Far East Branch - Lobby

Ichiro and Soma arrived back at the Den, scaring half of its inhabitants nearly to death. After skidding their jeep to a stop merely inches from the nearest wall, both men had leapt from the vehicle without even setting it in park. They ran with all their might, through the streets and into the main headquarters, ignoring all of the strange looks their way. It was even worse when they finally arrived.

Bursting through the metal doors, the pair all but slid to a stop. After briefly passing through the weapons hangar, they made a silent exchange, agreeing to head for the lobby floor. Lenka's God Arc was still present which meant he hadn't left yet. There was still time. The Captain wasn't in the lobby, likely on one of the higher floors. They each took separate directions, Ichiro heading for the veteran's floor and Soma checking the rest. As the faster of the two, he could cover more ground, leaving the battered Hamasaki to go straight to the source. If they split up, at least one of them would find him.

As Soma vanished into the stairwell, Ichiro leapt into the lift, God Arc in hand.

. . .

Far East Branch - Veteran's Floor

Utsugi sighed, slowly making his way down the hall. With his preparations complete, he was ready for his journey back to North America. And in doing so, reporting his findings. The idea left a sour taste in his mouth. Despite appearances, he didn't want to return her either, especially after Soma's assertion that sending her home was essentially sending her to her grave. But Neo had been deteriorating for weeks, both her mental state and her physical condition.

Watching her grow more volatile by the day, the Captain had done his absolute best to keep his promise to Hamasaki. The New Type would be kept safe, and the North Americans would be none the wiser. So long as she didn't harm anyone else, their secret would remain so. In spite of his own reservations and glaring red flags, Utsugi had trusted him. Believed in his word that Neo wouldn't attack anyone else unprovoked. And now, as a result of that belief, two people remained in the hospital ward, one of them possibly clinging to life. For the safety of the majority, handing her over to them was his only viable option.

He knew that there was little he could do personally to stop Neo. Their conflict in those very halls was proof of that. She was stronger than him, faster than him, and wielded unnatural elemental power. It was true that she was confined to a cell, but when it came to her, that wouldn't do much in the way of advantage were he to go down there. While currently compliant, it was entirely possible that she would spring to life the moment she felt threatened. Then, whoever they sent would be trapped in there with her, with no hope of escape. At present, there was only person in the entire Den who was capable of neutralizing her… and he was nowhere to be found. No. He would go on his scheduled visit to North America. He would gather his supplies. Then, he would give his report. The rest would be up to them.

He didn't want to do it. Lenka truly liked Neo as a comrade and from the human side he had come to know, she wasn't entirely a bad person. Impulsive and a bit senseless perhaps, but for the most part, relatively safe. But the other side was out of her control. And, as she had already proven, another attack was imminent. It was only a matter of time. Making his way towards the elevator, he heaved another heavy sigh. This was going to be difficult…

…but not as difficult as what was to follow.

Utsugi never reached his destination, the lift doors sliding open before he could get to them. And from them strode Hamasaki, the previously missing God Eater, covered nearly from head to toe in dried Aragami core. From the looks of it, he had only just recently returned from the field. One look was all it took to tell he was on a warpath. Ichiro stalked toward him, God Arc in hand, with a look of venomous rage.

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't tear your head off."

"Me?! How about the fact she nearly tore off yours?!" Lenka immediately retaliated. He didn't even need to ask what this was about. There was only one topic that could make Hamasaki this angry. He must have spoken to Soma. Fantastic.

"You agreed to leave us be."

"You agreed she wouldn't hurt anyone without provocation."

"And she hasn't. Neo was defending herself."

"From what?! Because from where I'm standing, she looked perfectly fine. Unlike everyone else."

Hamasaki shook his head, his expression wavering slightly as he tried to calm himself. He couldn't expect the other God Eater to sympathize with her. Utsugi didn't know. Ichiro himself didn't even know until days ago. But there was nothing to be done about it, other than to argue with him or explain. And considering that he was on his way out the door, it wasn't likely he'd be willing to entertain the either one. "You don't understand…"

"No, you don't understand! People are getting hurt —

"It was a misunderstanding."

"A misunderstanding that nearly killed three people! Hamasaki, I realize that she is your friend, but Neo is dangerous."

"Neo is a product of what her captors made her. If you knew the things they did to her…"

"She's damaged, I know. That much I can see." Lenka responded, pausing a moment to collect himself as well. "You forget that I was raised outside the Wall. I know trauma when I see it."

