V O L U M E . S E V E N - P H A N T O M S . A N D . P R E D A T O R S

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Chapter 177: The Paradox of 11

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‎"04, lower your weapon. Direct order." 05's voice dropped to something quiet and final. She was looking into the visor of 04's helmet, knowing 04 was seeing her face clearly through it. "Lower it now and I will force myself to forget this happened." She kept the book under her shield as she moved.

The library had become a running track. Books on the floor, chairs overturned, the last patrons pushing through each other toward the exits in the kind of fear that doesn't stop to think.

04 raised her aim to 05's head. "Hand me the book. I won't ask again."

Her voice carried the same tone it had when she was joking ten minutes ago. That was the part that was wrong.

"Purple out," 05 said clearly.

04 tilted her head. She turned — slowly, still aiming — and found Delta emerging from behind a rack at the back of the room. Hair tied back, arms folded, shoulder resting on the shelf with the posture of someone who has already decided how this ends.

"What happened to you, 04?" Delta shook her head. "When 05 asked me to come here, I thought she'd lost it. Now I owe her an apology in writing."

Cling.

05 brought the shield down flat on the floor between them, a wall of metal that shook the ground slightly when it landed. "04 — you are under arrest. Treason, aiming at an ally, disrupting E-UNIT operations. Go to the floor and I won't let Delta take that frame off you by force."

04 fired without hesitation.

The Burster's shot hit the shield and sent 05 across the library — she hit a bookshelf, and the shelf decided it had stood long enough. The shot was loud enough that the last of the patrons stopped deliberating and ran.

04 turned toward Delta.

Too late.

Delta's fist was already there.

Clang.

The impact between Delta's knuckles and 04's helmet sent her through the room — racks, tables, anything between her and the far wall arriving in sequence and coming apart on the way. She stopped when she hit the wall.

Crash.

She was embedded in it. Her HUD glitched in every direction. Parts of the Bulwark Frame fell away, electricity finding gaps and escaping through them. The helmet cracked open on one side, exposing her face beneath, cold, uncaring, completely still.

As the HUD fought its way back to partial function, Delta was walking toward her. Measured steps, no change in pace. She found 04's dropped Burster on the way, tapped its edge without breaking stride, it jumped and landed in her arms, and tore it in half with one motion, keeping her eyes on 04 the entire time.

04 pulled herself out of the wall and launched at Delta, each step breaking the floor beneath the Bulwark's weight.

Delta didn't accelerate. She held her pace.

They met. 04 drove an uppercut at Delta's jaw.

Clank.

Delta caught it. Her hand fractured from the force, the sound of it was audible, but her gaze didn't move from 04's face. "Salaska doesn't appreciate damage to historical sites."

She took 04's other arm. She started swinging, wide, circular, building speed with each rotation. The Bulwark's weight worked against 04 now, the momentum pinning her head back, giving her nothing to push off. When Delta had enough built up, she let go.

04 tore through the remaining shelves, through the windows at the far end of the library.

Crash.

She crossed the street and hit the wall of the building opposite. This time nothing in her responded. Her head dropped. Her arms gave. Her HUD was full of glitch artifacts, the text unreadable except for one thing that stayed clear through all of it,

Red warning text.

People cleared the street in seconds. Their experience with Black Voltage attacks had trained them well, and this looked identical from the outside.

04 tried to move away from the wall. Nothing moved. Delta's throw had pressed her deep into the stone.

Delta reached her, took her by the shoulder, and pulled. 04 was stuck — Delta pulled harder, forcing her free, cables and plating tearing loose in the process. When 04 finally came out, the back section of the Bulwark Frame stayed behind, planted in the wall like a mounted piece.

Delta wasn't finished. She drove 04 into the ground and sat on her, pinning her flat.

05 came out of the library. Half her shield was gone. A floating screen trailed her as she crossed the street. "Hold her." She hit the side of her helmet. "Dave, can you reach her terminal?"

"Yes, but she's fighting it." Dave's voice came through tight and confused. "Her system is actively resisting. What is going on over there?"

"Later—"

04 got one hand to Delta's head.

Clang.

She drove her forehead into Delta's hard enough that her own vision stuttered. She grabbed Delta's head again, shoved her away with both legs. She was on her feet before Delta landed. Delta and 05 moved to close the gap from both sides. 04 could feel Dave threading into her system from the edges.

She bent her knees and jumped, thrusters firing on what reserves remained, clearing the rooftop edge. 05 and Delta went after her immediately.

04 stripped what was left of the Bulwark on the way across the roof, dropping weight, her standard E-UNIT speed returning as the frame fell away in pieces. Her energy sniper came out. She hit the gap between buildings and was gone before 05 and Delta found their footing on the rooftop edge.

05 turned left. E-UNITs emerged from the west and went after her.

04 checked behind her. Nothing visible. '05 doesn't give up this easily. I need cover.'

She hit the main street and ran for the Dark Sun River — the one that cut the city cleanly into two halves. She reached the embankment and dropped onto the closed wooden maintenance road running along the river's inner edge.

Clang.

Six E-UNITs closed around her. Red shields up, spaced at a distance that gave her exactly enough room to feel the option of running without actually having it. Above them, one more — airborne, positioned to cut off any vertical escape.

"Give it up!" 07 called from above. "I hate raising a hand against a sister but I won't let you reshape us into whatever you think we should be. I like what we are."

‘05 briefed them already.’ 04 looked up at 07's hovering frame. ‘She will be revived in an hour anyway.’

04 raised the sniper and fired a charged shot at 07 without pause.

07's shields came up in time, but the shot was dense enough to punch through them and cross her chest. She dropped.

The six on the ground shifted. Their eyes went red.

"Don't." 05 arrived in the Bulwark, her screen showing green for the first time.

04 coiled to jump.

Her legs stopped working.

05 pressed a button.

"When did you—"

Her voice cut. Another button. Her body folded into a kneeling position. Another. She had enough autonomy left to turn her head toward 05.

"You killed a sister." 05's voice came through the helmet speaker with a mechanical edge, but the hurt underneath it was clear. "There is no logic that makes that acceptable. I will make sure you answer for it — regardless of what the captain tells me." She pressed the last button.

04 went down hard on the wooden floor.

The E-UNITs moved in and carried her away.

05 lowered herself beside 07. She looked at the hole in her chest for a long moment without speaking.

"The captain was right," she said, quietly. "Even knowing she'll come back, seeing a dead sister is hard." She looked in the direction they'd taken 04. "You wait."

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