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.

27. Chapter 27: Choices

Important A/N at the end of the chapter.

---

1932, April 9th.

I wake up to the smell of pancakes and maple syrup.

Once more, I find my arms pinned down, and after quashing a brief bout of panic, I look around to see if I can figure out who it is this time.

15 is on one side, hugging my arm as she had every night she's slept beside me.

On the other side…

RO?

I stare down at the black hair with the white streak in confusion. Why would she be in my bed of all dolls?

I crane my neck to look around the room-

Ah.

Sop's passed out on the couch bed, sprawled out to cover the entire bed, murmuring to herself. RO's probably tired and decided to use this bed to get a little shut eye.

Still, what's up with the smell of pancakes?

The door to the hotel room opens and Aleah steps in, peering around the corner. "Awake?"

"Yep."

She nods. "S.A.T. made dinner."

"Is that what I smell?"

"Ken. Your parents stopped by with pancake mix and some ingredients, and everyone's crowding into 408 and 410 to eat. I brought you some earlier, but you weren't up yet."

"Thanks. Uh, Who's Ken?"

She smiles. "Ah, that's Hebrew for yes. Since everyone else seems to be using their native tongue around you recently, I figured I'd join in."

"...Please limit it to non-combat situations." I sigh. "Soon, I'm going to be either multi-lingual or just really, really confused."

"If you want, I can teach you proper Hebrew." She raises an eyebrow.

"...How about this? We both survive long enough to have the time, sure. I'll take you up on that."

"I'll hold you to it." She glances at the two holding my arms. "Need a hand?"

"Nah. They'll wake up soon if they're not already awake." I yawn, clearly still not fully awake myself. "How about this, if I'm not up in half an hour, I request your help in getting me up."

"Sounds good to me. See you in a bit, Hadwin."

I nod, already drifting back to sleep, mind drifting away to thoughts of pancakes…

Something lands on top of me and I panic, arms flailing around, searching for a gun, or a knife-

My hand has a knife inside of it, stupid.

By the time I had realized that, my eyes had focused, and I find that instead of 15 and RO on either side of me, Negev is currently sitting on top of me, arms crossed and a shit eating grin on her face.

"W-what the hell?"

"It's 2000, time to get up."

I glance at the alarm clock on the nightstand and see that indeed, time has advanced. That felt like I barely went to sleep…

"Did you just jump on top of me?"

"How else was I supposed to get you up?"

I stare up at the doll mounting me and try to figure out if UMP 9 could have dressed herself up as Aleah. Concluding the answer is probably no- "Okay. sure. Can you get off?"

"Yes." Her grin turns feral as she leans down. "I can."

"...Please?"

She immediately pops up and lets me get to my feet.

"Thanks."

"Don't mention it."

"What good would mentioning it do?" I grumble. "Which room has food?"

"408." Her normal businesslike expression returns. "Commander Gentiane would also like to talk to you, she's in her room."

"Right." 411, then. I'll go grab my food and head over.

For a moment, I consider changing into my work uniform, but decide that I'd likely get syrup on it and that's probably not a good idea.

Aleah waits for me to finish crawling out of bed, then we head over to 408.

"Enjoy your nap?" Aleah's eyes shift over to meet mine.

"Could've been longer, but yeah."

"That's good. I was worried you might be running completely empty tonight." She suddenly turns and stands right in front of me. "Are you sure you don't need me on tonight's op?"

"Hell no, I'm not sure, but you're one of the dolls I trust to keep everyone else in line if something goes wrong."

She gives me a wan smile. "I don't have a command module or command authority."

"...Which means?"

"I can't take control of a situation, I need a human in charge."

"...Right, that's why field agents exist in the first place, right?" I sigh. "Okay, then… I want you here to keep an eye out, and you have a standing order to protect the rest of the dolls if you can."

"Of course." She steps back out of my way. "Be safe out there. Don't die."

"Don't plan on it." I scan my card and open up 408 only to be hit with a wave of maple-scented air.

NTW glances at me from her spot near the door. "Ah. You're awake."

"Yeah… How much syrup…?"

"Enough to make TAC-50 proud." NTW looks back into the room. "And to think I once celebrated not needing to smell that ever again when I transferred units."

"...Is she really that into maple syrup?"

"She pours it on everything. Bread, cereal, spaghetti… S.A.T. almost strangled her when she tried to put it on pizza."

"...S.A.T. did? Nah, that sounds wrong."

"It's true." AEK peeks out from the bathroom with a plate of pancakes covered in syrup. "Also, these are yours, Haddy."

"Thanks." I take the plate. "Uh, why are you making these in the bathroom?"

NTW sighs. "It's the only place where there's any surface space. Don't worry, we made sure it was clean first."

"Uh huh." I eye the pancakes.

"We had to get creative to make the pancakes though." AEK crosses her arms. "S.A.T.'s been maintaining the temperature of a clothes iron that's upside down with a metal plate on top to fit for the past hour cranking out pancakes."

S.A.T. wouldn't feed me something bad, so I reluctantly grab the plastic fork on the plate and carve out a slice, sticking it into my mouth. It's not bad, for being produced by clothes iron in the bathroom of a hotel.

Might be how much syrup is on it though.

"What I want to know is-" I say around the saturated pancake in my mouth. "-why we have a metal plate as a cooking surface."

AEK points over her shoulder. "Borrowed an armor plate from AR-15."

"Does she know you borrowed it?"

"...Probably?"

I sigh. "Okay, fine. Good luck dealing with that when she figures it out. I'm going to go see what Commander Gentiane needs."

"Le'hitra'ot." Aleah nods.

"Do skorogo." AEK turns back to face the crowded room.

"...Not you too." I grumble to myself. "You're one of the normal ones."

"Sure I am~" AEK sings out, clearly having heard me. "Just you wait."

I shake my head and turn back to room 411, knocking on the door once I arrive.

The door is opened by… by…

"What the fuck-" I mutter to myself, before the creature in front of me leaps at me.

I'm knocked to my back, and the creature lands on top of me, one red eye and one blue, both wide as it leans forwards to sniff at me. It's got long blonde hair… and apparently got fashion tips from 9A-91.

Commander Gentiane pokes her head out of the room. "G41, sit."

The creature on my chest turns around. "But master, I want to meet the new human!"

Oh good, it can talk.

"Also, she's already sitting." G36 swiftly steps up, grabbing the doll by the hips and lifting her straight off of me, seemingly effortlessly. "Good evening, Field Agent. Are you well rested?"

"Yeah." I glance around, looking for my pancakes. To my surprise, they're not coating the carpeted hallway, but instead being held carefully in Aleah's outstretched hand. "Nice catch."

"Thank you." She sets the plate on my chest and stands back up.

I struggle to get to my feet without dumping my food as Gentiane steps out of the room, pushing G36 and G41 back into her room. "Thank you, Negev. If you could, can you please give us some privacy?"

Aleah nods and slips into one of the adjacent rooms.

"Er…" I scratch my chin. "I'm assuming that was a doll?"

"G41." Gentiane sighs. "Kind of feral."

"Oh yeah… I was warned that she bites." I nod.

"Only when she's particularly violent. Think Sop, but if she was younger."

"Ah..."

Gentiane leans on the door to her room. "So, what do you need?"

I was midway to bringing a bite of pancake to my face, not expecting the question. "Uh, Negev said you had something you wanted to talk to me about?"

"Ah, right. You know this festival is a technology showcase I assume?"

"Yeah."

"I've been looking at the list of displays officially registered with the city and planning to visit a bunch of them. There's a bunch of tech being shown that Griffin could probably use. Depending on what happens tonight and tomorrow, I'm going to have you looking around at the various exhibits."

I continue to chew soggy pancakes in silence. I want to say that I had some dates promised, but I have to remember we're not here to have fun, we're on duty. She's just providing me with my orders.

It must've shown on my face though. "I know you've already got a few plans, but this is important. Maybe you can work the places I want you to check out into your plans for the day. I'm not here to force you to break your promises."

"Thanks." I spear more pancake onto my fork. "Do you have a list?"

"I'm still working on it with my team." She taps the door she's leaning on. "We've got a list of about-WHOA!"

She falls backwards as, prompted by her taps, G41 once more opens the door. G41 darts out of the way as her Commander falls to the floor, then promptly jumps on top of her.

"41! Dammit, 36! I need a hand!" Commander Gentiane splutters as G41 turns around and starts to lick her face.

…I suddenly have a horrifying thought that maybe it wasn't that I was attracting the weird T-dolls, but that maybe all T-dolls are weird. It's a frightening concept, but given what little I know of Persica…

A doll comes to pick G41 off of the Commander, but not G36. She seemingly refuses to hold eye contact with me, even while restraining the thrashing G41.

Commander Gentiane staggers to her feet. "G41, what did I tell you about answering doors?"

"Make sure to check the peephole first, Master!"

"Right, so why didn't you do that?"

"I did, but I couldn't see anything through it, so I had to open the door to see who it was! It was you, Master!"

Commander Gentiane shakes her head. "So, I guess we can have formal introductions. This is G41 as I've indicated. Holding her is G36c."

I nod to the blushing doll who still refuses any eye contact.

"C, 41, this is Hadwin, our Field Agent."

"N-Nice to meet you."

"Hi!"

Commander Gentiane turns back into the room. "Hey, everyone come out and meet the Field Agent."

G36 steps out once again, curtseying. "Nice to meet you again, Field Agent. Please excuse my sister, she is shy."

"Glad you're here." I glance behind her- "Wait, is that MDR?"

"Hey! It's Hadwin." The doll grins as she casually walks over. "How goes your relationship with RO?"

"...We're on good terms." I hedge, recalling her propensity to spread rumors. "Why do you ask?"

"Well, I never really found out how that date went." She shrugs and Commander Gentiane starts rubbing her forehead, though her eyes are looking my way. "Maybe you can seal the deal on this trip?"

"...I'm not in that kind of relationship with RO." I say carefully.

"Feh. That's not what-"

Commander Gentiane cuts off MDR. "The last member of Echelon 1 is… Vicky, come out."

I blink, trying to resolve what I see. At first glance, it's a second Gentiane. On second glance, there's a few differences. Where Gentiane seems to dye the tips of her hair, 'Vicky' wears her hair straight silver. Still, if they traded uniforms, I might not notice immediately.

That's a scary thought. It would be like Kalina all over again, but worse.

"Nice to meet you." I offer my free hand. "Field Agent Hadwin."

"Vector." She replies. "Nice to meet you."

"With pleasantries done, I need to get back to setting up for tonight." Commander Gentiane yawns. "You have a few hours to kill until your mission starts. Spend some time with Echelon 11, or something."