"Then, why would you send her back to them? So they can do it again?"

"Of course not! But at this point, there's little else we can do. You can't help her, Hamasaki."

"Yes, I can. Now that I know… We can help her."

"Help her how? With her this far gone, there's no guarantee that she can ever recover. Even if her mental state improves, her own biology is a threat. She's a disaster waiting to happen and keeping her here is putting the entire Den at risk."

"You don't know that. If she gets the help she needs, then maybe —"

"Exactly. Maybe. Maybe she won't go on another rampage and hurt someone. Maybe she won't transform and slaughter hundreds, or even thousands of people. In case you've already forgotten, she nearly murdered you."

"That won't happen again."

"You can't promise that, Hamasaki. I'm sorry. Truly I am, but that's not a risk humanity can afford to take.

"You will not hurt her, Utsugi."

"What, so she can hurt everyone else?!"

"That isn't —"

"Look me in the eyes and tell me that she won't lose control. That she'll never hurt another living soul again."

Ichiro fell silent. Utsugi was right. Neo was a biological weapon of warfare. It was in her very nature to fight. He couldn't make that promise. Especially so long as she remained in her current state. Not without serious psychological treatment and avoidance of her triggers during the process. And even then, it wasn't a guarantee. Genetics aside, Fenrir had inflicted wounds so deep that they may never truly heal. But he had to try. He owed it to her to try.

Lenka took his silence as confirmation. "You can't. Because the truth is, even you don't fully understand what she is capable of. And at this point, if you won't do what needs to be done…"

"You won't lay a hand on her, and neither will anyone else."

"And what's to stop me?"

Ichiro's eyes darkened, his grip tightening on his God Arc. "My blade. You want Neo, you'll have to go through me."

Lenka gaped at him, his mouth falling open at the blatant threat. His eyes trailed downward to the glistening edges of his Buster, still rusted with blood. The blood of Aragami, and gods knew what else. The look in his eyes told him everything. He had seen that look before, beyond the wall where resources were scarce, and people were desperate. There was no doubt in this mind. This man was meaning to kill him if he took another step forward. The veteran was willing to sacrifice everything for a single person. He would risk imprisonment, exile, maybe even death if it meant protecting her.

It was completely irrational. It was something beyond understanding, defying all objective reasoning. It was…

At that moment that Lenka finally understood. Since his return, he had always sensed that there was something going on between the two of them. Something far deeper than simple camaraderie, childhood friendship, or even familial ties. It was in the way he looked at her. Behaved around her. Lost nearly all sense of logic whenever she was threatened. He had seen this a long time ago, with Lindow and Sakuya during an incident outside of the Wall. His voice lowered to nearly a whisper as his face fell, shifting from a look of rage to one of genuine sympathy.

"You love her… don't you?"

Ichiro scowled, narrowing his eyes at him. He was irritated but saw no reason to lie. "More than life. But that is beside the point."

"Beside the point? Hamasaki, it is the point. You're blinded by your feelings for her."

"And you're blinded by your rage."

"My rage is justified! Those monsters have destroyed the world. They've taken everything from me and everyone else. People are right to hate those monsters."

"And you've allowed that hatred to drive you to extremism. You will destroy anything and everything that even resembles an Aragami."

"You're damn right I will. To rid the world of those savage beasts, I will do anything necessary."

"Even traveling across the seas? Injecting yourself with experimental drugs?"

"Yes. If that's what it takes to fulfill my duties, I will do so… as should you."

"I do fulfill my duties… but not when they are so clearly wrong."

"Wrong?! Three people were put in the hospital! One of them just got released yesterday!"

"She isn't at fault —"

"Isn't at fault?! Listen to yourself! You're a lovesick fool!"

"And you're a fucking hypocrite!"

Lenka erupted, his temper reaching boiling point. "What did you say?"

"You're willing to hand over her life and inject yourself in the same breath. All people have ever done is use Neo and take what they can from her, then throw her away once her purpose is served. All your talk about ridding the world of evil, and you're no better than them. You're more a beast than she is!"

"The hell are you talking about?!"

"Your medication! You're using the very same blood you're so eager to spill to cure yourself. You go on and on about destroying the Aragami. You claim she's a liability, yet you have no problem using her to do it!"

"What the fuck is that supposed to mean?!"

"The E3! Where exactly do you think it comes from?"

"You know just as well as I do it's in North America. And when they find a more efficient way to harness it —"

"It was in North America. Until it came here."

"What…?"

