When Pale exited the cave, she wasn't surprised to find Kayla hadn't stayed outside. The tracks leading up the mountain showed she wasn't far, however. Pale slung her weapon, then began to climb after her, eventually finding her companion sheltered in another cave, seated with her knees pulled up to her chest.

Neither of them said anything as Pale entered and took up a spot opposite her, then turned to stare out the cave and watch as the snow fell gently on the mountainside below.

–

When dawn broke, they wordlessly rose, gathering their supplies and beginning the descent down the mountain once more. Mercifully, it had stopped snowing by this point, and their clothes had dried overnight, so they were much more comfortable than they had been the night before.

Of course, that comfort only extended as far as their bodies. Their minds, on the other hand, were far more clouded.

They walked on in complete silence for some time, the mountains behind them by the time it got to be too much for Pale to bear. Finally, she grit her teeth, then let out an irritated sigh.

"Talk to me," she implored. "You know I value your input, Kayla."

"Only as far as you can agree with it," she retorted.

"You know that's not true."

"Is it?" Kayla suddenly rounded on her, crossing her arms. "Because that's not what you said last night."

"I am a machine. Cold rationality is how I operate."

"You're only a machine because you choose to be. The fact that you can't see that means I have nothing to say to you."

She turned and began to walk away, only for Pale to suddenly lunge forward and take her by the arm, stopping her.

"Wait," Pale hissed. "I… okay, you have a point. But at the same time… I cannot simply turn my back on my creators by abandoning all their work in creating me."

"Your creators aren't here," Kayla protested. "I know you want to get back to them, but do you really have to do it by being a machine all the time? There has to be another way – one less cold. You just refuse to look for it."

Pale hesitated. Admittedly, Kayla had a point there, too – perhaps there truly was another way, and she just couldn't see it because of her programming. But in her defense, her programming was all she knew – all she was not only designed to know, but ordered to know.

Pale dipped her head slightly, a tinge of remorse dripping into her tone as she spoke next.

"...You must understand how difficult this is for me," she said. "I owe my creators everything, you know that. They gave me a set of orders, and I have dedicated my life to following those orders as a way to repay them for giving me life."

"But surely those orders had to end at some point?" Kayla pointed out. "I mean… what would you have done if the war ended, and you were suddenly without a purpose?"

Pale stared at her, eyes going wide. Slowly, she brought a hand up to her chin in thought, her brow furrowing. "I… I don't know. I always figured I would be destroyed during the course of the war. I nearly was destroyed during the preliminary fight to reclaim Earth, that's how I ended up stranded here in the first place. Truthfully, I don't think I was ever intended to survive the war."

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"What do you mean?"

"I was always the one on the frontlines," Pale explained. "By necessity, I must add – as humanity's most powerful weapon, I had to be in the front, as I was simply too powerful to keep in reserve for too long. In my admittedly short life, I have known far more of war than I have of anything else."

"Short life…? How old are you, then?"

"This avatar is designed to resemble a human female in her early twenties."

"Not what I asked. How old are you, Pale?"

Pale blinked. "...My consciousness, you mean? Not counting the decades I spent drifting through the endless expanse of space, I was created in a laboratory, underwent field testing for a few months, and then was placed directly into frontline combat, where I served for fifteen months before ending up here. In total, my consciousness was active for twenty-one months before I wound up here."

Kayla's eyes widened. "Wait, hang on… you're saying you were technically only twenty-one months old when you were sent here? Not even two years old?"

Pale shook her head. "No. Like I said, I was taken from the laboratory and immediately put into training, and then-"

That was as far as she got before Kayla suddenly lunged forwards and threw her arms around her. Pale paused, her whole body stiffening as Kayla held onto her, leaving her completely unsure of what to do.

"I'm sorry," Kayla said softly. "I thought… I didn't realize they'd essentially ripped you from your crib and made you into a soldier. I always figured you'd had at least a few years of experience, but this… Gods, what kind of monsters-"

"They were not monsters," Pale said emphatically. "They were desperate."

"Still, desperate or not… what they did to you, that's… it's awful, Pale. I know you don't see it that way, but I do. And that's why I'm apologizing now."