"Got it."

"Actually…" MDR holds up a hand. "Can I ask you some questions?"

"No."

The rest of Echelon 1 and the Commander retreat into their room as MDR leans on the wall beside the door, a much safer proposition. "Aw, but it's only a few innocent questions."

"Right, totally. I know your reputation, MDR."

"Lies and slander." She grins. "So, I hear you're dating AR-15?"

"Yes."

"Are you open to dating more dolls?"

"...No comment."

"Have you already had sex?"

"..." I turn away and head for 409, but she grabs my arm.

"Hey! I need to know!"

"What, for your dumb betting pool?" I snort. "If you're so interested, ask her yourself."

"...You know about the betting pool?" Her head tilts and ice runs down my back. "Wait, if you know about that, you've placed a bet."

"Uh-"

"Which means, whatever you bet on is the most likely scenario…"

"MDR, I was told about it by-"

She gives me a look that screams 'Seriously?' before turning away and continuing to mutter to herself. "Let's see, since he could maximize his profit if he bet on some weird odds… but, he is a human, and they're weird about sex…"

I decide it's not worth my time to deal with her and continue back to 409.

SV-98 pops out of 410 as I pull out my keycard. "Ah, Commander! I have most of a report done!"

I turn back to the excited doll, a part of me feeling sick as I see the same spark of happiness she had when she reported to Ricardo in Sector 3. "Really? Good work. What do you have?"

"Well, it's not complete yet, but we've found out that the power outs are not random."

"Oh?"

"Da. I found a correlation between several disappearances that happen right after the power outs. It's not public knowledge, but once we got into the police database, it became pretty obvious."

"...How did you get into a police database?"

"Ithaca can be very persuasive."

"That doesn't-"

SV plows on regardless. "We've not figured out why they're targeting the people they are, but that's what we're looking into now. Unfortunately, the actual locations appear to be random. It's like something is appearing in random locations, sucking all the power out of the grid, and taking a person with it when it does."

I shudder. "Sounds like the plot of a horror movie."

"Well, if we do have an electricity monster, I don't know how to defeat it. Maybe ask T-5000."

"I don't know who that is."

"You'd like her. She's very… straightforward."

"Uh huh." I grab the handle of the door. "Thank you for the report."

"I'll be sending you the detailed copy to your email once it's done." She smiles. "I'm glad to be of service."

I nod to her and enter the room. I dump my emptied paper plate in the trash and take a deep breath.

Gotta change into my uniform…

Wait. Wouldn't that be bad if I get caught?

I'm still thinking about it when there's a knock on the door.

I check the peephole to find 416 and G11 on the other side. I let them in, of course, and 416 straightens herself up in front of me.

"Comm… Hadwin. I had requested… that back at base, and since there's some time before you are needed for the mission…" She trails off.

"Okay, if you're happy with a-" I check my phone. "-two hour date."

She nods. "Ja, I will be happy to be by your side."

I feel a tug on my shirt and turn to G11. "I wanna go too."

"Sorry, but I promised-"

"She can come as well." 416 interrupts. "I don't mind."

"...Well, if you're okay with it." I glance at her clothes. "D'you need me to dress up?"

She glances at herself, then back to me in my jacket, t-shirt, and jeans. "Nein." She unbuttons her jacket. "We will be fine."

Well… now we're all wearing open jackets. I guess we match.

"Let's go. I want to tell AK-12 and AN-94 that I'll be out and about, and set up a meeting place before the mission starts at midnight."

"Ja."

---

I hand G11 and 416 their ice cream cones. G11 immediately starts going to town on hers, while 416 makes sure I have my own before starting on hers.

She's weirdly considerate sometimes.

Asking 416 what she wanted to do on her date was hard, since her response was just 'I would like to be with you.' and that's not very conducive to actually doing things. Then again, if she had picked something specific I might've been screwed.

It is pretty late in the night after all.

So, we ended up just going for a nice walk. The city is pretty lively at night, being so close to a festival. There's even some special works of art laid out that are inspired by the festival or something. One of them was near an ice cream stand and G11 had insisted we head over there.

So now, I look at the tall statue-fountain-thing, trying to decipher what the hell it's supposed to be.

"I think it's supposed to be a neural cloud." 416 announces after pondering it for a while. "The irregular shape that shifts slightly as the water falls down forms the shifting, yet static nature of neural clouds."

I glance at the taller doll. "Really? 'Cause, all I see is a haphazard pile of junk that has water spurting out the top."

G11 snorts, covering her face with her hand. "Ja, I think he's right."

416 rolls her eyes and starts licking her ice cream.

"If the intent was a neural cloud, wouldn't it be a core?" I muse.

"A core isn't a neural cloud." 416 frowns at me.

"I know that, but I don't think most humans have an inherent idea of a neural cloud. I know I don't. A neural cloud container, or core, is a physical object that a human can look at and try to mimic."

"I don't follow."

"Me neither."

"Uh… Think about air." I came up with an example on the spot, hoping it's not more convoluted. "A lot of people would think about a balloon or other type of container, or maybe clouds, because we're not good at seeing the air in front of us. Like that."

"...I suppose that's a human thing." 416 turns back to the fountain. "Air is a mixture of different gasses, all of which are able to be inhaled by humans with minimal damage. It's needed for verbal communication." She tilts her head. "I don't think of it in any way other than that."

"Oh!" G11 raises a hand. "I calculate wind resistance and deflection when I fire at long range!"

I glance around, but nobody seems to be paying attention to us, especially not the strange little girl's exclamations.

"I suppose it's a quirk of what we are." 416 looks down at her ice cream cone, but her eyes focus past the cone into the picnic table. "After all, we're not real."

I glance at 416 and realize her eyes have become bitter. "You seem pretty real to me."

"Ja, we exist, but only because we were created to fight. I have no other purpose, no matter how much I might want one. I'm not a real woman."

"I used to be a maid." G11 frowns. "I think."

416 seems to snap out of her trance and places a hand on G11's shoulder. "You are here for a reason, do not worry."

G11 nods, wipes her face on a napkin and snuggles up to her teammate and promptly falls asleep.

"Adele, what are we doing right now?"

She raises an eyebrow, but answers. "We are on a date."

"Yeah." I nod. "Is that something you were designed to do?"

"...Nein."

"So why are we on this date?"

"Because I asked for it."

"I mean, I'm not entirely without blame here, but yeah. We're here because you decided to do something else. You're no toaster that can only do exactly as it was programmed. You're able to think, and make decisions, have likes and dislikes… and stuff." I finish lamely. "Point is, if you weren't real, we wouldn't be here musing on the meaning of a fountain in a city hundreds of kilometers from my home and further for you."

"I see." She glances at me, then the gap between where we're sitting.

I take it as a cue to slide closer.

Seconds later, her hand snakes around mine.

We share a short silent space of time together before we're interrupted by some other people.

A family, judging by the varied ages in the group. They have fresh ice cream cones, and since we're occupying only half of the long table, and the courtyard is kind of full…

"Izvinite, možemo li da sednemo ovde?" The oldest man asks.

I blink at him, noting that his family appears to be your average run-of-the-mill civilians.

"Sorry, I don't speak… er, Serbian? Do you speak English?"

"Ah, yes!" He beams. "You must be from out of the country. Here for the Festival?"

"That's right. Er, what was your question?"

"Pardon me. I just wanted to know if we could share the table."

"Of course. We're just about to leave anyway." I say politely. "Take the whole table if you want."

416 turns to her charge and shakes the girl awake.

"Thank you." The man smiles at me. "This your girlfriend?"

"Ja." 416 nods before I can say either way. "He is."

"Well, I hope my daughter grows up half as beautiful as you." He grins and his wife rolls her eyes.

"Danke." 416 shakes G11's shoulder again and the sleepy dolls finally opens her eyes. "Morgen, time to go."

"Mmm? Already?"

"You can stay if you want to." The woman seems to take pity on G11. "We didn't mean to impose."

"You're fine." I smile back, though I can feel the smile is a bit strained. "We've got somewhere to be anyway."

They seem to accept that and we start moving away from the area, past the statue.

416 looks back at the family as they sit down and start eating.

"What's up?"

"I think I'd like to have a family like that someday."

"Well…" I wrap my hand back into hers. "We were just at the same table, eating the same thing, you, me and the young one."

G11 glares back up at me. "I already told you, I'm older-"

I pat her head with my other hand, which only seems to rile the smaller girl up.

416 nods, considering my logic. "I suppose I already have it, in a sense."

"Hey!" G11 continues to protest.

As fun as the diversion had been, after all the walking around looking at things, it's now 2305, and I have to meet up with DEFY in twenty five minutes. I wasn't lying about having a place to be.

As we pass, I notice the placard on the fountain.

'A representation of man's struggle against the darkness of illiteracy.'

…I guess sometimes art is kinda stupid.

---

"Here." AN-94 hands me my pack that I had left with her before I left. "Did your date go smoothly?"

"Yeah."

AK-12 nods along. "Judging by the lipstick stains…"

"Oh, ha ha."

"Actually, Hadwin…" AN-94 hold up a light and a small mirror.

Ah.

I wipe my face with my sleeve. "Adele was kind of… enthusiastic. As usual."

"Hmm." AK-12's eyes open a crack. "So you like 'enthusiastic' women?"

I almost answer sarcastically before catching myself. "It depends."

She closes her eyes and smiles, but that's not as comforting as she probably intended it to be.

Both of the DEFY dolls are dressed in snappy suits, and for a second I wish that I had my own, but let the moment pass. AN-94's got a nice light blue suit, where AK-12's wearing her darker one a lot looser, exposing the red shirt underneath. The white tie is probably the most notable part of the ensemble. A set of sunglasses, while odd at night, at least cover up some of the intensity of her eyes.

"So!" I glance around at the still crowded street that they had asked me to meet on. The parliament building is just on the other side of the road and a few buildings down. "Where's, uh…" I realize that I don't know their civilian names. "Your sisters?"

"We're not sisters." AK-12's voice is colder than usual, though not as bad as when she has her eyes open.

"We all have the same mother, though." AN-94 admits.

"...Huh?"

"Same designer." AK-12 sighs.

"So… sisters then." I conclude and get a small twinge of joy to see AK-12 screwing her face up in frustration.

"They're almost here." AN-94 scans the street. "Ah, see that van?"

I look over to see an unmarked white vehicle pulling to the side of the road. Once parked, the front doors open and three figures exit. The first is a medium height woman in gray and purple, with a glint in her eye. She smiles as she spots the three of us, waving cheerfully. The second one to exit is a really tall woman with a clear resemblance to AK-12. She frowns as she looks around the area, before nodding to herself and settling in to following the other woman.

