Project Echidna|| COD X OC

06: Drop of Time

The children were aging faster than normal. Within a span of a few months, they look like one-year-olds. Sissy was a very smiley little girl giggling and wobbling as she walks. She still likes Soap and clutches his legs giggling for his attention. She learned a few more words, milk, Dada, and happy. In all, she was developing fine.

Soap watched Sissy wearily she was still grabby and he fear she would have epilepsy any moment. He looked into Angelmen Syndrome. With a neurological disorder, Sissy will have a world of struggle. She would have a learning disability and motor dysfunction.

Mordred didn't speak, she was quiet and observant. It was enough to confirm her autism. It eases Soap's heart, that she isn't just a strange monster baby but rather one a little slow. Ghost took great care for Mordred spending time with her in silence and the back of the room.

Price and Gaz spent their time with Pandora. They watched her, watch her interact with her children. They were there when she was interviewed.

"What's your opinion of your children?" the psychiatrist asks.

"They are children," she said back almost mockingly. There was a glint of amusement in her eyes.

"Do you believe they have... great potential?" The psychiatrist asks cautiously.

"Mordred, I see her being a great..." her voice died and she looked back at Gaz and Price, "what's the word?" she asked them.

"Infuentul? Powerful? Inventory?" she looks back to the doctor and smiles, "I see a future for her. Sissy... not so much." she shrugs.

"Why did you say that?" Gaz steps forward, eyes knit together in annoyance.

"Sissy... is the type to not peruse grandeur."

"What made you say that?"

"Have you seen her?" Pandora looks at him, calmly and quietly.

"How could you say that? Of course, she has a future—"

"That I am not denying, I am denying the fact she will want that." Pandora smiles and looks away. She stands up and looks at the doctor. "Am I here because you think I am strange? I am my children's mother, that is it." Price studies the girl, she looks calm and collected.

"Now if you don't mind, it's time to feed them." She some graciously but it was a blank cold smile. Pandora was not going to play along with them anymore.

She left the room.

"She's being strange," Gaz said to Price. The captain nods and they follow her out.

Her babies were in high chairs being fed by Soap and Laswell. Laswell looks at Mordred with a softness. Sissy was an extremely messy eater, her face smeared with food.

Mordred wasn't eating, she took a few bites and then refused to eat anymore. Her baby face formed the slightest frown. Her little brows knit together but it smoothed out and she turns to Pandora. Her hands reach out for her mother to take.

"Hello baby," Pandora smiles picking up her baby.

"She needs to eat," Laswell spoke calmly.

"She doesn't like that. She's a picky eater." Laswell nods and sets the food down.

"What would she like?" Laswell humored the young mother. The older woman walked for the colored and pulled a few different foods out.

"Chicken noodle Soap," Pandora said pointing to the can.

"That's not baby food," Laswell said but took out the soup.

"That's, fine Mordred will eat it." To everyone's surprise, Mordred did eat it. Mordred refuses to let anyone feed her except for her mother. She quietly ate soup slowly trickling down her face as she ate. Her lips seemed to be in a frown her gaze sharp as if she was conveying her manifesto to the air.

Her head snaps to her mother as more soup dribbles down her chin, as if she asking her mother to wipe it away. Her pinch brow unfurrows as the dribble wad wipes away.

Ghost looked at Mordred, her pinch brows signified one thing, her frustration. The more time Ghost spent time with the baby the more he realized he could read her body language. It was stiff but her eyes were the most expressive side of her. Those eyes which usually held nothing but apathy, showed pure contentment and frustration.

Ghost moves forward, "Can I feed her?" Pandora looks up her golden eyes gint before she smiles. She handed over the bowl and watched the older man. As Ghost brings the spoon closer to her mouth she visibly sneers at it... or him.

"Mordred, baby," Pandora coos to which Mordred reluctantly opens her mouth taking another bite.

In the back Sissy watching on, she slams her hand down and begins to wail at the top of her lungs. Price and Gaz flinch at how loud her voice could get, it was like she was using the diaphragm to make her scream louder. Laswell looked worriedly at the little girl.

"Soap," Pandora spoke up, her tone was sly. Soap already felt himself ready to reject her question. "Do you want to feed her?" His brows lift and he blinks. He mindlessly steps forward taking the mushy baby food from Laswell. Sissy opens her mouth wide like a baby bird demanding food.

"Sissy..." Gaz mutters, "She likes attention."

"Wasn't that obvious?" Pandora asks Gaz. Everyone turns to the young mother.

"No," Price said slowly. "What makes you think she likes attention?"

Pandora laughs and looks at Sissy who seems laser focus on Soap. She stops eating and looks around seeing everyone's eyes. She lights up and begins to coo.

"Can you see? She's manipulating you. She likes attention and she'll get it one way or another."

"Don't profile your daughter," Soap sneers. She was making Sissy out to be a whore for attention. Pandora looks from one Man to another before turning to Laswell.

"It seems like we are not in the same spot. I know my daughters far more than you. Mordred will be my revenge and Sissy well," She smiles a cold malicious glint in her eyes. "My little vixen."

Clank.

Soap storms forward hands bawled into fists. Before anyone can stop him he slaps Pandora in the face. The crisp sound of the slap silences the room. "That is a child!" Pandora didn't react to the slap or his yelling. Her golden eyes slide towards him. She gazed into his eyes before she laughed.

"Are you sexualizing my child?" She asks.

"You're sexualizing your child." He corrects. She shakes her head and laughs.

"I demonizing her, what are you doing?" He was taken aback by her words. The way she spoke of her daughter with hate and vile, melded in with love. This young girl was not fit to be a mother in his eyes. Soap turned to Price and they both agreed.

"I have not forgotten my children are weapons, you have. Don't make that mistake again." She looks back at her children a mix between apathy and amusement.

"Pandora," Ghost said sternly but there was a sense of empathy in his militarized speech. "Your children won't be weapons. you don't have to live in a world where they will live and die short lives." Gaz nods along.

"Your children are safe," Laswell said with kindness, "They don't have to be weapons."

"You don't understand," Pandora sighs an annoyance in her tone, "They don't have a choice, it's written in their DNA. It depends on which sides decide to use them first. You... them?"

The room grew quiet no one had anything they could say.

"I will not let my daughter fall into the hands of men, so I will control them."

Gaz sighed and realized what she meant. This was her warped sense of love, and mother instant of preservation of her kin. Poor little mother, brainwashed through and through. Pandora turns to Gaz and he realizes, that's not the eyes of s brainwashed participant but the fanatic eyes of a conductor.