Of course, there wasn't any. Dove slid back the crate of ammunition on the rack. He had to admit that Go was right. Only two-two-three and twenty mil. So that was a bust.
"Any luck?" Called Penny from outside the armory.
Dove stepped out, and patted the droid carrying Penny on its back, on its back. "Nope. You have any luck here?"
"Not particularly. While I can communicate with it, like I could AU, it uses a different operating system."
"So, you can't take over it."
"I cannot."
"How so?"
"Different operating system."
"No, I understood that part. Why is that a problem?"
"Oh, that is what you meant." Commented Penny with a new sense of understanding. "Essentially, it thinks differently than I do, so attempting to copy paste myself over to it would not go cleanly. Either one of us would need to be refitted for the other."
"Makes sense. Kind of AU to let us take one of the droids."
"I mean, I did sort of order her to give us one of the droids. That and Rot accidentally caused her to have a mental breakdown, knowing that she technically failed her orders to protect Atlas."
"Yeah, that wasn't fun." Admitted Dove. "Glad you set her memory back an hour, and made sure that they wouldn't do anything stupid."
"I do what I can."
Go turned around the corner, and with a gasp, exclaimed, "Just the people I was looking for!"
"Really? How come Go?"
"I wanted to thank you two. I really thought we would be in a stalemate, for the rest of time." She snickered. "But now I know that I have a lot of work on the table, and work needs to be done."
"That you do." Smiled Dove. "Oh, before you go, think there was a box of cigarettes in the officer's desk."
"Thank you. One last thing, though." Go placed her hand on Dove's chest plate, and a surge of aura washed over him. He felt cleansed and watched as a pile of black silt and dust accumulated beneath him. "Take some more showers. You really smell sometimes."
"I'll keep it in mind." Dove patted her on her back as she walked off. "Be safe."
Penny's droid plodded forward, clumsily. "Time to leave?"
"Not yet. Got one last thing to hand off."
It took him a while to find him. Rot was sitting at the top of the wall, staring out upon miles of white dusty snow. A smooth blanket. A blank slate, waiting for someone to do something. His helmet was in his hands, fingers idling over the etching in the visor.
"Rot, mind if I take a look at that for a moment?"
He looked up at Dove. Tired. Bags. Not so much fear, but confusion. His enemy had made peace, and he had lived to fight. A tired hand lifted the helmet. "Sure."
Dove brushed past one of the droids manning the wall and took a seat next to Rot. Using his sword, he carved another tally mark into the helm. "Number seven. You've still got ten more."
"But I didn't kill the seventh one. I don't deserve it."
Dove slid off his mask. His faceplate. And handed it over to Rot, along with the helmet. "You may not have killed him, but would it make them happy knowing that you're avenging them, slowly but surely?"
"Maybe. But I thought being consumed with revenge was a bad thing?"
"But you weren't. You made a deal with what was your worst enemy. Sure, it's a secret, and only the five of us are ever going to know, but you were still willing to rebuild. I think that counts for something."
"Okay."
"I get that you don't believe me. But think about it for a moment. This guy," Dove said while tapping the mask, "Couldn't weather the storm. You did. You weathered it and rebuilt."
"Thanks." Rot slid on the mask and fiddled with his helmet straps. Eventually he put the helmet on top of the mask, hiding a majority of its features. "How does it look?"
"Clunky, but a lot less easy to punch you out."
"Good." He sighed. "You know, there would have been a time where I would have tried to kill all of you here."
"Probably. Not that it matters, since you would have never seen Penny or I again."
"Even so, would have still tried."
"Okay." Dove stared out at the midday sun skating across the sky. A short burst reminds them where they are.
"You're not going to ask what changed?"
Dove looked over. "I don't think I need to. Have some confidence in yourself."
"What do you mean, have some confidence? I have plenty of confidence." Balked Rot.
"You had bravado and pride." Smirked Dove. "I think you're now getting the confidence you need."
"What's the difference?"
"It's what you show, verses what you know. And I think you know now."
"Jeez, for being much older than Go, you'd think that you would be having the talk with her, and not me."
"But you're not her." Dove looked back out to slopes beyond. "You're your own person. She and I had a couple of parallels, making it so we didn't really intersect."
"How so?"
"We just made do with what life handed to us, and then made our own goals." Admitted Dove. "We're pretty aimless, usually, but we've picked up large projects out of necessity. Not that we're even the best people for the job."
"But I didn't."
"Don't say it that way." Dove poked Rot in the chest. "You came into this with a plan. You've had a plan. So you feel lost, when your plan is slightly shifted off course. You're a river, and you had dug a channel. Forcing you to change course felt unnatural, but you're still ending up where you had planned to."
"Thanks," sighed Rot. "It's also because she really wasn't that difficult, was she?"
"Oh yeah, she really wasn't difficult to deal with." Dove took a sip from his canteen. "She also makes good liquor."
"Hear, hear."
"Less conflict leads to less chances to grow. Not that it's impossible."
"Thanks man. See you around?"
Dove laugh steamed the air around him. "Heck no! I'm heading down south! If all goes well, you'll never see me again."
"Fair enough." Rot uncapped his canteen. "One last toast before the road?"
"One last toast. To the next one."
"To the next one."
Penny was waiting at one of the holes blasted into the wall. Her droid was carrying her, and the massive mask Dove decided to keep. "What happened to the mask?"
"Thought it was about time I ditched it." Dove knocked on the grimm mask. "Can always make a new one out of this one."
"And the nice glass?"
"Look, I get that that mask was the superior version of almost any mask I can get nowadays, but it felt right."
"Alright, mister softie."
"Very funny Penny." Dove jumped down the four stories into the untouched snowbank. "You coming down?"
Penny skid down with the mask. "Of course."
"Show off."
"You know you like it."
Dove cracked his back. "Will admit, it is nice not having to carry you all the time."
"Are you trying to say something?"
"I don't know, am I?"
