Malbess muttered to Toxic and 518,"I can see from your faces, you are CLUELESS. While they are milling around, let me fill in the blanks." "I'm two hundred twenty-five years old, and an artificial human machine-life manufactured on Adamesh in the image of Malbess, Empress of Friggia, from the television program,'Eden2'." She looked around at the confused troops milling around the battle tanks, as the General, Stonn, conferred with his Capitans. She continued,"It was the most mind-boggling successful series in the history of programs. Originally the premise was humans come to a colony planet, and I'm the insanely sexy Queen of Friggia, a planet in the same system who bedevils the human colonists." She whispered,"It was also the most SUBVERSIVE program in the history of the Jade Empire, which in turn lead to it being canceled, which caused riots and killings, and eventual revolution which ended in the nuclear attack on Adamesh by Balaam!" She gasped for breath after spewing that out. 518 looked at Toxic who absorbed it all, enrapt. 518 asked,"Weren't you on Adamesh when it was torched?" She nodded. "I was on my way to the spaceport in back of a truck when it got hit. The one-time producer of the show saved me from death, and got me off-planet. HE was the FATHER of the man who became king of City 64, Novo Paradisio. I believed that the rest of the cast was vaporized at the theme park at the North Pole. They obviously weren't." She looked around conspiratorially and continued in a lower tone,"One more thing--I'm NOT the only Malbess! I'm a model type." 518 nodded, and Toxic looked confused and exclaimed,"You are a standard or example for imitation or comparison?" Malbess rolled her eyes, and 518 tried not to laugh. Malbess said sourly as their guard looked at them curiously,"NO! I'm not unique. I'm number one, the other model is A. There are only two of us. They didn't want us to be overly competitive with each other, so number two or such was out of bounds. The OTHER one, or A, survived." She waved a hand at the shining main battle tanks and the milling 'Friggian' troops, and said,"This 'Empire' is a manufacture of her will. She always took the part WAY too seriously. Personally." "My god...I could always tell reality from fantasy! I loved doing it, but I had as much fun behind the cameras, as in front! She always got caught up in the part. After everyone died...she must have lost her mind. Got the replication machines working again. After two HUNDRED YEARS..."she drawled off in horror. 518 said,"Holy shit. We are in deep trouble here." Toxic smiled,"No, we're not! Now I know why Malbess needed to be here! To talk to her people. Look, here comes one, now!" General Stonn strode over to them with an entourage of guards. Toxic exclaimed,"Hiya! I'm Toxic, a goddess of Fire, and this guy is my guard! This is Malbess! But you already know her." Toxic was grinning. 518 looked at her in shock. Malbess choked up with emotion as she looked at an old acquaintance from long ago. --TO BE CONTINUED!--