Girl's Frontline: Field Agent

by Johnny Wycliffe

Sometimes, life comes at you like an explosion through the storefront. A young man, Hadwin Galanis, finds this out the hard way as his life is turned upside-down by a PMC and Paradeus, forced to pick up a gun and fight in a war fought by machines.

19. Chapter 19: Reflection

Monday, 0852.

I sit in the commander center, alone aside from the table displaying the battle record from last night, and Aleah who is helping me operate the table.

Sitting on the table are three items.

The first is a small scrap of slightly scorched fabric, emblazoned with the words "Operation Icy Hot" and "P90." A blue figure is stitched into the background.

The second is a tactical doll core, slightly yet irreversibly damaged.

The last is a bottle of whiskey. The same kind M16 drinks, ironically. Very slightly drained.

Currently, the table is showing a satellite image of the burning fuel truck, me on the ground, and P90 as her holograms fail. The look of surprise is visible on her face even in this weirdly angled photo from a recon drone G&K had in the area.

My arms are wrapped around my knees, which had been pulled into my chest, boots one edge of my seat. From my right hand, my pistol dangles from my grip in what is probably a very unsafe manner.

Nobody knows where I am. At least, I don't think so. I didn't tell anyone I'm here, but 45 said something about trackers. I've been here for an hour without interruption though and I'm glad for it.

This hour found me in deep thought, aided by copious amounts of alcohol, ruminating over… lots of things.

For a while, it was if I wanted to fire one last bullet from the gun in my hand towards myself.

I ended up passing on that option and instead thought about the event of last night. There's a lot that doesn't add up and I need to get it straight in my head. There's more data coming as soon as Sop and RO finish sifting through the KCCO data they recovered from the camp, but I'm not going to wait on that right now.

First of all, the HOC unit got redirected. I had briefly talked to Gentaine and she had authorized my access all of the mission files from last night, including audio files. Commander Ricardo was in command and I clearly heard him say the correct coordinates, at least on the base recorder. The helo's internal recorder has a different set of coordinates said aloud, the distorted nature of the transmission hiding the edit from the pilot. Upon repeated listening you can hear the edit, but the pilot wouldn't have.

The pilot even repeats back the bad coordinates, but it's once again tampered with. I have to wonder how hard it would be to do that in real time. None of the rest of the audio appears to be tampered with, only that specific detail.

The next item I found odd was how off the intel from Echelon 6 was. I had pulled up the scouting mission report and watched the video feeds through their eyes. As hard as it might be to believe, as far as I can tell, they had reported back to us accurately. There was significantly less automated KCCO units in the area and one less Hydra.

I recall from Mayor Panagos' speech back in sector 4 that T-doll memories are very hard to fake and here we have five different perspectives all showing the exact same thing, from different perspectives, and with all relevant metadata properly in place. So there's either someone super good at editing doll memories out there or the KCCO had a force hidden so our scouts didn't get the whole picture. Which means someone had to have tipped them off.

I'll have to ask UMP 45 if there's just the one transmission to the KCCO or if there's more from earlier.

Next, the KCCO knew about our new base. I mean, sure, they might've just learned it from a drunk G&K mechanic at a bar. However, the record we got of their movements and planned movements seems to say that they're not going to be in this area. The data is suspect, unfortunately, and it's not like we can just go up and ask if they'll verify its accuracy. Supposing the data is accurate, that means they learned of our location through other means.

Next… P90's data was erased. Vance had told me that T-dolls can actually back up themselves in real time, streaming their consciousness to a remote server as long as the server is running, and he showed me the logs showing P90's connection was stable, only cutting out when the Hydra shot her. The file containing the backup remained until around 0400, where it disappeared. All older backups, including specifically cached ones, were simultaneously deleted. It was only P90 as well, NTW's backups were untouched, as were F2000's, FAL's, and Type 92's backups. There's no record of anyone logging in during the time the files were deleted, they just vanished. According to Vance, the files were then deliberately overwritten a few times to thoroughly destroy every trace of P90.

That's the part I really don't get.

Why P90?

As far as I can tell, there's nothing special about her compared with the others. I've gone on more missions with 404 or Anti-Rain than with P90, and if it's just past work, why was NTW left untouched? It's not like she was super important to G&K's efforts. In fact, given a new P90 will be running around tomorrow when the new frame arrives, if they wanted her gone for her abilities then they completely failed. It would have had to be her memories. But, if they're trying to cover up something, how could they be sure to get all of the records when they deleted things? Maybe it could get copied to a dummy?

Actually… Recently, P90 had been having issues with her hologram projector. In hindsight, it's kind of obvious that she wasn't at one hundred percent, her performance at the mansion part and the KCCO camp was clearly worse than it had been during the Sector 3 battle. Was that just a hardware malfunction, or did someone sabotage her?

After I had laid out the core issues as I saw them, I started making some sort of profile. For now, I'll just call the traitor "T". T has to have good to excellent audio and video manipulation skills, knowledge and access to the on-base communications array, and access to the doll backup server. T needs to have been present for at least last night. 45 has proof that they're with Paradeus, so we can probably assume they have that tattoo like the other Paradeus members we've met.

No, I should say 45 told me she has proof. I've seen none of it. And I don't know if I can trust 45. After all…

45 was on base last night.

45 is able to access the doll backups.

45 is able to generate images and audio.

45 is very familiar with radio communications, and from what I've been told, has an entire communications system stuffed into her.

45's tracks would be impossible to track down, since she's the one in charge of investigating the traitor. This is assuming there's actually a search for a traitor and 45 didn't make it up so she could brag to me in some sort of twisted… thing. She did tell me not to tell anyone else, not even Gentiane.

45's recently become very close to me and maybe she got jealous of how much time I spend with P90. That would explain why she was targeted over the other dolls I hardly interact with.

I take a swig of the fiery liquid on the table, hoping this time the burning in my throat will distract me from my train of thought completely.

It does not.

I'm not sure how I feel about 45 myself yet, and I gotta say, suspecting her for my friend's murder isn't helping me grow more affectionate. I take a deep breath and try to focus my thoughts, which is made much harder by the alcohol in my system.

It's not like there's nothing that doesn't make sense about 45's involvement. She told me about the traitor in the first place, and if she hadn't, I would've thought that was over and done with back when we had that meeting outside Sector 3.

That's hardly a good defense against those other points though.

Okay, now let's set aside 45. If it wasn't her, then who? Vance might have most or all of the skills needed to pull this off, but the repair bat has a lot of cameras and Vance was busy preparing the repair bay for our return the entire time we were gone. There's also about twenty witnesses to corroborate his work, which would make it hard for him to put those skills to work, under the circumstances.

Maybe one of the Commanders? They all have access to everything… but as far as I know, nobody has the technical skills. I guess that a commander and a trusted doll might be able to pull it off, but again I don't really know if any of them are close to a doll that could assist in this manner.

I glance at the jack bottle once again. It's still mostly full, but since I'm not a robot, I can't put away entire bottles of the stuff without consequence. In fact, the amount I've already drunk is probably waaaaay too much. I debate having more, but before I can make a decision either way, the door opens behind me. I don't turn around in time to see who it is, the door closing and the room becoming dark again, lit only by the table in the center of the room.

"Go away." I growl.

"No." The owner of the voice steps around and the glow of her eyes and the tone of her voice tells me who it is. RO.

"I'm busy."

"Oh, sure." She reaches over and grabs the bottle of whiskey. "Busy getting drunk?"

"I only had a little bit." I grumble. "I've been thinking about… stuff."

"Stuff."

"Yep."

"Hadwin-"

"I- I can't tell you." I uncross my arms and let my legs spill over onto the floor. "Not yet."

"Why is that?" She crosses her arms and her eyes narrow.

"Made a promise. Intend to keep it." I eye the bottle of whiskey in RO's hands. "Can I have that back?"

"No. You're on duty today and it's disgraceful for a commander to be drunk at this time of day."

"I'm not a commander. I'm a Field Agent." I lean back in my seat and close my eyes. "Might not be that for long either."

"Oh? You told me you were in it for the long haul."

"I did. Meant it too."

Her voice gains an edge. "So, one thing goes wrong and all of a sudden you're gonna quit?"

"No… I don't plan on quitting." I glance down at the gun still dangling from my fingers.

Her eyes go wide, and before I can react, she wrenches the gun from my grasp, ejects the magazine and racks the slide to remove the last round, the bullet hitting the hard concrete floor and rolling somewhere out of sight. "You… No…"

"Nah, I decided not to go through with it earlier." I sigh and start rubbing my face. "I realized if I'm gone, all I've managed to do would be to send P90 to her death."

"You sent nobody to their deaths." RO rebukes me. "Who said you sent her to her death?"

"Nobody, I guess. Just… how I feel."

She stares at me in silence for a few seconds. "I finished sorting through the data from last night."

"Oh?"

"We're having a meeting about it later. You need to be there." She frowns. "So, what are you going to do now?"

"Well, first, I'm probably going back to sleep. Then, I'm gonna go figure out whose fault it is that P90's dead and put a bullet through their brain." My eyes shift to the side. "Maybe attend that meeting later if I haven't managed the second part in time."

RO steps up to me and crouches down to my level, her eyes level with mine. "How about this; You hold off on number two and I'll see who I can gather that's willing to help."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. In the meantime, you get to bed. I'm sure Gentiane will allow you some time to recover."

---

A knock on my door wakes me up. I glance at the clock, it's 1205.

I'm sure I'm not sober yet, but the pounding headache means I'm getting there.

After struggling out of bed, I walk to the door to stop the knocking.

Outside the door, Sop is winding up for the mother of all knocks, but stops when she realizes that I'm up. "Oh. Hey, Haddy."

"Sop." I lean on the doorframe. "What's up?"