"The EVO cell isn't a variant, Utsugi. It's a Bias Factor. Her Bias Factor."

"That's —"

"And if you kill her… you kill yourself, and every person you were hoping it could save. All of our research… our findings, offensive and medicinal… die with her."

"She's — the E3 is…"

"Would you still destroy her, even knowing the cost?"

"That's… impossible. They told me —"

"They lied to you, just as they lied to me. Because that is what they do. They manipulate and mislead and bend people to their will. Neo isn't the vicious animal you think she is."

"You can't be sure of that…"

"The fact that she remains incarcerated is proof enough."

"She doesn't have much choice, Hamasaki. We've reinforced the cell with enough power to stop a Vajra. There are guards at almost every floor. There's no way —"

"Nothing can stop Neo. If she wanted to leave, she would."

Utsugi fell silent. Hamasaki had a point. From what he had heard, Neo's apprehension went surprisingly smoothly. Supposedly, she had offered zero resistance, and willingly complied with both her capture and imprisonment. And in that entire time, she hadn't so much as complained. But that didn't mean that she was to be trusted. How long would the New Type remain docile? How long before she lost her patience and decided enough was enough?

"That may be true… but —"

"There are no 'buts,'" Ichiro interrupted, reading his mind. "Believe me. When Neo has had enough, she'll go."

As though spoken into reality, a familiar sound tore through the building. Flashing red lights overtook the corridor and a blaring alarm echoed through the hall. Both men froze at the sound they knew all too well: the Aragami Alarm. Lenka shot the fiercest glare humanly possible at the other veteran, seething with venom. Ichiro merely shrugged without a care in the world. His eyes regarded him with exhaustion, almost as if to say, 'I told you so.'

Shaking his head, the Captain bolted for the stairs with the former Captain running right behind him.

. . .

Far East Branch - Dungeon

Heavy footsteps thundered through the empty corridor, a navy-blue figure flitting by the underground cells. After searching nearly every floor, Soma had given in. At this point, he wasn't sure where Utsugi was or whether or not he had already left the building. He wanted to assume that Hamasaki had found him, but he couldn't honestly be sure. After all, it was very possible that if they had come into contact, the resulting brawl would have drawn the attention of everyone in the building.

For now, he decided he would make his way to the veteran's floor last. If they weren't up there, then Utsugi had somehow slipped past them. In the best case, Ichiro would be on his way to collect Neo and get her to safety. In the worst case, he would exit the elevators to a bloodbath, and another newly made fugitive. With a tired sigh, Soma leaned against the elevator wall. He took a deep breath, trying to calm himself in the stillness of the lift.

It only lasted for a moment.

The resounding alarm startled him from his moment of peace, turning the walls of the lift a furious red. An Aragami had breached the perimeter. Again. Groaning, Soma stepped from the lift the moment the doors opened, taking a quick look down the hallway for any figures. Seeing none, he turned and made his way down the stairs. Wherever the two of them had gone, he would have to catch up with them.

He flew down the stairwell like a bat out of hell, taking them three at a time. His eyes adjusted to the flashing lights as he came through, rushing into the hangar and bolting for his God Arc. He watched the 2nd Unit members doing the same as he passed, making their way towards their stations. He left them to it, his own destination in the opposite direction. With so many heading to the choke points, it was unlikely that any were going to the lower floors. Should the enemies descend, Neo, locked in a cage, would be entirely defenseless. Even armed with her natural weaponry, she was still in danger, especially if there were multiple adversaries.

A sense of foreboding washed over him as he rushed down the hall, dread gripping his heart. Something was wrong. He couldn't describe the feeling, but something was off. His senses keened as he entered the dungeon floor, searching the area for any monsters that may have gotten through… and that was when the realization hit him. The problem was that he couldn't feel anything. There were no signals coming from the other hall. No familiar pull of Oracle cells calling to his. And as he rounded the final corner, his heart stopped.

The area was a total mess. Shards of various materials were splayed across the floor, along with various cans of First Love Juice and empty plastic bottles scattered across the area. Water had collected in small pools in random spaces, with stray droplets falling in between the cracks. Slowly, he approached the cell, keeping an eye out for any sudden movements. A puff of white escaped his mouth as he moved. The closer he drew, the colder it got.

