"W-Wait... Pleas-!" The soldier's cries fell on deaf ears as Nagant Revolver executed him. She watched his body lifelessly collapse to the pavement as she held a neutral expression on her face. Cracks of gunfire occasionally disturbed the otherwise quiet outer lot as the t-dolls searched for and subsequently killed any surviving KCCO members. Zeldri hadn't ordered them to execute survivors, but he also wasn't ordering them not to. This was something the t-dolls themselves decided upon. Nagant took a moment to look down at herself. Her normally pristine, white uniform was splattered with specks of bright red blood.
"..." And, yet, she wasn't bothered in the least. At one point, Nagant would have cared immensely about being splattered with human blood; she would have been terrified. Now? She was executing humans with her fellow t-dolls and felt nothing but satisfaction from the act. "...Guess there's no going back for us."
"Don't push yourself too much, Nagant." StG44 walked over to her teammate with a concerned expression on her face.
"..." A concerned expression that didn't match her blood-stained boots. "I'm fine. It will take more than this to break this old soldier of the Empire." She tried to deflect the worry with a joke, "If anything, I'm more worried about my coat staining. My clothes had better not turn pink after going through the wash!"
"I'll make sure to ask that they use bleach when this is over." StG44 smiled as it seemed Nagant's digimind was doing fine. She was keeping an extra sharp eye on her teammates ever since Thunder broke. PP-90, XM8, Sten MkII, and M590 had already been retreated by Annika to prevent dangerous levels of digimind degradation so it weighed on her mind as she watched Nagant's nonchalant expressions. "In any case, just be careful. I don't want anything to happen to any of our digimi-"
"Uuugh." A groan came from nearby.
"..." Nagant and StG44 followed the source of the groan to find a KCCO soldier trying to get up as he'd been thrown off his feet by the explosions of the gunship's rockets. Neither t-doll hesitated as Nagant walked over and took off the soldier's helmet followed by StG44 who pressed her rifle against the back of the man's head and executed him.
"..." Thunder sat on the ground leaning against the road wheels of the T-14's tracks with her head hung low. Her pistol clicked in her hands as she idly pulled the trigger over and over again. With every click, her digimind replayed the scene of the soldiers who turned into a red mist as she direct impacted them with the tank's main gun. Her eyes were locked to the floor unblinking.
"...Thunder?" PPS-43 tried to stir her teammate from her stupor, but Thunder didn't respond. PPS-43 looked worriedly at MP-448, but her echelon leader also looked lost on how to help their teammate. "Thun-"
"There you are!" a new voice cried out.
"!?" PPS-43 and MP-448 both turned in surprise as a t-doll stormed up to the group and approached Thunder. A Calico M950 hung from the t-doll's hip.
"..." Thunder continued to stare at the ground seeming to not notice Calico's approach.
"Oi." This only seemed to annoy Calico who leaned down and snapped her fingers in Thunder's face. "There's no time for dozing off. We have work to do."
"...?" Thunder stirred and followed the snapping fingers to look up at Calico. "...Work?"
"That's right," Calico declared as she stood straight up. "Before the Commander left, he assigned me to help rehab you. So, get up!"
"The Commander did?" Thunder refocused her mind on the present as she thought for a few moments. "But... The Commander left for the lot a while ago." While she was in her stupor, Zeldri had briefly checked on her before he went to the outer lot to deal with Peter.
"...!" Calico's commanding expression broke and her cheeks lightly reddened with embarrassment. "That's...because it took longer than I thought trying to come up with how someone like me could help you."
"..." Thunder silently stared up at Calico. The sincerity of her answer made Thunder feel something odd that she couldn't quite understand, though the feeling quickly banished the thoughts of the red mist.
"A-Anyway!" Calico couldn't handle the embarrassment of Thunder blankly staring at her. "From now on, you and I are going to be working together when you're not with your squad." Calico leaned down again, grabbed Thunder by the wrist, and yanked her to her feet. "That means you're going to help me make sure my squad stops slacking. Those lazy dolls are obsessed with watching the mechanics work on vehicles and our drill scores have suffered."