The third person in the van is Angelia.

"Hey Hadwin."

I walk up to the woman and shake her hand. "Hey, Angelia. Been well?"

"As you could expect." She smiles, even as the two groups of DEFY dolls square up like they're expecting a fight with each other. "I see you've got a new hand."

"Yeah." I frown. "Was I supposed to bring a suit?"

"No, you'll be fine." She turns to the four dolls staring each other down. "Now, I know you're not all on the best terms with each other, but do me a favor and try not to kill each other or let the Field Agent die. Understood?"

The shorter of the new arrivals turns back. "Of course, Ange. I get along with everyone."

Something about the way she said that irks me. Like, it was innocent, but too innocent.

In any case, creepy.

The tall one continues to glare, but grudgingly nods in Ange's direction.

"Excellent. While I have your attention, let's do introductions."

The tall one turns to me and glares. I start to wonder if she needs glasses like G36. "AK-15."

"Your civilian name, please." Angelia corrects and AK-15's glare grows sharper. "...Erwin."

"Renate." The other volunteers. "Also known as RPK-16. Feel free to call me RPK."

Angelia sighs.

"Nice to meet you both." I respond cordially. "I'm Hadwin Galanis."

"Oh! You're the boy Lucia was talking about." RPK's eyes fix on mine, making me feel like a deer in front of a wolf.

I manage to suppress a shudder until Angelia reaches back into the van and pulls out a small box from the seat. "Anyone want a doughnut?"

"Thanks." I reach in and grab a chocolate ring.

The dolls just look at her like she went crazy.

"What? I was hungry." Angelia defends the box of doughnuts. "If you don't want any, I'll eat them myself."

AN-94 steps closer to me. "Hadwin, it's getting close to midnight. Would you please turn on your Linker?"

"Yeah, good idea." I put the doughnut in my mouth and pull my backpack off, rummaging through it to grab my linker.

"Ange, don't you think that eating this much will make you fat?" AK-12 tilts her head.

"Wha- Hey! If you're gonna be like that, no donuts for you!" Angelia is indignant.

"Is there any more chocolate ones?" RPK peers into the box.

"...No." Angelia turns to the other new charge.

The Linker is buried a lot deeper into the pack than I expected. It must have shifted around when AN-94 was holding it-

"Hey, Hadwin~?"

I look up to see RPK is close once again. She leans over and takes a bite out of the other side of my doughnut.

"Mmm. Chocolate is my favorite." She makes a big show of licking off her fingers, despite not using them in her doughnut heist.

I freeze in place for a minute, trying to process the latest brand of crazy I had been introduced to, eventually letting my hands continue to sort through my backpack, finding my Linker and drawing it out carefully to not pull something else out with it.

I get a few glances as I settle the Linker on my head, the average civilian not really needing one or knowing what it is, I guess.

Once the Linker makes a connection, I immediately get a message from AN-94.

"I'm so sorry about RPK."

I give AN-94 a small smile, pulling the doughnut out of my mouth. I kind of don't want it anymore.

Then again…

T-dolls aren't humans. They don't have saliva, they don't have mouth cultures like humans. The doughnut is still fit for human consumption. Stop freaking out over the bite she took and eat the doughnut, idiot.

I continue to glare at the doughnut as more connections form through the Linker, and eventually cram the rest of it in my mouth and decide to try not to think about it.

"Looks like you're ready to go." Angelia hops back into the driver's seat of the van. "I'll be on standby. Notify me only in an emergency, we don't know if they're monitoring Zener traffic."

"Roger."

She turns the large vehicle on and we watch as it rumbles away.

"Well, shall we?" AK-12 gestures towards the parliament building and we all start heading across the street.

"Is the side alley clear?" AK-12 asks over the radio.

"Da." RPK replies. "I made sure that we would have a good place to gear up as well."

"Otlichno." AK-12 nods. "AN-94, please watch the street. Tell us when it's safe to duck into the alley."

"Da." AN-94 pulls even with me. "On my mark."

I glance at the four DEFY women and the alley, which is still several meters away. "Uh-"

"Now."

The four dolls take off and I find myself sprinting to try to keep up with them. I barely get to the lip of the alley when I'm bodily pulled in by AK-15.

"Wha-"

She clamps a hand over my mouth, then points upwards. I follow her finger to find a camera, moving slowly from left to right, scanning the entrance to the alley.

I nod against her hand, and she relaxes her grip.

"Hadwin, gear up." AK-12's voice comes through the Linker. "We're about to head inside."

"Roger." I set down my backpack and pull out the tac vest, shedding my jacket to slip the vest on and putting the jacket back on over it. Then, I stick my pistol into its space in the front of the vest after screwing on a fresh suppressor. Then load up three magazines of pistol ammo. Some zip ties. Then, I pack a few more odds and ends like a lighter, a flashlight…

Once I'm ready, I toss my mostly empty bag out of sight of the entrance to the alley and slip on some gloves. "Let's go."

"One second." AK-12 hands me a piece of black cloth.

"What is this?" I fumble it around in the dark.

"My panties."

I glare at the snickering RPK, but listen as AK-12 informs me that it's a balaclava.

"-after all, you don't have camera jamming capabilities." AK-12 finishes. "Just put it on and don't take it off until we're clear of the building."

"Got it."

AN-94 steps up next to a door, once with a fancy code lock on it, and starts reaching out electronically. Or, at least that's what I assume as her eyes glaze over. Seconds later, the lock pops and AK-12 opens the door swiftly.

I hurried in after AK-15, who's taking point. The rest of DEFY follows behind me, creeping into the dimly lit building.

The floors are a nice tile or marble, and between the hardwood walls and pillars stretching from the bottom floor to the top, it's a pretty impressive sight to behold. Two staircases, one on either side of the main entrance, lead from the ground floor to the first floor. The floor itself has various bits of furniture and potted plants with colorful buds scattered about.

There's also like five guys walking around, all of them dressed very officially. Obviously security.

I make a mental note to do all further communication through the Linker, asking the obvious question to everyone else on my team. "Why aren't they using dolls for security?"

"Likely they don't trust the dolls." AK-15 responds.

"The more you have to hide, the more paranoid you become." AK-12 slides carefully out of the hallway leading back where we had just come from, each step bringing her closer to the still-not-brightly-lit-but-definitely-easier-to-see-in main hall. "Remember, we're here for information, not to kill everyone. Try to keep your bullets to yourselves."

I put my hand on my pistol, hoping I don't need it.

"Looks like he main server storage is on the first floor." AK-12 sends a floor map to everyone, and it appears in the corner of my vision, the Linker helpfully labeling the positions of all of DEFY. "We'll need to get past the guards and get up there to see what we can discover."

"I suggest we split into two groups." AN-94 chimes in. "I will head out with AK-12 and Hadwin. RPK, 15, please use the opposite staircase."

…Okay, there's something going on here. AK-12 and AK-15 keep glaring at each other, or at least as far as AK-12 can glare without her eyes open. AN-94 keeps glancing between AK-12 and AK-15…

RPK at least seems undisturbed.

"Aw, I wanted to flirt with Hadwin more." RPK exaggerates a sigh over the Linker. "Oh well. See you upstairs."

AK-12, AN-94 and I line up on one side of the dark hallway, RPK and AK-15 on the other. The two in the lead keep their eyes glued to the guards, waiting for an opportunity.

I can feel my muscles tense up as the dolls get ready to move.

AN-94 reaches back and taps me, almost sending me through the roof with how nervous I am, but I hold it together long enough to see what she's pointing at. One of the guards is joking with another as he pulls out a pack of cigarettes. Looks like they're about to head our way to the side door to smoke.

RPK and AK-15 suddenly burst forward, AK-15 sliding to a stop behind a counter, tucking herself into the footwell. RPK ducks behind a pillar in a manner that doesn't exactly scream hidden, but I hardly have time to worry about that as AN-94 steps back and grabs my arm, pulling me deeper into the darkness as the duo of guards heads our way.

AK-12 suddenly turns around, opens a door and pushes both AN-94 and I into the pitch black room. The door closes behind us, though AK-12 keeps her hand on the door.

Outside, the boots of the guards thump on the tile floor, getting louder and louder as they approach. Their muffled voices come through the door.

"...can't believe he's allowed to do that."

"I don't think anyone gave him permission, he just decided to take over the boardroom. Zoran and Ljubomir are in there with him screwing around as well."

"I swear, if they keep doing this I'm going to tell-"

The door outside shuts behind them and AK-12 opens the door and gestures to me to head out.

I quickly step forward, looking around for the other guards.

There's only two left in the main room, both of them seemingly bored out of their minds at the desks.

I carefully step out, trying to keep to the shadows, the dolls behind me making no noise, though my Linker assures me that they're right behind me.

From working with Mikhail, DEFY and 404 over the past week, I've managed to develop some rudimentary stealth skills. I learned how to walk quietly, how to recognize a good hiding place, how to not draw attention… Lots of random things, all of which seem useful until I find myself forced to use the skills or get shot.

I get halfway from the hallway to the set of stairs I'm supposed to be heading up when one of the guards turns around and starts shining his flashlight around.

I know now that humans are basically looking for other human-shaped things when they're patrolling. In addition, the human eye is attracted to movement.

In theory, all I have to do is freeze in place, half hidden as I am by the various potted plants and couches laid out for guests. Intellectually, it's a clear course of action.

Then again, I'm not that smart.

"Huh?" The flashlight beam stops sweeping around the room and stops on the area I had just vacated. Steps grow closer and the flashlight beam gets brighter as the guard approaches.

"Hey Ivko, what are you doing?"

"I thought I saw something moving around back here."

"Yeah?" A second pair of boots starts clomping around. "Maybe it's that cat again?"

"No, Ms. Branka told the day shift to stop feeding it. It hasn't been around for a few days." Ivko seems to hesitate. "I guess there's a chance it's back."

"Either way, we should check."

I carefully peer around the pillar, the opposite side that the two are approaching, and my breath almost catches in my throat.

The two guards are carefully walking towards the pillar, flashlights out. One of them has his hand on the gun at his hip, but that's not surprising. What's surprising is that AN-94 and AK-12 are walking in the middle of the room, sidearms drawn and aimed at the guard's heads, silently using my clumsy ass as a distraction to get around behind the guards.

I'd applaud if it wouldn't get me shot.

As the two guards approach, I creep around the side of the pillar, attempting to keep it directly between me and the two.

Once I finally manage to face the room fully, I take a few cautious steps out and move around to behind a couch. There, I sit down and strain my ears, listening to the guards.

