Chapter 7: Rebirth


"Dammit…!"

I let out an exhale as Colbert is still alive after the gunshot, with Agnes having been unable to carry through with it, changing her aim to empty itself into the ground at the last second.

Agnes drops her gun, sinking to her knees in front of Colbert. I see him reach out to her, but I step in and grab his wrist, shaking my head.

"I'm sorry, but it's time for you to leave." I say to Colbert, mostly to give the implication I'm with Agnes on this one. I understand the wish to reach out to her, but the last thing Agnes needs right now is kindness from Colbert.

"But…"

"Sara."

I see her jolt a bit at the sudden force in my voice, but she nods, tugging away Colbert.

"Also sir, PPK and Spectre reported everyone is at the rally point, all hostiles are either dead or have pulled away. Depending on how many Captain Agnes got, that may be all of them."

"Copy that. Monitor the situation." I say as I take a seat next to Agnes.

We sit in silence until the two of them are gone.

"...you didn't tell her to shoot."

"I had faith in you, but you caught me off guard when you decided to take the shot all of a sudden."

"I thought that… if I didn't take it then, I might never be able to bring myself to do it ever again." She mumbles, looking down at the ground.

"Well, it's good you didn't." I say, reaching over and patting her on the back. "Besides, revenge is a pretty crappy reason to live, anyways. The instant you killed him, you would've become empty."

"You sound like you have experience."

"Ahhh, well, just a bit."

"So what now?"

"Hm?"

"What now? I've waited for this day for so long, but now I've thrown it all away." Agnes mumbles, getting off of her knees, now sitting back and curling up. While she's always presented a calm, collected, and stoic front, everything that's been held back all these years must be finally bubbling forward.

"On the contrary, you made sure you didn't throw everything you had away." I glance back as Agnes glares at me. "If you had taken the shot, you would've lost your place next to the princess, the opinion of the musketeers, and your reason for living, all at once. You would have had nothing."

"In the end, isn't that all we have?"

"From dust to dust, perhaps, but in the meantime we are alive, we have many things. Were you planning on taking your own life after taking his?"

"I don't think I really had a plan afterwards." Agnes says with a shrug. "As long as he was dead… that was enough."

"Ah, I see."

Agnes clumps up some grass in her hands and tosses it to the side in frustration. "So, back to the question. What now?"

"A lot of things, really. For one, realizing why you didn't take the shot."

"Don't you already know that?" Agnes mutters, looking off to the side.

"It's good to admit it. Not to me, but to yourself."

I hear her quietly grumble before sinking her head down between her knees.

"It's alright. You don't have to do it tonight. Just work towards it, little by little, until you can wear it with pride."

"Sounds like I'm not the first person to hear this."

"You could say it was said to me, so yes, you're not the first person to hear it."

I hear her snort. "So in the end, all you're doing is giving me someone else's words?"

"If I truly believe in them, is that not enough?"

"I suppose so."

"Ha. Well, how about you tell me what this is all about, then? I've managed to put everything together so far, but I'd like to hear your side of the story."

"Is that going to help?" She asks, giving me another pointed look.

"It might. Have you told anyone else before?"

"Not in particular."

"So that's a no." I say back flatly.

"They say it's rude to read that deeply into people's statements."

"Sorry."

"It's fine." I hear Agnes inhale, then sigh. "I suppose I'd have to tell you soon, anyways. It has to deal with my firearms. But in exchange, you have to come clean with me."

"Don't worry, I'm sure you have a lot of questions after tonight."

It was mostly as I thought, with just a few changes here and there. But it seems that a T-Doll must have made her way here, a while ago. Judging by the "legendary figure" in her village, it might have been a Lee Enfield T-Doll, based on the appearance. Regardless, while Enfield could not communicate with them, she could at least impart basic concepts on them.

And by 'basic concepts', the art of gunsmithing. Agnes admitted their early ones were very crude, but as they progress from generation to generation, they slowly started making tools that were better. I was concerned with how old her village was, considering that she mentioned generations, until I realized that based on what Henrietta mentioned about her marriage, being married and having a child at a younger age would allow for a quicker generational passage.

