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

Chapter 181: The Hidden 3.14

"So this is the original E-Police." Gamma looked at the building as the cell approached the entrance.

The facility had been left alone by Elysium, no strategic value, repurposed as a parts storage and repair shop for the occasional E-PHONEUS that came back damaged. Small cleaning bots moved through it in quiet circuits, keeping every surface intact and dust-free out of pure programming habit.

02 went in first. Memories came up in her HUD from both sides of her history, the memory-wiped version and the complete one, layered over each other as she looked at the space. "I can still hear the sirens. The sound they made when an emergency came through."

Gamma moved her eyes across the equipment and layout. "It's strange how closely it matches the new station in Bijou. Did you reconstruct the schematics from memory when you built that one?"

"They're both rectangles, Gamma." 02 was running through something in her HUD, barely looking at the room. "When a shape is optimal for a purpose, deviating from it is change for its own sake. Why change it?"

She took a sharp turn and walked into the charging bay. The team came in behind her.

02 sat on one of the stations despite not needing a charge. "03. Sit and charge. Moving that frame at 7% is asking for a problem."

03 checked the corner of her HUD. The number glowed red. "How did you know that? You looked like you were focused somewhere else."

02 settled Infinity beside her on the next station. "I've been going through what father built into the link architecture. There are a significant number of features, some of them strange, some of them useful for specific situations. He put a lot of thought into it."

"Like what?" Infinity said, her legs swinging from the edge of the station. "Can we test some of them?"

"Why are you enthusiastic about this." Gamma raised an eyebrow. "The last I heard, the link was a prison where you couldn't even move your own eyes."

"That was then." Infinity smiled. "Since we left Frostholm, the captain has had me free most of the time, she steps in when she's testing something, that's all. And the feeling of the crystal's energy is… warm, actually. Strange to describe but it doesn't feel wrong anymore." She paused. "We also have a private communication channel between us. It's useful."

"You're calling her captain now." Gamma leaned back against the wall. "And I didn't know about the private channel."

03 stood, walked to 02 in measured steps, and saluted. "Captain."

"No."

"Pleeeease." 03 went to her knees. "I want to join."

02 opened a screen. "This is not a membership program. I don't want to control you or have your thoughts running through mine, I have Infinity muted half the time to keep her internal commentary from interfering with my own processing. I don't want another person to manage his life."

"Keep me free the way you do with her." 03 pressed her hands together. "I want to feel what the crystal feels like. Father talked about it like it was something remarkable, and Infinity confirmed it."

02 exhaled through her vents. "Your persistence is a documented phenomenon at this point." She looked at 03 for a moment. "There's a charging feature in the link, it transfers energy to connected units. I'll use that as the practical justification for connecting you. The moment we leave this building, you're out."

"Yes!" 03 threw herself at 02. "That is my captain." She held on. "My 02."

"That's my phrase." 02 pushed her gently. "Remove the Bulwark frame fir—"

03 was already sitting cross-legged on the floor without the frame, looking up. "Come on."

02 opened a secondary screen. 03 appeared in the connection list. "I cannot believe that one of the most significant pieces of technology ever developed is being requested through pleading." She connected her. "There."

03's eyes flashed fully blue for a second. She stood, looking around the room with a different quality of attention. "My HUD is gone. Why does everything look… clearer?"

"You lose the overlay when you join the link," Infinity said.

03 started moving in place, energy coming off her in short bursts. "This feeling. Is this what you have constantly? No wonder you came around to it." She turned toward the corridor. "I'm going to the training range. I'll be back."

Gamma smiled as 03 disappeared. "She was going to be miserable if you'd kept saying no. Some people fight against freedom and others fight for it, and some fight for someone else's control specifically."

"She wasn't like this when I first explained the concept." 02 stood. "She watched a set of science fiction films and arrived at completely different conclusions about what being in the link means. She wants me to pilot her while she does nothing." She turned to Infinity. "I want to test a feature. You'll be dormant briefly. I'll bring you back once I've checked it."

"Of course." Infinity stood and faced her. "Take your time."

02 placed her hand lightly on Infinity's head. Blue light filled the room, Gamma shielded her eyes. Then 02's body settled back onto the charging station, eyes shifting to full blue, and her mind moved.

She looked at the room from inside Infinity's frame. She looked at her hands, opened them, closed them, turned them over. She looked at the Omega body sitting on the station, still and patient, eyes glowing a steady blue, a high-end server waiting for its pilot to return.

"I transferred into Infinity's frame," she said, from Infinity's voice. Her consciousness settling behind a face that wasn't hers. "The Omega body is holding the connection as a server." She found a pose, checking the number on the hoodie, 02, still flickering there. "How does it read?"

"It reads like you're the captain." Gamma stood and faced her directly. "Is this what you looked like before father built the Omega body for you?"

"Yes." 02 looked at the floor. "Though I've adjusted to the taller frame. This one is… 150 centimeters is—" She looked at her feet.

"Tiny," Gamma said, clearly enjoying this. "In this body you look considerably calmer. I understand now why suspects weren't always intimidated."

02 rolled Infinity's shoulders, testing the frame. "The weight distribution is wrong." She reached behind her back. Her fingers met something metallic through the fabric. "There's something back here." She moved toward the hem of the hoodie.

Gamma raised both hands. "Captain, please, I know we're all—"

"Gamma." The voice was flat. "Our frames are featureless. We have the shape of a person, not the parts of one." 02 pulled the hoodie off without further discussion. A brace appeared, fitted to the chest and back, integrated into the frame itself. "What is this."

Gamma stepped forward. "That's one of the crystal braces. The kind used to hold a crystal in place. She couldn’t wear a brace while performing 24." She went quiet for a moment.

02 pressed the center panel. The chamber hissed open.

She looked at what was inside. Then she reached in and held it in her hands.

"The grey crystal." A pause. "Pi." She looked at it in the ambient light. "She had it the whole time and never mentioned it. She had my sister this whole time and here I thought the trust was going in a reasonable direction."

"Captain." Gamma sat on the floor beside her. "You didn't actually trust her fully. Did you."

02 looked at the crystal in silence.

Gamma smiled slowly. "Now I completely believe 03. I owe her an acknowledgment."

02 glanced at her.

"She said the cold expression is a cover. That underneath it you're a warm older sister who doesn't know how to arrange her face into the right shape for it." Gamma tilted her head. "Did looking like an E-UNIT affect your read of her?"

02 nodded.

"Better to find it now than somewhere it actually costs us." Gamma stood, took the crystal gently, and held it toward the light. The grey caught it differently from any color either of them had seen. "What happens with her now?"

"The plan continues." 02 raised her head. "When we recover 24, we take the grey crystal and retrieve the orange from Esoptron. I want you to run with both of them. Tau and Pi need to be revived and I trust you to keep them safe until that's possible."

Gamma saluted. "Roger." She brought the crystal down and looked at 02 in Infinity's frame. "It's genuinely difficult to take you seriously in this body." She lowered herself to match 02's eye level, a massive grin on her face. "Do you want some candy?"

02's eyes shifted to red.

Gamma shot upright and snapped a rigid salute. "S-Still processing the Infinity situation. I deeply apologize."

02 looked down at the hands she was currently wearing. 'I need to recalibrate. Free trust is over.'

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