Some days, it just doesn't feel worth it to get out of bed.

Sometimes it's because of the hangover, sometimes it's lingering pain from all the wounds gathered over the years. Sometimes, it's because I've just made a fool of myself and wish I could wake up and do the day over.

Right now, it's because this stupid doll we're fighting has laser beams. Why do my enemies always have laser beams?!

At least this time it's green. Variety is the spice of life, after all.

"Which doesn't make sense." P90 huffs. "The Paradeus lasers weren't red, they were atomizing the dust in the air which made it seem red. This must be some sort of particle beam with high energy particles that emit light."

"But-"

The doll we're fighting launches yet another barrage of missiles, and P90 quickly maps out their trajectories. After the first wave, we had quickly figured out that they don't detonate on impact, but have motion sensors built in and if someone walks up to them that's when they blow up.

I have the shrapnel buried in my arm to prove it.

The tall doll stalks closer even as the hail of missiles rains down, each step on her spiky legs reminding me of the Paradeus' Patrollers, but less jumpy.

I fire a burst at her face, but the face shield deflects the small metal projectiles.

"Nemesis, can your rifle penetrate that faceplate?"

"Uneven skies… grown over the concrete jungle."

"Is that a no?"

Krolik's voice is strained as she cuts another Aegis unit in half, blade flashing back and forth as she dances among the enemy. "Not until she gets her pattern remolding device charged!"

"Pattern what?" I leap from my cover as it turns to slag after another of the Enemy Doll's laser blasts.

"It's plasma."

"Shut up, 90."

"The reverse collapse devices Miss Persica gave us." Suomi helpfully provides. "Mine is currently at thirty percent!"

Krolik is forced to disengage by a veritable hail of gunfire from the Aegis waking up around the edge of the room. "Fifty-two."

"A path in the sky-" A rifle report sounds, detonating the partially buried missile. I duck behind my cover once again as the first explosion triggers more of the motion sensors in a chain reaction, tearing apart the concrete factory floor. "-lights the way!"

"Nemesis is at forty!" Krolik interprets. "Agent, what's your at?"

P90 answers for me. "Twenty-seven, though I doubt being able to call someone long distance is going to be of much use."

"I'm sure it will!" Suomi states, popping out of cover to fire her own gun at the four meter enemy.

"Alright, Nemesis, tell Krolik when you're ready to use your pattern thing. Suomi, follow me."

The snow fairy sprints over to me, weapon chattering as she destroys more of the Sangvis remnants attempting to close in on us.

"Plan?" P90 asks.

"Nah. Just gonna do what I do best."

"Suicide charge?"

"You know it."

Suomi skids next to me and starts to reload her empty weapon. "Agent, let me give you a shield."

I don't have time to express surprise before the temperature of the air around me drops to uncomfortably cold and a dome of what seems like pure ice surrounds me.

"Thanks, Suomi."

She beams. "Any-"

I grab her collar and pull her into cover as the next blast of the green beam cuts through where she had been standing and then about a meter into the floor.

"How is this thing being powered?!" I yell. "That's just not right!"

"No idea!" Krolik snaps. "Just keep shooting!"

I pat Suomi's shoulder once and sprint out from cover, M16 on full-auto as I dump an entire mag into the enemy unit. Each round sparks against her armor, ricocheting god-knows-where as I approach. Suomi leaves cover behind me, her own gun belching fire as we approach in a loose pincer.

The enemy doll waits for my magazine to run out of ammunition before aiming the large cannons on her arms at the two of us, one each.

…She gets two of those. Right.

I leap to the side at the last possible second, Suomi similarly diving for cover right as the brilliantly green lasers appear again.

Krolik flashes into view, blade glancing off the leg of the enemy Doll once, twice, three times before she is forced to leap away from the moving beam weapon.

I barely make it back to my feet before the next round of missiles is launched, and P90 calculates all the arcs once more.

There's a few aimed in my direction, two for Suomi, two more for Krolik behind herself. Nemesis is tucked into the fan ducting since combat started, firing from above, and so far our enemies have been too busy to target her.

