Sector S09 Griffin Frontline Base

Multiple helicopters were arriving, slowly touching down to the ground. Medical vans already waiting below.

Upon touchdown, soldiers rushed out with two stretchers as they exited the vehicle. They placed two injured dolls inside the vans and sped away to the repair center.

Eden watched this transpire out from a wall of glass, the windows of Gentiane's office. He sighed and placed his forehead against the cold glass pane.

Thank god they're ok… at least, that's what I'm hoping for…

A knock on the door brought him back to reality, bringing his attention to the doorway. Gentiane walked in holding two cups of coffee, handing him one as she approached.

He gratefully took it, giving a nod of thanks. Taking a sip, he grimaced at the bitter taste.

"Don't like it?" Gentiane chuckled, taking a large swig of the black coffee. "It keeps me awake, you should try it sometime."

"I'm plenty awake right now…" Eden replied, taking one last sip before setting aside the coffee. He spent the entirety of yesterday's mission anxiously waiting.

Gentiane shrugged and sat in her office chair, turning her computer on.

"Oh yeah, a truck came by today carrying a strange occupant," she mentioned as she clicked around the desktop. "I believe her name was… Kalina?"

Eden nearly choked when he heard this. He started coughing after swallowing the bitter coffee. "I thought I told her to stay back at the base?!"

"You know her?" Gentiane questioned.

"Y-yeah… she's my adjutant," he sighed. "Where is she now?"

"Uh…" The female commander thought to herself. "She told me she could help out with the analysis of the repair costs so I ended up sending her over to the repair center with G36."

"She is good at what she does…" Eden admitted, knowing Kalina's obsession with wealth and fortune. She organizes and calculates every penny they spend. It was almost terrifying how obsessed she is with it.

"What's the current status on those two...," He finally asked, collapsing into an office chair by her desk. It was what had been nagging at him the entire time.

"They're both in a terrible condition…," Gentiane sighed, swiveling her chair to face him. "But they'll make it. It seems those two will survive with the wounds they receive, though the one called Blade nearly had taken fatal damage."

"Thank god…" Eden was relieved to hear the good news. He slumped in his chair in exhaustion. "At least they both made it out alive."

"We were fortunate to have your doll out there with M4," Gentiane said as she finished her coffee. "Who knows what could've happened if he weren't there."

"Yeah, surprised me as well when I heard his voice through the radio call," Eden replied. "Thought we lost him forever."

Gentiane pondered to herself, becoming silent as she started to think.

"Hm? What's wrong?" Eden was curious as to why she suddenly became so quiet.

"Why was he there? More importantly, why were Sangvis forces after him?" She was confused about this issue. "It's not like he holds any value towards them."

He shrugged back, uncertain as well. "Maybe they just wanted to pick off our forces one by one."

"But it's not normal for them to use that many resources for one person," Gentiane argued, countering his statement. "No… there's something that's missing."

She got off her seat and walked up to the window, peering outside to look at the repair center.

"I don't know why… but I've got a bad feeling about the future…," Gentiane murmured as she crossed her arms.


*scribble scribble scribble*

The sounds of a pen against paper filled M4's empty mind.

Slowly opening her eyes, she found herself staring up at a white ceiling. Sluggishly getting up, she rubbed her eyes which were still adjusting to the light. Her head felt heavy with fatigue.

"Ah, you're awake!" A voice called out to her. "16Lab's Elite dolls are really something else! You established compatibility so quickly! Unlike a certain idiot..." They muttered the last part to themselves.

M4 turned to the direction of the sound. The figure that called out to her was a casually dressed oranged-haired girl. In her hands, she held a tablet with a clipboard atop it.

"Um… you are...?" M4 asked, curious as to who she was talking to.

"Hello~! I'm Kalina!" She cheerfully replied, winking at her as she held up two fingers. "I'm the logistic officer belonging to a different frontline command post!"

As she was introducing herself, she wavered in her pose, staggering in place.

"Are you okay?" M4 questioned the condition of the logistic officer in front of her.

"Ah haha! Sorry sorry!" Kalina apologized, nearly slipping to the floor. "I haven't been getting much sleep recently, so I'm a little unsteady on my feet!"

"A-Anyways, you were really badly damaged…," the officer stammered, picking herself back up. "What kind of action did you see?" She held her tablet up, ready to jot down anything.

"..." M4 stayed silent, refusing to answer.

If she's not one of the commanders, then we have nothing to talk about.

