Oblivious to Rogork's panic, Cecilia smiled and replied, "And I, Cecilia Daisy Gardner, will eat a whole week free in the school cafeteria!"
Rogork was at a loss. It was a cocky, vain, manipulative System akin to a demonic being, with a burning desire to create chaos; yet, like anything alive, it had strong survival instincts. Those instincts, paired with the miscellaneous old-Earth knowledge it had been born with, screamed "danger" at the mention of Guinivere's family name: Holmes.
I might be quick-witted, but is there any way I can outfox a Holmes?!! I'm no criminal mastermind. What do I do?! I've already spouted lies to her face, and there's no way to take them back; can I get away with any of them??! If she figures out I've been lying at all, then anything I say from here on out might be subject to doubt!! How do I survive this!?
At this point, for the first time in a while, Rogork fully engaged with the problem at hand.
First, it had several advantages over anyone else who might try to deceive a Holmes. The most important of these was this: Rogork didn't have a physical body with which to accidentally give away any nonverbal cues. Further, the Holmes girl, Guinevere, could only hear what Rogork was saying through another person. It would be kind of like a miniature game of telephone.
In this way, Rogork's lack of a body was actually an advantage for once. Guinevere wouldn't be able to analyze Rogork's nervous tics, observe its subconscious reactions to various stimuli, read into its physical appearance (calluses, scars, stains, wear and tear of clothing items, etc.), or pick up on tonal inflections, accent or emotions. She could only analyze the words and phrases she was given.
The other major advantage Rogork speculated that it had, at least over anyone else who attempted to trick a Holmes, was that it was legitimately an alien species. As an alien life form, it would be normal to assume its way of life, thought processes, and philosophies would be vastly different from a human's. Rogork knew well how alien Alesha sometimes found it to be. However, Rogork knew better than Alesha that despite how strange the System was from her point of view, it was far more human than it seemed. Not that it would ever admit as much to her, though. Not with how dogmatic it had always been about evolving her beyond mere humanity.
Of course, all of this was under the assumption that Guinevere was indeed a genuine Holmes rather than coincidentally being a hyper-observant young woman bearing the name.
Even if she wasn't a true Holmes, though, Rogork was wary of her observations and intellect. She had already proven herself quite capable.
At this point, barely two seconds had passed since Cecilia's excited proclamation that she'd be eating free for the next week. Since Rogork was a nonphysical being whose intelligence (and therefore mental processing speed) was not bound by the limitations of a physical body's brain, and it had panicked enough to actually utilize this advantage to its fullest, Rogork was able to strategize effectively in a fraction of the time it would have taken a human.
"Alright, now parasite," Guinevere said. "I have no intention of giving you time to prepare yourself for an interrogation. Your kind are clearly hostile entities, yet you claim to be unlike them. Explain what you are, what you want and why. Cecilia, relay what it tells you word for word."
Cecilia, distracted from her annoyance by the idea of free food, complied. "My official greetings to you, human. I am Eluesi Rogork and I come from a small civilization of what you would call alien life forms known as the Zufessan Protectorate. A coup de' tat occurred while we were traversing the space near your planet and the battle caused survivors to come plummeting towards it."
Guinevere nodded calmly, as if she had expected that. Her response confused Rogork, however; what exactly was she confirming?? Still, it couldn't back down now.
Rogork continued and Cecilia relayed its words. "Our species, the Sellasai, are very difficult to kill with force. However, without nutrition, we will die; and in my current, injured state, I am unable to acquire nutrition by myself. Therefore, I am in need of temporarily parasitizing this girl."
Abruptly, Guinevere interrupted, "How is it that you could come to Earth unnoticed? How many surviving Sellasai are there? Why have all of you appeared only after infecting humans, and none of you have been discovered as meteorites on the ground? What even are you all, and besides your intelligence, what makes you different from the ones who have been infecting humans around the world?"
"I don't exactly understand the mechanism for it, but I suspect human technology isn't advanced enough to detect us through our emergency cloaking. I am uncertain how many of us survived. As for why we are not discovered as meteorites, it is likely because we disintegrate after death, which in a survivor's wounded state, would not take long outside a host. Would you like me to elaborate before answering the last questions?"
Guinevere's eyes narrowed. "Continue."
"I'm not sure how to answer the question 'what are we' but let this suffice: unlike humans, which are carbon-based life forms, we are inorganic life forms somewhat similar to sentient, liquid metal. Our historians speculate that we were artificially created, but it has been so long and so much historical records have been lost that we do not know for certain. EY stupid alien!! Why are you so hellishly talkative?!? Just get to the f*cking point already!!"
Cecilia had been growing increasingly annoyed with her task of listening to the alien parasite's words and restating them word-for-word, until she snapped, interrupting Rogork's conversation with Guinevere.
[Alright, alright, sorry,] Rogork apologized insincerely. Truthfully, it had been hoping to annoy her by speaking at length; would the Holmes girl pick up on that or be distracted by Cecilia's outburst?
"Cecilia!" Guinevere hissed intensely. "Try harder! You need to get this right!"
"Fine, fine!" Cecilia grumbled.
Rogork would've grinned slyly if it had a mouth with which to do so. Just a little annoyance, just a tiny distraction; would that be enough to make the Holmes girl calculate a bit less efficiently? Miss the truths it was hiding behind partial truths and blatant lies?
Continuing to relay Rogork's words, Cecilia said, "Anyway, as for how I'm different from the other parasites, without knowing their cases specifically it is impossible for me to tell for certain. However, allow me to answer the underlying reason for that question. Yes, I intend to uphold my word and leave Cecilia's body in a week's time. No, I will not cause her to go berserk and behave dangerously so long as my needs are met. My intelligence allows me to communicate what my needs are without resorting to hijacking the host body's instincts, so you have no need to fear on that front."
"In other words, unless your demands are met, you are essentially holding my friend hostage?" Guinevere said brusquely.
Cecilia growled as she passed along Rogork's response, "Exactly. I figured you would understand. These terms are favorable, no?"