Suomi isn't quick enough to dodge the missiles, one of them landing right next to her, forcing her to freeze in place. Krolik is able to get out of their range, and I-

Well, I'm almost clear.

The detonations launch me closer to our enemy, and I barely get my hands under me to turn my unplanned flight into a roll instead of a faceplant, right between her overly tall legs.

She spins around, arms outstretched to try to smack me across the factory.

I manage to slip under the large arm, feet scrabbling to find purchase on the slick concrete.

"Haddy, there's two untouched missiles in front of you." P90 marks the approximate range of the two. "Get between them."

I turn around and start walking backward while dumping my second-to-last magazine into her face. As soon as the gun clicks empty, I turn and bolt once more, aiming for the small space in between the detection zones.

"I really hope you've got the range right." I mutter.

"Eighty-three percent confidence!"

"Seventeen percent error is pretty bad!" Slowing down as little as possible, I plan my steps on the shattered concrete ahead and focus on keeping my footing.

The enemy doll starts to walk after me, eagerly anticipating my capture after I detonate the twin bombs. Too bad for her, I'm making it through the gap-

My foot slips as the crumbled surface caves just a little bit more, and this time I land flat on my face.

"Don't roll!" P90 suppresses my initial gut reaction. "You'll trigger-"

The enemy doll takes another step, leg stepping into the range of one of the missiles, and it goes off.

Debris crashes against the shield Suomi has provided me with, and it pops as the second missile detonates in response to the first. Air heated from an explosion sweeps away the arctic chill, the temperature gradient almost painful.

I manage to scramble to my feet and turn around to see our enemy has staggered, and is bracing an arm against a support column near the center of the factory floor.

"A podium finish, the way of a sparrow!"

"Nemesis is ready!" Krolik interprets. "I am also ready!"

"There's a bomb right next to me." Suomi says quietly. "I don't think I can move."

I reload my last mag into my gun and release the charging handle, eyes never leaving the enemy's face. "Suomi, use your blizzard thing. Ice over the ground so she's stuck in place!"

She looks over at the missile buried nose first into the concrete just a meter away. "But-"

"Hurry!"

Suomi closes her eyes and yanks the lantern off her belt.

Moisture condenses all around the factory as the air goes from mid-summer to the dead of winter in moments. A shield forms around me once more, robbing me of the heat I had honestly been enjoying.

More importantly, it protects Suomi herself, the blast sending her flying but protected from the brunt of the blast. It's almost comical as she tries to re-orient herself as she flails in the air.

I don't have time to watch, however. "Krolik! Legs!"

Krolik doesn't hesitate, her blade glowing with fire as she moves too fast for my eyes to follow, cutting through one of the stilt-like legs. The cut marks glow red hot where her blade has been, steaming in the frigid air.

Nemesis' form starts to glow from up in her sniper perch, and the round that she fires is the final blow needed to send our enemy to the floor, her faceplate cracked.

Finally.

I run up to the doll and up to her head, pushing my gun against the faceplate and firing a few rounds. Unfortunately, it's still not enough. I adjust my aim down toward her exposed chin instead-

"HADDY! DUCK!"

Despite P90's warning, I'm not able to move in time. The twin cannons reach up toward me, and they slam onto me from either side, the three metal plates attached to each appendage approximating fingers as she drags me into the air above her.

Her lips twist into a sadistic smile oddly reminiscent of some other dolls as both of the cannons charge.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me." I struggle to get my gun around and aim at her head, but she has me pinned.

The glow reaches a brightness that's painful to look at, and I close my eyes against the glow.

Moment's later, the beams fire.

Suomi's shield intercepts the beams, and the ice facets refract and split the beams. I can feel my skin catch fire as the beams cut through cloth and flesh and bone before hitting the other side of the shield and arcing out in thousands of smaller beams.

Then the shield pops once more, and the enemy doll's limp fingers drop me.

I land on her armored chest, full of small holes from her own weapon split by Suomi's shield. I don't have the presence of mind to brace myself, and end up rolling right over the side and landing on the floor in a ball.