"A lot of things happened, you'll understand once you look at my combat log," she vaguely answered, not wanting to get into detail.

"Uh… while that's true, wouldn't it be better to talk about it directly?" Kalina muttered, off-put by her attitude.

M4 kept to herself and didn't reply. "Ah… could I meet the commander of this base?" She remembered.

"About that… the commander's currently busy directing our dolls as they drive out the SF forces in the region. She might be finished by now though." Kalina sighed as she shrugged. "Due to the agreement, both my and this base's commander can't send over their main forces at present. So we can only rely on ourselves."

"I-is that so…" M4 had nothing to say, wondering what to do next.

The AR team is currently surrounded by SF forces… the quicker we mount a rescue the better… but this logistics officer doesn't seem too reliable…

Kalina began to notice M4's anxiousness. "Is this very important? If so, I'll ask the commanders to look for you once I find that the operation is over."

"Ah, no need for that… I'll just go over there myself," M4 said as she started to move off the mattress. She suddenly stopped after feeling a menacing aura radiating from the logistics officer.

"M4," Kalina said with a threatening tone. "When you were brought here, your right arm was destroyed, the electronic muscles on your left leg were shredded, and you had suffered penetrating injuries to 50% of your torso…" She had a sinister smile plastered onto her face.

"In order to help you regain your functionality, we had to install a lot of brand new and very expensive parts during your repair," the officer made sure to emphasize the high costs.

"While I don't know what kind of mission you've been entrusted with, it would be better for you to give yourself some time to let your Digimind adapt to your new components," she stated, making sure she made her point across to the doll.

"I-I understand… I-I'll just go rest some more…" M4 nervously replied, turning her head away. She backed down and stayed on the bed.

"That's the spirit!" Kalina cheerfully cried out, her personality doing a full 180. "If you end up damaging yourself again, you'll just have to buy the parts yourself and then go for maintenance~!" She threw up her hands and pointed at M4.

"I'm off then! Contact me on the internal comms if anything comes up!" The logistic officer left the room waving goodbye. "Oh and make sure you tell Blade the same thing I told you~!"

"O-okay…" M4 answered back, quickly waving back for her to leave.

Wait, Blade?

"Pssst-" a voice whispered out to her. "Is she gone yet?"

M4 jumped in shock at the sound coming from behind her. She quickly turned to see the curtain wall separating each bed partially pulled back to reveal a familiar face poking out.

It was Blade.

"Y-yeah… she just left," M4 answered his question. She was surprised to find him awake and right by her bed.

"Thank god, I swear she doesn't shut up about the repair costs," he chuckled, now fully pulling back the curtains to reveal himself. M4 noticed he was dressed in a patient's attire, a light blue shirt and short pants. Blade was sitting atop a similar bed.

"You're lucky that your parts weren't as expensive as mine," he shuddered, fearing what would've happened if Kalina was to lecture him as she had to M4. "I think I had more broken parts than functioning." Blade felt around his chest and shoulder where Executioner's blade had cut through. Fortunately, it had just missed his vital organs and core by a hair. He was lucky to even be moving.

"I-I apologize!" M4 cried, deeply bowing her head in remorse on the bed.

"H-Huh?" Blade was caught off guard with her sudden response, finding himself looking at a bowing M4. "W-what's wrong?!"

"I had hit you and even threatened you back in the abandoned home, despite the evidence you had to prove yourself innocent…," M4 muttered, raising her head to look him straight in the eye.

"I-It's not entirely your fault… I didn't know you were under such pressure so it's understandable you would be cautious to anyone who came near you," Blade said as he scratched the back of his head. "But yeah… that knee did hurt a bit more than I intended." He chuckled, looking back at the fight.

"I apologize once more," M4 repeated.

"It's alright, I accept it." Blade sighed, waving it off. She stuck out her hand towards him.

"Uh…?" He was confused about what she was doing.

"Let's start over and reintroduce ourselves," she smiled.

"Oh…" Blade was not the one to be social, usually wanting to keep to himself.

"What's the holdup?" M4 asked, still awkwardly sticking her hand out to him.

"Nothing, never thought any doll would greet me like this," he smirked. "Especially a doll like me."

"Technically this wasn't our first meeting… It was uh… a pretty violent meeting," M4 chuckled. "You even went as far as to protect me… for that, I am truly grateful."

"It wasn't me," Blade said back. "An order by my commander forced me to throw myself in front of you."

