Chapter 3: Kill Switch

~Planeptune Basilicom, Lastation Embassy~

"What has president Hatsumi said about dealing with the Counter Fascist Weapon unit? The rioters? No – at this point, they've basically become an insurrection." one Lastation official lamented.

"Neither president Hatsumi nor Lady Neptune have made any official statements toward CFW or the Lastation riot. All they have told us is that the combined armed forces of Planeptune and Lastation soldiers are gathered on the border and ready to strike at any time." Another official muttered. "We're going to be killing our own citizens…"

"This is all your fault!" Another official took a chair and chucked it at Uni who was sitting in the corner of the room, the chair hit the spot next to Uni's head, leaving a significant dent in the wall. The other officials held him back as he screamed and cursed at the candidate.

"They're right" Uni whispered to herself as she further crawled into the corner. "They're right and everything's your fault." She had a blank expression on her face, too numb to be visibly distressed or depressed.

"People are going to die and it's your fault! There's blood on your hands you miserable wretch!" The official kept screaming until security pulled him out of the room.

"Lady Uni, are you okay?" One of the female officials knelt down next to Uni and held her shoulder. "Please, this isn't the time to be like this! If this chaos continues any further then-"

"I'll be awaiting orders from Lady Neptune, that's all." Uni said bluntly, the official started shook her head joined with the others, who were passing around alcohol.

As Uni was ready to drift off into sleep, time itself seemed to slow down around her. With her head up in a panic, the whole room around her seemed to go dark. She instinctively pulled out her sidearm from the holster under her shoulder, only for it to be grabbed by a hand that emerged from the darkness.

"Noire!?" Uni screamed.

The apparition of her sister shook her head as she pulled Uni in and flipped her over. Noire took the pistol from her sister and dismantled it, letting its parts scatter across the black floor.

"Even in your head I'm still better. I'm flattered, sis." Noire chuckled as she went in to embrace her sister with a hug.

But Uni, filled with anger, unsheathed a knife she had in her boot pocket and ran toward her sister, who smacked away her arm, launching the knife into the air, causing Uni to trip into her arms.

"Go away! Go away!" Uni screamed as she held tightly to the image of her sister.

"I'm not here to ask for forgiveness. I'm here to warn you." Noire said in soft tone, a tone which Uni never heard for decades. "Neptune may believe that staying away and letting mankind deal with its problems is the solution, and she may very well have the reason to believe so. But she doesn't realize that people like me rise when there is no one to stop them." Noire dusted off Uni's back and pushed her away gently.

"So, what… what do you want me to do?"

"I'm dead, dead to you and dead to the world. I have no right to order anyone. I can only ask you that very same question, Uni. What do you want? Not what Neptune, Nepgear, Histoire, Hatsumi, or your officials want. What do you want?"

"I want the people of Lastation to be safe, protected. I want to stop being like this… being this miserable mess of a person…"

The blackened room seem to lighten up and reveal the officials who were slowly becoming inebriated.

"Then go…" Noire nodded her head toward the officials before disappearing into the darkness.

Uni woke up on her side. Her head felt as if a massive weight had been lifted away from it, she wasn't sure if this was a mere fluke of the mind or if she was merely pretending to herself that she was capable. But it didn't matter to her anymore, she couldn't care less if she died now, all that mattered was fixing the problem by any means.

The candidate looked up the security camera in the embassy and then approached her officials. She couldn't speak what she wanted to say without warranting the suspicion of Basilicom security. She merely made a hand gesture on her officials would know, and their faces lit up with glee.

"That's our Uni…" The female official choked out as she smiled.

~Planeptune Basilicom Delta 04 hanger~

Uni and her officials approached the transports that evacuated them and other Lastation Basilicom staff. Due to the rushed nature of the evacuation, Basilicom security did very little checks to see what the Lastation had packed, only doing minor checks to see if there were any intruders or insurrectionist aboard.

Uni's officials boarded one of the transports and brought out a pile of suitcases with Uni's name engraved on them.

The female official opened one case and struggled to lift out the .75 handgun and its magazines out of the case. Another two officials had to work together to lift a single .55 caliber automatic rifle of its case. They placed each weapon on a nearby table as Uni did a sight and pressure check on each one.