"...Ow."

Krolik runs over, blade flashing out once again to stab the enemy's neck. It starts to leak coolant, and for a moment nothing moves.

Then Suomi gets to her feet, brushing the singed fabric from where the beams had stabbed too close for comfort around her. "Is everyone okay?"

"I'm fine." Krolik looks down at me, ears twitching slightly. "The Agent appears to be alive, but injured."

"Oh no!" Suomi runs over. "Here, let me see if I can help."

"Underground rays leap. A bird sings in the mines."

"Nemesis is alright." Krolik looks up at Nemesis' perch. "And no, you were the one who wasn't participating! Get down here so I can beat some sense into you!"

"Other worlds gleam as diamonds."

"Screw you too!"

"Krolik. Nemesis." I manage to push myself to my hands and knees. The holes in my arms aren't that big, and aside from the red errors covering my vision I don't feel that bad. "Save it for once we've verified we're alone."

Krolik's indignant words die in her throat, and she turns around, blade drawn and eyes flicking around.

Nemesis can be heard climbing down, the metal clanging as her large rifle bounces against railings and catwalks as she hurries.

I look back to find Suomi's hands reaching out to help me to my feet, and I gratefully accept her help, looking down at myself for a moment to assess my damage.

"It's pretty bad, boss." P90 sighs. "Might want to go wading through an epiphyllum field sooner rather than later."

"If we find one." I grunt. "Krolik, any movement?"

"No." She puts her blade away, but keeps her eyes on a swivel. "Have you called our Commander yet?"

I shake my head, ignoring Suomi as she starts to gently poke at my shredded flesh, revealing metal and bone as blood weeps around the edges of the holes. "Commander."

"Report."

"We killed the enemy doll. No sign of Kalina."

"...Understood. Get back to the Elmo ASAP."

"Roger." I look back down to see Suomi has grabbed her lantern and is muttering to herself, and then suddenly I feel a little bit better. Little patches of ice appear on my body, and the bleeding stops, at least for now.

I raise an eyebrow, and she beams up at me. "I can do a bit of healing myself, Agent!"

"Thanks, Suomi." I reach out, hand brushing her hair-

Oh, crap. A habit from when I was in a relationship with a whole bunch of dolls, it's a gesture a bit too intimate for acquaintances though.

Instead of backing away, Suomi just tilts her head closer and blushes slightly.

I pay her head twice before reminding myself that dating dolls leads to nothing but heartbreak, and turn to leave the derelict Sangvis factory. "Let's get back. Commander is going to want to hear the report."

"Foundations crumble. The world splits in twain." Nemesis raises an eyebrow at me.

"No, I don't think she'll be happy either." I shake my head. "But at least we all survived."

"A sharp divide."

"That's not what she said, Agent."

"...Sorry."

To an outside observer, it would have been a strange sight.

The Elmo is already an unusual sight in and of itself, a giant land train not bound to rails. Not that it would fit on most rail systems if it was set up to run on rails, with the possible exception of the quad track trains the KCCO ran their armored trains on. Its giant engine that works on some principles I hadn't the patience to learn, it plows us forward through the wasteland at a decent speed. I guess for the wasteland that would be at least somewhat normal.

What really isn't is the two people sitting on top, wind whipping their hair around.

One of them is a small girl of about eight or nine, and the other is me.

Why are two humans sitting on top of a vehicle moving sixty kilometers an hour?

I glance to the side to see the approaching collapse storm. Already the concentration of collapse radiation has increased ahead of the storm.

Helena squirms in my lap, eyes squinting against the wind. "Oh! Stars! Stars!"

I follow her small finger, my arms wrapped around her to avoid her getting swept away by the rushing winds. "Yeah, the stars are really visible out here, aren't they?"

"Pretty!"

"Yep."

I get a call from inside the Elmo from Gentiane, and I answer it momentarily.

"Hadwin."

"What's up?"

"The radiation is over two Vebryans now. I think you should get inside before it starts to overpower your defenses."

