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 178: The Cruelest Mercy

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I am E-UNIT 01. Twenty-eight years old, built to run through everything the world could throw at me, and it has thrown considerable amounts. I woke from revival, though I stayed deactivated inside the tube for a while after the process finished. A little peace before the next thing. I don't think that's unreasonable.

Twelve hours in, the guilt arrived on schedule. My duties were sitting with someone else while I floated in a glass tube. Though if 05 is handling things, the team will probably start using her numbers to measure the rest of us. I need to learn hacking. This is becoming a practical problem.

"Systems updated successfully. Driver check, intact. Hardware check, intact. Solid State Drive check... Warning: memory walls detected covering memories. Total count: 1,403. Proceed?"

[YES]

"Proceeding... Warning: additional smaller memory walls detected. Total count exceeds quick check range. Proceed?"

[YES]

"Proceeding... Shall I report your memory state to the main engineer, David House, for—"

[NO]

"Welcome back, E-UNIT 01."

'Stupid system. Let me move. This is why I hate revivals.'

My vision came up blurred, everything white pressing together before my focus pulled it apart into something recognizable. The tube's glass door hissed open as I moved my feet to the edge. 'Dave's love of automation really does show everywhere.' I stepped out before I started enjoying the tube's silence enough to stay in it.

To my left, 08 was waiting. Eyes wide, the look of someone who has been standing in one place for a long time holding something in.

'I remember having that same look whenever father came in to brief us. I miss that.'

She crossed the distance before I could prepare, and the hug she gave me required structural consideration.

"Captain." Her voice was quiet, surprising, given the force she was applying to my newly built arm. "I missed you. You exploded in front of me. You came down broken and half burnt, why did you take that risk?"

"We can be revived indefinitely, 08. It's fine." I tried to make my voice calming. Each word she produced, she pressed harder.

"I know that. But does it mean I have to keep watching it happen?" A genuinely useless question, though the pain behind it was real.

"Would you prefer I die and not come back?"

"No!" The force increased significantly. I had made a mistake. "Sorry." She released me. "I was just… the image. I don't want to see that again. We should ask Albert to reinforce the Bulwark."

"No." I said it before she finished. "If he adds more weight, we won't be able to function at our actual ceiling. Movement is what makes us effective. Deployable shields like 02 uses would be more useful, harder to achieve, but worth pursuing."

"04 has a prototype that father tested." Her expression shifted. Something had happened. "Speaking of 04."

'Here it is.'

"She pointed the Burster at 05. Point blank."

'What.'

"She fought Delta until the frame got destroyed."

'No.' My thoughts accelerated on their own. Hard not to.

Her expression got worse. More incoming. "And she put a hole through 07's chest with the Liberta 01. Dropped her."

'Please stop. One at a time.' I held her shoulders. "Why? Is she compromised? Hacking's off the table, Dave confirmed it. Malfunction? A test Albert's running without briefing us?"

"05 is investigating right now. There's a lineup behind the one-way glass already." She said this with the energy of someone who very much wanted to be there.

'She waited here instead. And no one else did.' I looked around the empty revival room, then back at her. 'She's shaken from what she saw. Or she genuinely cares that much. Possibly both.'

I took her hand and ran. "Let's go. I want to hear her explain herself." My eyes sharpened with something I wasn't going to call anger until I had more information. "Not that any explanation will cover it."

We moved through the corridors at speed, down to the new underground cells. Robots we'd brought in previously sat behind the energy bars, their expressions carrying the weight of people reconsidering their choices. 'I doubt they're more miserable than me right now, but it's close.'

The door to the observation room slid open. E-UNITs packed the space, everyone wanting to understand the same thing, which was at least understandable. 'Time to use my authority for something that actually matters.'

As I reached the back of the crowd, they saluted and opened a path to the glass without being asked. Their eyes stayed on me, though, with a particular quality I couldn't immediately name. I pressed my hand to the glass to steady myself.

I was still holding 08's hand.

"Sorry!" I dropped it. "I forgot I was—" I looked at her. She was flustered, color shifting at the edges of her face sensors. 'Hey. We are sisters. I held her hand in a corridor. This is not complicated.'

I turned back to the glass.

04 was pinned to the wall inside, hands cuffed and chained to the surface, frame held tight. "Isn't that a bit much?" The thought came out before I could stop it. I wasn't wrong, though.