He paused at the sound of a loud crunch beneath his feet. It was akin to broken glass, but that didn't make any sense. They had been very careful to avoid giving any sharp objects to the New Type for fear of relapse and harming herself. Kneeling, Soma grabbed a piece of the crystalline object, and lifted it to his eyes. He jolted, and quickly shifted it to his gloved palm, the temperature threatening to frostbite. Straining his eyes, he examined the jagged item, trying to figure out exactly what it was. When he finally did, his blood ran colder than the shard itself. It wasn't glass.

It was metal.

More specifically, the metal of the bars themselves. It had become so brittle the remnants were more similar to glass. Alarmed, Soma rushed forward to Neo's cell… only to find it empty.

All that remained were the damaged remains of what used to be her confines, and splotches of blood littered across the floor. He had to pause and in the sight, his mind trying to piece together what had happened. In the end, it was the familiar drip of water that answered his question.

Of course. The New Type was confined on the lowest floor of the building, one that he already noted had leaky pipes. Dripping water made for moist air. Moist air was Neo's specialty. Her cell had been reinforced, far too strongly for her to simply break out of it. Not without some serious tampering. And the room space was too small to provide adequate acceleration. Neo knew this. So instead of ramming against the door with brute force, she had to weaken it… and she had likely been doing so the entire time.

When she placed her fingers on the bars during their first conversation, her Oracle cells were slowly seeping into the metal bars, freezing them from the inside out. The ominous chill in the air surrounding her cell hadn't initially alerted him as the bottom floor was always relatively cool to begin with. Her time spent staring aimlessly at the walls wasn't staring at all. She was concentrating. Focusing her energy on dropping the temperature, slowly and methodically weakening the bars with a deep freeze. Over enough time of freezing and thawing, the molecules of the bars grew brittle. Once weak enough, they would allow Neo to break through with little trouble, even with her limited space.

But that wasn't enough to escape. Even with the damaged bars, there was simply no way she could have shattered them without alerting any of the many guards patrolling the stairwell of every floor. Even for Neo, it was impossible to pull off such a feat without someone hearing. Unless… there was something even louder to mask it.

Soma turned, his eyes scanning the hallway for evidence. It didn't take long for him to find it. Among the various bottles and cans were glistening trails of liquids where Neo had tossed her beverages. She hadn't been drinking and throwing them in boredom. She had been rolling them along the floor, creating long dripping trails that spiderwebbed across the surface. The humid air in the underground dungeon kept the liquid from evaporating too quickly, and the paper-thin layer of liquid was nearly invisible to the naked eye. But careful inspection showed her various attempts, slowly creating a loosely connecting trail leading all the way to the wall where a leaky pipe left a small stream dripping down the side. And not far from the streak was a familiar yellow box jutting from the wall.

A control panel. The emergency control panel.

How could he have possibly forgotten? Neo was located on the floor made for Aragami experimentation and containment. For safety concerns, it was equipped with alarm systems and lockdowns in case of emergency, should one of their lab rats ever escape. It would allow them to alert the rest of the compound and, if necessary, barricade to prevent an internal breach… and it was a detail that Neo had likely noticed during her time there. All she had to do was activate it. And what better way to do so than to short it out, sending a carefully charged stream of electricity across a watery trail?

With the alarm activated, the building would be in panic. The members of the Defense Unit guarding her would be forced to abandon their posts to stop the potential breach. Setting it off, she broke out of the cage likely making a ton of noise in the process, but the alarms were so loud, no one could hear it. And with every one of her guards preoccupied, Neo was able to slip away through the floors undetected, likely hiding in the weapons hangar. When the God Eaters left to receive their orders for deployment, she was left with a clear shot. At that point, she could practically grab her God Arc and stroll out the door.

Looking back to the empty cell, Soma wanted to smack himself for not seeing it sooner. She had planned her escape from the very beginning, without anyone's notice. She had been doing it right under his very nose. It was a brilliantly executed plan. It was so incredibly Neo that he couldn't help but be impressed by the sheer ingenuity. Such a patiently calculated scheme could have only been hatched by the branch's most talented escape artist.

Now, the New Type was gone, leaving nothing more than debris and a small message in her wake, scrawled on a small piece of paper and a marker. For a moment, his mind flooded with their conversation of a day prior, Neo begging him for something to do. At the very least, they could afford her doodling supplies if she must be left permanently. What was the worst that could happen? Sighing, he stepped into the cell and snatched the note from her pillow. His eyes scanned over the message, growing wider with every word he read. That insufferable woman really didn't know when to quit. After a few moments, the gravity of her note began to sink in.

"Damn it!" Snarling, Soma turned and bolted for the stairwell.