E-UNIT: The Blue Angels of Death.

V O L U M E . S I X : C O D E_R E S E T

Chapter 158: Breaking Logic

The room was quiet in a way that felt wrong given everything happening outside it. Not surprising, once you understood Obsidian's method, his cuts were precise enough that the bodies arrived already past the point of needing significant repair work. Mercy, by his definition.

Floating white medical beds lined the walls. Replacement parts hung in organized rows for immediate swapping. Monitors were set flush into the wall beside each bed, waiting to run diagnostics on whoever sat next to them.

02 reached the far end and stopped beside a deactivated unit. She looked at the monitor and pressed the activation panel, the button was large enough to make its purpose obvious. 07's eyes came on in stages, her frame rising in one clean motion.

Welcome, E-UNIT 07.

"Dave!" 07 started immediately. "I told you to stop activating me. I don't want to be out there, I'll just consume—" She turned her head. "Captain!" She snapped a salute. "Sorry, leg driver update just pushed. I can't stand."

"Sit down, soldier." 02 looked around the room. "What were you consuming?"

07 covered her face. "I genuinely cannot keep a single thing private for one day."

"You don't have to tell me." 02 moved to the bed beside her and sat. "I wouldn't trust myself with information right now either. Sisters going dark one after the other, dying and coming back and dying again in the same day, that's not death anymore. That's something worse. A hell they can't step out of."

"Are you alright, Captain?"

"Tell me about the consumption thing. In exchange, I'll tell you where I actually am. Deal?"

"Deal." 07 picked up her legs with her hands and arranged them crossed, facing 02. "So. Here's the thing. There is no logical path where I break down mentally from dying a few times in a week, not when I know I'm coming back within the hour. I don't know what they told you about me, but I have a personal archive of every kill I've made. In footage."

02 laughed, and it came out with an edge. "I thought 05 was exaggerating."

"She was not. Anyway. It would be strange, wouldn't it, for someone with my particular interests to be frightened of death?" She looked completely unbothered by this line of reasoning. "I was planning a kill-count tattoo before all this started."

02 opened her mouth.

"So." 07 pressed forward. "Since I'm not one of the top-tier fighters and I know that, I donated my remaining backup frames to the people who actually need them. Kept a few aside for 06."

"You gave your revival frames to other units."

"To the ones who deserve them. We have 05 for technical operations, 03 for long-range precision, 01 for close blade work, 06 for high-precision assignments. We lost 11, which is its own kind of problem, she was the most complete fighter we had and she'd spent months getting the 30-series to a point where they could actually match the original team." 07 shook her head. "Losing her was a real setback."

"When did 01 get that good with a blade?"

07 gave her a flat look. "She was matching the old captain on her best days. One problem, she refuses to draw the second blade. She insists on fighting with one. I've told her it's a ceiling she's building herself and she ignores me every time—"

"Wait." 02 raised a hand. "I saw 01 leave with 03 this afternoon."

"They were planning to bait Obsidian into an engagement. Try to land something that slows him down."

02 looked at her. "How do you know that? You weren't actually deactivated, were you."

07 looked at the wall behind 02. "Question, what are you doing here right now?"

"Hmm?"

"01 and 03 are out there waiting for something." 07 turned back. "What are you waiting for?"

"There's no clean outcome. He disappears into the dark every time—"

"And?" The smirk was immediate. "Does saving a sister require a logical framework? Was what 01 and 03 are doing smart? Probably not. Was it reckless? Absolutely. Do I think they're right to do it anyway?" She held the look. "We're family. That's the argument. I'll let you figure out my opinion on cowardice."

02 looked at the floor for a moment. ‘ She's not wrong about one thing. Staying here produces nothing.’ "Your processing has been corrupted by years of gore footage and you cannot arrive at a clean logical conclusion."

"Hey—"

She stood. "But logic hasn't worked. Going your way might give us something other than a longer list of deaths." She moved toward the door. "Send me their location. I'll work something out on the way." She stopped at the threshold and looked back. "Stay where you are. Order every unit back to base."

07 saluted. "Roger! ...She knows I can't move. Her jokes need work."

03 moved through the abandoned factory at the edge of Bijou in small, careful steps, each one ringing against the silence. Water dripped somewhere in the dark, adding its sound to a space that was already unsettling enough. Pillars held on through some arrangement with gravity more than with their own structural integrity. Old machinery sat scattered across the floor. The only solid thing underfoot was the concrete.

She opened her red shields. The factory filled with deep red.

"I know you're in here." She turned slowly, back to the wall. "I can't find you exactly, but you're here. You can come out. The shy shadow act gets old."

Obsidian dropped from the ceiling on both legs, without a sound. His armor was fully repaired. His eyes cut green against the dark. Moonlight reached just enough through the broken skylights to let 03 see anything at all.

"I didn't expect the ceiling." She watched him. "You've committed so hard to the dark persona that you've actually started behaving like a bat. What's wrong with the floor?"

"There's another unit in this building." He scanned without moving. "I can sense her but I can't place her. Has to be 01, she's the one 02 keeps in reserve for situations like this. Hidden for when it counts." He looked at 03. "That's why you're here. You're not the threat, you're the distraction."