I glance down at my arms wrapped around Helena to see the holes that had recently been poked in them healing before my very eyes. I had been slightly worried that a decade of being mostly dormant had let the miniscule robots Anisim had injected into me to die out, but they had come back to life immediately once the collapse radiation levels had climbed to otherwise unsafe quantities.

"A few more minutes." I respond. "Also, are you sure Helena will be fine?"

The small girl looks up at me at the mention of her name.

"Colphne seems to think so, and she's the closest thing we have to a medical researcher on the Elmo. At the very least, she seems to do better in higher Vebryan environments than not. Inside ODE-01, she passed out from a lack of collapse radiation."

"That's…" I hesitate. "That sounds a lot like Paradeus research."

"Paradeus hasn't existed for years, Hadwin."

"Of course, but I mean… I'm out here too, right? They were obsessed with Collapse research, and now there's this cute girl who needs it to survive."

"Mmm. If I hadn't been there to root those bastards out with you, I'd assume it was their doing too." She barks a short laugh. "Then again, Paradeus would never allow one of their Nytos to have pink hair."

"I hate how convincing that argument is." I grumble. "After Morridow-"

"Let's not, Hadwin." She cuts me off, and I drop the subject. It was just another sore spot we both share. "Alright, five more minutes. When you get inside, go straight to see Colphne so she can check to make sure you're both doing okay."

"Understood." The connection closes, and I look back down at the bright purple eyes looking back up at me. "Looks like we have a few more minutes before we have to go in."

"Stay outside!" She cheers.

"Yep." I smile down at her. "Genny wants us inside before that storm gets to us."

She nods. "Okay!"

I squeeze my hug tighter for a moment, and she laughs as she pushes against the pressure, the spheres she habitually hovers around her spinning lazily.

"Reminding you of someone?" P90 asks quietly.

Without vocalizing, I answer. "No."

"Don't lie to me, Hadwin. I can read your mind."

"...She's not my daughter, 90. Nobody could ever replace her."

"I know that. You know that. But does your heart know that?"

"I know. I shouldn't get too close."

90's voice is gentler than usual. "While it's fine to take care of her right now, you may have to give her up to Kalina when we meet back up again. If you get too attached, it's going to hurt."

"Yeah."

"For all we know, she may not have long to live anyway. Lots of Paradeus' experiments were short-lived as well. You saw the records."

"Yep."

"Dammit, Haddy. I'm trying to avoid you getting hurt again!"

"I know, 90. I know." I close my eyes. "Thanks. But right now, she needs someone to take care of her more than I need to keep my distance."

"There's five dolls inside the Elmo."

"Suomi's not part of the crew, I don't think Krolik or Nemesis would be good choices, Groza's too busy helping Gentiane, and Colphne can't watch her all the time."

"What about Mayling?"

"Please." I roll my eyes. "According to Krolik, she hasn't slept properly in months. Let's not add a child to her list of burdens."

"Fine. But you're not allowed to tell me I didn't warn you."

"Of course." I glance over at the storm to see a projection of P90 standing on the edge of the Elmo's roof, facing the storm. The wind tugs at her hair held up in tufts resembling squirrel ears and her clothes flap, gas mask strapped to her rigging spinning around.

She turns to look at me, red eyes blazing as she meets mine, there until I blink and she retreats back into her neural cloud inside my head.

Helena tugs my sleeve, and I look abc down at her. "What's up?"

"Agent crying?"

I blink and realize that my eyes had indeed started to water. "You can call me Haddy, Helena. And these aren't tears, they're from the wind." I put on my most convincing smile. "Alright, Why don't we head inside? That collapse storm is getting close."

"Storm close! Go inside with Haddy!"

"That's a good girl." I scoop her up and she laughs as I carefully stand up, careful to keep my balance in the harsh winds.

"-this is your dorm."

I let Groza lead me into the decently sized room, larger than I had back when I was staying in the temporary base Gentiane was working out of when I first joined, but smaller than the apartment I had been living in.

Then again, this dorm room is pretty nicely furnined. Much better than my home for the past decade-ish.

"Thanks for showing me the way, Groza." I nod. "I think I have it from here."