"RO told me to get you for this meeting." She peeks around me. "Wow, this is what human dorms look like?"

"I dunno." I turn back and glance around the room. "Probably what most of them look like."

"Sop, what's taking you so long?" 15's voice drifts from around the corner of the hallway and a second later, her irritated face pokes into view. "Are you having a hard time finding- oh."

"Hey 15." I nod in her direction.

"Commander. There's a meeting in ten minutes." 15 thumbs over her shoulder. "Sop was sent to find you fifteen minutes ago."

"And I found him! I've been knocking on his door for five minutes already!"

"Sorry." I apologize to the both of them. "I'm kinda under the weather."

Sop sniffs in my direction. "You smell like M16."

I see 15's eye twitch and wince. "I might have made some bad choices this morning."

"Are you sure you're up for this meeting?" 15 asks cautiously. "If you're not feeling well, we can just forward you a transcript later."

"No…" I push myself off of the door frame and stretch my arms. "Do I have time to wash my face?"

"If you hurry." 15 supplies.

I head to the bathroom and scrub my face with cold water. Then I realize that I should probably brush my teeth if Sop could smell the whiskey on my breath. The mirror shows a version of me that looks worse than I did after the battle of Sector 3. Or after the mansion job. The clothes are clean, if wrinkled, but I look haggard.

Nothing I can do about it now.

I walk out of the room with my Linker around my neck, but forgo my usual tac vest. 15 and Sop fall in step with me, one to a side. They start scanning about warily as we step outside. I notice their vigilance, but I don't have the energy to ask them about it.

With the way they keep glancing about, I end up mimicking them, if only to see what they're looking at, and realize a few things. Most of the humans seem to be giving me looks somewhere between pity and bemusement. By contrast, the other dolls we pass keep away from us, and I feel like most of them are staring at me.

I can only stand so much of that before I break my silence and turn to 15. "Hey. What happened while I was asleep?"

"...Don't worry about it." She shakes her head.

I contemplate her for a second before turning to Sop. "Sop?"

"Well… there's a rumor going around on Griffchan that P90 was deleted because she got too close to you." Sop admits slowly, before holding her hands up defensively. "I don't think that! Most of the dolls don't, but enough are saying it that everyone's wary."

"It'll die down soon enough." 15 assures me. "Rumors like this happen any time something goes wrong."

I try not to let it show on my face, but I realize those rumors might be right. After all, it's the only reason I could think of, aside from her having some secret knowledge that someone decided to kill her for.

"That explains the stares from the dolls, but not why all of the human staff are giving me that look."

Sop shrugs. "Who cares?"

15 glares at her teammate, but answers my question. "From what I overheard, most of them think you were dating her. You have to remember, most humans tend to treat us as tools, and you wouldn't be so despondent over losing a wrench, so your reaction is… odd."

"Ah." I find myself staring at the ground in front of me, suddenly unable to make eye contact with anyone. There was the kissing incident at the mansion… and P90 was telling everyone she was my fiance… I guess if the dolls talked about it enough, the humans would pick up on it.

"Don't worry Haddy! All you have to do is prove you're stronger than all of them and they'll have no choice but to respect you!" Sop clenches her fist.

Despite 15 sighing beside me and despite myself, a small flicker of a smile crosses my face. "Yeah? How do you supposed I do that?"

"Duh." She beams at me. "Don't give up, save everyone next time and find whoever did this to P90 and kick their ass!"

I blink. "Huh. I could've sworn you were gonna ask me to fight each of them in hand-to-hand combat."

"Eh… That was my first idea, but I don't think you'd win if you tried that, and that'd… um…"

She likely trails off due to the fact that I had burst out laughing. It hurts, my headache not enjoying my own loudness, but I can't help it.

"What did I say?" Sop asks 15.

I answer before 15 can. "Thank you, Sop." I pat her shoulder. "Please never stop being such an honest girl."

"Uh… okay, but RO keeps telling me-"

The door in front of us opens up to reveal RO. "There you are. Meeting's about to start." She frowns at Sop. "And I always tell you what?"

"Not to blurt out everything I'm thinking?" Sop replies in a searching manner.

RO eyes me for a second before dropping it. "Well, we can let that go for now. Let's get this meeting started."

The meeting is being held around the same table I had been working at earlier. Surrounding the table and leaning on the wall are a lot of familiar faces. Along with the three Anti-Rain dolls escorting me, there's M4, all of 404, AK-12 and AN-94, and what's left of Echelon 11, S.A.T., Tokarev, and SV-98. Commanders Gentiane, Ricardo, Kylie, and Mikhail are all present with a doll beside them each. I recognize G36 next to Gentiane, but the rest of them are a mystery to me. Lastly, Angelia is sitting in the corner with her two charges.

I sit down at the last remaining seat between M4 and Commander Kylie, and the three dolls that had arrived with me stand behind M4 and me.

"Not dead?" Commander Gentiane glances up at me. RO bristles, but Gentiane plows on. "Good. Now, just to make sure everyone's up to speed, RO and Sop here managed to scrape some information off of the KCCO network last night. That, in combination with some other… incidents are why we're here today." She glances at G36 and some files shift around on the screen. "Now, I want to impress upon everyone here that what I'm about to say can't leave this room. Don't talk about it on level 2. Don't talk about it in your dreams." Her gaze sweeps the room, making eye contact with everyone. "Got it?"

I nod, even though she's not looking at me.

She takes a deep breath. "If you recall, we had a traitor working for Paradeus that we removed about a week ago. Given the events of last night, it's safe to say they were not the only traitor in our ranks."

Several of the other Commanders shift uneasily, but the dolls remain stoic. Aside from Sop, whose claw digs into the back of my chair where she had been gripping it.

"At 1944 last night, Echelon 6 came in contact with what appeared to be a small group of the KCCO defectors. Seeing as we recently obtained information that indicated that they weren't supposed to be anywhere near here, we decided to go out and try to route them." Commander Gentiane pauses. "We failed."

I bite my lip and look away.

"In large part, our loss was due to bad intelligence. Somehow, Echelon 6 managed to miss approximately 60% of the enemy forces, and the teams sent into clean up were outmatched. Furthermore, the support we sent out was sent to the wrong location, resulting in a delay that ultimately resulted in the loss of a doll."

I start to taste copper and realize just how hard I had bitten my lip.

"Now, we could write these off as unfortunate battlefield accidents and miscommunications. Worse things have happened and I'm sure that larger mistakes will happen again. I would even agree to write this off if I didn't already have some… troubling information."

She gestures to UMP 45, who lazily gets to her feet and taps the table, the image changing immediately. G36 blinks, looks from the table to 45 and back, her face irritated.

"There are several key items." UMP 45 starts walking her fingers along the table. "First of all, there's the fact that during the operation yesterday, a plaintext message was sent to the KCCO in a tight band. The message reads, in Russian, 'G&K is planning an assault. Get ready.' I recovered this from the send log on the main server."

Hmm? Didn't 45 say she couldn't track down the contents of the message?

She plows on before I can interrupt. "We also found that the audio between the pilot of the Helo that went off course and HQ were spliced together." Her fingers finish walking around the table in front of her and she taps on an audio file icon on the screen and the room fills with the crackly sounds of radio traffic.

"-in the air, proceed to drop off point Delta." Commander Ricardo's voice is clearer, so this must be the on-base recording.

"Roger, once in the air, proceed to drop off point Delta." Since I'm listening for it, I think I hear a hitch right before 'Delta'.

"Excellent. Echelon 6, once Skyhawk del-" The audio cuts out.

45's standard evil grin is in full force. "Now, maybe that was just an audio glitch, right? But then, we also have the black box on the helo. I pulled the audio off of that, and…" She activates another file.

"-in the air, proceed to drop of point Epsilon." This time, there's a hitch right before the word Epsilon.

"Roger, once in the air, proceed to drop off point Epsilon."

"Excellent. Echelon 6, once Skyhawk del-"

"As you can hear," UMP 45 cuts the audio once more. "It's clearly been tampered with." She brings up a map of the area, and highlights a few spots. "Here's the battlefield, here's landing zone Delta, and here's Epsilon."

I glance around, finding a legend, then mentally compare the distance. It appears that the two landing zones are about… 30 kilometers apart. With our base in the center. "Uh, isn't Epsilon in the completely wrong direction?"

"Yes. Yes it is." 45 happily traces the route the helo took, first straight away from us then back to base, and finally towards Delta. All the while, a clock next to the path shows exactly when this was happening. "Now, this is concerning. Someone managed to edit both the helo's flight data and the base's recordings in real time, somehow managing to edit both at once. Both sides heard what they expected to hear and nobody noticed until the Helo was hovering over the completely wrong spot."

She taps the screen a few more times. "Lastly, there's the matter that Echelon 6 somehow missed half of the KCCO, including a Hydra. I've reviewed their combat data and verified that their report was accurate."

Some video footage like what I had been reviewing with RO yesterday in this same room pops up on the screen, showing a bunch of dolls I'm not familiar with creeping through a forest and scouting out the camp. Hell, they showed up at the same spot I did.

"As you can see, the number of KCCO forces the dolls are seeing is about what we reported. This is because everything else is further inside the camp, including the Hydra which is behind the large tent here presumably."

Commander Kylie raises a hand. "Alright, but the dolls didn't just have a few seconds to gather data. Clearly, they should have been sent in to establish better numbers."

"And they would have, if they hadn't been ordered not to." 45's grin widens.

"..."

Silence fills the room.

"So." Commander Ricardo uncrosses his arms and leans on the table, staring at the still looping video from Echelon 6. "We have a traitor working for the KCCO?"