The rifle was fitted with a sniper stock and a variable Advanced Combat Optical and Holographic combination sight. At the barrel of the gun was a built-in suppressor, and on the left side of the barrel was a high velocity laser sight and flashlight combo, the former doubling as a heartbeat sensor and the latter doubling as a flashbang. Underneath the barrel was fitted a master key attachment which was capable of loading in 24-Gauge rounds.

Uni put on her tactical harness, magazine belts, and grenade strips which formed into a mini skirt. Just as she was about to board, a small voice called out to her, leaving the officials frozen in shock.

"Uni! Where are you going?" Histoire yelled as she flew after them.

"Sorry Histoire, but if you're going to stop me from doing this, you're going to have to kill me." Uni smirked and signaled her officials to start up the transport.

"Oh, I know that… You Lastation CPUs were always so stubborn. But you aren't going to get far without direction!" Histoire took out a small drive from her back pocket and flew toward Uni's hand. "Our scouts have been scanning the country for the whereabouts of CFW. The biggest lead we got was one of them approaching The Graveyard, the coordinates are listed here."

Uni reluctantly took the drive. "And how do I know you aren't going to track me with this?"

"Where will you go without it?" Histoire demanded.

Uni looked back at her ship with concern, but then back at the sky ahead with resolve. "Alright Histoire, I'll play your game." The candidate took the drive and tossed it to one of her officials and boarded the plane with them.

"Are you sure you're okay with the basilicom tracking us?" One official asked.

"If Nepgear learns I ran off without her she'd start breaking things… I'll keep It up for the basilicom's safety."

The officials chuckled with Uni as the transport left Planeptune's hanger. "Lady Uni, we're really glad you're doing this."

"Don't thank me, I should've been doing this from the start." Uni faced the rising sun in the distance. It wouldn't be long until the armed forces on the border would converge in on the insurrection in the basilicom. Her nation would become a sea of blood, just as Leanbox had become, and she wasn't willing to let history repeat itself, even if it meant her own life.

~Gamindustri Graveyard skies, a few hours later~

Every official in the ship was tapping their leg with nervousness as the transport neared the drop point.

"2 Minutes until drop!" The pilot yelled.

Uni threw away the cigarette she was smoking toward the center of the transport and approached the exit of the plane. The graveyard was haunting from below, centuries of age-old weapons and abandoned technology gathered in the once place the continent agreed to share.

The mass amount of residue and abandoned share energy seemed to mess with the nature of the graveyard, the laws of physics seemed to contradict itself as mass amounts of plates, gear, platforms, weapons, and corpses seemed to float in the air.

The exit door opened completely, and the rush of the air brought the cigarette rolling back toward Uni. Just as it approached Uni, the candidate lifted her foot in the air and stomped it out.

"1 Minute till drop!" The pilot yelled.

"You can do this Lady Uni!" the female official cheered.

"The fate of Lastation's people rest on this… Godspeed!" Another official said.

Uni closed her eyes and saw an image Noire disappear into nothing, she really was all her country had left.

"Five!"

Uni rustled her shoulders and approached the edge of the exit bay.

"Four!"

The officials stood up and saluted Uni.

"Three!"

The candidate's breathing slowed down, calming her heartrate for the upcoming jump.

"Two!"

The clouds cleared up and Uni gathered a full view of the graveyard below.

"One!"

Uni turned back and faced her officials, lifting her arms up to her side.

"Jump!"

Uni, falling backwards with a leap of faith, fell fast through the air. She closed her eyes for a moment and reopened them to see a machine fly toward her in the air.

"That was fucking quick!" Uni snapped open the thruster kit that was placed on her back giving her greater control over herself in the air.

The machine approaching had dark black and neon blue armor, with a skull placed just below its stomach. Between it's massive thrusters was a massive cog which seemed to act as its levitation device. The machine's wings were sharp, almost like massive claws embedded on its back. As for its weapon, it was a long poleaxe and spear combo, with a pilebunker placed at the end of the handle.

Uni opened fire with her rifle only for its rounds to bounce off its armor. "So, it going to be like that!"

