seems fair after all the questions you answered last night."

"Any questions I want? No matter what?"

"Yep, as long as it's within my power I'll answer truthfully to the best of my ability." Theon smiled, trying to set her at ease.

"All right well I guess I'll start with what two gods have you met?

"Oh that'd be Melanoche and Carnachias."

"The sisters of **** and ****? That's who brought you to this world? you're their weapon against the priestesses?"

"Yep that's what you called them, and while they brought me to this world I am no one's weapon. They brought me here that I would right some wrong they feel they have experienced, and put the world back on track being ruled by the darkness. The angel that visited shortly after hopes that I will shirk my evil ways and help the priestesses wipe evil from the land forever."

"What and you expect expect me to believe that you're just going to be a good guy because an angel asked you to nicely?"

"Oh I never said anything about that. I only said I would answer questions, weather you believe me or not is up to you, don't bother me either way."

"Fair enough I suppose. So what is it going to be damn the world or save it?" she asked quietly.

Aren't you just a 'the world is black and white kinda girl". Honestly, neither, to answer your question, the gods don't know how to run this world, or they would be. They just like to see the natural order shaken up from time to time. I figure I'll create a nice shiny new world, free of conflict and crime, plop myself in a chair at the top, and see if that's enough of a shake for them."

"So you going to conquer the whole world and rule it? And how do you expect to accomplish that? Why do you think your can unite the world when no one else has ever managed it? "

A smile spread across Theon's face as he considered her question. "Why my dear sweet Cassandra!" Theon laughed. "I'll do it here the same way I did it in my last life." his smile spread almost un-naturally wide.