I make a mental note to see if one day, if it's possible, to have Agnes take us there. I'd like to recover Enfield even if it's likely she's no longer operational. The data she has might be valuable to us regardless, if her storage hasn't degraded by now. I'd also like to understand why Enfield helped them, though I can understand why. A desire to protect the people there, and a realization that she could not defend them against other humans who wanted to harm the innocents. Perhaps she realized some kind of loophole that allowed her to arm the citizenry.

Of course, she couldn't jump straight to her weapon. They probably didn't have the tech to make that level of precision, so she started them off further back. It wouldn't be too difficult to do the number crunching for more basic weapons, and from there, they evolved throughout the generations, just as Agnes mentioned. And because it was their craft, their livelihood, they experimented more rather than just accepting it as it was, perhaps.

Her village was also rather out of the way, too. They didn't have a lot of farmland, but the guns made them very good at hunting. Of course, word would spread about their village every now and then. The one rule of course, being that their tech would never leave. Their town was that tight knit. And of course, it was their one advantage against bandits and thieves as well. If it spread out of the town, others might take it and use it against them.

Regardless, the church would come knocking one day. They wanted that tech. They wanted it bad.

So much so that when they refused to capitulate, their village was deemed touched by the plague. Even if it really wasn't.

The rest, as they say, is history. I imagine that due to a lack of a newspaper, such a story would have never been publicized and other than Agnes and Colbert, likely the only two living members with firsthand knowledge of the incident, there would be no one else to back them up. Ultimately, Agnes and her village would never get the justice they deserved.

Additionally, judging by what Professor Colbert said, it seems he was on that fateful squad that set fire to the village. However, he must have had a change of heart, and decided to go and save someone. That someone would be Agnes, the only survivor of D'Angleterre. She alone would carry the secrets of their craft. Secrets that she still keeps today.

"I'm surprised you're telling me that part."

"You're familiar with those advanced guns that those girls have. I imagine you probably already know more." Agnes says with a shrug.

"Well, not so much the actual art of making them, but yes." I say, standing up and dusting myself off. "Then, let's go."

"Eh?"

I extend my hand to her to help her up. "The threat is over, Captain. You should go and greet your soldiers. After all, you didn't abandon them just now. Therefore, you must live. Live for them, live for the princess, and live for your duty."

"Because that's all I have left?"

"Of course not." I say, offering a smile as I see the morning light start to filtering in behind me. "It's because that's what you have now, while you wait for more things to live for."

Agnes' grip is fairly strong as she lifts herself up, grasping my forearm.

"I wish you'd arrived a lot sooner. The princess could've used a figure like you in her life, back when her father died."

"I've been told I have a knack for always being too late to prevent the day from needing to be saved, but never too late to save it."

Agnes snorts at this, turning away as she lets go of my hand. "...you aren't half bad, Oliver. I'll… take your words into account. But I can't let go of my revenge so easily. It's something fundamental to me."

"That's fine." I say, stepping beside her as we walk to the rally point. "Burn all you want for revenge. I'll just have to be there for you to remind you of what else you have in your life before you pull the trigger."

"And if you're not there like tonight?"

"Then I'll hope that you remember what I've said to you when the gun is in your hands and your finger is on the trigger."

"You have a lot of faith, don't you?"

"I'm not exactly a frontline fighter, Agnes. Once I give the commands, faith is all I have. Faith, in all of them."

Before Agnes can respond, we come up to the rally point, where as soon as we come into sight, all of the remaining musketeers, injured or not, snap to a salute even if some of them can't stand. Off to the side, Springfield, PPK, and Spectre also follow suit.

"Welcome back, Captain. Welcome back, Commander."

I quietly nod, looking at Agnes.

"Thank you. How is everyone?" Agnes asks, already going back to her usual state. However, something I notice as she steps forward is there seems to be a significant lightness in her step...


I hear from Agnes, after she got to work, listening to the reports. Eighteen musketeers dead. Another seven injured to where they'll need to be removed from active duty. In short, we're about one-fourth in strength than we were at the start, considering how we only had thirty two musketeers, plus Agnes. That leaves us seven musketeers, and with Agnes heading one squad, brings us up to two squads of four if we try to match up what we had before.

However…

"Agnes, a word." I say about an hour into the reports. I gesture for the T-Dolls to come with us as Agnes gets up from her seat and walks with all of us to an empty classroom.