"!" Thunder found herself being dragged along as Calico pulled her by the wrist to follow her. "...But..." Thunder forced her legs to stop causing Calico to turn around. Slowly, Thunder reloaded her gun, raised it into the air, and fired.
"!" The loud bang of Thunder's gun startled everyone in the vehicle bay. Calico looked especially startled as debris from the roof lightly pelted her head from where Thunder shot. "W-w-w-why the heck did you do that?!"
"To convey my feelings," Thunder bluntly responded as she lowered her pistol.
"What feelings are you trying to convey by opening fire?! We're inside an underground bunker and your gun is freaking loud, you know?! That made me deaf for a few seconds!"
"Fear. I felt threatened by your aggressive manner, but I'm okay now."
"..." Calico looked over to PPS-43 and MP-448 for clarification, but the two only nodded in agreement as if Thunder's behavior was completely normal. "...We'll fix that habit later." Calico took a deep breath as she focused on her assignment. "Even if you're afraid, that won't stop us from our duty."
"Us? Do I have to?" While she knew it was an order from Zeldri, she still felt uncomfortable. Her digimind started thinking back to the red mist.
"Of course, you're my partner!" Calico's commanding tone returned as she let go of Thunder's wrist and took her hand.
"...!" There it was again, that odd feeling. The melancholy of remembering the red mist was once more getting replaced by the odd feeling. It wasn't bad, per se, just...odd. Thunder wasn't sure how to place it. Would staying with Calico give her a better grasp on what it was? "Fine, what do you want me to do?"
"Just follow my lead!" A confident smile overtook Calico's face as Thunder gave in. "First, we have to find TMP. She was held back to act as security just in case, but your gunshot probably spooked her. We'll search this floor together and head downstairs if we can't find her. After we find her, next we'll have our work cut out for us as we try to find and wake up-"
"..." Thunder silently allowed herself to get pulled along by Calico as she continued going over what they would do together. Calico had mentioned Zeldri sent her to help Thunder rehab from her digimind degradation, but Thunder thought that meant having her memory wiped of today's events. How would letting her keep her memories of that event help? Plus, now she had to help Calico with her duties, too? Would this really help her? Thunder's eyes wandered to her hand that Calico was still holding to pull her along. As she did, the odd feeling came back and seemed to reassure her of this course of action. She gently squeezed Calico's hand.
"What's up?" Calico stopped and looked back at Thunder as she felt her hand get squeezed.
"Nothing. I just needed to convey my feelings to myself."
"...And squeezing my hand is how you did it?" Calico asked as she cocked an eyebrow at Thunder. But, her tone quickly changed as Thunder let go of her hand and went to reload her pistol. "DON'T!" Calico quickly grabbed Thunder's hand. "I'd rather you squeeze my hand to convey your feelings than shooting your gun!"
"...Okay," Thunder responded and gave a nod.
"..." PPS-43 and MP-448 smiled as they watched Thunder get pulled along. She had broken out of her stupor and seemed more lively now that she was with Calico. The two remaining dolls of Tankery returned to their after mission check of the tank, and two pistol t-dolls began their journey around the Mountain, hand in hand, looking for Calico's teammates.
"Clear runway! I repeat, clear runway!"
Tsaritsa's voice echoed over the loudspeakers of level 01 as Scarecrow's gunships returned to the hangar and maneuvered their way back to their respective bays. Her Sangvis dolls were moving around as they prepared to rearm the gunships with what ammunition they had left so they would be ready at a moment's notice. Despite them being so active, Zeldri didn't mind. He had stayed outside for a few minutes to collect himself before returning to the Mountain. Hearing his t-dolls execute survivors also didn't help his mood, but he couldn't bring himself to stop them. That thought left a bitter taste in his mouth. So, he decided to distract himself by seeing what Horris had done while he was gone.
"That's a very accusatory look for someone who looks dead," Horris said when Zeldri walked up to him.