Kayla pulled away from her. Pale felt a small jolt pass through her at the sudden loss of touch between them, but wasn't sure how to place the emotion; she was quick to try and bury it along with the rest of her emotions, though for some reason, it lingered for far longer than any of the rest.

She wasn't quite sure how to interpret that, but she did make sure to archive the experience for further study.

"All this time, I thought you were like me," Kayla offered. "I thought you'd been around for years, but no… for all intents and purposes, you're still a child. You're certainly inexperienced enough to be one."

Pale blinked, unsure of how to interpret Kayla's words. She shifted, suddenly uncomfortable, adjusting her weapon to rest more comfortably across her front.

"...You are suddenly very apologetic," she observed.

"Well, yes, because I can see I was coming at this from the wrong perspective." The two of them began walking once more. "Be honest – you truly don't know what you would do with yourself if you didn't have a war to fight, do you?"

"I do not."

"Then maybe that's what we should be focusing on, then."

"Finding me more wars to fight?"

"Finding you something to fight for," Kayla specified.

Pale frowned. "I fight for my creators."

"Oh, Pale, you really are confused…"

Kayla offered no further explanation, and true to her words, Pale didn't know what to think.

–

They walked on for the rest of the day, until night had started to fall, though their conversation had died down a bit after that morning. Eventually, though, the sun had started to dip below the horizon, though it came at the perfect time – as the sky began to darken, Pale was able to make out small pinpricks of light off in the distance. She held up a hand for Kayla to stop, then sank down to one knee to observe.

"Hold here," she whispered.

"What is it?" Kayla asked, trying to peer out from around her.

Pale didn't respond immediately, instead pulling out a set of binoculars from her pack. She peered through them, her expression tightening at what she saw. Just up ahead was a large cordon of some kind, made up of felled trees and blocking the entire road. On its ramparts, she could see several berserkers dressed in heavy furs carrying bladed weapons, as well as a few mages patrolling about.

"Berserkers have a checkpoint set up," she reported. "I think I can see the ocean through it, but it's hard to tell."

"Can you?" Kayla's ears perked up, and she blinked, surprised. "...Now that you mention it, I can hear the waves off in the distance."

"Great…" Pale muttered as she slipped the binoculars back into her pack. "There's no going around this checkpoint, Kayla; we have to go through it if we want to commandeer a boat and cross the ocean."

Kayla's expression fell. "We truly can't look for another way…?"

"We could, but after what that mage told us, I'd wager we're cutting it close on time already." Pale turned her attention back to the checkpoint, her eyes narrowing. "It's your call. Do we take the fast, dangerous route, or do we try for something slower and possibly safer, with the obvious caveat that we may not find what we're looking for and only succeed in wasting more time in the end?"

Kayla bit her lip. "...I appreciate you asking for my input for once, but… this is a downright sadistic choice…"

"If I may offer a suggestion?" Pale asked. "There's no guarantee of success if we try to avoid this checkpoint. We might be able to find a safer route and transport, but we very possibly might not, and if that's the case, we'll have to come back here anyway, with the only difference being how much time we've wasted. Either way, we'll have to take this checkpoint… and between you and me, I don't much care for the idea of leaving a place like this standing, not after I know what's going on with these bandits."

Again, Kayla bit her lip as she considered her options. Finally, she sighed. "...You're right. I hate to admit that we're going to have to kill more people, but Gods above, you're right…" She shook her head, then looked back to Pale. "You're the soldier, here – how do you suggest we do this? There's only two of us, and I'd bet there's probably fifty in there."

"Don't be so dramatic. I counted around thirty, not fifty." Kayla let out a small whimper at that, but Pale silenced her by holding up a hand. "Trust me, I have a plan. If it goes well, we'll be able to get through with little risk to ourselves."

"And if it doesn't?"

"Then we run the risk of dying a horrible death, but what else is new?" Pale shrugged off her backpack, then looked her weapons over. After a moment, she shook her head. "Not much, but it'll have to do… can't call a pod down, especially since we'll be needing one…"

"What do you mean, we'll be needing a pod? What are you planning to do?"

"Nothing, at the moment," Pale answered. "But as soon as the sun has fully set, you'll see."

Kayla let out another small, fearful whimper at that.