"I suppose this is your explanation?"

"Mhm. You wanted the truth, so I'll give it to you."

"I suppose it has to do with Sara's little stunt earlier?" Agnes asks as I close the door behind us.

"Er, it's Springfield now, ma'am." Springfield answers with a bit of an embarrassed smile.

Before Agnes can say anything, I give a nod to them. "Alright girls, it's time to introduce yourselves. I'll go first. Agnes, you already know my name and that I commanded infantry units. These girls, who you have viewed as 'advanced golems' of sorts, were the ones I commanded. They are indeed from another world, much like me, and our technology far outstrips yours."

Agnes nods, having already heard this.

"We worked for a mercenary group, essentially."

"Hold on." Agnes says, holding up a finger. "Let me see if I can figure out the rest based on what 'Sara' suggested to me. It was called G and K Military. Personnel operating within them were referred to as T-Dolls."

Springfield gives another sheepish smile at that.

"Almost, Agnes. We typically just called the company Griffin for short, a mercenary company. However, not all personnel weren't called T-Dolls, that would be the girls who were fighting here. There were others in their employ, like commanders such as myself or people like logistics officers." I say, gesturing to the three gathered with us. "Short for Tactical Doll, as you likely heard from Springfield or Sara."

"So you're saying you've commanded them before?"

I shake my head 'no'. "I've never commanded these individual ones before. They're produced commercially, so you could have multiple of them, if you so chose. Most of them weren't made for military purposes, though. They were made to fill in the gaps of human labor."

"I see…"

"And with that—girls, introduce yourselves again and your specialties. PPK, sound off."

The dress wearing, handgun wielding girl steps forward, saluting. "Full name Walther Polizeipistole Kriminalmodell, though the Commander has the privilege to call me PPK~ I work best in close range to support my fellow T-Dolls in the heat of combat."

"Understood, Walther Pol—"

"You can just call her PPK." I say, cutting in. PPK gives a chilling smile as she steps back, Spectre now stepping forth.

"Full name, Spectre M4!" Spectre says, snapping to a salute. "My specialties are drawing and evading enemy fire. Or at least, they were before my injury."

"She's still faster than humans." I say, making a mental note to catch Spectre's thoughts later. "They all are."

"Though, what kind of enemy were they fighting? If a private group for hire had access to them, I'm sure that you weren't the only ones, or someone else was trying to get a piece of that tech."

I bite my lip before sighing. "They were made to fight something similar to them. The Sangvis Ferri. They're similar in make, but by far in higher numbers. But you know how it is, quantity over quality. Compared to them, the Griffin T-Dolls, well, each of them individually can take on multiple 'advanced golems' of the SF, which is what we call the Sangvis for short."

I decide it's better not to disclose anything about Ringleaders unless it becomes pertinent later. There's no need to get her to doubt in their ability.

"Hmm… I see. I imagined these… 'Sangvis Ferri' were also stronger than humans?"

"They were."

"And that is why you fielded the 'T-Dolls'."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Okay, I'm starting to get the picture now." Agnes says with a nod. "And that leaves…"

Spectre steps back, matched in time with Springfield who is now properly dressed in her usual T-Doll outfit, who calmly moves to a salute. "M1903 Springfield, Captain Agnes. My specialties are long distance fighting and pinpoint targets."

"M… oh, M1903." Agnes turns her head to me. "I didn't know that we had a goddess with us."

"A goddess?" Springfield asks, clearly confused.

Unfortunately, Agnes manages to get her next sentence out before I can explain.

"Yes. Oliver had quite a smile on his face when he saw the inscription on his gun. Ah, what did you say, Oliver? M1903 is 'A goddess of victory who is said to always be walking with me'?"

I quietly sink my face into my left hand, deciding not to meet Springfield's gaze. Goddammit, I should've kept my mouth shut.

In the background, I can hear Spectre (poorly) trying to contain her laughter and a "My, my, my" from PPK. It makes me glad that Springfield isn't a WA2K T-Doll, I heard those have very prickly personalities and I'm sure I would've earned a flustered berating from one right about now.