"It's been a long day," Zeldri said with a sigh as he watched the Sangvis dolls work on the gunships. "And, while it helped, you made it longer."
"At least you acknowledge it helped."
"Clear runway! I repeat, clear runway!"
Horris and Zeldri looked towards the hangar doors as Su-73D came in for a landing. The hangar's runway lights kicked on as the jet approached to help guide it in. When it touched down, the jet caught the arresting wire slowing the Su-73D to a stop just over halfway into the hangar. Despite it being her first flight, Makarov executed a perfect landing. "The power of imprinting," Zeldri mused.
"They can learn in an instant what takes us humans years," Horris said as he started walking towards the Su-73D while gesturing with his arms to taxi over to the empty bay. M7 and K11 also helped guide Makarov to the bay before M7 wheeled over a movable staircase to go next to the cockpit.
"I'm surprised it only took Makarov." Zeldri followed after Horris and approached the parked jet. "Tankery had to have three dolls to imprint onto the tank, and Train Team had all its members on the train. How'd you do it?"
"..." Horris hesitated to answer as he and Zeldri reached the stairs. He motioned Zeldri forward.
"...?" Unease returned as Zeldri climbed the stairs to stand next to the cockpit. And, when he reached the top and Makarov opened the cockpit, Zeldri felt his stomach sink.
"Greetings, Commander," Makarov said as she looked over at Zeldri completely unfazed by her current mangled appearance. While her upper body appeared mostly fine, Makarov was missing everything below her stomach. Judging by the state of her synthetic skin, it looked like her lower half was cut and torn off. Instead of legs, Makarov's body sat in the pilot's seat on countless wires that all ran up and into her body. Many of the wires were connected to various ports on the jet while even more were spliced directly into the jet from panels that were ripped off. But, what drew Zeldri's eyes the most were the three doll cores that were wrapped up in the wires which were also connected to Makarov's body. The cores hummed with life despite sitting in her 'lap'.
"...What is...?" Zeldri's voice trailed off as something caught his eye just beyond the jet. Sitting against the wall of the bay were the bodies of MAC-10, Skorpion, and OTs-12. The three bodies were limp and their eyes vacantly stared ahead. Their chests had been hastily ripped open with wires hanging out like strands of flesh around the hole that allowed their cores to be removed.
"We weren't given the time to make it clean," Horris explained as he followed Zeldri's gaze to the discarded doll bodies. "The whole job's rushed. Now that the action's done, though, I plan on cleaning things up; hopefully, get them working legs so they can leave the cockpit."
"..." Zeldri felt his throat dry up and he had to spend a few seconds swallowing spit to get his voice working. "Are you alright, Makarov?"
"Yes, we're fine."
"We...?" Zeldri watched Makarov gently cupping the three exterior doll cores in her hands as she drew them closer to her main body. "...Right."
"Since this body is no longer just 'Makarov', we suggest referring to this unit as 'Rosefinch', Commander, as that was our echelon name," Rosefinch said as she looked back over at Zeldri.
"But, won't that get confusing when we get your other members back in new bodies? Calling both you and your echelon Rosefinch seems..." Zeldri's voice once more trailed off as Rosefinch averted her gaze.
"That's...impossible, Zeldri," Horris spoke up causing Zeldri to turn around. "MAC-10, Skorpion, and OTs-12 are all still 'active' units since they're still processing information while inside Rosefinch."
"...So?"
"So, the server won't allow you to draw from an 'active' t-doll to put into a new body. Both units would try to overwrite the same data on the server as they experience different things which would cause all sorts of errors."
"So, you're telling me to just leave things like thi-!"
"Commander!" Rosefinch called out interrupting Zeldri. Zeldri turned to meet her gaze and saw she looked sad, but contempt. "We knew the consequences when we asked Horris to do this."
"How!?" This day refused to let Zeldri calm down. "No one's ever done something like this! What if it didn't work!? You'd all be gone!"
"And if we didn't then everyone in the Mountain would have been killed!"
"...!" Zeldri bit his tongue as he couldn't refute Rosefinch's words.