"Nothing. You sure you saw something?"

"I could have sworn I did… but I don't see anything. Oh well, we'll just have to keep an eye out."

The two guys come back into sight, still chatting to each other as they return to their posts.

I take the brief amount of time to crouch-run to the stairs, willing myself to be silent.

AK-12 is waiting there, her own weapon readied at the two guards.

Backup in case I fuck up. I move over slightly to not end up in her sights. Once I get to the staircase, she gestures for me to go around behind her.

At the top of the stairs, the rest of DEFY sits.

RPK seems to be laughing at me, apparently amused at my poor performance. I roll my eyes and shrug, which only seems to set her off further.

AK-12 climbs up the stairs behind me, verifying everyone is present before taking the lead… for three whole steps.

"Here it is."

"Really?" I raise an eyebrow. "It's like, right inside the front door."

"We're only here to determine if the Kruševac government has ties to Paradeus. We're not here to steal every bit of information off their network." AN-94 reminds me. "We will hopefully be able to determine that based on the information at this level of security."

"Besides." RPK pokes the door. "It's not like there's not going to be any security."

The Linker suddenly starts displaying some things about the inner room, including a wireframe view that gives me an idea of the size and layout of the room with several spots indicating some sort of alarm.

"We don't know what kind of alarm circuitry they have in there, but given the redundant external connections and remote security monitoring, we're going to assume that's where the security lies." AK-12's finger points through the wall and my Linker highlights what she's indicating. "We're not going to be able to disable it safely, so we're going around."

"Okay." I stare through the wall. I wonder if there's cameras in there, or laser mazes, or-

As I sit on my heels and contemplate, AK-12 pulls out a multitool and has the door open. AN-94 steps in cautiously, and my heads up display changes as she looks around the room, details about the room appearing as fast as she observes them.

"It appears to be a laser grid." AN-94's soft voice drifts through the Link. "Three lasers are bouncing off of reflectors. It will not be hard to navigate around."

"Good news." AK-15 nods. "Are you able to reach the server?"

The Linker highlights AN-94's form as she gracefully slips around the laser beams, also helpfully depicted. Within seconds, she's next to another door, this one helpfully marked 'Server' as seen from the camera feed from one of her eyes.

I intended to continue to watch her get into the room, but RPK taps my shoulder.

"Hadwin, do you think you could sneak in there?"

"Mmm… I don't think I should try. If I screw it up, we're going to have a problem that we don't need right now."

"Yes, but do you think you would screw it up?"

Eyeing the overly expressive doll, I carefully consider my words. "Well, I suppose that I could make it past the lasers, but I'm sure it would take me a lot more time."

"I see." She seems happy with that answer.

AN-94 has plugged herself into the server bank by the time I've turned back to her silhouette. "AK-12, I've gained access."

"Good. Look for any reference to Paradeus, GeneLab, or Anisim Zaytsev."

A brief pause. "None."

I blink. That was quick-

"Okay then, start looking for corporate contracts that might trace back to any of those."

AN-94 seems to be taking a lot longer this time. I peek over the railing to the floor below to check on the guards. The two guards that had gone out for a smoke break had come back in, and they're walking around the room, shining their flashlights about.

They don't appear to be in a hurry, which is comforting.

"We have a problem."

AN-94's words cut through my concentration like a knife, and I turn back around to look at her outline through the wall.

"Elaborate." AK-12 replies.

"There's a missing server on this rack. All of the promising data trails I was attempting to follow seem to reference this server." She pauses and looks around the room. "It's not in here either."

"Is there any indication of where it might be?" I ask.

"Let me see…" AN-94 disconnects herself from the servers and steps up to a desk, eyes flicking over the paperwork scattered across the desk. "Um… there's a server that's been removed recently for security purposes. It's in the vault in the basement."

"Seriously?" I grumble.

"Da. Looks like a precaution due to the influx of outsiders during the festival."

"You mean, they were expecting us to do something like this?" AK-15 tilts her head.

I glance over my shoulder, suddenly wondering if this could possibly go as well as I was hoping.

"Okay. AN-94, you need to stay in there and scan more. Keep an ear out for anyone coming to get you, but we're going to lock the door." AK-12 announces. "Keep processing the information in case there's something not on this special server that they removed."

"Yes, AK-12."

AK-12 glances at us. "We're going to split into two teams. One of the teams is going to head to the first basement level to try to open the vault. The other two are going to head to the main offices."

"Dibs on the vault." RPK says before anyone else can react.

"I'll go with her." AK-15 nods.

I glance at AK-12, who seems to be debating glaring at the two with her eyes open, but eventually shakes her head. "I guess it's acceptable. Hadwin, you and I will be going to the offices."

"...Right." Her default smile is in place and I don't exactly trust that expression. "Lead the way."

"Actually…" She peeks over the rail. "You go ahead, I'll keep watch until you're past the guards."

"If you say so."

Reluctantly, I once more take the lead. RPK and AK-15 follow me down the stairs, carefully making as little noise as possible.

Fortunately, the stairs have a solid railing, making it hard to see past, so I can crouch down at the bottom step and peer at the guards.

They're once more talking to each other, sitting on the couches. I'd almost call them lazy, but I realize that in their current positions, they're watching the majority of the room. If they don't move, this is going to be pretty difficult.

"Okay, so this might pose a problem."

RPK's hand lands on my shoulder and she leans on me to get a good view. "Oh, I see. I wonder if we can keep perfect stealth under these conditions."

"Probably not." AK-12's voice is too calm. "I have an idea."

…An idea? What is she going to do-

From about where I last saw AK-12, a white strip of fabric falls down to the ground. It lands with a soft thud that, to be honest, wasn't that loud. I don't think I would have heard it if I wasn't waiting for it.

The conversation of the guards stops abruptly. The guard that happened to be facing that direction stands up, shining his flashlight on the glove. The other three guards also stand up and look at the white tie.

For a second, nobody moves.

Then, all of their radios squawk with an ungodly noise, and I feel RPK push past me with great speed. She rushes at the guards, two of whom see her and turn their flashlight beams to her only for her to leap at them.

Speaking of leaping, AK-15 and AK-12 have vaulted from the railing on the upper floor at the same time, each of them springing more than two meters, once more proving their innate abilities far surpass a human's. I hadn't even seen AK-15 go back up the stairs!

RPK reaches the two and suddenly ducks, planting a hand on the ground and spinning on it, whipping her legs around to knock the first guard down on his back, dropping his flashlight.

AK-12 and AK-15 slam down on their targets, AK-15's trying to use his radio to no avail, the ungodly noise continuing to jam their radios. Both of the men are swiftly rendered unconscious by their respective assailants.

RPK hops up to her feet effortlessly and throws a punch at the last remaining guard. The flashlight drops from his hands as he slumps to the floor.

"...Holy shit." I step out from around the railing for the stairs and walk over to the group.

AK-15 is already putting her victim on the couch, sitting him up like he had just fallen asleep.

"Weren't we going to do this completely without being detected?" I ask.

"Well, there's no choice now." AK-12 says cheerily and AN-94 sighs over the radio. "We now have a time limit determined by when these four wake up."

"Better hurry then." AK-15 grabs the next body and tosses him onto the couch as well. "AK-12, you and the Field Agent go to the offices. I'll clean up here."

AK-12 smiles, then grabs my arm and starts pulling me behind her. "Thank you."

AK-15 glares at AK-12's back.

RPK sighs. "Well, I guess I'll start heading down to the vaults, all by myself. Where's a gentleman to escort you when you need one?"

I lose track of the others as AK-12 pulls me through the halls, gleefully following the signs indicating the office space. She continues to pull me along right up until she suddenly stops in place, the hall tingeing purple for a barest hint of a seconds before she suddenly pushes me into the wall.

"Ow! What the hell-"

She clamps a hand over my mouth.

A bored looking security guard rounds the corner and walks past, heading for the main atrium. His flashlight is on, but pointed directly in front of him so we can't be seen.

At first I'm relieved that he missed us, but then I realize- If he's in the main hall, we don't have any time left!

AK-12 lets go of my mouth, but not my arm. "Looks like our time limit is up."

"Huh?"

"Once he sees his friends, the mission turns into a combat one." AK-12 frowns.

"Then, we should knock him out?"

She contemplates me a second before gesturing for me to go ahead.

"...Seriously?"

"Hmm? Are you saying you're not up to the task?" She tsks. "I suppose I'll have to tell Gentiane that you chickened out."

I stare at her for a few seconds before shrugging off her surprisingly light grip and carefully walking after the guard.

I walk as fast as I can without letting my footfalls echo in the empty corridor. I'm reluctant to actually kill the dude, but… if that's what I have to do… my breathing speeds up as I clasp my hand over my pistol.

The guard arrives at the atrium right as I get to about talking distance from him. "Hey guys, I got the soju from the lockers-" He freezes in place, the flashlight beam playing over the unconscious form of his fellow guard. "-what the-"

I don't have time to think, so I just rely on a drill that I had been practicing.

I lash out with a kick to the back of his knee, sending him stumbling forwards. He curses in Serbian and whips around, hands too full of booze and a flashlight to grab the gun on his waist. The flashlight almost blinds me so I close my eyes to avoid being fully blinded and ram my left hand as hard as I can into his stomach.

Caught off guard, the man buckles over having lost his wind.

I wind back with both hands and double hammerfist the back of his head, sending him crashing to the floor. The bottle of booze doesn't break, but I hear a cracking sound when the glass hits the tile.

For a second, I think I had him, but then his arm twitches and he starts trying to get up.

I quickly hop onto his back and wrap my arms around his throat, crushing the veins on either side of his head like AR-15 taught me during combat practice. Hold it for ten, fifteen seconds…

I can feel the man underneath me slump down as he falls fully unconscious.

I fall off to the side, panting to myself. If I had been even a few seconds late-

"What's this?"

I whip around, grasping at my pistol once again, only to fail to draw and glare up at AK-12, who is looking at the bottle. "It's… it's soju." I get out. "At least, according to him."

"Hmm." She holds the bottle up and I realize that the bottle is leaking. "Well, I suppose I'll rate you a six out of ten."

"...Huh?"

"You were seen, at least in part, so that's a deduction. You could have just applied the choke immediately, or-"

"Yeah, yeah." I grumble. The bottle is still dripping on the floor as AK-12 manipulates it around, reading the label. An idea forms in my head. "12, hand me the bottle."

"Drinking on the job, are we?" She hands me the bottle regardless and I ignore her.

I have a time limit now, after all.