"Order or not, I still am grateful." She was firm on her apology and appreciation towards him.

"It wasn't… hah...," Blade gave up, taking her hand in his and shook it. "The name's Blade."

M4 accepted his greeting, shaking his hand back. "My name is M4A1, I hope we get to know each other more," she grinned back.

"... Same here," He muttered.


In the hidden Sangvis Ferri command base, Agent came to inform her master of the recent events that transpired. It was not good.

"Master… I am here to tell you of the conditions of Executioner…"Agent kneeled to her master sitting in front of her.

"Don't waste your time, I have already heard of the news," she replied while messing around with computers at the base. "He seems more troublesome than I had anticipated…The virus is still lying dormant within him. Something must have gone wrong."

Her master turned to face her.

"Contact the other ringleaders and inform them of this information."

"Yes, master."

Agent strode away, leaving her master to herself.

"Infiltrator…" the figure muttered to themself. "Have you forgotten your mission…?"


Things got awkward since their last conversation. There was really nothing to talk about.

"..." Blade silently laid on his bed, arms behind his head as he stared at the white ceiling of the medical room.

M4 was the same, sitting up with her knees tucked in close to her chest.

My friends…

That was all she could think about the whole time. She looked at her equipment hanging by her bedside and had an idea.

M4 got off the bed and rummaged through her equipment. She pulled out a handheld radio.

Looking around the area, she found a power socket by her bed. Plugging her radio into one of the available outlets, she held it up to her mouth.

I'm sorry Kalina but I can't rest just yet…

"AR team, this is M4A1," she spoke into the radio.

No response.

"AR team, AR team… this is M4A1. If anyone can hear me, please respond…" M4 gripped the radio tightly in her hands. She needed to know if they were fine.

I secretly used this base's comms systems to boost my signal, but I still can't get through… don't tell me they're already...

Blade sat up, puzzled by her strange behavior. "What's wrong?" He called out to her.

"I'm just trying to contact my team…," M4 sighed as she set the radio down by the bedside table. "Nothing important for you to know."

Blade shrugged it off as he crossed his arms. "If you don't want to talk about it, fine by me."

"I just need to speak to the commander…" M4 anxiously said, apprehensive of her team's situation.

"Yeah… I've got a word with my commander as well," Blade spat, irritated by Eden's previous order. He glanced towards M4's way and stared at her.

"..."

It wasn't like he was completely opposed to the idea of the order to protect her either.

M4 felt uncomfortable with the way he was looking at her. "W-What is it…?"

"Just sorting out some conflicted feelings," he replied, sighing at the thought. A loud beeping started to fill the room. M4 quickly turned to the radio, noticing an incoming transmission signal.

She was immediately on it, tuning into her internal comms.

"Can you hear me, M4? This is AR15," A voice whispered out. M4 recognized the voice as clear as day.

"AR15!" She called out, overjoyed to hear her voice.

"If you're sending such a strong signal, you must have found a Griffin base, right?" AR15 stated.

Wow, she guessed that… M4 thought to herself, amazed with AR15's reasoning.

"Yes! Are you alright?" she asked.

"Aren't you going to ask about me, M4~!?" Another voice cried out in the call. "And here I was so worried about you!"

"SOP2!" M4 recognized the other caller. "You're there too?" She grinned happily to herself, finally knowing two of her squad members were fine. Blade continued to curiously watch from the other bed.

"We're fine! We met up long ago!" SOP cheered.

"That's great," M4 smiled "I'm planning on rescuing you first… given I get permission from the commanders here."

"Awesome~!" SOP happily shouted as it heartened M4.

She felt information being uploaded into her mind, sent via an encrypted signal. A map appeared in her mind, displaying the area where her friends were residing. It was an abandoned city, located far from her area.

"Are the coordinates you sent your current position?" asked M4.

"...!?"

On the other side of the call, AR15 felt something wrong.

"AR15?" M4 called out to her, noticing the lack of commentary coming from her.

"Yeah, hurry up and get us, over and out," She bluntly stated, ready to end the call.

"Eeeeeehh?! But I'm not done talking yet!" SOP whined. That was the last thing M4 heard before the transmission closed.