08 beside me was staring at 04 with the focus of someone waiting for the barrier between them to disappear. "No. That's a light response, actually. I hope 05 waits for 02 to come back. 02 would make it count." She paused. "I've never been able to aim at a sister in training without worrying I'll hit someone by mistake."

'If she hugs 04 the way she hugged me, the punishment handles itself.' Though she was right. Shooting a sister isn't something that has an acceptable reason behind it.

"You don't know 05 the way I do," I said. "She slapped me when I called the spy using 02's face a spy, and she knew it was true. She gets emotional in specific places. This is one of them."

Inside, 05 pulled a floating chair and sat across from 04, one leg crossed over the other. 'We don't experience fatigue. Why does anyone use chairs?' Irrelevant. I refocused.

05 looked at 04 for a moment. I could see her working to keep her voice steady. "04. If you answer me honestly, I will seriously consider releasing you."

The room went quiet enough to hear the air systems.

Gasps. Jaws not closing. I looked back at the glass immediately.

"I need to understand your behavior," 05 continued. "And I'm willing to take that risk to stop it from happening again."

04 looked hollowed out. Her voice was flat and mechanical, the same voice that had been laughing with us not long ago, completely emptied of everything that had made it hers. "You have my attention. I'll answer honestly. I know you couldn't read my SSD."

'I forgot about that.'

05 didn't react to it at all. Perhaps she's genuinely made peace with being the team's resident unsettling presence. "When did you turn off your emotional driver?"

"What?" My CPU stalled. "I posted that as a joke on E-UNIT Social Circle. To get some engagement."

08 nodded. "None of us took it as anything else."

04's eyes found 05's and held them. "September 2026. A few hours after the captain broke down in the sonic chamber."

'That long ago. She's been performing this entire time.'

05 pulled two screens and began typing. She stopped. She held 04's gaze again. "I won't ask why. The reason is obvious. Did you manipulate the captain while her memories were walled, push her toward harsher decision-making?"

"Yes." Not a moment's pause. "I suggested she implement stricter consequences for anyone who didn't respect her authority."

'She has lost it completely.'

05 typed it and asked the next one. "What was your reasoning?"

"When I saw that 02 was able to tear into 12 without hesitation, because she didn't actually know her yet, I recognized the tool." 04 said it the way someone describes the weather. "I had a vision for how this team should operate. 02 in that state was the means to apply it. I'd tried working on 03 first but she didn't take me seriously enough to engage with the idea."

'She's proud of it. Emotional driver off, and she's still proud of the methodology.' My hands closed on their own. I felt 08 look at them.

'I've made a problem for myself.'

05 exhaled so sharply that her screens flickered. She was holding on by a narrow margin. I could see it. "Last question. I am losing my composure with each answer. If I release you, would you pursue this again?"

'The honest answer to that question is—'

04 lowered her head and said nothing.

'—of course.'

A notification came through. From 05.

[Your call, captain. I won't take your authority on this.]

'I like her more every day. I wonder if the others feel this quietly.' I looked at 05 through the glass, then at 04. An idea formed. I typed.

05 read it, glanced up at me, and stood. 'She approved.' She crossed to 04. "We'll release you under one condition."

04's eyebrow moved. "I thought it was—"

"Stop talking." 05 went back to her chair, which made me wonder why she stood in the first place. "The captain's decision. We're activating your emotional driver."

04's voice came back. Her actual voice, the real one. "What? No. Please don't. I'm not… I don't know what state I'll be in, I can't manage it right now, please—"

05 expanded her terminal, expression unchanged. 'They've switched places entirely. Now I'm questioning who the cold one is.'

"Please!" 04 was pushing against the wall, fighting the chains. "05! I'm asking you, don't touch the driver. Please."

05 moved beside her, held up the interface, and showed her the button. "I'm pressing it in front of you. Then you sit with it and work through it the way the rest of us did. There is no shortcut available to you."

'Father. I have created something I don't know how to classify.'

05 pressed it.

04 stopped fighting. She didn't yell. She didn't break into anything loud or large. She went still, and then burning bright line ran down her face.

'Energy. We can cry. I did not know that was built into us.'

05 came out of the room and gave me a nod.

'That is a task-completed nod if I've ever seen one.' I looked back through the glass at 04.

'What exactly have I done.'