"...While the battle at the gate was happening, we were here just waiting for the end. All of us were frustrated that we couldn't help. But, that was only considering the safe options, Commander." Rosefinch looked down at her mangled body and the wires that connected her to the Su-73D. "It was a gamble to give the opening needed to win. To save everyone! And, it worked! So please," she looked up at Zeldri with a determined gaze, "Don't diminish our decision to protect everyone!"
"..." Zeldri stayed silent as he mulled over his thoughts. After a while, he gave a sigh and said, "I didn't mean to discredit you, Maka-...Rosefinch. You were instrumental in securing air superiority that allowed the gunships to help us push the outer lot... Thank you." Zeldri leaned heavily on the opening of the cockpit and bowed his head.
"Jeez, we didn't mean to reprimand you, Commander." Rosefinch gently put their hand on Zeldri's. "We just wanted to remind you that you aren't the only one willing to risk it all so we can all see another day."
"...Right." A tired smile played on Zeldri's face as he looked into Rosefinch's eyes. He gave a heavy sigh.
"Exactly, now get going!" Horris patted Zeldri on the shoulder. "You look like a walking corpse from all the stress I know you're hanging on to. Go get some sleep and let me work on cleaning up Rosefinch, here."
"...Alright. Keep me updated on her status." Zeldri walked down the stairs and bid them goodbye. He would get a report from Scarecrow later as he really wanted to take Horris' advice and sleep. As soon as the elevator door closed and started heading down to level -02 he collapsed against the elevator's control panel and sat down on the floor. He was exhausted; physically, mentally, and emotionally. His leg was killing him, but he ignored it as he rubbed his face with his hands. Betrayed by the KCCO. Survived a Collapse Bomb. Defended the Mountain from a KCCO assault. And, he killed his childhood friend. "...Honestly...I should just-"
"End it all?"
"!" Zeldri's head shot up as AA-12 stood in front of him a few feet away. But, he knew AA-12 was still at the outer lot right now. So, how was she here? And, why did the elevator shaft above him seem impossibly long as if it stretch on forever? The back of his head ached.
"No matter how many times I say it, you still don't listen." AA-12 sounded annoyed as her sucker clacked around in her mouth. "Stop thinking about complicated things, Commander." She took a step towards him. "Stop overthinking things, Commander." She took another step towards him. Zeldri instinctively tried to back up and pressed himself against the console behind him. "Just. Stop. Thinking. Commander." Despite being annoyed, her voice seemed to plead with him to listen to her. "You're tired, right? So, shouldn't we just-"
"Stop listening to annoying quitters?" Suddenly, the black-cloaked woman appeared next to him and put her hands on Zeldri's head to force him to look at her and only her. "I think so too, what about you, Commander? Nothing ever comes from listening to quitters bitch and moan."
"...?" Despite her hair still covering the upper half of her face, Zeldri swore he could feel her gaze bore into him. The back of his head continued to ache.
"You!" Venom filled AA-12's voice as she gritted her teeth. "You can't-!?" She couldn't finish as a fist collided with her face causing her to stumble backward. Zeldri tried to turn his eyes to see what was happening, but the black-cloaked woman moved her hands to act as blinders to stop him.
"No, while they may fight for you, this show isn't for you." A sinister chuckle escaped the black-cloaked woman as she looked over at AA-12 trying to fight off A-545 in melee combat. She smiled when A-545's ice axe dug into AA-12's shoulder and she was slammed to the floor. "You're far too stressed to be of any use, Commander." She returned her attention to Zeldri. "So, let's not dwell on this day and move on, yeah?"
"...!" Zeldri felt his consciousness slipping as the black-cloaked woman brought him into her embrace. The sounds of a doll being torn apart grew distant as his eyelids became heavy.
"I'll give you a little pick-me-up as a reward for all you've done, despite me 'technically' failing Him these past few times," the black-cloaked woman cooed into Zeldri's ear as he completely lost consciousness and fell asleep. "Wake up, Commander, you're screaming again."