"That would be a logical assumption, assuming that was the only thing that has happened so far." Commander Gentaine proceeds to shake her head. "But, that's not the case. Some of you will recall that we managed to capture one of the Paradeus workers after their assault on our base in Greece-" 416 stands up straighter all of a sudden. "-but after we arrived here, he was killed. Additionally, all of the data related to Paradeus that we gathered, including the data on the Paradeus units we broke down and the data we recovered from their computers was wiped on the same date."

Commander Mikhail's eyes narrow. "If it was a KCCO spy, then they would want the information on Paradeus as much as we would. No need to kill them. Alternatively, a Paradeus spy might see us enough of a thorn in their side to lead the KCCO to us."

"Actually, that's a good point." Commander Ricardo tilts his head. "Why did the KCCO follow us? We know that they weren't planning on being anywhere near this area."

Commander Gentaine sighs. "That part is easy to explain as an unfortunate, but unrelated instance."

I blink. What does that-

RO clears her throat. "As we retreated from the battlefield, I was able to download some data off of the KCCO networks. They knew where our base was because they found a truck with the coordinates to our base plugged into it."

"...How?" Commander Kylie asks incredulously. "We've been really careful not to leak the coordinates of this base and you're telling me they just so happen to stumble on a datapad?!"

"Are you sure this isn't the work of that Traitor?" Mikhails asks cautiously. "They could have left it for the KCCO to find."

RO turns away from the table to look at… the UMP sisters? "Well…"

My gut falls as the twins put hands on weapons and in response pretty much everyone in the room braces.

RO, however, continues undaunted. "We provided 404 with a datapad to allow them to signal for a helo once they found Hadwin a week ago. We lost signal to the datapad about the time the Field Agent was retrieved from the farm. At least, for about a day, then it came back online briefly before we sent a purge command. It matches the description of what the KCCO's records say happened to the device."

UMP 9 goes pale. Not sure how that works on a T-doll but- "You mean, that datapad I left in the broken buggy…"

RO nods.

"Well." Commander Gentaine claps her hands once to draw everyone's attention back to her. "There's one more suspicious item that needs to be addressed."

UMP 45 pulls up a picture of P90. "This doll was destroyed on the battlefield, and then sometime before she could be restored, her backups going back past half a year have been wiped. Everything older is held on a different server that is hard to access." She shrugs.

Commander Kylie sits back in her chair. "It could have been a random corruption."

"Perhaps." UMP 45 brings up something I'm not able to identify, though I can make out a bunch of repeated text. "If whoever did this hadn't completely written over the databank P90 was stored in. They replaced everything with the simple phrase 'The shining beacon in a brave new world'."

Grim faces meet this announcement. Still…

"Do we have any leads?" Commander Ricardo asks. "I don't like the idea of letting someone from Paradeus running around that we don't know about."

Commander Gentaine barks out a laugh. "You mean, like Paradeus in general?"

Despite himself, Ricardo smirks slightly. "Yes, like Paradeus in general."

"Anyway." Commander Gentiane's voice returns to her standard weary drone. "This meeting was just to bring you up to speed. If you notice anything, bring it to me in private. If it's data, save it to removable media if you can. The more we can gather on this traitor, the faster they're not interfering with our operations." She looks around the table once more. "Again, not a word outside of this room, understand?"

A chorus of "Yes ma'am!" resounds in the small room, and everyone starts to file out.

I get up to leave only to have Commander Gentiane approach me. "Hadwin?"

"Yeah?"

"I know this is difficult for you, but you have to push forward with us, okay? We'll figure out who is responsible and make sure they can't do this to anyone else."

I nod slowly. "Yeah, I know." Unwittingly, my eyes flit to the dolls in the room, all of them looking in my direction. "I'll be here."

"Good." She places a hand on my shoulder. "As I've yet to actually assign you to any 'non-combat' duties, you have today off. I'll refrain from assigning anything to you until tomorrow. After that-" Her eyes grow cold. "We're going to hunt down this traitor."

In that moment, I'm supremely glad she's on my side.

---

"Hey Commander, got a sec?"

I glance up from my seat on a random supply crate to see AEK-999. She's got her cocky grin plastered over her face as she sits down on a nearby crate.

"I guess." I look back at the runway, watching a helo being prepped for takeoff. "What do you need?"

"Weeelllll…" She shrugs. "I just saw you out here and figured I'd see what's up."

I hesitate a bit before answering. "Well, everyone's keeping their distance from me for the moment, and I didn't want to sit in my room and sulk."

"So you're sulking out here?"

I nod. "I asked and the pilots are okay with me watching them do these practice flights. It's kinda soothing to watch them go through their paces."

"Really?" She glances at the helicopter, which is just starting to start up it's blades. "How is watching those ungainly things floating about soothing?"

"Ungainly?" I blink.

"Yeah." She crosses her arms. "I mean, some pilots can make 'em dance, but it's frowned on doing that. Too risky now that we don't have a support structure."

"Oh." I look back out at the helo that's hovering about three meters off of the ground. "I dunno, it's something to take my mind off of… the past few days."

"I getcha. Lots of stuff happened, like you kissed somebody, lost your hand, one of your marriage candidates-"

I glare at her, but she doesn't seem to care.

"-and now everyone's avoiding you." She purses her lips. "Actually, I have an idea."

"Uh-oh."

She grins at my response. "I have a fun idea. Don't worry, it's nothing you're not going to like. Meet me in front of the dorms in ten minutes, and make sure to bring your Linker and gun." She turns and jogs away before I can get a word in edgewise.

"...I'm really not in the mood…" I mutter. Then again, all I'm doing right now is watching helicopters take off, circle around and land. I'll figure out what AEK wants, and from there, I'll decide if I would rather just sit in my room.

Nevertheless, I grab my pistol, making sure I have at least two magazines full of ammunition. I forgo the tac vest once again, instead opting to tuck the gun into a pocket. The Linker was already around my neck from the meeting earlier, so I have that covered. Though…

I glance at the back of the Linker. There, Aleah's core rests, presumably dormant until I turn the Linker on. I waffle about for a few seconds before pulling the device up onto my head and turning it on.

"Commander?" Aleah asks.

"Hey. I was wondering a few things, and I figured I'd ask you."

"Go ahead."

"Alright… Is there a way to connect you up to the network without having you inside the Linker?"

"There is. I merely need a standard charging dock connected to the network to have access. What do you need me to do?"

"Need? Nah, I just figured… well, you're unconscious when I'm not using the Linker, right?"

"That is roughly correct. I am reduced to level 3 to conserve power when the device is off."

"Right. I don't think it's right to keep you locked in there while I tote this Linker around, so I wanted to allow you to use the G&K network in your off time."

"I see. That is unnecessary."

I frown. "No, it isn't 'unnecessary'. You should get down time like anyone else."

"As an AI, I require neither sleep nor food. I am being adequately supplied with electricity, and thus my needs are met."

I blow air out of my lips slowly. "Okay… so, if I decide to take your core out so I can use the Linker without you, do you want me to put your core on my desk, or get an anti-static bag, or…?"

I can't really see her, but since we're basically connected at the brain through the Linker, I get the distinct impression she's frowning. "If you absolutely must remove me, I suppose being able to access the network would be appreciable." She pauses. "Are you unsatisfied with my performance?"

"What? No!" I panic. "You're a lifesaver! I just don't want to completely dominate your life."

"I see." After a few more seconds of uncomfortable silence, she continues. "If you decide my presence is unnecessary for a stretch of time, please provide me with a charge point and access to the network." This time, she's a lot more confident about it.

"Got it." A sardonic smile creeps across my face. "If I had thought of this before, I might've been able to get you something before now. AEK's planning on doing something and I'm not sure what it is yet, so you might be out for a few hours."

"It's of no consequence. I will remain in your Linker until you need me."

"Thanks."

She doesn't respond, and after a few seconds, I power off the device and once pull it down over my head and onto my shoulders like the world's ugliest necklace. Aleah's really nice to have around, but I think she'd be happier if she could do her own thing. Probably. Most of the dolls I've met enjoy doing things outside of their jobs…

In any case, I get up from my bed. I contemplate my radio for a moment before grabbing it before opening my door, only to find two figures exiting the room across the hall. I briefly salute to Commander Mikhail and the doll that's been by his side since the meeting earlier as I turn to go, but he grabs my attention.

"Ah, Field Agent. May I have a moment of your time?"

I halt and turn back. "I'm meeting someone in a few minutes, but I can talk for a little bit."

"This won't take long." He smiles at me. "Commander Gentiane told me that you and UMP 45 made up. I would like to propose some stealth courses for your benefit and perhaps we could bring 404 in to assist with those classes. I have a few dolls I know that would like to meet you and I know you'll be needing stealth training sometime."

"...Right now?"

"No, I suppose I'd have to pick out a few times and make sure everyone involved is free." He claps a hand on my shoulder. "While I may not feel the same way, I admire your commitment to protecting the dolls and I wish you the best."

I glance at the doll by his side, who gives me a slight nod. "Right. I think it's a good idea, I just have to make sure I'm free to do it."

"Sounds good. I'll tell Gentiane so she doesn't block up your schedule."

I nod and turn to the doll. "By the way, I never got your name."

"Welrod, at your service." She states. "Pleasure to meet you."

"Same here. Thanks, Commander Mikhail, I'll definitely take you up on that."

"Just Mikhail is fine." His eyes crinkle with his smile. "In any case, good luck with your meeting."

"Yeah…" I hesitate and Mikhail gives me a curious look. "Just in case, if anyone's looking for me, tell them I'm with AEK. She hasn't told me what she wants yet, so I don't know how accessible I'll be."

He acknowledges my words and the two turn away towards whatever their respective destinations are.

Man, I really don't want to do whatever it is that AEK's planning. She's so… energetic. I don't really feel up to it right now.