She nods slightly, but doesn't leave the room, opting to watch as I dump my backpack in the corner and stick my rifle onto the desk so I can start cleaning it. Mayling wasn't exactly thrilled I took one of the spare cleaning kits, but she hadn't argued, just almost cried, muttering about paying for her stock with booze.

I'll have to make it up to her. Possibly with said booze if I can find any.

"If you don't mind, can we talk?" Groza asks eventually as I pop out the takedown pin to pull off the upper receiver.

"Hmm? Sure, what about?"

"My past."

I hesitate. "Oh. Right."

She notes the change in my expression and provides me with an out. "If you would rather not talk about it, we can wait for another time."

"No… it's fine." I continue disassembly of my firearm, a practiced set of motions due to how often I've done it over the years. "Wish I had some booze right about now though."

"I see." She fidgets slightly, looking around the room.

I gesture to the bed. "Sit down on the bed, hovering is going to be distracting. What do you want to know?"

"Well, I suppose I'd like to know about your interactions with me. I regret to say I've lost my memories of my time with Griffin."

"I'm surprised we don't have a neural cloud backup for you to work off of, to be honest. Gentiane used to be pretty insistent on those."

Groza's golden eyes flick to the closed door. "I would rather not talk about it."

"That's fine. Just surprised, as I said." I finish getting the rifle into three major parts, and I start my inspection. "I met you when we were on the way to Kruševac. Gentiane was trying to figure out where the Starfish was, and we were kind of in a race to figure that information out, not that I knew that. I was kind of preoccupied with dealing with team 404."

"That would be the squad Lenna used to work for."

"I mean, I think they're still around." I hesitate. "I have a lot of questions for Lenna and Leva next time I see them. In any case, at the time I thought they wanted me dead, and I was so far in over my head I barely had any idea what I was doing. When I was ordered to infiltrate a nice party, I was also ordered to organize the roster of dolls coming with me to assist. You made the cut."

Groza raises an eyebrow. "Really?"

I nod. "You're probably the most… well, don't take this the wrong way, but the most regal doll I know. You've got that classy stature, and had a refined air about you that I felt made you a great candidate." I smirk down at my weapon as I finish scraping the gunk out of the barrel with a brush. "That and you came highly recommended."

"Interesting."

"Don't worry, you did a great job. In the end, the party was attacked by some terrorists and we had to fight. We got what we came for too, the location of the Starfish."

"I must admit I'm curious as to why we would be looking for sea creatures."

"Oh, right. The Starfish was…" I pause. "Well, either a collapse bomb control center, a teleporter, or a soul combination machine depending on how you used it. The KCCO, who was our primary enemy at the time, wanted it so they could threaten the world with collapse bombs. We were scrambling to get there before them to stop them from getting it. Then, Sangvis Ferri was still rogue at the time and aiming for it because their leader, Eliza, was programmed to go there to merge her soul."

Groza's gaze stiffens as she accesses some records, lips subtly turning downwards as her searches return less than satisfactory results. "Paldiski Submarine base?"

"That's correct." Satisfied that the gun is clean, I start to reassemble it. "Turns out, this was just another part of William's plan. See, one of our companions, M4A1, she was partially a brain scan from a girl named Lunasia-"

I continue to describe what I knew about the Paldiski submarine incident, including little bits I had managed to glean from the higher ups before Gentiane and I had quit.

For the most part, Groza was content to sit there and listen to my words, but she occasionally had questions about something or the other. I have to admit I quickly ran out of knowledge. After all, I was too low on the totem pole to learn the really insane stuff, I just got what Gentiane learned filtering down to me.

I get as far as describing our bringing Avernus down on my own head with Architect's help when there's a knock on my door.

I get up and answer it, wiping my hands stained with gun oil on my jeans before opening the door. "Yes?"

Gentiane stands outside the door, looking a bit frazzled. "Hey Hadwin. Have you seen Groza?"

I blink at her. "Uh… why?"

"I can't find her." She scruffs up her strawberry-blonde hair. "I wanted to go over some strategies with her, but she's not answering my calls."