The machine wings faced Uni and from it's tips fired condensed photon blasts at the candidate who barely dodged each one until one grazed her right thigh. As the machine swung and flew past Uni, the candidate caught a glimpse of the nameplate on its chest. "CFW: Judge"

Uni used the thruster kit and landed on a nearby piece of debris that was floating in midair, with her feet lodged into it, she arched her body back to lift the debris upward and use it as cover to block CFW Judge's lasers.

Judge broke through the debris only to be met by a beltful of grenades which detonated in his face, disorienting him as he flew downward.

As Judge's vision recovered, he saw Uni charge at him with her rifle firing directly at him. The machine swung his axe at her, but she managed to dodge and fire a full blank of shotgun shells directly at its face.

With the extra momentum, Uni landed on another piece of debris in the air, Judge, now far more wary of the candidate, threw his poleaxe at the debris and detonated it on impact, Uni barely getting any time to jump away.

As the explosion went off, Uni's thruster kit was badly damaged which jolted her suddenly, with her rifle slipping away from her hand. The candidate found herself crashing toward the ground.

With a far less than graceful landing, Uni crashed against the dozens of abandoned machines in the graveyard, breaking her mechanical arm in the process.

"CPU Candidate of Lastation! It was foolish of you to approach us. Without an HDD no less!" Judge scanned the area but saw no sign of the candidate until he stumbled upon her mechanical arm.

"Ah? These bionics? What a pitiful display of strength! Any CPU worth half her salt would've been able to regenerate their limbs effortlessly! No wonder the Tennouboshi's have taken over." Judge took the robotic arm in his hand and inspected it.

As the hulking machine was monologuing, Uni took out a C8 charge and ran toward Judge from behind.

"How pitiful!" Judge immediately snapped around and sunk his secondary polearm into Uni stomach, with her caught at the end of the polearm, Judge raised her into the air.

"To think Lady Noire would've left behind such embarrassing garbage! I'm almost embarrassed for her as well!" Judge laughed as he swung his polearm downward, launching Uni across the graveyard with a gaping wound across her stomach and chest.

Uni managed to pull herself up with a gleeful smirk across her face. Her only hand was placed over the wound as she limped toward Judge.

"Is that the smile of a cornered rat?" Judge yelled.

"Nope! I just have nothing to lose anymore!" Uni opened up a holographic menu and activated her robotic arm remotely.

"What!?" The arm the Judge picked up suddenly boosted with a rocket behind it and slammed it into Judge's face, detonating with a massive explosion that blinded Judge's optics.

Uni took the opportunity and grabbed a pack of C8 explosives and punched it into Judge's stomach and kicked off of him onto nearby floating debris which she used as cover to absorb the impact of the explosion.

The blast launched Uni off of her platform back in the dirt, smashing her head against the ground once more.

"Oh Judge… you utter buffoon. Look what you've done to yourself." Another machine approached Uni, who was barely managing to pick herself back up.

"You're…" Uni vomited up some blood against the ground before standing back up. "You're next!" She croaked through her bloodstained mouth as she held her handgun against the next machine in front of her.

The machine was rather knightly, upon his chest was the insignia of a roaring lion, and his helmet seemed to match that of samurai warriors from the old world that Noire had once told her about. Upon the machine's chest was the name "CFW: Brave"

Uni fired a round from her handgun, with her body barely able to maintain the recoil as her arm swung back wildly. The knightly machine barely flinched as it slowly approached Uni.

"There's no need for anymore fighting, Lady Uni. I have no intention to fight you unlike my kin." The machine walked next to Uni and knelt downward and held out its hand to Uni for her to rest on.

"The hell you talking about!?" Uni fired another round, but her body was barely able to sit still, and the handgun flew out of her hands.

"My words are true, I have no intention to fight you, I merely wish to understand why you came to us instead. Your intentions are to stop the upcoming civil war between the Planeptune Lastation coalition and the insurrection that took over, correct? So why have you come here? Lady Uni?"

"I kill you, insurrection has no protection against CPUs, everything goes back to… normal…" Uni was barely able to maintain focus, and almost against her own will she fell onto Brave's hand. The candidate pulled out a first aid spray which stopped the bleeding and numbed the pain, but it would still be awhile until she healed herself completely.