When I get to the doll's dorms, AEK and her bandmate Calico are talking outside. When Calico notices me approaching, she gestures in my direction and AEK turns around. "There you are!"

"Here I am." I turn to Calico. "Hello."

"Good afternoon, Commander." She returns. "AEK, remember we're on cleanup duty at 1800. If you skip-"

"Yeah, yeah. We'll be back." She turns back to me. "Ready?"

"Nope." I state. "I'm not even sure I'm going, since I don't know what you're asking of me."

"Hey, you owe me for that contest, yeah? I'm calling that in."

...Ah. I sigh and gesture for her to lead the way.

She grins and starts walking to the garage area. "So, have you ever ridden a motorcycle?"

I think back to a week ago, with Beak. And technically back to that gas station outside Sector 3. "Yeah."

"Wait, really?" She notices the look on my face. "Uh… didn't enjoy it?"

"Eh, I was busy worrying about getting killed. It was when Sangvis had captured me." I frown. "I take it you have a motorcycle?"

"Yeah… I wasn't expecting you to have ridden before." She scratches her head. "Ah well, I'll just have to show you how fun it can be."

"...Where are we going?"

"We're pretty close to this dead city and I went riding there yesterday. It's a nice ride and I figured it'd help you to take your mind off of things."

"Huh." I scratch my chin. "You sure you want to burn your favor on this?"

She shrugs. "Hey, I get to hang out with the weirdest thing to happen since Sangvis started going berserk. It's no party, but I'll probably enjoy this more than any stuffy party where you have to hold out your pinky when drinking from teacups."

I open my mouth to correct her, but shut myself up. No point in fixing her misunderstanding.

She opens a door and gestures for me to walk into the building. I've seen the garage from the outside before, but this is my first time being inside. There's a bunch of the buggies I had driven a few times, some heavier vehicles like cargo trucks, a few humvees, and some normal cars that honestly look out of place.

In the corner of the bay, there's a few motorbikes sitting, waiting to be ridden. As soon as they're in view, I turn to AEK. "I take it the black and green one is yours?"

She grins. "Yep. My very own Kanshou Samurai. How'd you guess?"

"Same colors." I gesture to her.

"Fair." She pulls out some keys. "There's some helmets in that locker over there. Grab yourself one and we'll get going."

---

Two hours later, I'm laying in the afternoon sun, flat on my back. All I can see is the blue sky, a few wispy clouds in the distance, and the sun to the west.

AEK appears over me. "You okay?"

"I'm surprised I survived that." I say dryly.

"Hey! I'm a good rider, I'm just also fast." She plops down beside me and hands me a water bottle. She has her own in her other hand. "Want a drink?"

I take it prop myself up and open it, sipping the contents. "Thanks. And I don't really think I minded the speed as much as the jumps."

"If you see a ramp, it's a crime not to take it." She asserts.

"I wonder if you and Beak would get along?" I muse aloud.

"Beak?"

"One of the Sangvis units. She's got a bike as well. Had." I correct myself. "It was destroyed when she attacked a Paradeus camp."

"Huh. I'll have to track her down at some point, maybe race her."

"She has guns on her bike." Amusement creeps into my voice. "You might need to do some of your own modifications so you don't get blown up."

"Sounds like fun to me." She lies down and stretches. "Man, it's so nice to get off base."

"You don't leave base often?"

"I do, but less often nowadays. Too much work to be done, and I can't get out of all of it. If I try to skip too much, K2 gets mad." She puts on a voice. "'AEK, don't rip those wires out. AEK, don't ride your motorbike indoors. AEK, don't shoot your gun at random buildings.' Friggin annoying, sometimes."

I snort. For a while, I'm content to let the conversation drop and just listen to the sounds of nature. I mean, technically we're in the middle of an abandoned city, but it's so overgrown that there's green growth up here where the two of us lay on the top of the parking deck.

"Hey Hadwin." AEK's voice floats over eventually.

"Yeah?"

"I'm just curious, have you gone on Griffchan?"

"Once, but I got attacked and I'm not really able to defend myself on level 2 yet." I shrug. "Why?"

"Leaving aside the last 24 hours, you've been a hot topic on there." She takes a drink from her bottle. "You still are, but it's been… eh, let's not go over that. See, the way you seem to genuinely care about us really gets a bunch of dolls fired up."

"Well…" I hesitate. "I find it hard to treat you like tools."

"Oh, I know that. I'm just trying to put some stuff in perspective for you. In any case, the way you constantly head out there into battle with us resonates with a lot of us."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. I mean, I think I'd like to have you as a friend, you know. Some of the other girls wanna try dating you and some of them have vowed to protect you."

"What? 'Vowed to protect me'?"

"Yep." She raises her hands towards the sky so we can both see her hands and starts ticking items on her fingers. "Sop was the first, followed closely by S.A.T. and P90. I think NTW's also on that list too."

"...Huh."

She drops her arm. "There's a bunch of dolls that you probably haven't met that are also pledging to protect you just based on what they've read and seen of you on Griffchan. It's crazy."

"I agree."

"Now, 404's not supposed to be on the boards, but as I suspect you know, it's impossible to keep them out. Even they speak your praises, and from what I can tell, they generally don't like anyone."

"Okay." I'm starting to get really uncomfortable. "Why are you telling me this?"

"Well… I won't claim to know P90, but I know that you took her loss hard. I don't know if you were dating or not and it's not really my business. I know most of the dolls that were skeptical of you and your attitude towards us are coming around after they saw how hard you took losing her. Now everyone wants to meet you. Everyone I saw agrees that you're actually on our side and not just putting up a front.."

"Th…" My voice hitches in my throat. "That's crazy."

She sits up and looks down at me with a grin on her face. "If you are faking it, you've managed to convince a lot of us."

"Nah… I…" I trail off, but she elects to wait for me to finish my thoughts. "I'm a pretty bad liar. I don't think I could pretend to be a nice person and not be." I look away and bite my lip. "I just wish I could do better."

"Yeah, but I think you need to look at it from our perspective."

I turn to look back at her as she speaks.

"What we see is a human who volunteers to be on the front line, who's done his best to get us home even under crazy circumstances like last night. If you hadn't been there, the mission might have been a complete failure, at least according to RO and M4. As it is, you managed to force a retreat and only lost five doll frames and ten dummies."

"It's not 'only'." I glare at her.

"Not to you, but like I said, from our perspective you managed to limit casualties. With all the rumors floating around Griffchan, I don't know what to believe about what happened to P90's backup, but if it hadn't been for that freak occurrence, everyone would be okay. Compared with even some simple missions I've been part of, it seems like a wild success."

"..."

"You don't have to agree," She shrugs. "but the general consensus is that we don't want to lose you as a Field Agent. Most of us are behind you one hundred percent."

"I see."

"Good." She leaps to her feet suddenly, then sucks down all the water in her bottle and crumples it down. "So, no doing anything dumb while none of us are watching. If you insist on doing something stupid…" She reaches a hand down to help me to my feet. "Hit me up. I'm always game for doing something stupid."

I contemplate the hand for a second before grabbing it, AEK hauling me to my feet. "Thanks, AEK."

"No problem." She hooks her thumb over her shoulder. "So, ready to get back on the road?"

"...On second thought, I might wanna rest more."

---

The ride back, if possible, was more harrowing than the ride there. AEK takes immense joy in seeing just how much airtime she can manage on her bike, while I'd much rather have both wheels on the ground at all times.

Though, when I wasn't fearing for my life, I had to admit that the ride provided a very nice moment of peace. The wind snatches away all attempts at conversation, the sun was setting towards the end… I might've fallen asleep if the ride had been much longer.

We get back at around 1750, meaning AEK has roughly ten minutes to get ready for duty. Before she left, I stopped her one last time.

"By the way, why did you have me bring my Linker and my gun?"

"Ah." She hesitates. "Well, sometimes there's bandits in places like that. Being armed is prudent."

"...If I had know it wasn't safe out there-"

"It's not safe anywhere." She dismisses my concern with a wave. "And in any case, you'd have protected me. It's what you're good at."

She says it with such conviction, I almost believe it myself.

"And the Linker?"

"Eh, I was gonna have you look at Griffchan for yourself if you didn't believe me, but you took me at my word." She raises her hand in a sloppy salute. "Nice talk, Commander."

"Thank you again, AEK."

"Anytime." And with that, she's gone.

I put away the helmet I borrowed and walk out of the garage. It's getting to dinner time… Hey look, there's 416 and G11.

"Hey!" I call out to them and they both look in my direction before walking over.

"Welcome back, Commander." 416 stops about two paces away. "Did you have any trouble while you were out?"

I shake my head. "No issues. I'm about to get dinner, do you two want to come along?"

"Ja." 416 answers without delay.

"Sure!" G11 says excitedly.

"Okay, then let's go."

I make a beeline for Springfield's Cafe and briefly wonder if there's any other place aside from the cafe and the cafeteria on base. Probably not, but it'd be nice to have a little variety. Then again, I never go to the main cafeteria anyway, so if I go, it'll be like a whole new place anyway.

I open the door and a bunch of dolls look up when I walk in. A few of them wave or nod, though two of them focus on my face and don't look away. I walk over to the table in the darkest corner of the cafe. "Hey 9, UMP 45."

"Guten Abend." UMP 45 replies. "Here for dinner?"

"Yep."

"Why don't you join us?" 9 asks. "I see you have the other half of our team here with you anyway."

I glance back at 416, but G11's already pushed past me and sat in the booth to the side of 9. She pats the space next to her and looks at me.

Well…

I slide in beside G11 and 416 takes the seat across from me. I glance at UMP 45, whose eye just narrows slightly. As long as she's not going to raise any objections…

Springfield drops by to take our orders before heading back behind the counter.

"...How does she run this entire cafe by herself?" I wonder aloud.