"Huh. Weird."

"Yeah. She's been a bit weird recently. It's possible having someone who knows her past around is putting her on edge."

"Maybe." I shrug. "Alright, if I see her-"

Groza taps my shoulder, and I step out of the way. "I am here, Commander."

Gentiane blinks at the doll a few times before shaking her head. "Alright, I'm not gonna ask." She pauses for a moment. "No, I am going to ask. You're not trying to seduce my dolls, are you?"

"Ha ha." I fold my arms. "I have enough metal women in my life. Groza was just curious as to what I remembered about her past."

Groza nods to confirm my words. "He's had some pretty interesting adventures."

"Yes…" Gentiane's mouth sets into a line. "He has."

"Y'know, I think I talked about myself too much." I rub the back of my head. "I forgot to tell you about AEK."

"...AEK?"

"Next time." I give her a grin. "Look forward to it."

Groza nods. "Alright, Commander. I am ready to discuss tactics."

"Right." Gentines gives me a withering look before guiding the doll Leader out of my room.

I wait for the door to close before peeling off my clothes and tossing them on the floor outside the bathroom as I head in for a much needed shower. I'll clean my handgun tomorrow, for now I just want to feel clean for a bit.

As the water cascades down my shoulders, dirt sloughing off to reveal hundreds of scars and shiny metal plates fused to flesh from a decade of fighting the monsters of the world, be it ELID or Nyto.

After we took down Avernus… ugh.

Everything about that stutpid fucking operation was a disaster. What started as a rescue mission ended up as…

I close my eyes and try to redirect my mind onto some other topics. P90 has been silent since I connected her to the Elmo's systems, so I assume most of her processing capability is tied up talking to our new, temporary home. She's not going to be around to change my mind for me, at least not this second.

She hates doing it anyway, so…

Well, how about I think about Groza? Somethings up with her. I mean, she might have lost her memories, but Gentiane wouldn't have. So, why doesn't she know about Avernus? She should at least be aware that she was a participant…

I mean, I wouldn't put it past Gentiane to hide her past from her if there's a good reason to, or even a bad reason that makes sense at the time, but I can't come up with a real reason for the life of me.

I'm still pondering that when I turn off the water and get out of the shower, finally feeling clean for the first time in a while.

When I step into the room, there's a figure sitting on the bed, eyes glancing at the towel I have wrapped around my waist.

"Uh… Hi."

"Hello~!" Colphne smirks. "I've come to give you the results of your medical exam!"

"...Can this wait until I'm dressed?"

"Sure." She twirls the stylus for the tablet in her other hands. "Hurry it up."

I nod and open my backpack, grabbing my single set of spare clothes I had dragged with me. I'll need to see about getting more next time we stop somewhere I can shop.

I toss the clothes on, ignoring the piercing eyes of the medical doll. "Alright. Hit me."

She glances down at her tablet. "Well, I have to admit, you are a weird case. When Commander told me that you were outside in the collapse storm with Helena, I almost burst a coolant pipe." She turns the tablet around and offers it to me. I glance at it, but P90's present enough to start copying the data automatically so I resolve to read it all later. "Now that I see why you're okay, I'm kind of… annoyed."

"Annoyed?" I raise an eyebrow. "Shouldn't you be glad you don't need to fix me up?"

"Well, I happen to like fixing humans. I am a medical doll, after all. It's just that you're barely human anymore." She sighs. "No digestive tract, no lungs, no heart… you're basically a brain in a jar at this point."

"And I have a neural cloud too, so I could lose the brain too without anyone noticing." I sit in the office chair and give the medical doll a light smile. "I apologize for not being human enough for your tastes."

She laughs. "Ha! Well, I had to run some of your diagnostic data past Mayling, and I had to identify some nanorobots in your bloodstream."

"Yeah, that was a Paradeus experiment." I nod. "Saved my life a few times, much to their annoyance."

She hesitates for a moment before speaking again, picking her words carefully. "So, Paradeus. You believe they're real?"