I move over to each of the security guards, carefully pooling a little of the liquid into each of their mouths, careful not to have them choke on the liquid. They just need to have the trace of alcohol on their breath-

"What are you doing?" AK-12 asks, placing a hand over mine before I can dose the last guard.

"Look, if they wake up with alcohol on their breath, then people will question their story about people ambushing them. Even if they still believe it, it ruins their credibility, right?"

"Interesting." Her smile fades as she contemplates my words. "Hmm. That's a decent idea… But, what about that guy over there?"

"Easy." I pull my hand from her grasp and finish the last guard off. Then, I walk over to the last guard and smash the bottle on the floor near his head.

The drink spills all over the man, and coats the ground around him too.

"I see. He's also drunk and broke the bottle. Even if he reports getting attacked, he has no credibility with his body smelling of alcohol." AK-12's eyes flash open, as if scanning the scene. "Depending on way the others managed to see, we might even maintain our cover."

I sigh. "It's all I could think of."

"Indeed." She turns to me, and grabs my wrists in one smooth motion. "This is why I find you so fascinating, Field Agent."

AK-12 holds the hand that's covered in the leaking alcohol up to her face. I'm too stunned to do anything as she first sniffs the air and then licks my hand a few times.

"Uh… what the fuck."

She lets go of my hand, licking her lips. "It would be a shame to let the alcohol on your hand go to waste."

I glance down at my hand, which feels pretty slimy. "Y'know… It's scary how fast I'm actually getting used to the crazy."

"Glad to be of service."

---

"How many freaking desks are there?!" I complain.

"About fifty." AK-12's cheerful countenance is in stark contrast to my own attitude. "Cheer up, at least we're not looking for three small keycards in four separate rooms."

"What?"

"Play more video games."

"No, I mean… that's oddly specific."

"Ah, I wish we had some clown masks. Then this would be a true heist!" AK-12 shuffles some of the paperwork at her desk and holds up a keycard lanyard. "Hmm. No card.

"Clown masks? That's-" I stare at her in confusion, only to be interrupted over the Linker

"No good."

I take in RPK's words. "Huh?"

"The lock on the vault is a biometric lock, looking for eyes." RPK continues. "Needless to say, I don't have a correct set."

"I guess we're just wasting our time in here then." AK-12 comments, shifting gears immediately from clown masks back to business.

"Probably." AK-15 sighs. "RPK, what's the new plan?"

"...Is there anyone in the building that has authorization?" I ask.

"Probably not this late." AK-12 muses. "Could we add Hadwin to the eyeprint database?"

AN-94 speaks up for the first time in a while. "It would be difficult. From the documents I've been scanning, the security is offloaded to another company. I'm not confident I can get it done." She pauses. "I could see if I can find a list of authorized eyes."

"Go ahead." AK-12 licks her lips in anticipation. "Maybe we can kidnap someone off the list if we need to break in again."

I once more scan the desk, finding absolutely nothing of any interest. They look like funding reports for the festival, but not anything suspicious. Just… food vendors.

"So, what do we do now?" AK-15 asks.

"...Looks like we may be giving up for the night if we can't find anyone." RPK sighs dramatically. "This lock is too hard to hack, we've blown our stealth so next time it'll be harder to get in here-"

"Wait!" AN-94 interrupts. "There's… there's someone in the building!"

"There is?" AK-15 sounds surprised.

"Yes! Looks like this person was a new addition, only a few days ago. According to the last scan of his ID card, he's in the ground floor meeting room with two others."

"Hadwin and I will go get him. What's his name?" AK-12 is already heading for the door.

"Name is Tom Hiddleson, no face attached to the profile. Too new, I suppose." AN-94 pops a visual of several profiles and then shows Tom's, which indeed doesn't have a picture aside from the default frame. Under 'access privileges' there's a tag for vault access.

"Tom…? Isn't that an actor from fifty years ago?" RPK asks.

"I believe so." AN-94's voice grows confused. "That's the only person by that name that shows up when I search the internet, at least."

"Maybe it's a dummy account for testing." AK-15 suggests.

"In any case, that's our best lead. You say he was last scanned into the meeting hall? AK-12 confirms.

"Da."

"Okay!" She once more grabs my arm. "We're going!"

I'm literally dragged off my feet, AK-12 seeming to be super excited to meet Tom. Unbidden, an image of a dude with wave black hair appears in my field of vision courtesy of… the Linker, I suppose. I guess that's Tom then.

Wait, there's no way a eighty year old actor is working night guard shift in Serbia, right? That would be stupid.

We arrive at a door with a ID card reader, and AK-12 contemplates it for a second.

"Can you do the thing UMP 45 or 9 does?" I ask her, but it's not she who answers.

"I'm sorry." AN-94 voice indicates she's slumped over. "If I was as good as UMP 45, I could have added you to the database of users."

"I don't know how, but she's able to do bizarre things." AK-12 states. "I've never met another doll able to cut through all sorts of firewalls like her."

"Aside from M4." AN-94 corrects.

That gives me pause. "Huh?"

"M4A1, from Anti-Rain." AN-94 elaborates. "When we were in Belgrade, she did some rather impressive things. I didn't see it personally, but hearing about it from the field reports and inferring between the lines, I think she must be a great hacker."

"No, the hackers on her team are RO635 and more recently SOPMOD II." AK-12 counters her subordinate. "Neither of them are on the same level as UMP 45."

"...I will show you my evidence when we get back."

"Actually-" AK-15's voice cuts in. "Given how adamant she is about it even over your objections, I'm inclined to believe 94."

"...That is pretty persuasive." RPK comments.

"Can it." I turn back to see AK-12's opened the card panel and is carefully tracing wires. I watch in fascination as she deftly rewires the box, twisting cables together and taping them with incredible speed. "I'm almost ready to open the door."

"If it's really Tom, I want a snapshot of you and the Field Agent tying him up." RPK pipes up.

I once more place my hand on my firearm, getting ready to enter the room.

AK-12 glances my way. "Ready?"

"Yeah."

She crosses two wires and the door's lock retracts a lot louder than I would have liked, but it becomes irrelevant immediately.

Inside, there's a cacophony.

Specifically, the noise of a video game, which is being projected onto the wall on the opposite side of the room. Given the volume they're playing at, they definitely didn't hear the lock click open.

I glance at AK-12 who shrugs and starts moving into the room in a crouch. I follow behind, looking for a spot to hide.

There's three people seated on the desk chairs that usually surround the table near the wall, silhouetted against the projector's glow. Hopefully, one of them is our man.

"Hadwin, take this." She hands me a black bag.

"What?"

"It's a bag."

I eye her skeptically. "Yes, but why?"

"Bag the one on the left, pull the strings tight, and I'll get the one on the right. Then, we have to take down the one in the center quickly, before the other two can recover."

"...That's not a plan-"

AK-12 moves around the center table to be in position, and I hurry myself, less concerned with noise now to try to catch up. I draw the bag from my chest rig, opening it and grabbing onto the drawstrings as I prepare to drop it on someone's head.

This is so stupid…

"Hmm?" The man in front of me lifts his head and sniffs a few times. "Did someone make pancakes?"

One of the others pauses the game. "What are you talking ab-MMPH"

AK-12 swiftly bags the dude and I follow suit a moment later.

That moment was too long though.

The man I had successfully bagged seems to have a bit of combat experience, and instead of freaking out, reaches back and grabs my hands before I can pull away and draw the strings shut.

Oh fuck.

With the strength I would expect of a doll, the man pulls me over his head, twisting so I flip over his shoulder and land on the floor, knocking the wind out of me.

He pops out of the chair, the loose bag clearly allowing him to see me as he gets up and delivers a vicious kick to my ribs.

Something gives way and I can't help but cry out in pain.

"Hadwin?!" Someone yells over the Linker, but I can't really focus on who.

I grit my teeth and force my hand to split apart, revealing the blade. I intend to stab his foot, but his foot backs off before my blade lands, instead carving into the tile.

Holy shit, it's sharper than I thought.

I roll away, ignoring my screaming rib and forcing myself to get to my hands and knees.

Belatedly, I see AK-12 fending off the man without a bag on his head, the other one having fallen to the floor scrabbling to get the bag off. She's busy grabbing the man's arms and twisting them in a manner that looks very uncomfortable. Her eyes are open and unnervingly unwavering as she expertly fights with the guards.

I don't have time to watch closer as my target steps up to me-

Suddenly, the game console shuts off, the room blacking out.

AK-12's eye beams paint the walls in a haphazard pattern that honestly does more harm than good to my vision. My Linker kicks in momentarily and gives me sight, and I quickly move out of the way of the man's next attack, turning around and getting to my feet finally, though my back is against the wall.

Okay, now what? Well… just gotta subdue him, right?

I cautiously step away from his line of travel, wait for him to stalk a meter closer and into my range…

Making a fist in my left hand, I once more wind up for the hardest punch I can manage.

"Oof!" The man sucks wind as I belt him. "Madre-"

His own fist swings wildly, clipping my face, knocking the Linker loose.

My world turns white and I stop being able to register anything but pain.

I stand there for a few seconds once the pain subsides enough for me to think, staring into the uncaring white void, wondering what just happened.

Well, I'm still thinking, that's good.

Where am I? I try to look around, but there's nothing around. Hell, with how bad the pain is, I can't tell if I managed to move my head.

…Wait, did I die? Is this the afterlife? Did someone shoot me and I went to heaven?

In the distance, as if through a paper cup and a string, I hear AK-12's voice. "Hadwin? Hadwin!"

No, if she's here, it's definitely the other place.

"Hadwin, get up or…"

I open my eyes, and the white void slowly slowly starts to fade away. "Whaaaaa…"

"This guy-" AK-12 kicks the unconscious form that I had been fighting. "-knocked your Linker off. I hear those are attached to your nervous system, so I think having it forcibly disconnected is probably pretty painful."

"...Yeah, it was." I sit up, only now realizing I had fallen to the floor. Man, that was disorienting. "So you got all of them?"

"Da!" AK-12 gestures and I twist around to see two more people on the floor.

Also, I note that the Linker is still around my neck, and the projector has come back on. That's why I can see.

AK-12 notices me looking at the device. "Neat trick with the projector, by the way. How did you do it?"

"...Hmm? That wasn't me." I rub my eyes, the white blotches fading away more rapidly now.

"But, it had to have been you. Nobody else was in the room." Her eyes open a crack.

I look back at her. "Uh, AK-12? I can't hack while awake. I can barely hack when on Level 2. We've been working on this for a week now, right?"

"...Odd." She frowns, then, her eyes snap to mine. "Yes, you are very interesting."

Aw shit, not again. "Aren't there other more interesting people you can harass?"