"Your logic is flawed Lady Uni. The Counter Fascist Weapon unit is merely a vessel of those who are against Planeptune's rule over the entirety of Gamindustri. Even if you could destroy us, the insurrection in Lastation's basilicom would still continue until its dying breath. If anything, you've shown that you're no different than the insurrection when it comes to rational decision making." CFW Brave lifted Uni and placed her on a nearby angled platform. With Uni rested on it, CFW Brave sat down beside her.

"What are you trying to say?" Uni was too much in pain to properly process anything Brave said.

"You believe that fighting until the absolute end for a virtuous victory will solve your problems. The insurrection believes that dying in a hopeless battle against the Planeptune-Lastation coalition will grant them independence. But neither of these actions solve or even address the main issue. Lastation is in shambles. It's economy was heavily based on weapons manufacturing, but when the war ended, the country was unable to adapt to the changing tides. Now the populous is consumed with poverty, agriculture, services, welfare, Planeptune's government has provided little of it, and when the CPUs were expected to step in a solve these problems, little was done."

"So… what am I supposed to do?" Uni pleaded. She couldn't help but feel that Brave was right, she wasn't fighting the problem that consumed Lastation, only a symptom of it.

"I'll be honest with you Uni… unless you can repair Lastation's infrastructure, provide fertile land, and cure many of those afflicted and unable to receive medical aid. All I can do is ensure that the battle that ensues ends quickly. A Grimm and unfortunate fate, but one that is likely inevitable.

Uni was willing to give up and realize that bloodshed was inevitable. But then she looked down at the stump on her right arm. The reason she lost that arm was due to having to save IF and Cave from Vio's laboratory.

"Vio…" Uni muttered to herself, CFW Brave turned to her with a curious expression.

Uni remembered a time when she was being experimented on by Vio. She remembered portions of her share energy being siphoned away from her and used to restore matter across 4-dimensional space. The candidate stood back up in front of Brave and noticed that he had taken some damage in his left arm.

"Ah that? Just a scuffle with some Lastation soldiers, Magic's gathering some parts to repair this old thing."

Uni opened up the holographic menu, it was a system left behind by Vio to manipulate her body, Histoire managed to code out all the manipulative programs but there was one program that Histoire couldn't remove no matter how hard she tried. The Kill Switch program.

Uni opened up the menu and amongst it was a list of many of her body parts. "Brave, do me a favor will you? Bring your left arm to my face."

Reluctant, Brave slowly moved his arm in front of Uni.

On the holographic menu, Uni pressed the option titled "left eye". At first, nothing happened, and Uni wondered if Vio ever finished the program at all, but then suddenly, a sharp pain burst through her head and her left eye exploded into share energy that not only repaired CFW Brave's arm but many of the of abandoned machines around in the graveyard. Decades and centuries old machines were restarted to perfect condition, the polluted air cleansed itself and the ground below her softened as bits of grass slowly grew over it.

"So that's it huh? Sacrifice my body and restore Lastation…" Uni chuckled at, but then slowly stepped back into a delirious laugh as she clenched her face from the erupting pain in her left eye. "Vio you son of a bitch! Who would've thought your garbage experiments would've actually saved lives!?" Uni laughed as her future became clear, what was once a weapon that would be used to destroy the world would now destroy itself to save it.

"So that's how it's going to be…" Brave stood up straight.

"You said it yourself Brave! Unless I repair the infrastructure, cure the sick and bring back the welfare, nothing's going to be fixed. Look, Lastation for the past year has done nothing but destroy itself and the world around for years. Ever since I became a candidate all I ever wanted was to protect and serve my people. Here I am with the opportunity, and the will…"

Uni took out a flare from here belt and snapped it open, signaling her officials to come down.

"Uni… I hope you've made the right decision" Brave nodded to her as he walked away.

The officials flew down and picked her up, with a one-way course to Lastation's basilicom.

~Planeptune Infirmary, one hour later~

Nepgear woke up with an aching pain on top of her head. The T.V was playing a news report that sounded urgent, but Nepgear couldn't make out what it was. Nepgear was trying hard to open her eyes until she felt a slight tug on her left cheek that woke her up completely.