"She has several dummies in the back." 9 replies.

"I thought dummies were, I dunno, temporary?"

"Well." UMP 45 points at the cheery waitress. "The standard dummies are weak. But, if you have a lot of spare money you can dump somewhere, you can buy several of the same model of dolls. Then the dummies have all of the upsides of the temporary links, along with looking exactly like the original."

"Really." I glance at Springfield, who notices my look and points to herself questioningly. I give her a thumbs up and turn back to my table. "Sounds useful."

9 shakes her head. "Nein, it's a pain. You need more electricity, you need more space on planes and trains, and more maintenance. If you try to cross different models of dolls for dummies, it causes more problems than it solves. Springfield gets away with having dolls instead of dummies since she runs the doll cafe by herself."

"Hmm." I lean back in my seat and close my eyes.

G11 snuggles into my shoulder and promptly falls asleep.

416 clears her throat. "Commander Mikhail informed me that he requested our presence in some stealth based training."

"Oh?" I grunt.

"Ja. We will be assisting with your training. He asked me to inform you that Commander Gentaine has also approved you to work at stealth training tomorrow, starting at 0800."

"I see."

9 speaks up. "I think that Mikhail's actually trying to gather a bunch of other dolls together as well. G&K really needs more stealthy dolls."

"Uh-huh."

Next, 45's voice floats over the table. "Hadwin, do you mind if I take all of your money and buy you a few dresses?"

"Sure."

"He's not paying attention."

"Nope."

I open my eyes and glance at the dolls around me. "Huh?"

"Are you okay, Hadwin?" 416 asks. She catches me off guard, using my name instead of her usual 'commander' title.

"I… Yeah, I'm okay." I scratch my new wrist joint absentmindedly. "Mostly."

"Just remember, if you need help, you need only ask."

I nod once more, and before I can close my eyes and try to get some rest, the food arrives. Nothing fancy, just a sandwich, but I'm kinda hungry since I skipped lunch.

Yet, as I put the food in my mouth and chew, despite the taste, I feel myself losing my appetite. I know I'm not magically full after two bites so I continue eating, but I feel more like I'm forcing myself to eat.

"So, what do you suppose we're doing next? After this stealth training exercise, I mean." 9 asks. "We're not exactly being hired by G&K at the moment."

"...I suppose we can head into Kruševac and see what jobs we can pick up there." UMP 45 muses.

"Ehhhh." G11 moans. "But it's so much nicer hanging around this base." She buries her face into my shoulder again.

"I mean, I don't disagree." 9 replies hesitantly. "But you know we need the money."

"We could see if G&K will bring us on as employees." UMP 45 replies.

"Ha." 416's short laugh is laced with venom. "They threw me out already, I have no desire to return."

G11 looks up from my shoulder again. "But this is the first time I've been able to sleep safely in years!"

"45-nee, are you sure that Kruševac will have work for us?" 9 asks carefully. "From what G&K intelligence told us, it's not really doing so well."

"Well…" UMP 45 looks in my way, but I don't notice until the rest of the dolls at the table also focus their attention to me.

I look up and glance around. "Uh…"

G11 tugs on my sleeve to get my attention. "45 wants you to hire us so we can stay."

I blink at the smaller doll. "I don't think I can afford your prices."

"We give a friends and family discount." UMP 45 says casually.

"Oh?" A small smile manages to form on my face. "Are we friends now?"

"Nope." 45's grin grows. "You're family now."

G11 hugs my arm tighter and 416 nods solemnly.

9 sighs and shakes her head. "And here I thought we'd be kicking him to the curb as soon as we could only three days ago."

"You still have the opportunity." I point out.

"What, and ruin the fun?" Her lips form into a smug grin. "Besides, if you're family, I can demand family time."

"What?"

416 glares at 9, who sticks out her tongue. When 45's grin just gets wider, I decide I don't really want to know. Instead, I go back to my half-eaten sandwich, though I only make it halfway to my face before I lose all appetite once more.

"It doesn't taste good?" G11 asks, apparently seeing my hesitation.

"It tastes fine." I reply. "I'm just not really hungry right now."

"Hmm." She twirls her own mostly untouched pasta on the end of her fork and offers the ball of noodles to me. "Is this better?"

I glance at the food she's offering. I almost reject it out of habit, but I realize that she's probably just worried about me. I once more remind myself that unlike human twelve-year-olds, T-doll mouths are likely to be clean and eat the bite off of her fork.

416 seems vexed by this, her own utensils poking at her empty plate. "Commander."

"Yeah, 416?"

She pauses, like she's debating on what to say. "Have you been keeping up with your shooting practice?"

I shake my head. "Practice? It's all been real-world sink or swim situations."

"We'll have to change that." She asserts. "After tomorrow's stealth workshop concludes, we should head to the firing range." She glares at her teammates. "Alone."

9 whistles, but I ignore her. "Sure, 416. I need more practice."

9 clasps her hands together. "Just a man and a woman, firing guns. Hot, steamy guns, glowing bright red from the heat. The scent of lubricant fills the air, each and every shot ripples through your bodies like a dose of adrenaline... sooooo romantic."

"That's romantic?" I ask, only to be met with three nods.

I'm still processing that as Springfield steps back up to the table. "Commander, was the food not to your taste?"

"Oh. It was good, but I suddenly realized I wasn't very hungry." I tell her. "Do you have something so I can bring this back to my dorm?"

"I'll grab you a box." She smiles kindly before turning on her heel back to the kitchen.

"Well, we have some work to do before tomorrow." UMP 45 stands up. "Let's go."

"We do?" G11 looks up. "But I want to go to sleep!"

"You always want to sleep." 416 turns to UMP 45. "What are you talking about?"

"We'll discuss it later." She turns to me. "Hadwin, get some rest. Tomorrow's going to be a long day for you."

"...Great."

After prying a reluctant G11 off of my arm and sending them away, Springfield comes back to my table. She presents me with a box… and the bill.

Right. 45 probably left in a rush to avoid paying. I open my wallet and realize I have a problem. "Er, Springfield?"

"Yes, Commander?"

"I might need to help you wash some dishes to pay this off."

---

Thankfully, Springfield let me off with an IOU, but I realized that while Gentaine insisted that I was getting paid, I really don't have any access to those funds. I need to talk with someone about my account. No sense in leaving my tab delinquent when I have the money to cover it.

I'll bring it up with someone tomorrow. For now-

Behind me, a flash of reddish-pink sends my shadow stretching across the ground in front of me.

I stop and turn to find AK-12 and AN-94.

"Dobryy vecher, Commander." AN-94 greets me.

"Good evening." I reply. "Haven't seen you two in… a few hours."

"I hear you're participating in a stealth workshop of sorts tomorrow." AK-12 steps right up to me, once again showing that she's just a bit taller than me. "I think we should participate."

"...Okay?" I reply.

"We'll need permission from Ange to be allowed to join." AN-94 clarifies.

"Yes. So, go ask her." AK-12 grabs my shoulders and points me in a direction, presumably the one Angelia is in.

"Actually, I'm in the middle of something." I protest, and to my surprise, AK-12 stops pushing me. "I'll ask her tomorrow if you two still want to participate."

"That works." AN-94 nods.

"Well, I suppose even if she says no, we can still show up." AK-12 muses.

"Please don't." I mutter.

"It's kind of late to say that, Commander." AN-94 hikes her rifle up higher on her shoulder. "What are you busy with?"

"Ah, I just need to grab something from a storehouse." I shrug. "And it's not that late, it's only 1900."

"I see." AK-12 shifts her own weapon into a more comfortable position. "Lead on."

...I realize, perhaps a little bit late, that they're intending to follow me. I internally debate whether to just head back to my dorm and try to lock them out, but… "Alright then, let's go."

They fall in step on either side of me, and after only a few seconds of silence, AK-12 turns to me. "Hadwin, What are you getting from the storehouse?"

I briefly consider if I should tell her, but decide it should be any trouble. "A doll core charger."

"...Why would you need such a thing?" AN-94 asks. "As far as I'm aware, doll cores are not handed out to G&K commanders."

"I'm not a commander." I sigh. "I'm a field agent."

"Which just raises more questions." AK-12 runs her chin. "Whose core did you steal? Was it for revenge or lust? Do you have a slavery kink and this was the only way to satisfy your urges? Have you finally lost all reason and now want an IOP core as your waifu?"

I stare at AK-12. "I… what? Why-fu?"

"Answer the questions, Hadwin." AN-94 pokes me in the back.

I glance back and forth between them for a few seconds. "What?"

AN-94 starts chuckling quietly behind me, a sound that sounds alien to hear from her, and AK-12's ever present smile grows wider. "Well, I guess we'll have to hear the explanation."

"...I have an IOP doll recruited from outside the organization assisting with my Level 2 access and operation of the exo suit. I wanted to let her access the network when not connected to my Linker."

"Well that's boring." AK-12 looks away.

"Everything I do is boring." I state.

"You blew up a mansion." AN-94 gives me a curious look. "That wasn't boring."

"Correction: Everything I do on purpose is boring."

"Oh? You managed to blow up a mansion on accident?" AK-12 raises an eyebrow. "Impressive."

"No! I mean, I didn't set out that day looking to blow it up, it just… happened. Look, I-"

"Please don't blow up G&K base on accident." AN-94 actually sounds genuinely worried and I have to stop walking and turn to her. "Or, if you find you're going to, please alert us so we can get away."

"I don't blow up buildings on accident." I grit my teeth.

"But, then we've circled back around to saying that the mansion explosion was boring." AK-12 muses aloud. "I certainly wouldn't consider that night boring."

"...You two are doing this on purpose, aren't you?" I grumble, resuming my walk to the warehouse.

