Sette, Cinque, Nove: Contemplation

She had just received permission to use the information she had been given, to go off on this quest of hers. Revenge, as she'd told her father. Sette examined her hands, and asked herself if she had meant it.

It was true enough, in many ways. Justice was an artificial concept, one that did not exist naturally, but that had to be imposed through the strictures of a society. This did not make it less valuable, but it did mean that she had spoken at least one truth to her father. Justice wasn't something one felt. Emotions might surround it, indignation, satisfaction, desire, frustration, but justice was just a concept. That was the point of it. Free of emotion, able to pursue unfettered what was best for all.

That was probably why justice was so hard to put into practice. It wasn't very satisfying.

Sette looked down before Thoma could tug her sleeve. "Sorry, Thoma. Just...thinking." The boy didn't appear disturbed by her monotone; seemed to take it in stride. It was a better reaction than anyone else she'd known. Even her own sisters usually found her a bit disturbing.

"About what your dad said?" Isis asked.

"Not quite." A quaver. This emotion thing was starting to come more easily to her. Sette fought it and won. This needed cold, not warmth. "What I want and what must be done are in alignment, but I am not sure I should enjoy this." The Huckebein were immune to normal magic. That meant normal sealing spells, and maybe even normal AMF. Their Dividers, according to Jail's files on them, acted in a very similar fashion to the Devices of the Wolkenritter. They couldn't be disarmed when they could simply call the weapon to hand again across any kind of barrier or distance.

And because the Huckebein could not be made safe and contained, and could not be ignored, they must be destroyed. Sette wanted to destroy them, too. But that was new for her, and Sette was fairly sure that actually wanting to kill people was A Bad Thing.

Familiar faces. Many familiar faces. Her sisters were here. All of them, save for Due and Quattro. "Sisters." Sette acknowledged. "All of you at once, as well?"

"You have a rather large family..." Thoma observed.

"She does." Cinque agreed from the front rank. "Hello Sette. You did not really think we would let you do this alone, did you?"

Sette paused, and nodded slowly. "It is my battle."

Uno shook her head. "We are your sisters, Sette. Your battles, your enemies, are ours. We will not allow you to do this alone."

"Sisters together." Nove agreed.

"Sisters forever." Deed finished.

For the second time that day, Sette was moved to tears and she could not explain why.

"Sette." Cinque said softly. "You wanted to see me?"

"I do." Isis and Thoma would not separated from Sette for more than a few minutes except to sleep. She had grown used to the two of them surprisingly quickly. "I require some...guidance, Cinque."

"Why ask me?" Cinque said. She'd apparently aged quite a bit since Sette had last seen the fifth Number. Cinque could now pass for at least twelve, maybe even fourteen. "Normally you look to Tre, or you could ask Uno if Tre wasn't authoritative enough."

"I suspect Tre would be disturbed by the question, and Uno would struggle to answer." Sette replied. "Cinque, this is something that I want to do. Not because it is the right thing. Because I find that I want to kill the Huckebein, particularly Cypha. What does this mean?"

"It makes you human, and a fighter." Cinque replied. "Anyone who had seen the colony would have wanted to put a stop to that. You, being trained to fight, can do that most reliably by killing those responsible. If you reacted any other way, that would be the abnormal thing." Cinque wasn't entirely sure of that, but she had long experience in reassuring her sisters despite their not being totally wrong. The important thing was to give them time to learn and understand.

"Besides, I want to." Nove said from her doorway.

"Why?" Sette asked, ignoring the rudeness of eavesdropping, or simply not familiar with the concept of rudeness. One option was as likely as the other.

Nove shrugged. "We were born for this, Sette. It is our purpose in life to one day go out and kill the Huckebein. It's what the Doctor made us. And the sooner the Huckebein are dead, the sooner I get to decide who and what I am rather than being programmed for a specific thing."

"Nove has a valid point." Cinque agreed. "This is the last thing we need ever do, directly or indirectly, because of the Doctor. If you wish to be free of him, or to do him one last service, this is the way."

"Thoma was very interested in what it's like to be one of us." Nove said offhandedly. "He was asking a lot of questions before we made him go to bed."

"That's awful." Cinque observed.

"To be stronger, faster, tougher, even smarter. To never grow old. And yet to retain everything that would make you human in the eyes of anyone else who was not told what you are." Sette might be rebuking her older sister, it was hard to tell. "We are not monsters, Cinque, and we were no more born monstrous than anyone else. There is very little about us that is actually objectionable."

"I gotta agree with Sette." Nove replied. "There are plenty of reasons people would want to be like us, Cinque. It may not be very practical, but that doesn't make it wrong."

Cinque backed down from the point without a fight. It wouldn't help. "Doesn't change the fact that only the Doctor really knows how it's done."

"So far true." Sette agreed. "But I would not bet against Uno, either. She has assisted with the procedure a number of times after all. Given a reason, I believe she could find a way." A brief pause. "I am grateful to you, for coming with me...I thought Tre would, but not all of you."

"Like Uno said, we are your sisters." Cinque replied.

"None of us is ever alone. Not while the rest of us can reach her." Nove said softly. "Remember that, Sette."

"I will."