"Histoire?" Was the first thing Nepgear said waking up. He body was mostly still as the only thing she could really move around was her eyes and bits of her arms and legs.

"Lady Nepgear, I see you've woken up from your… scuffle with your older sister…"

Nepgear managed to lift herself up somewhat, just enough to clearly see the news that was displayed on the T.V. Famitsu was live on the scene with Coalition forces opening fire and engaging in combat with Insurrectionist forces near Lastation's basilicom. Nepgear was horrified as she saw young children with rifles in arms fighting against the soldiers they believed were supposed to protect them.

"Goddamit! I should be doing something!" Nepgear grabbed her IV stand and pulled herself out of the hospital bed. "Where's Uni, is she already in Lastation?"

"She's definitely on her way there…" Histoire opened up the tracker that was following the drive that she gave Uni. "She heading to Lastation's basilicom from the graveyard."

"The hell was she doing at the graveyard!?" Nepgear yelled, gathering the attention of some nearby nurses.

"She wished to go herself. I had no control over her, and Neptune is… well she's busy right now." Histoire lamented.

"That useless bitch! Look, I'll chase after Uni, can you get a transport ready for me?" Nepgear was now fully out of bed and heading for the exit of the infirmary, brushing off any doctor or nurse that approached her.

"I'm opening Hanger gamma – 01"

"Lady Histoire" One nurse pleaded "Surely you don't think Nepgear is in any condition to go out into that battlefield!"

"I've known that girl for more than eight years now, if there's anything she doesn't give a damn about, its herself. Let her go."

~Lastation Basilicom~

Uni looked down, terrified as her citizens were at arms against her soldiers. Blood was splattered across the streets and Uni was already reminded of the horror she saw days ago.

"Lady Uni, if we get any closer to the basilicom, we might get shot down!" The pilot warned.

"Alright! Fly up higher, this thruster kit should break my fall, somewhat."

"But Lady Uni, the thruster kit isn't fully repaired!" The female official panicked as she fiddled around with her wrench.

"That's fine, can it at least break my fall?" Uni was wriggling around with her robotic arm replacement.

The official checked the machine and tested the thruster capability, it didn't float for very long, but it definitely floated.

"It'll do, open the door pilot!"

The exit bay opened, and Uni immediately jumped out with the thruster kit in hand. She fell rapidly and held the thruster kit tightly, just as she was a couple dozen meters above the basilicom's roof the activated the thruster kit which flew out of her hand but broke her fall just enough that she only broke her leg upon landing on the roof.

The screams and pains of the fighting down below gave Uni all the urgency she need to push forward toward the edge of the roof and grabbed onto the Planeptune flag atop Lastation's basilicom.

"STOP!" the desperate CPU cried, but alas the fighting continued as her scream was drowned by the gunfire and explosions of the civil war before her.

Uni opened the Kill Switch menu and stared down the final option at the very bottom titled "ABSOLUTE" an option that would sacrifice her entire body to expand mass share energy.

Upon hitting the option, another massive button appeared before her. "HOLD TO CONFRIM" was written on it, and without hesitation, Uni slammed her fist against the button, as it slowly filled in.

A loud crash shocked the candidate enough for her to let go, behind her, a Planeptune transport crashed into the top of the basilicom. From the wreckage emerged Nepgear limping out in pain.

"Uni!' She called out "UNI!" Nepgear saw the Kill Switch menu and immediately pieced everything together.

"I'm sorry Nepgear, this is just how it is… Noire and Vio's actions can't go with consequence, and I will be the bearer of them, not the people of Lastation!"

"This isn't going to solve anything! Once you're gone, Lastation will be without a CPU and the same problem will just occur once again!"

"Nonsense Gearsy… when I'm gone, maybe you'll take over my position, or maybe it'll Rom or Ram? Regardless… I'm sorry. And thank you… for everything" Uni choked out with a bittersweet smile.

Nepgear limped toward her rapidly, but Uni pulled out her gun and aimed it at Nepgear. "Just stop… please… let me go…"

"UNI DON'T!" Nepgear didn't care and kept walking toward Uni.

A loud gunshot rang through the sky, and the world as a whole came to a stop.

To Be Continued.