"Of course. Not everything we do on purpose is boring." AK-12 returns to walking at my side. "In fact, I remember asking for what ended up being a quite lovely dance from this one recalcitrant Field Agent. That wasn't boring."

"I agree." AN-94 adds.

"Okay, fine. Not everything I do is boring. However, given the last few days, I feel a little bit of boring is okay."

"Well… I suppose that's acceptable." AK-12 nods. "Are you dating the 'IOP doll' from outside of G&K?"

I shoot her a glare, but it doesn't dissuade her.

"Well, it would explain why nobody was able to figure out who it was." AN-94 comments.

"Eh?" I once more turn back to AN-94

"Yes, in Griffchan, there's quite a debate going on about who you kissed. Right now, there's three main theories. Most say it has to be either Commander Gentaine or… um, P90. But, the third theory says that it might have been S.A.T., since she denies all involvement with you during the event." She quickly rushes past P90 and onto the next part. "I'll be putting forth this mysterious helper as a candidate tonight."

"What am I, a walking soap opera?"

"Da." Both of them say at once.

I throw my hands up in frustration and realize that my salvation is at hand. I'm at the warehouse. "Okay then, have fun talking with everyone." I pause, remembering something Commander Gentaine had mentioned. "Oh, why don't you add Madam Helian to the list? She and I had a quite lovely dance."

"Because it's Madam Helian." AK-12 shakes her head. "You're more likely to have kissed Mister Havier."

"Eh? But, I actually danced with-"

"Hurry up and grab your thing." AK-12 waves her hand dismissively. "We'll be waiting."

I sigh and step into the warehouse.

"Commander?" A voice calls out. "I have a few reports you need to look over-" Kalina's head peeks out from around the corner. "Ah, the Field Agent. Good evening."

"Hey Kalina. Do you happen to know where I might find a doll core charger?"

She freezes in place for a second, doing a mental inventory. "Yeah. Why do you need it?"

"Uh, I have a doll that's helping me when I use the Linker, and I wanted to let her access the network when I'm not having her help me." I sigh.

"Just put the core back in her body." Kalina rolls her eyes. "No need to get a charger."

"She doesn't have a body, her old one was torn apart back in Sector 3."

She pauses for another second or so. "Oh, so that's where that core went. I see." She purses her lips. "You know, you should probably get her a new body instead. Level 2's nice and all, but nothing beats being able to move around with your own two legs."

"I don't know how much a doll frame costs." I sigh. "Even if I did, I'm still not sure how much I make."

She gives me an incredulous look. "Wait, you don't know how much you make?! That's the most important part of any contract!"

"Er, I guess, but I was busy being shot at-"

"And Gentaine didn't finish giving you your paperwork." She groans. "Fine, I'll have that sent to your terminal as soon as I'm done with this."

"Eh, you can wait a bit." I hold up my hands placatingly. "I can see you're busy. For now I'll just get the charger and get out of your hair."

"Eh. Until Commander Kylie shows up, I'm sitting here wasting time anyway. Lemme show you where it is." She gestures for me to follow her.

We head to the back of the building and I grab a… well, I guess it's a charger. The box for the charger is a bit larger than I expected it to be, but I can still tuck it under an arm to carry it. The shelf has a lot of stuff that isn't active duty components, like training booklets, dummy grenades, cleaning supplies, and doll skin patch kits.

"So, I just report this code on the datapad?" I ask.

"Yep. We'll deduct the expense from your account." Kalina smiles. "Don't worry, it's not that much, especially compared with your salary."

"...How much is my salary?"

"Well, since almost all of your pay is at the Hazard Pay rate, you're making about 28 credits an hour." She opens up her datapad. "Your base rate is 18 credits an hour, and any time spent in combat nets you an additional 10 credits an hour."

That's… that's a lot of money. I was making 8 credits an hour at my job in the fast food restaurant… "Wait, why do you know this?"

"I'm the logistics officer." Kalina sighs. "And also in charge of the pay schedule, inventory checks, and anything else they can force me to do regarding money. I'm the one who set your account up. I'm the one who set up the accounts for everyone under Gentiane's command."

"...I'm really sorry for asking you to help me."

She shrugs. "Like I said, I'm taking a break right now. The only thing I have left to do at this point is review these reports… as soon as Commander Kylie shows up." She shakes her head. "Where is she?"

"Maybe AK-12 held her up?" I joke. "She seems like the kind of doll to detain someone for shits and giggles."

"Possibly. Though, it's more likely she decided to follow Commander Kylie around rather than detain her."

"Wouldn't be much following to do." I grumble. "She followed me here already."

Kalina stops. "...So, she decided not to enter with you?"

"Nope."

She curses under her breath. "She's in here sneaking around again."

"Really?"

"Every time. Every time. She just can't resist rearranging things. Or stealing ammo. Or opening boxes and shuffling the contents. Once, she swapped live rounds with training ammo. Glad I caught that one quickly." She puts her head in her hands and groans. "I'm busy enough without her making things harder for no reason."

"...Er, I got Angelia to order her to stop stealing ammo after the day I met you, so hopefully that'll be better."

"Oh, that's why nothing has gone missing recently. Thanks." She glances around. "Still, I wonder what she's doing today?"

I drum my fingers on the box in my arms. "Do you want to get back at her?" I ask cautiously.

"Yes." She looks at me askance. "Do you have any ideas?"

I point at the object on the shelf. "That's what I think it is, right?"

She follows my finger and a grin slowly forms on her tired face. "Yes, yes it is."

I explain my plan briefly in a whisper and we prepare. Once ready, I raise my voice slightly higher than I usually speak. "So, how do you use this?"

"Well, first you pull the pin, and then throw it. But, don't do it in here-"

Before she can continue speaking, I pull the ring on the pin in the grenade, then chuck the pin as hard as I can towards the far wall.

"...Did you just throw the pin?"

"You told me to throw it!"

"I meant the grenade, not the pin!"

As planned, my finger slips and the spoon of the grenade pops off with a distinct metal ping.

"Uh, was that supposed to-"

This time, I'm interrupted by AK-12's form flashing up to me, her hand around the grenade and whipping it towards the wall of the warehouse before I can so much as blink. The grenade smashes into the metal wall and leaves a significant dent.

AK-12 positions herself between me and the grenade, waiting for the explosion. Her eyes are open, the grenade bathed in a reddish-pink light.

Understandably, the grenade never explodes seeing as it's a dummy grenade I had taken off the shelf. Beside me, Kalina loses the fight and bursts out laughing, doubling over as AK-12 turns around, looking at the orange haired woman and then to me.

After a few seconds more with the grenade not going off, she closes her eyes and a smile returns to her face. "Good evening, Miss Kalina."

Kalina's laughing fit ends and she wipes the tears from the corners of her eyes. "Serves you right. I'm gonna bill you for the damage to the warehouse as well."

"I understand." AK-12 turns back to the grenade. "For the record, I heard your entire plan. It's just that I switched the dummy grenades for real ones recently and losing the field agent now would be disadvantageous."

My jaw drops as she admits this, but Kalina snorts. "I knew that was you. Commander Mikhail told me it was probably just a mistake in transport, but I knew better."

"..." I glance back at the pile of dummy grenades, all painted black with an orange stripe on the spoon. Would I have noticed if it wasn't actually a dummy grenade?

Distantly, the front door of the warehouse opens audibly. A second later, Commander Kylie's voice drifts through the warehouse. "Kalina?"

"Looks like I'm up." Kalina stretches. "Field Agent, do me a favor and enter that charger into the logging system."

"I will. Thanks for the help."

We walk to the front of the warehouse, Kalina and Commander Kylie going off to a small office space to the side to talk, AK-12 waiting patiently as I finish filling out the form, and then walking out into the crisp night time air.

AN-94 turns around as we walk out the door. "Did you get what you need?" She asks.

"Yeah." I heft the box. "At least, I think I did."

"I heard a commotion and a loud impact." AN-94 probes. "Is it something I have to worry about?"

"No." AK-12 shakes her head. "Just a misunderstanding."

"I see."

The two dolls once more fall into step beside me and I walk around the warehouse to get to my dorm.

Halfway along the warehouse, she stops and points to the wall, where the metal paneling is deformed outwards in a cylindrical shape. "This wasn't here earlier."

"Very observant." AK-12 praises her charge. "Good job."

I roll my eyes. "AK-12 tossed a dummy grenade at the wall."

"...Why?"

"We'll discuss this later." AK-12 distracts AN-94 from the bulging metal. "Right now, we need to make sure Hadwin isn't using this charger for evil."

"Oh." AN-94 turns to me. "You wouldn't use it for evil, would you?"

"How would I use a core charger for evil?" I ask her in return.

"Charging… Um, charging enemy dolls?"

"Do Sangvis, KCCO or Paradeus units use the same cores?" I ask, glancing between AK-12 and AN-94.

"No." AK-12 asserts. "They do not."

"Then that's not going to be an issue."

By this point, we've reached my room and I fumble in my pocket with my free hand to grab my keycard. After a few moments, I manage to pull it out and press it to the card reader and the lock retracts with an audible 'thunk'. I push the door half open and turn back.

"In any case, I'm going to bed soon so you two should head back to your rooms. I promise not to do anything nefarious with my new core charger before tomorrow morning." A hint of amusement creeps into my voice at the end there, only to have it squashed a moment later.

"Yes, go back to your rooms." UMP 45's voice comes from behind me. I whirl around to find the grinning leader of 404 sitting on my bed, chin resting in her hand. "Hadwin and I have business to discuss."

AK-12's eyes open. "What are you doing in the Field Agent's room?"

UMP 45's eye narrows. "What do you think?"

AN-94 looks between her mentor and the surprise addition to the conversation. "Um. Miss 45, what are you doing in there? I think this is Hadwin's room."

"I know. I was waiting for him." She turns to me. "You and I have something we need to discuss."