"Ange's not here at the moment, so no." She looks down at her feet where the man I had fought is still sprawled. "Maybe if he really is an actor."

"It's this guy?" I lean over and look at the burly man.

She plucks an ID card off of his shirt and hands it to me. Sure enough, it reads 'Tom Hiddleson'.

"Great." I sigh. "Okay, let's get him downstairs." I turn the Linker off, carefully put it back on, and flip it on.

The Linker flashes through a diagnostic faster than I can follow, then an image of a person removing the Linker appears with a red X over it and the text 'Do not remove Linker while in use!'

Yeah, got that one.

"First, I want to see his face." AK-12 reaches down and grabs the still-loose bag. "He can't be as handsome as the real Tom."

She jerks the bag off and I freeze in place.

No.

No way.

"Oh. Well, this solves a whole bunch of questions."

"Is it really Tom?" RPK's voice is excited.

"It's not." AK-15 seems frustrated. "He's probably dead, the US is mostly yellow or red zones now."

"Which means-"

AK-12 cuts the two off. "It's not Tom."

I swallow, my throat suddenly dry. "It's Ricardo."

---

AK-12 and I had shouldered the heavy man all the way down to the vault, an arduous process as we had to make it halfway across the building just to reach the stairs downwards, made worse by my definitely not okay rib.

Thankfully, AK-15 had shown up to take the man from us, bodily lifting him over her shoulder like he weighs nothing. When I had asked her if she needed help, she had just turned to me and politely said no, then pointed to her abs, exposed through her gear.

There's so much I wanted to complain about, from the fact that she's not using her abs to the fact that she's a robot, she shouldn't need abs, but I'm still a bit on edge from our prisoner.

Ricardo. The traitor himself.

I eye him, making sure he's still unconscious. I'm sure between AK-15 and AK-12 he's subdued, but I can't help but be on edge.

He killed P90.

"Nice knife you have there." AK-15 comments. I look down at my left hand and realize I had unconsciously drawn the blade.

Okay, calm down. Just… calm down.

The hand snaps back together and I sigh, pinching my forehead with my other hand.

RPK steps out of the shadows, eyes glinting in the shadows like two distant stars before the shadow leaves her face. "Hmm, he's still pretty handsome. We'll need to inform Commander Gentiane and Ange about this."

"Nyet. Wait until we're out of here."

I walk up and discover the vault… which is actually pretty underwhelming. I had imagined a great big metal door, but it's actually just a standard mauve door with a weird box to one side, presumably the eye scanner. Still, it's the door we're looking for, since there's a plate on the door labeled 'vault'.

Masters of subtlety, here.

AK-15 unceremoniously dumps Ricardo on the ground. "Let's get on with it."

"Okay." AK-12 roughly grabs the man again, hauling him up in front of the scanner. "RPK, hold his eyes open."

RPK steps up and reaches around the unconscious man's head, prying open his eyelids as AK-12 pushes his face into the box.

The scanner beeps in a tone that certainly doesn't sound like a success.

"Uh oh."

"94, you're sure 'Tom' is registered as someone who can use this?" AK-12 asks.

"I… let me check." AN-94's voice sounds strained. "Um, what model eye scanner is it?"

"It's…" AK-12 leans over and reads off a series of numbers.

"Ah, yes… that one uses infrared light bounced off of the eyeballs to make sure the person is awake."

"...Huh?" I turn away from the vault. "Isn't that how they make sure that someone isn't dead?"

"Da, but this one also records blood pressure and heartbeat. His heartbeat must be too fast since he's unconscious."

"Fast…?"

"Most humans, when they go unconscious, experience hypotension, a dropping of the blood pressure which makes the heart work harder to try to maintain the pressure."

"...Are you reading that off of a wiki page?"

"Maybe." AN-94 admits sheepishly. "In any case, you probably need to wake him up."

"Wonderful." I grind through my teeth. "AK-12-"

"I heard." She drops Ricardo to the floor and opens her eyes.

RPK starts rifling through her messenger bag looking for something.

I slump against a wall and gently poke at my ribs, unintentionally hissing as I poke the spot that he had kicked me. Yeah, there's probably supposed to be a rib there, but it's not attached properly anymore.

"Hadwin?" AK-12's eyes flick my way and I have to squint against the bright light.

"It's nothing." I lie. "Ricardo kicked me in the side and it hurts a bit."

"Hmm." AK-15 walks over to me and squats down. "Let me see."

"Are you a medic?" I ask skeptically, though I also start unbuckling my tac vest so I can pull my shirt up.

"I've had some training, yes." AK-15 replies. Once I get my shirt up, revealing my side, AK-15 looks at the already bruising skin carefully. "Hmm…"

"How bad is it?"

"Looks like your rib might be floating. The cartilage on your sternum has given way."

"Okay…? How bad is that?"

"It'll hurt for a while, but rest should allow it to grow back." AK-15 stands up. "Try not to exacerbate it."

"Yeah." I sigh painfully. "I'll try."

"Whuuu…" A man's voice groans. "What the fuuuu…"

RPK slams a boot down on Ricardo's throat, holding a large needle over her head. "Welcome back."

"Ricardo." AK-12's voice is perfectly monotone, her eyes open and fixed on the man. "Get up."

AK-15, no longer looking at my chest, draws her namesake weapon from it's bandoleer and aims it at Ricardo.

Ricardo's eyes bulge as he spots AK-15. "Hey! I-I'll do it! Don't kill me!"

RPK looks disappointed and steps off of his neck. "Try anything funny and I stab you again, got it?"

"Yeah, I-I got it." Ricardo shakily gets to his feet. "Wait, you're all DEFY dolls."

"Da." AK-12 grabs his collar and forces him towards the vault's locking mechanism. "So you know what we can do if you try to be a smartass."

I close my eyes.

I'm so tired.

"Hadwin?" AN-94's voice comes through the air.

"Yeah, 94?"

"Good job out there."

"Thanks." I grunt. "You too."

"Do you want me to signal Commander Gentiane for medical assistance?"

"No, you can hold off on that." I grimace to myself. "We don't want to tip our hand just yet."

"I understand. Though, I am worried."

"...Thanks, 94." I try to hold back on sighing, since even that is painful.

"Hey, Hadwin." AK-12 draws my attention. She and RPK have Ricardo tied up with some paracord, and his eyes go wide as he spots me.

"W-wait, that's Hadwin?"

I pull off my balaclava and stare at him, and his face drains of blood. I have to say, that's a satisfying feeling. I almost tuck the balaclava into my loose tac vest, but decide to put it back on. I don't see any cameras, but-

AK-12 reconsiders talking out loud and instead sends me a message through the Linker. "Keep an eye on him."

I nod.

"How did you get past…?" Ricardo blinks and squirms against the ropes tying him. "Well, I suppose you had a lot of help."

"Mmm." I open the knife in my hand and snap it closed in a rhythm. At first it was just to try to calm myself down, but then watching Ricardo jump slightly each time it snaps open is kinda entertaining.

RPK is busy looking beyond the door, looking through boxes and boxes of files until she finds something distinctly not box-shaped. "15, I need your expertise!"

"Coming." AK-15 glances at me, then towards AK-12. "You cover him."

"Of course." AK-12 crouches down in front of Ricardo, pistol in hand. "Hello there."

"AK-12."

"I'm going by Lucia at the moment, thank you." Her eyes crack open. "Hmm… what's this?" She plucks something off of his shirt and suddenly Ricardo looks nervous.

"Nothing."

"It certainly is sending out signals like it's something." AK-12's expression grows hostile. "In fact, it seems like it's transmitting to someone in this building."

Oh shit. I draw my pistol fully for the first time since I started this stupid mission, making sure it's ready to fire before turning my attention to Ricardo.

Ricardo watches the suppressed barrel of the gun nervously. "I don't know what it is, I swear."

He's lying.

Huh? I look around, but I can't see who said that-

"Da, you're an idiot." AK-12 stands up. "15, RPK?"

"12, I think you're going to need to help 15." RPK clasps her hand apologetically. "It's pretty heavy."

AK-12 contemplates the other doll for a second before shaking her head and walking over to grab the back half of the server. "RPK, you chase down the source of this." She tosses the small device to RPK.

"Okay~!" RPK sings out.

Great, I have to sit here and guard… him.

"Hey…" I stop RPK as she walks past. "Can you do me a favor?"

"Hmm?"

"While you're upstairs, can you get me a bottle of the alcohol from the breakroom? I'm not going to want to be sober later."

She smiles a perfect little smile. "Of course, Field Agent. One bottle, coming up."

I nod and slump back against the wall, watching as she leaves.

"Hadwin."

I glare at Ricardo, but the pain takes a bunch of the edge out of my expression. Instead, I wave my pistol around and he watches the tip nervously.

"Look, I know we got off on the wrong foot-"

I snort, and immediately regret it.

"-but you've got to listen to me. Griffin is just using you."

"Right, right. Also, killing P90 was justified because… I dunno, she's actually a secret agent for the illuminati." I roll my eyes. "Just shut up."

"...I didn't kill her."

I aim my pistol at his head and slide my finger into the trigger guard.

"No! Seriously! I didn't!" He licks his lips. "I saved a copy of her personality."

My heart stops. I swear, it stops dead in its tracks.

A backup?

He must be able to read my expression. "Yes, I have a backup! It's not here, unfortunately, or I'd give it to you." His face twists into a desperate smile. "It's in my apartment here in the city."

I open my mouth a few times to try to respond, but find myself at a loss for words.

He's lying.

I don't know where the thought came from, like whispers from the devil himself, but it snaps me out of my fugue.

"Okay, right… you just so happen to make a backup of the one doll I care about enough to potentially kill you over. Sure." My eyes narrow. "I assume you also backed up everyone else you tried to delete."

"Of course." He nods. "I needed a backup in case I was caught."

I once more stare at him, and the little voice in the back of my head seems to have taken leave. Guess it's all up to me. "Okay then, tell me where your apartment is."

"No." Ricardo shakes his head. "I'm not going to tell you here. You'll just kill me!"

"..." I aim the gun between his eyes again.

"Look, it's not like I don't have an apartment in the city, alright?" I'll send you the address once I'm free. I'm not suicidal, I wouldn't betray you again."

"For a third time, you mean."

"Yeah… that."

I struggle to my feet, spikes of pain shooting through my chest. "Yeah." I walk past him and he struggles to turn around.

I aim my gun at the back of his squirming head, finger tightening on the trigger…

But.

What if he's not lying?

My hand starts to shake, and my vision becomes blurry. It's his fault… His fault that P90 is dead. He killed my friend, he deserves to die.

Don't worry about me. Just do what you want to do.