"The fact that you're saying that out loud is deeply unsettling." 03 kept her eyes on him. "You've been watching us from elevation all week—"

He raised a hand. "I already know the plan. One question, are you attacking together or stepping back to give 01 room? You're significantly slower than she is."

03 pulled her shields down and moved to the corner. "01. Go. And please don't die in the first ten seconds."

01 came out from behind a machine. Her eyes were focused in a way that was different from her usual expression, something stripped down to its purpose. Blue eyes, steady. One blade out. A red shield on the other arm.

03’s gaze dropped to the lone blade in her grip. “Why just one?”

“Habit.” 01’s eyes never left him.

Obsidian drew his katanas. They closed the distance in a few steps and stopped facing each other.

01 moved without any signal. Quick, close steps, no hesitation. Obsidian killed his lights and braced.

She reached him and swung at his side. He circled in place in one motion and let his katana fall toward her back.

Clink.

The blade stopped against her shield, deflected cleanly. She put space between them, turned, and came back, blade aimed at his shoulder.

He caught it with the katana and held.

01 smirked.

The blade extended. The plasma burned through his left shoulder, cutting fast.

Obsidian felt it and drove his leg out immediately.

Clang.

The kick sent her across the factory. She landed on her feet, blade dragging a melting line through the concrete floor before she stopped. She looked at him across the space.

‘Extended blade. Not in the file. Range unknown. Mental control, possibly.’ He made a note in real time.

01 said nothing. She let the blade reach three meters, double her own height, and came again. Fast steps, no buildup, blade swinging low at his feet.

He jumped back. The blade missed by very little. Before he had fully committed to the landing, she drove at his chest.

He caught the blade between both katanas. Sparks from the plasma against the metal.

01 drew the second blade without a word and swung at his side.

Sleek.

The plating on that side tore open, exposing the black frame underneath.

Obsidian deflected her blade sideways and —

Clang.

— kicked her in the midsection. The height and armor weight behind it drove her backward. he dropped one katana, lunged forward, and caught her by the face.

He didn't stop running. He used her body as a battering ram across the length of the factory floor.

Crash.

A pillar. Her white frame started to crack, her clothes tor in multiple sides.

Crash.

Another wall broke into pieces.

Machine, pillar, wall, the speed between each impact didn't give her anything to work with. The speed didn’t let 01 lift her blade, eventually it was gone somewhere behind the third impact. Her frame was degrading impact by impact.

He stopped.

He held her by the head and let her feet find the floor. She couldn't carry her own weight anymore, knees first, then flat on the concrete. Eyes going out.

03 watched from the corner, still. "She was the best close-range fighter we had." She said it quietly, to herself. "He read her and changed modes the moment he understood how superior with the blade she is."

She walked toward him. She didn't let the shaking show.

"Why haven't you used the sniper?" Obsidian said. His cooling vents were running hard, system warnings filling his notification feed. "It could level this building."

"So you can prepare a counter for it."

"Smarter than I assumed."

"02 chose me as sub-captain for reasons." 03 exhaled. "Let's finish this—"

Sleek.

A blue blade came through her from behind, emerging from her stomach. She looked down at it. Then she turned her head.

02 stood right behind her, gripping the hilt of the blade, her head bowed in silence.

"What are you doing?" 03 pushed the words out as her battery began to fail.

"Don't come back." 02's voice was almost steady.

"You know I will."

"Then I'll keep killing you."

"You won't."

02 went to her knees. "Please."

03's smile came through the damage. "You wanted me to hate you. Make me angry enough that I'd stay back." She kept the smile. "That's a terrible plan. Either you think I'm stupid, or you're counting on luck."

02 said nothing.

"Both," 03 said, in exactly the same tone.

02 got back to her feet, still holding the blade. "Please don't come back here. I can't watch you die again."

03 looked down at the blade still through her.

02 met her eyes. "I was angry."

03 stared at her for a long moment. Then, slowly, she raised her arm, hand barely moving, reaching toward 02's face in the weakest attempt at a slap that had ever been attempted in combat.

02 caught her hand and pressed it gently against her own cheek.

"Please. Stay away."

"I'll delete my own system so it doesn't count as you killing me." 03's eyes were going white as she accessed her terminal. "I'll be revived either way. Take your time with him. You've stolen my revenge."

02 looked across the factory at Obsidian.

"I will."

03 saluted. "Good luck, Captain."

Her body came to rest against the floor. 02 pulled the blade free carefully and moved her to the wall, sitting her upright.

She turned.

Obsidian was standing where she'd left him, blades drawn, the green neon of the edges suppressed and gone dark against her sensors.

"Noble of you," 02 said. "Waiting like a professional."

"I respect the ones who make the work easier." He held his position. "The file I have on you is thin. This seems like a good opportunity to add to it."

02's eyes went completely blue. Electricity arced from their edges in thin lines, falling away like rain. Her wings opened, wide, without a sound, as if they'd been waiting for this exact moment for a long time.

"Then let me give you something worth writing down."