"Er, Captain Agnes, I am not a goddess, but I am humbled that the Commander thinks so highly of me." I hear after a period of silence from Springfield, who is unable to meet my gaze. "I will do my best to deliver you all to victory."

"Mm. Thank you." Agnes says with a nod. "So, any other things I should know?"

"We're very limited on ammunition, that's the biggest thing. We don't use your musket ammo, as you might think, and producing them is likely out of your league at the moment." I say, bringing up the biggest problem.

"Ah… so really, what we're counting the most on is their ability to best humans in physical aspects."

"Unless we get lucky and for some reason, whatever brought us all here sees fit to give us a box full of ammo. Until then, I'll have them train with the muskets you have."

"Seems fair. Though... " I can see the slight pain in her eyes that comes with her next question. "Would you say that they're enough to replace the fallen?"

If they had been fully stocked and repaired, that question would've been an easy 'yes'. Obviously, they could've easily defeated eighteen humans in the blink of an eye. But for now…? Yes, I still have faith in them.

"They'll exceed expectations, Agnes. I believe they'll be enough."

"Hmm…" I see her close her eyes, then nod again. "Commander, I… well, let me be frank. Are you the one who prompted Sara, well, Springfield, to give the idea of that elite squadron within the Royal Musketeers?"

"Yes. To be honest, the intent was for it to be a signal to other T-Dolls who somehow found their way here to know they weren't alone." I say, with Agnes nodding again.

"Then I'd like to take you up on your idea. It seems we're down in numbers, anyways. At this point, we basically are just an elite squadron. I'll leave the others to defend the princess as a last line of defense and to train any additional musketeers I can get my hands on."

"You won't join them?"

"I'll be on the team, if you don't mind. While I wish I could be in both places, I think I'd do a lot more good on the field."

I can't doubt her abilities, of course. I saw them first hand.

"Any particular reason?"

"I do a better job actually on the field than sitting back and training recruits. Second, you need someone familiar with Halkeginia on your team." She says, crossing her arms.

"I can't argue with that." I mumble with a shrug. "Well, you're in the lead. I'll go with it."

"Thank you, Commander."

"Then, as of this point on—" I pause, looking at Agnes. "Though, perhaps we ought to rechristen you."

I see Springfield's eyes light up, along with Spectre giving a small scoff and PPK rolling her eyes as Agnes just looks at me with a confused expression.

"Everyone on the squad is called by their weapon."

"Ah, I see. Well, I don't know what she was called, though. No one did, she didn't speak our language."

"Based on your description of her and her weapon, though, I believe I know. Her name is Lee Enfield, a rifle T-Doll. She has a similar role to Springfield, you could say."

"Lee Enfield…" Agnes whispers back to herself, nodding.

"When serving on the GK Team as a Tactical Doll, Captain Agnes, we will refer to you as Enfield. Is that fine with you?"

I see her close her eyes, thinking. Accepting a new name is a big development, after all. It's something that defines you. In fact, I remember hearing about it from a colleague that this is one step in how cults can really prevent people from escape. Getting a new name from them is like saying you belong to them. Shedding your previous identity, and all that.

Granted, this isn't to that level, but accepting a new name might be hard for her. 'Agnes' is the girl who survived the burning of D'Angleterre. And I've learned that it's not something she's going to let go of so easily.

However, Enfield is tied to her village. Perhaps...

"...Very well, then. I'll accept it, as referring to me strictly on the GK Team. I'll let the princess know of this new development tonight. Not in full, obviously. I'd prefer to tell her in person where it won't be intercepted."

"Understandable."

"We'll likely depart in a few days, or at least I will, and some of the other musketeers. I'll entrust the school to you until then, but I doubt there'll be a second attack."

I nod as Agnes gets up. "Alright. Let me know how it goes."


Later that day, after dinner, I called the T-Dolls I found into a room with me, where I had them all sit down. This was a conversation that was long coming, anyways, and it should be taken care of now rather than later.

"Whatever do you need, Commander?" PPK asks as Springfield closes the door behind all of us.

"Just… gotta get something off my mind."

"Do you think you won't be able to hold back with Captain Agnes? Tut, tut~"

"PPK, quit fooling around. The Commander looks serious." Spectre mumbles, with PPK sighing at her interrupted fun. I have been told they can be a handful sometimes. "What is it, Commander? I assume this involves us, rather than the musketeers."

