The Commander slowly, gradually regained his consciousness and steadily opened his eyes. The first thing he noticed was the scorching, suffocating heat relentlessly beating upon him. Smoke and fire filled the room, turning the once fairly organized Command Room of the train into the fires of hell itself, even down on the floor it was difficult for him to breathe. His whole body ached intensely, feeling as if he had been hit by a truck, the ringing in his ears exasperated his splitting headache. The shockwave of the explosion must have knocked him out cold, he was lucky that he hadn't been close enough for it to be powerful enough to break bones and rupture organs.

The AR Team had failed, the Military had managed to take control of the shore guns and fire off a shot - one shot was all it took. Although he had given the order to abandon the train beforehand, they were only halfway through the process of moving their forces and equipment to the inside of the base before the shell hit. They were sitting ducks bunched up like this, no doubt their losses would be catastrophic. The Commander could only hope to god there were enough people left to still be combat effective...Yes, they all knew this was likely to be a one-way trip, all they could do now is push forward, lest the sacrifices they made would be all for nothing. That was what the Commander told himself as he slowly tried to work his way to his feet, but his strength hadn't fully returned to him yet, and sudden jolt of pain in his arms and chest caused him to drop back to the floor. The Commander's chest pounded in agony as he coughed, but at least no blood came up, that was something of a good sign, although he wouldn't be surprised if he had a cracked a rib...or maybe all of them.

As the ringing of his ears subsided, he could make out the sound of footsteps rapidly growing closer.

"Who's...there?..." The Commander weakly called out as he tried to make out the dark figure encroaching upon him, but the rush of smoke stung his eyes and nearly forced them shut.

"Hold still, Commander." The figure said as it knelt beside him. "Don't talk, breathe carefully."

A cool towel covered the Commander's nostrils, making it it easier to breathe.

"There isn't much time, we need to get you out of here." She spoke once again.

"Who...are you?..." The Commander asked again.

"...One of your dolls, now stop wasting your energy with the dumb questions." The Doll answered after a short silence.

The Commander tried to make out whose voice it was, it had a distinctly mature tone to it, definitely not one of the younger ones. Springfield? No, she was more abrasive than Springfield was...And why wasn't she giving a straight answer?

"That explosion..." The Commander thought out loud.

"Your train was hit by a shell from the Coastal Battery. You're lucky to be alive, can you still move?"

His train, not their train, something wasn't right...

"What about the others...How many made it out?..." The Commander asked reluctantly.

A short silence followed.

"...I don't know...You didn't answer me, can you still move?" The Doll pressed.

"Yeah...hurts like hell, but I don't think anything's broken..."

"Alright, I'm going to help you up now...Ready?"

The Commander nodded, and the Doll put his arm around her shoulder and began helping him to his feet.

"Rrrgh, fuck!" The Commander grunted through gnashed teeth as he pushed through the pain.

The smoke was still thick enough to the point where he couldn't see his own hand in front of his face, but he could still make out the ashen hair of his helper. What finally gave it away, however, was the smell. Even through the smoke, he could smell it - Bourbon. Even after all this time, she still smelled like that.

"Six...teen...you came back..." The Commander wheezed out, the smoke was suffocatingly thick, and his injuries made talking a painful endeavor.

M16 let out an annoyed sigh, she had been found out, there was no point in denying it at this point. "...I never left, Commander...I hope you can forgive me."

"Why...Sangvis?..."

"...I had to learn the truth, Commander, and that meant looking into things my own way."

"I...would've...helped..." The Commander let out a series of coughs after he finished speaking.

M16 wanted to tell him to shut up and stop breathing in the smoke, but she knew it was pointless. He'd just keep asking if she didn't answer.

"You would have just put yourself in danger, Commander, and M4...I didn't want that for either of you."

The Commander's chest seared in pain as he let out a combination of a cough and a laugh. "And this...is safe...for you?..."

M16 sighed again. "When I entered that Factory, I felt as if I had been there before...I knew I had been there before. I began to suspect that someone had tampered with my memories. Then, when I took that second shot of Parapluie, some of those memories began to come back...Memories of the Butterfly incident. I was there, Commander. I don't fully understand what happened yet, but we've been lied to about the incident - lied to about Sangvis. After that...I didn't know who I could trust, who I could go to with this...Kryuger, Persica...Any one at Griffin could have been in on it. Working with Sangvis was the only way I was going to get closer to unlocking those memories, finding out who's really behind all of this."

"And what about me?..."

M16 shook her head. "I don't know if I can trust Griffin, Commander...but I trust you. You'd never do anything to hurt us, I always believed that, that's why I left her in your care with no regrets."

M16 helped the Commander along through the maze of collapsed debris and burning wreckage. A short while later, the Commander could make out a glimmer of light in the distance, that looked like an exit.

"We're almost there, Commander, just hold on a little longer..."

"...What about...you?..." The Commander asked.

"...I'm not going with you, Commander...I still have something I need to do...this...will probably be the last time we meet..."

"Sixteen!" The Commander growled out as he stopped himself in his tracks.

"Commander...don't..." M16 softly spoke with a saddened tone as she continued dragging him along.

"I am not...letting you go...again!" The Commander wheezed out as he tried to at least slow her pace, but it was pointless against her comparatively superhuman strength.

"I have to do this, Commander, for all of us...this base, that Starfish, nobody can have it, do you understand? Not Sangvis, Not the Military, not Griffin, nobody. No one can control that kind of power, they don't have the right to."

"Let...me...help you..."

M16 shook her head "The people you're working for - they'll have you killed if they find out you had any hand in this. I have do this alone, Commander, as a rogue doll who betrayed you. This is the only way."

"...I promised M4 I'd bring you back to her..."

"You know what they say about making girls promises, Commander..."

"I do...so I'll say it again...I promised her..."

"Still as stubborn as ever, you really haven't changed. That's good, keep that fight in you, hold on to it. The world needs that...M4 needs that...She needs you, Commander."

M16 continued dragging the Commander along until they finally reached the opening in the carriage.

"This is where you get off, Commander." M16 said as she pulled the Commander to the opening and shoved him to the edge, concealing herself in the cloud of smoke.

"Look! It's the Commander!" A voice called out from below, countless cries and footsteps quickly drew near as the dolls rushed to the carriage. "Commander! Jump! We'll catch you!" The voices called out, but the Commander continued leaning on M16, weakly gripping her by the shirt.

"Sixteen...don't do this...that's an order!.." The Commander could only weakly protest as M16 seized him by the wrist and pried him off of her.

"Listen to me, Commander - Don't trust them. Only follow your own instincts - your own conscience, nobody else's, do you understand? You're who I'm staking my bet on for what comes after, not Kryuger, not Havier, not Zelensky - You. Now get out there and do your job."

With that, M16 shoved the Commander out of the carriage and into the hands of the crowd of dolls down below. As the dolls carried him off away from the burning train, he caught one final glimpse of M16 standing in the opening. She was giving a salute - That same salute complete with a content smile that he saw from RO635's feed when they were forced to leave her behind all that time ago. The Commander could do nothing but weakly reach out to her as the dolls carried him off, her figure growing smaller in the distance.

"Good luck, Commander...Give them hell..." M16 whispered to herself before she turned and disappeared back into the smoke.

It would all be over soon, the rest would be up to him...