What happened? M4 was caught off guard with AR15's unexpected attitude. She figured it was because of the recent events that had transpired, stress building up on everyone's shoulders on this operation. While there are many things about the situation which remains unclear to me… I managed to make contact with them at least… Now all I have to do is wait for the commander to deploy a rescue mission…

She sighed and glanced at Blade, who was curiously watching the entire time. Heat crept up to her face, feeling embarrassed at the thought of him watching her the entire time. He basically just heard me talking to myself...

"Uh… I don't mean to pry but I figure you made contact with your team?" Blade guessed, remembering the happy grin plastered on her face during the transmission.

"Y-yeah, it seems they're doing fine," M4 answered back. "Though my other friend has not responded…" Her voice trailed in silence, starting to feel uneasy again.

"I'm sure they'll answer back eventually," Blade reassured her, giving her a thumbs up. She grinned once more at his gesture.

A knock at the door brought them both to their attention. It was Kalina.

"Good to know you've woken up Blade," smiled the logistics officer while approaching them. She held up her tablet and scrolled through a document. "I'll have to take M4 here for one last check-up to make sure she's functioning normally."

M4 nodded and stood up to follow Kalina out. Before they left, Kalina stopped to speak to Blade.

"I hope M4 told you to stay put because I'm sure we don't want to be discussing the costs of your repair," she glared, a smile still stuck onto her face. "Especially when you left me alone back at home base to do ALL those combat reports by myself."

"D-Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere," Blade nervously chuckled, remembering that he abandoned Kalina to get away from doing any document duty.

"Alright, good to know!" Kalina cheered, giving him a thumbs up. "I'll be coming for you next after M4's checkup, just to let you know."

"Gotcha," Blade gave an understanding nod. "Hope it goes well M4"

M4 respectively gave a nod back. The two went off and Blade was left to himself.

Collapsing back onto the bed, he started thinking about what he should do to pass the time.

Sleep? No… hm…

He stretched out, raising both hands in the air and groaned in pain, his chest still feeling somewhat sore. That's when he noticed the blue square embedded in his lower wrist.

"Oh yeah… I forgot about this," Blade pressed the square, a small translucent menu emerged out of it. Scrolling through, he found the messages tab, an envelope displayed as the icon. Tapping it, he found Kalina's message with the Sangvis Ferri documents attached to it.

I don't mind reading for a bit. I did ask her to send this to me anyways.

Opening the documents, he was met with the same title he had seen on the helicopter ride.

Sangvis Ferri Industrial Manufacturing Company

He took his time reading through, laying back on his bed as he slowly scrolled through. The beginning lines he read were the origins of the company and their contributions to World War Three.

Continuing, the next section under the article was labeled The Butterfly Incident

As he read, he came across a name that felt familiar to him.

Lycoris…? urgh?! AGH?!

Blade felt something in his head as if some sort of bug was crawling around. He clawed at his head, unable to get it out. It felt like he was going insane.

A memory resurfaced out of the depths of his Digimind.

It was the voice. They were… crying? Static came once more to interrupt the memory.

-..-.._. ... -..-_._-

Blade gripped his head tighter, now sitting up, shaking around to get it out of his head.

Hah!? HAGH!?

The memory was slowly fading away into a clutter of pixels and static, but before it ended, he could make out a small figure kneeling over a body. The small figure was weeping and looked straight towards him, their crimson eyes now glowing.

-.._..._ WILL PAY FOR THEIR CRIMES-..-.._.-

"HAH?! Hah… ha…," Blade gasped for air, feeling the sickness slowly go away. It felt like he just went through a terrible nightmare. He gulped and looked at the article still displayed around his wrist.

Reading on, he found out that Sangvis Ferri soon was overtaken by an unknown entity.

There was nothing else further on, everything else seemingly redacted. Kalina had tried her best to get as much public info, Blade thought.

One last paragraph was displayed below, still available to the public. It went on about the current situation of the Sangvis Ferri.

But then he came across an alarming line.

These Sangvis T-Dolls are, without a doubt, enemies of humanity.

Below it, the logo of Sangvis Ferri was shown.

His eyes widened.

He had seen it before.

Scrambling to open his arm compartment, he found the area where a particular symbol was etched on.

There's no way...

Upon inspection, the two were exactly similar.

A polygonal flame representing the Sangvis Ferri.


...

Hey guys! New chapter, wow~ Been busy with drawing so I apologize for those who wanted to see the story be updated faster! With the quarantine I can start working on more chapters lol - hope you guys stay healthy ~ as usual, if you find any misconceptions/misinformation in the story, let me know so I can go back to fix it. Thank you and stay safe guys!