"We do?"

"We do."

AK-12 looks unsatisfied. "How did you get into his room?"

I answer for her. "It's an electronic lock and she's UMP 45."

AK-12's eyes are still open as she studies my face. "Do I need to get Commander Gentiane?"

I sigh. "No, it's fine. Thanks for the concern, but you two can just go to bed."

"If you're sure." AN-94 back up a step. "We'll be back tomorrow morning."

"Ja, ja. Whatever makes you sleep better." UMP 45 waves her hand in a shooing motion. "Hadwin, stop standing there like an idiot and come inside."

"This is still my room, you know." I grumble before giving my goodnights to the two DEFY dolls, along with additional reassurances that I'm not in any danger from UMP 45. I'm not saying I believe myself when I said I'm in no danger, but I kinda just wanted them to back off for a few hours. Now, I just need to deal with UMP 45.

"So, what do you want to talk about?" I ask.

"Well, first of all…" She frowns. "Stop calling me 'UMP 45'. I told you to use 45."

"Oh boy, I've been upgraded to friend."

"No, as we said earlier, you're part of our little family of misfits." The grin returns. "When you get kicked out of G&K, we'll take you in."

"'When', huh?" I shake my head. "Okay, that aside, what do you need? If you decided to break into my room for that..."

"Nein, I'm here because of a certain other situation." She sits upright, her arms crossing in front of her. "This topic is incredibly sensitive."

"Okay?"

"I want to have this conversation on level 2." She starts drumming her fingers on her arm. "I can't guarantee that the G&K network is secure, so it has to be a hardwired connection."

"...Okay?"

She glares at me. "I don't hardwire myself to other computers lightly."

"No, I understand that, but you'll just be connecting a wire to the Linker, right?" I shrug. "It won't be the first time I've linked up to a doll."

"...I could intentionally fry your brain."

"And, for once, I have a solution to that. AK-12 and AN-94 are already suspicious, so if I somehow ended up dead you'd be the first suspect anyway." I frown. "Besides, won't Aleah be able to block you trying to fry my brain?"

"I don't trust anyone other than us for this conversation. I'm not inviting anyone from G&K, not even Gentiane. I'm not letting my teammates in on this. Why do you think I'd let a random doll I saved from being sold as scrap join in?"

"Noted." I pull the Linker out and contemplate it.

"I see. So you're prepared?"

I drop my burdens on the desk, briefly wishing I had some sort of minifridge for the sandwich before setting it to the side and opening up the charger. "Let me set up Aleah's charger."

"Oh?" She looks at the box. "That's… not just a charger."

"Yeah?" I plug in the power cord and the network cable from the laptop I had been assigned, then pull Aleah's core out of my Linker. Satisfied that the lights are still blinking on the core, I tuck the core into the cradle and press the power button.

A screen on the side lights up with diagnostic data, and after a few seconds, a voice is emitted from the device. "Field Agent?"

"I got you a charger." After my original confusion as Aleah's voice comes through the speakers, I manage to respond to her unspoken question. "I need the Linker for a private thing, so have fun… um, doing whatever it is you like to do in your off-time." I frown.

"Understood. I see you have company."

I blink. There's a camera on the charger, but-

"Ja. We're having a sensitive conversation." 45 breaks into the conversation.

"I will ensure there are no disturbances." Aleah promises and the lights on the charger dim slightly.

"Well, I guess it can't be helped." 45 shrugs. "It's one less thing we have to worry about."

"Sure." I dump the packaging back into the box. "So, I just plug the Linker into…" I realize 45 is holding out a cable that was pulled from her forearm. I take the wire and plug the linker in, though there's not that much slack to bring the device to my head. I'll have to sit right next to her.

As I sit on the bed, 45 shifts to be shoulder to shoulder with me, her metal right arm poking into my skin and bone one. Her hand touches mine, though I notice this out of the corner of my eye rather than feel it.

"Ready?" She asks.

"Ready." I slip the Linker on, and press the on button.

Most of the time when I enter Level 2, It's like a rush of shapeless color whizzing past until it all starts to coalesce into something I understand. When I went to level 2 with S.A.T., it took a little bit, but with Aleah it was extremely brief.

With 45, it was over before I could register it, my avatar blinking as I tried to comprehend the shift in scenery. Far from the gardens of the G&K network, 45's Level 2 is a burning building, the flames licking at the walls and the ceiling, alarms flashing, but mercifully silent. Bullet holes mark the walls and many surfaces, showing this wasn't just any fire.

"Like what you see?" 45 snarks and I whirl around to see her standing there calmly.

"What the hell… is this normal?"

"Normal for me." She shrugs and I realize her right arm now matches her left arm. Actually, both her eyes are open too. "This serves as a reminder of who I am."

"...Wow." I peer into the flames, but the orange glow conceals all past a few meters.

"Anyway." She claps her hand and the rest of the world freezes. "It's distracting right now, and we have something we need to talk about."

I nod and sit in a chair that I'm sure wasn't there a moment ago.

"Today, we had a meeting about the traitor in G&K." 45 starts pacing back and forth and I realize her steps take her right next to a burnt corpse lying on the ground. It's not anyone I can recognize from my seat. "However, it was intentionally a very bad meeting."

I blink. "Bad?"

"Several of the pieces of information were changed slightly." She stops pacing and turns to me. "I told you before you headed out that I have narrowed down the list of suspects considerably. Well, right now, I only have four suspects, and they were all in that room."

The thought hits me like a lightning bolt. One of the people in that meeting… The Commanders and Angelia. And a whole slew of T-dolls that I'm pretty close with.

Someone in there was a traitor?

45 takes in my reaction before continuing. "I don't want to come off as unjustified in my accusations, so here's the basis. One, the user needs to have a high amount of authority to access all of the systems involved. Two, the user needs to know what's going on in base before a large portion of the base is aware. Three, whoever it is, they need to be human."

That last part surprises me. "Why?"

"One of two reasons. The first circles back to the first item I gave you: They need to have a high level of access. No dolls are authorized to touch a few of the systems that were compromised, and very few dolls have the skill to get into them."

You do. I keep my thoughts to myself.

"The second reason it has to be a human is because of just how sloppy all the work is." She sighs. "I understand humans are slow and dimwitted, but this is just sad."

"Hey, I resemble that remark." I grumble.

"I know you do. It's true though, so many mistakes randomly here or there. The fact that the audio splices weren't smoothed, P90's backup was erased with two separate passes that weren't aligned properly, and… well, let's just say that the most basic of programs designed to remove traces of your presence would have caught some of them."

"...I thought you said they were super cautious?"

She snorts. "I also said that outside, in an unsecured room. I'm fairly sure your room has been bugged as well. No, the 'mastermind' is hardly as clever as they think. They've managed to keep me from narrowing it down past those four suspects but that's a small pool."

"I see." I bite my lip. "So, who are they?"

"Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Commanders." She waves a hand and a whiteboard appears out of nowhere. "Commander Kylie, Commander Mikhail, and Commander Ricardo are the primary suspects. All three of them have the permissions needed to carry out the attacks."

As she talks, the names appear on the whiteboard, written by an invisible hand. "First, Commander Kylie. She's the newest candidate, recruited just weeks before the job in Belgrade. She used to work for an investment company back in sector 09 before… well, before Sangvis got out of hand there. All of her records were lost or destroyed when Sangvis took over, so verifying her past is largely impossible. Everything I can find after the fact shows that she was indeed working in the investment firm during the times specified." She pauses. "While this is slightly suspicious, I should mention that lots of people have very sketchy backgrounds, myself included. I bring it up because she might have been working for Paradeus during this time, or she could be telling the truth. We have no way to know unless you have a time machine."

I rub my chin. "Okay."

"She was off duty during the operation to cull the KCCO. I'm not exactly sure where she was myself. As for a motive… eh. Money? A home in a white zone?" She shrugs.

"Would she be able to do that stuff you mentioned? Erasing P90 and that audio thing?"

"The problem is that Paradeus trains it's operatives well. We have no way of telling if someone can't do something or just pretending, so we assume that everyone is capable of doing the tasks required."

"I see."

"Next, Commander Mikhail. Russian born and raised, very nationalistic. Got kicked out of the KCCO ten years ago for stealing. We don't know exactly what he was doing for the next five years, but we know it was illegal and landed him in jail. Rather than live out a lengthy sentence, he was recruited for his unsavory skills."

"Sounds like you two would get along." I snark.

"That's why we have training together tomorrow." She brushes off my comment. "Unlike the other two, we have records of the extent of his skill set which does encompass the things needed to pull off these actions. As far as motivation, he's not happy with the way G&K does things. He likes things the old way, but he's willing to compromise on those ideals for a paycheck. Presumably."

I frown. "He seems kinda obvious."

"Which is either because he's the culprit, or because someone wants us to think he's the culprit. Of course, it's possible he's actually skilled enough to cover his tracks and then plant false leads so we think that he's too obvious..."

I hold my head in my hands. "Okay. And Commander Ricardo?"

"From Portugal. Raised in a slum in a green zone, managed to score a scholarship to a local university for his academic ability. He was set to become a doctor of mathematics before someone introduced him to a Real Time Strategy game and he flunked out because the game consumed his time."

I stare at her incredulously. "No way."

"Ja. G&K noticed his large-scale combat skills based on his gameplay and hired him. Nobody else would hire him, so he accepted. His record is exemplary, though his adjutant has been ordered to monitor his internet usage to ensure he doesn't relapse."

"...That's crazy." I shake my head.

"Nevertheless, here we are." She taps the whiteboard. "Now, there's several others I've ruled out due to one reason or another. For instance, Angelia might be StateSec, but her file shows she's not trained in intelligence work. Her whereabouts are all strictly accounted for and she goes through regular screenings."