I wipe my eyes and turn to the side, only to see someone is standing there holding a finger to her lips and winking impishly.

I scrub my eyes and look again, but now she's gone.

Ah. Great. I've cracked.

"Hadwin. We've gotten the server plugged in. AN-94's working on it and we've gotten some very revealing leads." AK-12's voice brings me back down to reality. "However, there's some missing info still on some of the paperwork kept down there."

"Okay." I take the deepest breath I dare. "Lay it on me."

She rattles off four codes and I do my best to memorize them. In the subsequent minutes, I discovered that finding those files is actually relatively simple. Everything's organized properly and labeled, I get the four files in less than five minutes. I'm glad they weren't scattered around for no reason the way AK-12 seems to think the world should work.

I tuck the four files under my arm, looking at all of the other files. I wonder what's on them?

"Hey, Hadwin." Ricardo has managed to reposition himself in the five minutes I've been distracted. "Getting back to my earlier conversation, why don't you join us?"

"...Why the fuck would I do that?"

"Well, for one, I'll give you P90's spare core. For another, Paradeus is the winning team, and you can leave the life of combat behind you. After all, Griffin and Kryuger is just using you."

"Mmhmm." I carefully level the pistol at his head. "Heard it before."

"No, seriously." His eyes become earnest. "Look, I was there when Commander Gentiane hired you. You're not hired to be a wartime asset."

"Clearly." I bite out. "Is there a point, or are you just talking to fill time?"

"Look, haven't you thought it was weird that all of the dolls like you?" His voice gets a pleading tone. "Commander Gentiane was looking for a way to boost the morale of the dolls and decided on you."

"...I don't follow."

"Do you know what an emotional support dog is?"

"A dog used to comfort a human that's had traumatic experiences." I lower the gun slightly. "You're trying to say-"

"Yes. Commander Gentiane has actually been tweaking their emotional response to you since day one. She figures that having you around makes them less reckless and also want to live more." He snorts. "She and Kylie came up with the 'wow, you're the only one that's nice to us' line that I'm sure you've heard from a bunch of the dolls."

My pistol aims straight downwards as my arm goes limp. Unlike earlier, I'm not getting the sense that he's lying. Wait, but… 9 told me…

9's been under contract to basically babysit me since day one.

I never looked at Gentiane's note to 404 on that first day.

Sop seemed to have an interest in me before she could do anything, but she's also one of the least romantic of the dolls. Maybe she wasn't tampered with.

Hadwin? Pull yourself together, he's just riling you up!

Did… did she actually tamper with them? Are they just talking to me, hanging around me, because I was their soft dog to keep them happy when the PTSD sets in?

My eyes blur.

No, no no no…

Calm down, please!

What if 15 doesn't actually like me? If she's just been coerced, then…

I can feel my breathing moving faster and faster. It makes more sense than me being the first human to treat them nice. It makes a lot of sense.

Too much sense.

I was your friend. I wasn't coerced. Neither were they.

I look around, but there's no source for the voice.

Yeah… I'm going crazy.

When the voice says 'they', a bunch of faces pop into my head. AR-15 stands in the front, but SOPMOD, RO, 416, and 45 are all there.

Anti-Rain and a bunch of rogue dolls.

I wipe my blurry eyes again and sniff back my tears. "Alright, if you're so smart then, why did 404 join in? What about Anti-Rain? They're all special."

"Please." He rolls his eyes. "Anti-Rain has some of the dolls this plan was supposed to help most."

Liar.

"404… well, Gentiane wanted them to stick around one way or another."

LIAR.

"Shut up!" I roar, and Ricardo jumps. I wasn't talking to him, but it works. "That's stupid and you know it!"

Ricardo licks his lips. "Okay, so maybe some of them fell for you. Those isolationist idiots in 404 were clearly not used to human contact, I'll grant you that. But the rest, Oh, I'm sure Gentiane screwed with the settings! I have a recording! It's… fuck, it's…!" He squirms around. "Okay, I didn't want to tell you about this, but look for another document in the vault. REYZC-592-10C. It's got the coordinates of a hidden stash of information. It's got that recording on it."

I look into his eyes. He… he doesn't look like he's lying. The voice in my head shut up as well.

"Why is there something like that in there?"

He gives me a blank look. "I have access to the most secure vault in the city. Where else would I put info that secretive?"

Good point.

Reluctantly, I head back into the vault and start sorting through the boxes, looking for the one containing the info.

Eventually, I pull down a box and find the file. I pull it open and find several sets of coordinates, followed by itemized lists of random letters and numbers. There's a pattern to it, but I'm having trouble focusing on that.

"Have you found it?" Ricardo asks from outside the room.

"Yes."

"It's item AUD-20650316-184539. Listen to that!"

First of all, I locate the file in question, noting which set of coordinates are being used to mark its location. I quietly search up the coordinates with the Linker and find that they're within the borders of the city. Not far from here, actually. I could get there on foot in about ten minutes.

"Seriously, Commander Gentiane is just using you. Please, I'm begging you. Let me go and I can prove that you really shouldn't be working with them." He ramps up the pleading. "Seriously, there's a ton of problems in Griffin. Yeah, I wanted Gentiane to myself and I was pissed I didn't get to play video games as much as I wanted, but Anisim opened my eyes! There's so much wrong that Paradeus can make right, and you're only hurting more people by joining her. Listen to that audio file, and message me when you make a decision."

Still scanning the items, I realize that a bunch of them are audio files, that's what 'AUD' means. There's also a bunch of 'COR' items… Maybe those are doll cores? My heartbeat quickens.

"...Let's pretend I believe you." I keep the folder in my right hand as I grab my pistol again, leaving the room. "Do you really think-?"

I come face to face with not one, but two people.

Ricardo's legs are freed, the paracord kicked off his ankles. Behind him, someone wearing crimson red is working on the knot near his hands. From her face, two reddish-orange eyes look back at me.

"Bren." I whisper.

Oh FUCK!

I raise my pistol, but Bren is quicker, leaping backwards and dropping her commander, likely saving his life as the bullet whizzes past his head. She draws her own firearm-

I re-aim and pull the trigger as fast as I can, the Linker helping me adjust my aim in real time. Dammit, I should have brought my exo suit-!

Bren rings her own firearm to bear and takes a few shots at me, forcing me to duck back into the vault.

Shit.

SHIT!

I set down the folders and take a breath to calm myself.

Don't let her escape with the traitor.

"I told you to shut up." I growl to the empty air.

The voice once more goes away.

"Hello Hadwin!" RPK's voice punches through the panic via my Linker. "I'm back!"

"RPK, there's a situation."

"Ah?"

"Bren- uh, one of Ricardo's dolls- is currently down here. I need help."

"I see. Is it an advanced model?"

"I don't think so-"

"Then, this will be easy." She cuts me off.

I peek around the corner just in time to see Bren grab her commander with one hand, the other leveling a pistol at the door. She's backing away slowly.

In the darkness behind her, I see two pinpricks of light, bright in the shadow, running this way with incredible speed. Black form silhouetted by the faint light of a distant stairway.

RPK sprints out of the darkness before Bren can react, slamming into the other woman's back. All three of them fall to the floor, and RPK wastes no time in wrestling Bren under herself.

And then, the screaming starts.

If I was in any doubt that dolls can feel pain, that thought forever leaves my head here and now. RPK starts maneuvering the clearly weaker Bren's limbs into position before snapping them with her own.

Bren's screams are enough to wake the dead.

I can feel myself start to shake as I watch.

Once done, RPK gets to her feet, tugging at the edges of her suit. "There. No more problems."

"Bren-!" Ricardo gets out, his voice strangled. "You! What did you do to Bren!"

He did worse.

I narrow my eyes. Sure, RPK's… extreme, but Bren's still alive.

P90 isn't.

"I-" Bren chokes out a sob. "I'm so s-sorry, Commander."

I steel myself and walk out of the room, folders once more in hand.

"Bren…" Ricardo scoots closer to his adjutant. "It's okay, it's okay."

"Not for long." RPK twirls her sidearm in her hand in a way that makes me nervous. "Hadwin, what should we do with them?"

I frown, staring at the two. They're the culprits. They're the reason so much of my life has been blood and death.

They don't deserve to live.

Bren clutches Ricardo's shirt, sobbing. Ricardo is doing his best to comfort her, but his eyes are flicking back and forth between me and RPK.

"Hadwin, do you have the documents?"

I hand them to her and she looks into them. "Yeah. Everything should be there."

"Well, we need to get a move on." RPK stops spinning the gun. With her other hand and aims it at Bren. "So sorry."

Ricardo leans over Bren, spoiling RPK's shot, and her face splits into a grin. "Volunteering to go first?"

"Wait." I hold my hand up, and all three sets of eyes track to me. "Let's just throw them in the vault."

"Oh?" RPK's eyes are filled with amusement and Ricardo's own are cautious. Bren's are unreadable.

"Yeah. No point in dealing with them, they're beaten." I nod.

Ricardo's eyes suddenly flick down to the folder under my arm and then back up to my face, understanding my intentions.

RPK narrows her eyes, before shrugging. "I don't mind. AK-12 always does things that seem crazy at the time, and it always works out."

"Alright." I look back at Ricardo. "Get into the vault."

He gets to his feet, and RPK thankfully grabs the broken Bren and hauls her after as I continue to cover them with my pistol.

Once Ricardo is inside, I order him to sit down inside, between two shelves. RPK drops Bren near him as I lean forward and cut the paracord on his wrists.

He pulls his damaged doll onto his lap, stroking her hair, eyes still tracking my pistol. "What now?"

"I close the door and you hope someone notices." I shrug. "There's air vents. You'll survive."

He nods slowly. "Of course, of course. I, uh, I might have misjudged you a bit."

"Save it." I growl.

He shuts up, going back to stroking Bren's hair. Bren's no longer sobbing, but has her eyes closed. The artificial skin is dyed from large internal coolant leaks.

It's a pitiful sight.

I step out of the room, pulling the door mostly closed behind me. "Hey, RPK?"

"Hmm?"

"Did you get the bottle of alcohol?"

"Yes." She pulls a bottle out of her messenger bag. "Is this good?"

"Yep." I pause. "Why don't you head upstairs first?"

"...Any particular reason?"

"No, I suppose not." I tuck the bottle and the folder under one arm and with the other draw the last thing I'll need. "You can watch if you want."

After saying that, I slam the door back open, finding a surprised Ricardo and Bren on the other side of the door. Ricardo has a gun in his hands, but it's not ready to fire.

Before he can react, I smash the bottle on the rack of boxes, showering him and everything in the vicinity in the liquid.