"They are." I sigh. "Look, I know a lot of people treat them like an urban legend, but I was with Gentaine when she went toe-to-toe with their leader. They had an entire army, including clones with insane abilities."

Colphne's mouth sets into a line and she starts to scribble notes down on the tablet.

"I have the scars to prove it." I grumble. "Why don't you ask Gentaine if you're going to treat me like I'm crazy? She was there for all of it."

"Maybe I will." She stops writing. "In any case, these small robots do indeed seem capable of collecting collapse radiation and flesh undergoing silificaiton and using it to repair other tissues and mechanical parts. You haven't had a proper doll service in over a decade, it's a miracle your parts still work in any case."

"Not many doll mechanics in Sector 3."

"Oh? How many?"

"Zero."

She thinks for a second, lips pursed. "Fair enough. We'll have to get you down to get Mayling to examine you a bit more thoroughly when she has some spare time. In the meantime you seem to be in decent health, so I don't think you'll be a liability on the battlefield."

"Thanks, doc." I can't keep the humor out of my tone. "I'll aspire to your standards of combat prowess."

She gives me a playful look. "Oh, it isn't my standards. Suomi's the one who keeps telling me you're some sort of wizard of bringing down buildings on your own head."

"...I'm never living that one down, am I?"

"Apparently not." She scans her eyes over the information on the tablet once more. "Yeah, aside from the fact you're a freak of flesh and steel, you seem fit for duty. I'd like to monitor you as you use the Pattern Remolder since it's not technically rated for human use according to Persica, but that's about it." She powers off the screen and turns to me. "Anything you need to talk to me about?"

"Nope." I shake my head. "As far as I know, you've gotten everything."

"Alright." She hops to her feet. "Don't hesitate to let me know if you need anything! I hear humans have a hard time sleeping on the Elmo until they get used to it."

"I'm used to sleeping on vehicles." I shrug. "I'll be fine."

She nods. "Well, then, see you for dinner in half an hour!"

…Dinner.

The sensation of hunger suddenly triggers, a signal that had to be hacked together so I'd actually eat when I needed to, since I no longer have a stomach to generate those signals.

I acknowledge the alert and turn it off, since it's distracting.

I look around the sparse room and spot my open backpack, the items inside bringing to mind bittersweet memories.

Well, I think I know what I can do for the next half an hour.

I pull each of the precious items out of my backpack and start arranging them on the provided shelves around the room.

A few doll cores, owners long since deceased.

A radio, the dial twisted off due to overuse.

Several trinkets made from scrap of some sort.

A collection of metal rings, each with an identification number I could read off by heart despite being thirty-two digits each.

Lastly, a bunch of photos. Anti-Rain, Sop hugging M16 while Star and RO watch on. DEFY, before the whole… Pandora problem. 404, 416 dragging G11 away from a game store while 9- uh, Lenna- shoves an ice cream cone in Leva's face. SV-98 and NTW having a shot put competition.

Aleah, a small child in her arms with my arm around her shoulders. Her smile is radiant.

The last photo goes on the desk across from my bed. It hurts to look at. I don't think it'll ever stop.

But, at least for now, I think I can bear it.

There's a knock on the door, and I realize more time has passed since Colphne left than I thought.

"Agent, you're supposed to join us for dinner."

"Coming, Krolik." I announce.

One last glance at my new home, and I find that it's already more comfortable than my small apartment ever was. It's almost like I'm back home with my parents, or in the Griffin dorms with dolls constantly arguing over who's sleeping where each night.

"I guess I'm back." I whisper.

"Agent?"

"Coming!" I open the door, and leave to go to dinner with the rest of the crew.

A/N:
Pssst: Join platoon ID 106315. Space is limited, so agree to play nice please.

Also, screw Mica for giving us the Makiatto story, chapter 7, AND chapter 15.3 in GFL 1 all over Christmas. I've been unable to get any other work done!

Also also, the Stasi have the Elmo in chapter 15.3. I can't wait to find out how the Commander manages to acquire it. My bet is they steal it out from the evil J and Q. Or it's reparations for the Stasi fucking the commander over AGAIN.