...StateSec?

"Commander Gentiane could theoretically have done all of this with help from the T-dolls but... for what? If she wanted to destroy her work at G&K, all she'd need to do is leave. G&K only has a presence here solely because she's too stubborn to give up when someone with a lot of guns threatens her." She pauses. "Everyone else is too low level to access all of the systems or not competent enough. I've verified this through other means."

"Okay." I glance at the whiteboard, processing her words. "But, you said there's four suspects?"

She looks at me. "Well, yeah. You're the forth."

"...Huh?" I can feel my eye twitching. "What the hell-"

"Eine sekunde." She looks me dead in the eyes, her now present left eye glaring just as fiercely as her right. "You're the newest addition to the team. You've also shown surprising aptitude for this line of work. We've basically got no idea about your past aside from what you've told us."

I continue to stare at her. "Buh… I… You met my parents! Didn't you ask them anything?!"

"Look." She taps the whiteboard and some items related to me pop up. "Compared with everyone else on base, you're the unknown. You showed up after Paradeus learned G&K was on their tail, which would be the first time they considered G&K an actual threat..." She trails off. "Probably. A lot of time you're on base is unaccounted for, where most of the staff has set work schedules. A lot of stuff has happened around you since you showed up, and-" She points to the final bullet point. "You've had direct unmonitored contact several times with someone we believe to be high up in Paradeus, namely Anisim Zaytsev."

"...He tried to kill me! He paid you to kill me!"

"Hadwin-"

"He poisoned me for fun! He tried to take over Sector 3! His organization tried to kill me, and they-" My voice hitches in my throat. "THEY KILLED P90!"

She steps over and places a hand on my shoulder. "Hadwin. Calm down."

"I…" I slump into my chair, only just realizing I had stood up out of it. "You really think I killed P90?"

"No. In fact, I don't think you're capable of hurting anyone in any meaningful way, unless they deliberately hurt someone you care about. However, your circumstances are suspicious. The other commanders need proof you didn't, and unfortunately, waterworks won't cut it."

I sink into my chair even further, face buried in my hands. "I… but… I'm just a Field Agent."

"Which would normally rule you out, but consider that you keep company with 404 and Anti-Rain. Several of the dolls in each group could help with network infiltration."

"...This…" I shake my head. "Why are you telling me this then?"

"Because I don't think you did it. I told you I trusted you and I meant it." She hops up on the table and leans in slightly. "I want your help figuring out who actually did it so it doesn't get pinned on you."

I stare down at the charred floor, fire frozen in place as it licks at paperwork abandoned in the room that had scattered around.

"Hey, Hadwin." She reaches out a hand and lifts my chin. "We'll figure this out, and I'll make sure whoever did this pays."

I nod, though it's slow and I barely feel like agreeing. After all… I still can't shake this morning's drinking and thinking session. 45 hadn't ruled herself out. If she's the one investigating, she could be generating all of this data on the fly to put suspicion on others.

My head is starting to hurt and I'm not sure if it is from trying to think in circles or if it's from the Linker. I stand up, intending to leave, before realizing I don't know how to get out of this inferno frozen in time.

"So now I'm going to need your help." 45 says, her eyes flicking up to meet mine. "I've talked to Gentaine and you're going to be learning a lot from all of the other commanders in the next few days. While that's going on, you need to see if you can get any leads on who it might be. Don't raise suspicion. If Gentaine learns I told you this, especially with you still being a suspect..."

"Yeah, don't tell anyone. Don't act weird. Learn to lie convincingly." I growl. "I got it."

"I think it might take divine intervention to help with that last one. No, just don't do stupid things like asking them where they were during the KCCO camp assault. I'll handle that part. Just keep an eye out."

"I… I understand." I sigh and a shiver runs up my spine. "S-so, what-"

She suddenly bolts upright. "Oh, schiesse. Hadwin, stay here. I have to go fix this right-"

And then, she's gone.

"Uh, 45?" I call out, but there's no answer. "Hello?"

I glance around, the rest of the world perfectly still.

I take a few deep breaths and start walking around. She said to stay here, which means there's places for me to go. Possibly through the fire, which isn't hot or moving at the moment. She's also not here right now, so I could go see what I can see, maybe figure out if she's involved with Paradeus or not.

Well, time to do some snooping.

I walk over to the corpse on the floor and crouch down in front of it. To be honest, it's way too charred to make out any distinguishing features, and after a few seconds of looking at the gruesome sight I stand up.

45 called this place a reminder. I would have to assume that means this place is something important to her. Maybe her old home?

I guess with the bullet holes and the fire, wherever this is wasn't around for much longer.

After mustering a bit of courage, I touch one of the flames, only to find it doesn't react to my touch, nor does it feel hot. I'm able to push past the barrier without issue, and I move towards the largest set of doors.

There, standing silhouetted by the fire, is a figure. Tall, with braided lack hair, her back is towards me, and she appears to be clutching at her face.

I want to approach, but as I start to plan a route through the debris, a crunching noise like someone stepping on broken glass reaches my ears.

I whirl around, but I don't see anyone.

"Hello?" I call again, but I get no response.

Something moves in the corner of my eye and I whip around again, my hand going for a gun that's not there. With everything frozen in place, nothing should be moving. The fact that something is moving-

I spot it again and this time I see where the blur disappears. I reach down to the floor and grab a small chunk of rubble, a crumbled concrete support or something, and lob it at the desk the blur hid behind.

"Ack!" The rock hits the desk and the desk bucks, whoever's there lets out a startled yelp.

"Come out where I can see you!" I yell.

"Okay, okay, no need to shout." Someone steps out of the shadows. "Hello Hadwin."

"...Who are you? How did you get in here?" I demand. "Nobody's supposed to be in here but 45 and I."

"Oh, I've been in here far longer than you have." She smiles slightly. "And as for my name… well, call me 40."

"...So you're a doll." I surmise. "What are you doing, sneaking around?"

"45 wanted me to keep an eye on you. It's not safe in here, after all. Though, she also wanted me not to talk to you, which is kind of selfish of her. She gets to talk to all sorts of people while I'm cooped up in here."

I continue to stare at 40. Her eyes don't have that distinct glow I've come to expect from dolls, but instead her eyes have stars imposed over the iris. She has a weapon holstered over her shoulder, but I realize I have no chance of identifying it even if I saw it. The last thing of note is an oversized radio she keeps on a bandoleer.

"Well, I suppose she has her reasons." She gives me a once-over. "So you're the human 45 decided to finally put her trust in. Not my first pick, but if she trusts you, that's a big step forward." She reaches out and pats my shoulder.

"...Who are you?" I ask again.

"I guess you could say I'm 45's conscience." She laughs. "Not that I do a very good job of it. I do know what she thinks about though." She pokes the shoulder she was just patting. "You're very important to her. Don't hurt her again." Her voice gets an edge.

"I don't think I could if I tried." I reply.

"Also! I wanted to let you know, 45 is actually-" She turns her head suddenly. "Ah, she's coming back. Don't tell her I talked to you, okay?"

She holds a finger to her lips cheekily, before disappearing into the fire once again.

"What just happened?" I ask nobody.

"Hadwin." 45 appears suddenly. "Sorry, there's an emergency. I'm going to disconnect you now."

"Okay."

She nods. "Thank you for trusting me, Hadwin. It means a lot."

And then, my world goes black.

When I open my eyes a few seconds later, I see my room again, 45 next to me.

Before I can open my mouth, Aleah's voice comes from the direction of the charging unit I had installed. "Field Agent, there is an urgent request for your presence in the command room. Please bring both your Linker and me there as soon as you are able. Miss UMP 45, your presence is also requested."

"Ugh." The headache from earlier feels so much worse outside of Level 2. "Okay, lemme grab everything."

"I'm going first." 45 turns to me, unplugging the cable from the Linker. "It'll cut down on questions as to where the two of us were."

"As long as the DEFY members aren't at this meeting." I grumble.

"Yes, as long as they're not present. Don't hang around, it sounds really urgent."

"Got it."

"See you in a few, Hadwin." She walks out the door.

"...Damn, she must be in a hurry if she's not going to tease me." I get up and walk over to the charger. "Um, do I need to turn the docking station off before I yank your core?"

"No. Just let me return to a dormant state. The screen will display when it is safe to remove my core."

I watch the screen until it displays "Core disconnected" and then carefully pull it out of it's cradle.

The lights blink softly.

I move to put it into my Linker, but a thought strikes me. My eyes flick to the damaged core sitting next to a burnt patch.

Maybe…

I can't help but set Aleah's core down and reach for P90's. Vance had given it to me as a memento. Still, it only looks like it's charred, maybe it still works. Yeah, maybe Vance plugged it in wrong or something.

I don't really believe any of that, but I can't keep that glimmer of hope away.

I take a deep breath and place the core into the Linker, place it on my head and turn it on.

Instead of the colors resolving, all that happens is the chaotic burst of color I get every time I try using the device without help, including the staggering headache. I push through the pain for what feels like minutes, but was probably mere seconds before giving up and ripping the headset off.

It was basically like there's no core plugged in, no doll to assist me in going to Level 2.

I can't quite help myself from despairing. It's stupid, I know it's not going to work, Vance told me he did everything he could think of to try to get her out of her core, but to no avail.

I remove the core, set it back on the shelf where it will get some light during the day, and grab Aleah's core.

Time to make sure nobody else suffers P90's fate.

---

Author's note: As we begin the second stage of Act 3, I just wanted to remind everyone of one of my favorite quotes.
"Things are never so bad that they can't be made worse." - Humphrey Bogart
This has no relevance to the story, the next chapter will be cakes, rainbows, and unicorns.

Beta notes: So, KCCO and Paradeus may be strong, but family is stronger, amirite? :p