He immediately begins rubbing his eyes, getting the burning liquid out of his eyes. By the time they're clear, I have the folder held up in front me and the last item in my other hands.

A lighter.

"Wha-"

"You know what you did?" I crouch down to the man's level. "You gave me hope. Hope that Someone I care about is alive. However, that hope is gone, and it hurts." I start burning the edge of the document and his eyes go wide.

"W-Wait, that's got so much important-"

"So, now that you had hope that Bren would survive, how does it feel?" I toss the burning document onto one of the boxes doused in alcohol and it immediately starts burning like crazy.

"How does it feel to have someone you care about killed?"

"No… NO!" Ricardo goes into a panic even as I step backwards, grabbing the door handle. "NO! You can't do this! I- I have so much to- A-At least take Bren!" He pleads.

Bren's eyes open once more, looking from me, back to her commander.

"No."

I slam the door shut.

Vaguely, I can hear yelling from the other side of the door, as well as a bangng after a few seconds.

I turn to RPK. "Still here?"

She opens her hand. "Had to collect the brass and rounds that I could find. Don't want anyone to find those."

The yelling turns to screaming and I consider plugging my ears. "Let's go, before I go even crazier."

She raises an eyebrow as we start walking out. "You're crazy?"

I glance back once. "Yeah, I think I might be."

Then we walk out and I don't look back again.

---

"I managed to get the camera system down and erase the logs after I got the server to AN-94. We should be covered-'' She notices RPK's and my approach. "Hadwin."

I nod to her and focus on the person she's talking to.

Angelia sits in the driver seat of the van, with AN-94 and AK-15 in the back. RPK walks towards the back with a nonchalant gait as Angelia turns to face me.

"Hey kid." She pats the seat beside herself. "Sit up here. I hear you got quite banged up."

I step up to the passenger door, but I don't open the door. Instead, I lean on the windowsill, relieved to take the pressure off of my ribcage. "You could say that."

"He's been through a lot, but he keeps getting back up. He's very interesting." AK-12 smiles at her commander.

"I see." Angelia glances at the door and fiddles with her door, the door underneath me clicking as it reaffirms that it is indeed unlocked. "Well, hop in. We've got to report back to Commander Gentiane."

"...Yeah." I grab the door handle, but I don't pull the door open. "Actually… I'm gonna walk home."

She blinks at me. "Hmm? AK-15 told me you're pretty injured."

"I'll be fine." I let go of the door and back up a step.

"Hadwin." AK-12's eyes crack open. "Get in the car. You need medical attention."

"What?" Angelia turns to me. "You are?"

"It's nothing serious." I lie and they both just look at me like I said my head was full of spiders. I don't back down though. "Look, I'm just gonna get my backpack and walk back, okay?"

"Hadwin…" AK-12's eyes open fully.

I grimace in the bright light, but I refuse to shy away from it.

"Ange, make him come with us." AK-12 orders.

Ange drums on the steering wheel with her fingers. "I'm heading straight back to the hotel to drop AK-12 and AN-94 off, give Gentiane some info, and then I'm heading home. Are you sure you don't want to come along? It's a long walk and I'm not coming back here."

"Ange!" AK-12 sounds somewhere between shocked and frustrated.

"I… I need some time to think things over." I find I can't look her in the eyes. "Thanks though. Tell Commander Gentiane I'll be back soon."

"...Suit yourself." She puts the van into gear. "Don't take too long. Gentiane might be content to wait for you, but I know several others who won't be."

AK-12 huffs and opens the passenger door, sitting in the passenger seat herself.

The van's engine revs and starts to pull out, driving out of the alley and into the empty street.

I look behind the dumpster, retrieve my backpack, and stuff all of my gear into it. A mechanical motion that I barely consciously recognize as my brain twists and turns, trying to make sense of my actions.

Eventually, I'm done packing and I come to the disturbing conclusion that I hadn't gone insane.

I had just burned two people to death.

My head feels like it's splitting apart, part of me rebelling against what I saw, what I felt, insisting it didn't happen.

That I'm still me.

The rest of me knows that I'm not so far gone that I could have imagined that.

Any food I had in my stomach empties out of my mouth and I collapse to the floor retching over and over.

I… I did that.

I killed people.

Someone begging for their life and the life of one of their precious companions, who herself was broken and battered, not a threat to me or anyone I cared about.

What… am I?

I dry heave again, having lost any and all contents of my stomach the first few times I wretched.

I'm a monster. A cold blooded murderer.

What the hell was I thinking?

I wipe my face and stumble out of the alley, at first worrying that someone would see me. Then again, I probably smell like booze, puke, and look like shit. Anyone who sees me will probably just think I'm just a drunkard.

I walk down the street, hunched over to try to avoid putting stress on my rib.

What am I going to do now?

I don't want to go back to the hotel, dozens of eyes that will look at me with disappointment or resentment.

No, they wouldn't act like that. They're combat dolls. They're not going to treat me any different, and that's… that's worse.

A police car races past, followed by an ambulance.

I watch after them, not exactly surprised to see them pulling to a stop in front of the building. Looks like someone woke up and sounded the alarm. Faster than I would have expected though.

Then, a fire truck swings onto the street, and I realize what I thought was the light reflecting in the windows of the building was flickering flame.

Okay, now is NOT the time to gawk.

I turn, put my head down, and continue walking. I am not going to get caught by the police!

I manage to get a good bit away before I relax enough to look up. I've walked myself into an area that still has people even at that late hour, a fact attributed to the many bars lining the street.

Well… I'm lost.

My earlier panic is now added onto the sheer panic of being in an unfamiliar place and not having a way to get yourself out of trouble.

I reach for my cell phone only to remember that I had left it with 416 so anyone tracking the signal wouldn't realize where I had been. Same with my wallet. I consider just asking around, but suddenly all of the people around me are staring at me, judging me for the sins I've committed.

No, I can't risk it.

Reluctantly, I pull the Linker from its resting position around my neck.

After the initial bootup, the device faithfully shows me an arrow, pointing back towards the hotel.

Technology is incredible, isn't it?

I start walking, careful to avoid the drunkards staggering around and the homeless begging for change, and I avoid dark alleys because I don't like what I see in the darkness.

I follow the arrow for a good five minutes before realizing that something's wrong. The haze from my still present panic slowed down the judgment, I'm sure.

Instead of heading into the downtown area, the arrow is pointing me into a more residential area, one that looks a little more run down than I'd have liked. I'm not sure how it got the locations wrong…

So much for technology.

"Okay, Linker. Where are you taking me, because I'm pretty sure the hotel isn't this way."

Instead of a verbal answer, a string of numbers etches itself in the sky, burning numerals against the dark night sky.

A set of coordinates.

My skin crawls as I realize where the Linker had been taking me. No, I burned that. I don't have a good enough memory-

One of the buildings suddenly glows in an unearthly light, and below the coordinates a street address forms much like the coordinates as if being burned into the very sky itself.

Yeah, I remembered that address all right.

I carefully walk towards the building, or rather, the alley between the two buildings.

There's nothing I can see in there with the Linker's enhanced vision, but I stand there staring into the alley with trepidation.

At the edge of my vision, I see more text being written.

The code for the audio from Ricardo.

Did… Did I subconsciously decide to come here?

Carefully, wishing I had kept my pistol out, I step into the alley. Then I step again.

Nothing attacks me.

The arrow disappears a few more cautious steps in, and the whole alley grows still.

"...What now?" I mutter to myself.

Thankfully, there's no answer. If there was, I would have had a heart attack.

I'm about to just turn around and leave when a brick on one of the walls starts to glow like a video game. Looking closer, it's got a symbol carved into it, not anything I recognize, but it's clearly marked.

I poke the brick and it pivots in place, something small falling out from behind it. I bend down to find… a portable data storage device. I pick it up and examine it, no identifiable markings on it. I keep it in my hand as I look behind the brick.

Four IOP doll cores are tucked into this small cavity. My heart starts beating faster as I pull them out, but my nervous energy starts to fade as I realize that none of the cores have power. Even if there was data on the cores, it's long gone.

If there was a copy of P90, she's long gone.

I slump down against the wall, listening to the muted sounds coming from outside the alley. A whole world that doesn't know what I had just done. The wrongs I've committed. The friend I've lost. I could fade away here and nobody would know where I went.

I think I might even be doing the world a favor too.

Listen.

I start, looking around for the voice, but once more it seems to be entirely in my head.

The data device sits in my hand, taunting me with information.

Listen… to the file?

I close my eyes.

Learn the truth.

I reluctantly switch off the Linker, pull the data stick up, comparing ports. Finding one with the same dimensions, I plug the small device in and turn the Linker on.

My vision fills with a file browser and hundreds of files, the data contained on the drive.

My eyes latch onto AUD-20650316-184539.

The file.

I peek around a dumpster to make sure I'm really alone, then lean back, close my eyes, and hit play.

---

Authors' Notes:
Serious time.

I'm considering the future of this fic. It may not go on as long as I was planning. It may not go on at all.

I had this chapter done two days after posting the previous chapter. Then, Dual Randomness hits and I realize that all of my characterizations of RPK and AK-15 are wrong. After binging the story, I had to scramble to rewrite the entire DEFY portion. I think I did the characters justice, and I'm glad I didn't post this just before DR came out. I was going to post it early, but my Beta wisely told me to wait for DR to hit. I had to scramble to get it out since this weekend I have another car show, and will not be available aside to post the fic from my hotel. Speedrunning DR wasn't fun either, trust me. I sacrificed a night's sleep so I could kick this chapter out with proper context.

That and other factors have made me realize that this fic isn't fun to write anymore, and without that, I have very little drive to continue. I feel like I'm being pulled in so many directions and I can't keep up. This leads me to the conclusion that I really should be taking a break. I have a decent amount of chapter 28 done and 29 is already fully laid out along with an extensive notes document, so I will be able to pick it up when, or if, I come back. If I one day decide not to release any more chapters, I will endeavor to provide a bullet point list of the highlights of each chapter and the major decisions should I give up on the fic.

Thank you for reading. I will be turning off my FFN notifications for a while, so don't expect responses to reviews or PMs for the foreseeable future. I'm sorry, but I just can't handle it for now. Hopefully, I will see you all in the future.

Peace.

Beta Notes: Well, on a completely different tone of note.
Ah yes, a Chinese game set in Russia with American weapons speaking in Japanese with English translation as the main cast, and a .45-70 Government (Yes, I'm talking about Contender and I don't know if that caliber is right, dun go bullying me on it) can take down a Typhon.
Very diverse is it not?
But hey, the traitor is officially dead! MW2 style…kinda…