"It does. Well, sit down." I pause, waiting for them to do so. "It revolves around the mission of the T-Dolls. You were meant to safeguard humanity."

"Yes, sir, that is our mission." Spectre replies, nodding.

"Of course, with Anti-Human protocols, you've been allowed to fight here. Without those, you'd burn out your minds trying to otherwise, so… I just… I'm not a therapist, all of you, but I feel as if it's the right thing to do to tell you all that… if you ever feel uncomfortable fighting humans, those you were sworn to protect, I will not hold it against you if you do not wish to fight a battle and I swear upon it now I will never order you to fire upon humans you do not want to fight."

"Commander."

I look up, hearing Springfield's voice.

"I thank you for your concern, but I wholeheartedly believe in you from what I have seen so far from you. I do not think you will lead us astray."

"Hmm. But Commander, I have a question."

"Go ahead, PPK?"

"Are we not weapons for you to deploy?"

"You are not weapons."

I see a slight recoil from each of them. I likely said it with a bit more force than I intended.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to come off as so harsh." I say, sighing and leaning back in my seat. "I dislike that, is all. I didn't like treating the T-Dolls under my command as weapons. They weren't disposable nor were they replaceable. That holds doubly so here, because there will never be a way to recover you should you buy your farm out there."

"Buy… our farm?" Spectre asks.

"It's a euphemism for 'dying'." I explain. "As a way to never say that someone died. Has its origins elsewhere, but I guess that's why they use it now. Regardless, that's how I do things, alright? Call me sentimental or call me a fool, I don't really care. It's how I run my ship."

"Yes, sir." All three of them respond.

"But just keep it in mind, alright? It's one thing to be fighting the SF, it's another to fight humans."

"Did you ever fight humans yourself, sir?" Spectre asks, which of course was the likely question.

"In war? No, I was never really boots on the ground. But I've been in a few scrapes before."

"I see…"

"Then, sir." Springfield says, coming up after Spectre trails off.

"Yes, Springfield?"

"Um… ah, sorry, I lost my train of thought."

"Alright. Well, unless you have anything else to bring up, that is all for you, PPK and Springfield. Spectre, I want to have another small chat."

"Sir."

PPK and Springfield both get up, salute, and leave the room. I wait until the door clicks closed before speaking.

"Sir?"

"I just wanted to speak to you about your leg."

I see Spectre's shoulder's slump as I move seats next to her.

"What's there to say, sir?"

"Whatever's on your mind, Spectre. But I want you to know that you're not usele—"

I flinch, as Spectre almost lashes out but catches her hand in time. There's a look of horror in her eyes as I carefully bring my hand up to grasp hers.

"I don't, I, I'm so-sorry, sir, I—" She stammers out, clearly in shock of what she nearly just did.

"It was the Anti-Human protocols, right?"

"Ye… yes, I believe so, sir. Normally I would have been preventing from taking such an action no matter how frustrated or angered I was at your comment, but…"

"It's fine. It's part of the responsibility you're going to have to bear." I say, bringing her hand down. "If you were a normal coworker of mine, I'd say slap me when you felt like it, but unfortunately I don't think I can take a steel punch and live. However, feel free to criticize me with however harsh words you want to use."

"That's not fair, Commander." I hear her mutter as I let go of her hand. "When you ask for it like that, no one would actually go through with it."

"Sorry. However, please know that I truly mean it." I say, looking into her eyes. "You are not useless to me, Spectre. Despite your injury, you turned the tide. You're still willing to fight. That's something I can respect and appreciate. However, I do not respect you thinking you are disposable. Whatever your commander before may have told you, I want you to ignore it. Under me, in these current circumstances, you are not scrappable nor are you disposable. With any luck we'll discover some kind of repair facility. If you, PPK, Springfield, and apparently an Enfield all stumbled into here, it's not like it's unlikely. So I just want you to have a bit of faith in me."

"Un… Understood, sir."

"Alright. That's all I have to say. I don't expect you to believe me right away, but it's how it goes." I say, getting up from my seat. "Do you have anything else to say to me?"

"No, sir. Except… I'll think about it."

"That's all I'm asking. If you'll excuse me."

