Chapter 44

Contrary to popular belief, Lilly wasn't dumb. Pride wasn't the first to think so. Most of her coworkers did too. Unlike Pride and the Doctor, she wasn't clever and she didn't have massive amounts of knowledge in her head, but she could think. There was, in fact, something going on in her head, and it would be better to comment on it sooner than later.

"Aqua? You said you didn't kill kids, right? Or, didn't put them in death mazes. Why?"

"I'm a genius. It's hardly a great accomplishment to beat a literal child."

Lilly frowned. "So you don't have any moral reasons for anything? You just want to prove something?"

It was Aqua's turn to frown. "Well, I'd like to think I have some standards. I'm not an animal. But as it happens, having standards also gives me a challenge. You can accomplish two things at once."

Lilly struggled against her binds, but was only hurting her wrists. "You could try doing something good that doesn't service you," Lilly suggested. Like letting me out. "That would prove you're not just acting in self-interest."

Aqua walked her over, brow furrowed. Then her expression lightened, and she snapped her fingers with a smile. "Ah. But if I did something to prove I have moral standards, it would still be in my self-interest, wouldn't it? Good thought though."

On the plus side, Aqua didn't seem to notice Lilly had been trying to set her up at all. She seemed to think it was a genuinely innocent suggestion, as she turned and went care free back to her controls. The down side was, well, it didn't work. Lilly was admittedly not surprised.

The new room the trio opened had the floor up higher than the hall. It would take a bit of climbing to get onto the platform, and they couldn't see what was inside from this angle. Greed lifted his head to see what was up there.

"Is it safe?" Pride asked.

A blade whizzed along and cut off Greed's head, faster than he could react. Red sparks appeared and he started regenerating. "Yeah not really, no," he answered as soon as he could speak again. Then he sat down next to the other two, leaning against the platform, too low to get decapitated. "Any suggestions?"

"There's probably a pattern," Tourmaline said. "So wait. It's all a matter of timing."

Unfortunately, it seemed that was all Tourmaline had. They waited, and waited, and the blade didn't appear. Tourmaline bit her lip and looked at the ground, but she didn't say anything.

So if it wasn't a matter of timing, maybe something else had caused the knife to come out. Pride looked up, an idea forming. But he wouldn't test it out yet. He'd wait a little longer, see if any of them said anything.

"Pride?" Greed asked. Pride could hear the dread in his voice.

Pride turned to Greed with an overly wide smile. "Greed? I was under the impression you didn't want my help."

"I don't," Greed confirmed. "But if you're here you might as well, especially if it gets you out too."

Pride knew. He was always going to try his theory, no matter how Greed responded. He just wasn't going to let Greed keep being snide. He took the small portable phone out of his pocket, the one he used to call Mrs. Bradley, and flung it into the air. The blade came slicing through again and the phone fell to the ground in two pieces.

"Thought so. It's responding to movement, not a timer."

Tourmaline leaned over, looking seriously concerned. "Pride, wasn't that a phone? You could've called somebody!"

"That's a phone?" Greed asked. "Ha! I'd like one like that."

Pride clapped his hands and put his phone back together. He had no idea if that would work, but he shoved it into Greed's hands anyway.

"There you go." Greed stared. Maybe he'd shut up for a while. Pride turned to Tourmaline. "And for your information, the only person who could've helped is the Doctor, and she wasn't picking up."

"The Doctor?" Greed asked. So much for shutting up.

"Yes." Pride paused. "We travel together. She has a tendency to go around saving people. She'll show up. She always does."

It was quiet after that. Did they not believe him?

"In the meantime, we should figure out how to avoid the blade," Tourmaline decided.

Pride looked back up. "If it's just one blade, we can toss something else up and move as the blade is swinging. It shouldn't be that hard to time."

"And if there's more than one?"

Pride shrugged. "We won't know until we climb up there."

"I'll go first," Greed said. "I'll survive. So, I'll go first. Stay out of the way."

Well Pride wasn't about to turn that offer down, even if it was mostly for Tourmaline. Using alchemy, he took a piece out of the floor and flung it up. As the blade was passing Greed jumped. The other two followed, though they stayed behind him. They all made it into the room.

"Ah," Greed said.

Now that they were up there, it was clear the entire room wasn't this high up. There were multiple platforms. You jumped up and down as the room lay out like some sort of ladder on the ground.

"Right," Greed said. "Could be worse."

"It's better than you think," Pride said. "Come on."

He dropped into the next trench. The other two joined him, even if they looked a little confused. Pride clapped and created a tunnel in the next platform, letting them crawl through instead of dealing with another blade.

"Come on," Pride said.

They crawled to the next trench, at which pointed Pride put a hole into the next platform. That was done in silence. Then Tourmaline spoke.

"Pride? We can't go to either side with your alchemy, I know the risks are too high for that. But couldn't we try going through the floor? I think the engines are usually on the lowest floor, and the vibrating is coming from below us."

Pride bit the inside of his mouth in thought. It was worth a try. They were going nowhere fast this way.

"We'll see," he said.

He created a hole beneath them. Yes, there were engines down there alright. He could see the huge metal forms, hear them rumbling. There were also more robots. The engine area seemed full of them, and they turned to the trio as the ceiling opened.

"Test subjects are not allowed down here," one alien said.

"The intruders are cheating. They must be destroyed."

"That didn't work! That didn't work!" Greed shouted.

Pride resealed the floor, but the robots were still coming.

"Move! Go!" he shouted.