I find PPK and Springfield waiting outside, but it seems they weren't having their ears pressed to the door. "PPK."

"Sir." She says back, none of her usual sadistic personality shining through.

"Go be with Spectre. I don't know what the extent of your relationship is, but you were partners before arriving here, or at least navigating this world before you met us. She could use you."

"Yes, sir."

PPK snaps a salute before heading in, closing the door behind her.

"Are you okay, Commander?" Springfield asks, following me as we walk along the hallways.

"I just don't like seeing people in that state."

"Spectre isn't a 'person', though."

"Not to me." I say back, managing to reign in how forcefully I say it.

"I know. And that's something I appreciate, Commander." I glance to the side and find in my peripheral vision, a small smile from Springfield. "I have one question, though."

"Shoot."

"It had to deal with before, what I wanted to ask…"

"Alright, go for it."

"Are you going to be okay commanding us to fight? You said it yourself, didn't you? That we might have trouble fighting the humans we were supposed to protect. But what about you, Commander?"

"Well, I've done it before, right?"

"One was against a group of malicious foreign actors. One was against aggressors whom you responded to in kind, considering that they could not be reasoned with."

I get what she's trying to say. These were special cases. They were almost black and white cases. However, we'd be going up against a nation's army soon. That was a grab bag of people. Sure, you had those that couldn't be reasoned with, but there would be just as many people who were there because they wanted to protect their homeland. Maybe they really did believe in the message of Reconquista. All sorts of reasons. It wouldn't be as clear cut.

It wasn't like the SF, a faceless horde of robots, save for the Ringleaders who looked human yet behaved so inhumane. These would be… different. Very, very different.

"I'll be fine, Springfield."

"If you insist, sir. But, with all due respect… I am here for you. We all are."

"I'll keep it in mind."

With that, we head off to go check on the rest of the school. I'll be wanting to talk to Colbert before we depart, anyways.

But, Springfield's words remain on my mind. I really did take on a bigger job than I thought it was, huh… telling Henrietta I was a commander, but not saying it wasn't the traditional sense. Commanding others to take potentially ordinary human life, huh… guess that's something I'm going to have to think about.


Aaaaand end.

Sorry for the slight 1 day schedule slip. I had a tabletop game last night, which is why I missed it.

Lots of talking this chapter, mostly just fallout from before. I liked the idea of Agnes not being entirely over her revenge, but Oliver just saying he'll be there to let her down easy. Same with Spectre at the end of the chapter. Mostly it was just there for Oliver to get the ball rolling. You can't exactly talk everyone down right at the start, but at the very least he can plant the seed of doubt/growth in them.

Of course, this gets turned on him by Springfield right at the end. I thought it would be an interesting character dilemma for him, in that yes, he's commanding against the SF, but he's in a similar role to the T-Dolls wherein he was protecting people, but now he's going to be faced not with clearly provable bad guys, but just soldiers who might not necessarily even be evil people on the enemy side.

Anyways, some slight humor about "M1903" in the middle, along with Agnes joining the team as "Enfield". I figured this was a good way for me to really focus in on them, making them much more of a tight-knit squad.

Either way, wow, powered through this in like a week. I was off on vacation last week so I didn't get too much chance to write, so I'm currently writing this author's note after proofreading at like, noon-time whenever this chapter goes up, probably at like, 10pm. Yeah, that close lol. Trying to keep to my schedule, and I thought it was mostly good enough to post.

Next time will likely have a lot of talking as well, I think. I'm trying to keep action on the low-side of things, using a model kind of like: Big action scene, fallout, dialogue that builds to the next one, and loop from there, rather than just lots of fighting scenes. I'd like to try to keep entirely within Oliver's point of view as well rather than swapping point of views, which means he won't really be in the thick of things, which kind of lowers the potential for action scenes, but oh well. We'll see how it goes.

Slight plug for a friend, someone who damned me to hell-I mean brought me into knowing what Girls Frontline is. He's the author of "A War For Three", which you can find in the GFL FFNet archive. I do enjoy his writing, and meanwhile we're still both chilling out in the latest collab event. 600k power enemies, anyone?

Anyways, let me know what you liked, what you didn't like, and what I can improve on. See you all next time!