The hallway shook and I stumbled forward before Ludwig caught me. He looked up at the ceiling, the fluorescent light flickered a few times. Slowly, I straightened my posture and looked over my shoulders and caught sight of my room fifteen meters away. Did they come to get me? How did they find me here? Could it be that one of Grandpa's friends tell them I was here? Question after question appeared and I brushed each one just as quickly as they came in my mind.

If Dale and the others got hurt, because of me, then there wouldn't be any possible way I could forgive myself, or ask for it from them. I shouldn't be with them like this. But it was too late for me to think back on what I could change.

Even so, I...

"...I was told they had won against the Teria soldiers," said Gray Ludwig under his breath, his hand squeezed mine, "This must be the second wave then. Perhaps this time, they're coming at us with full force."

"...W-We need to keep going," I said to him as we ran.

"Yeah. Let's not waste time."

We kept running through the weaving hallways to get to the cafeteria. Ludwig's shoes clicked against the floor, and I sometimes fell behind while trying to keep running at his pace with my sandals. I looked up and stared at his round spectacles, wondering if he helped me because of Grandpa or because he wanted to save me.

I thought about this. Some of the people I had met, their mien appeared superficial in my eyes. They avoided disobeying Grandpa, trying to make an impression of couthy and amicable individuals to me. Grandpa's words weighed them to such an extent. These people disregarded—flouted their own percipience of me for Grandpa.

But there were a few exceptions I'd met throughout my days ensconced under Grandpa's protection.

Ayesha and Hope were unlike everyone else since they genuinely, from what I'd noticed, cared about my well being. Ayesha would care for my needs first before tending to hers, and Hope's kindness and how he spoke only nice words to those around him soothed me, in a sense.

I did not want them to get hurt. They, even if our relationship was ephemeral, were still nice people.

"Ludwig!" I called.

He slowed his pace and stared at me, his eyebrow raised. "What is it? You need to go to the bathroom?"

"N-No... Not that... I was thinking, um, if those bad guys are here because of me. Because I... I killed their friends. They must hate me so much right now and want to..."

"I can assure you it's something else, little miss," said Ludwig casually, "It must be. They shouldn't have known that you're here. It's just not possible. Those guys attack us because they want to crush this base. This, I can guarantee you. Though, try as they might, I'm sure we'll win."

"R-Really?"

"Yeah. Don't think about it too much. Right now, it's my job to take you to others at the cafeteria. You'll be safe there."

He smiled, and this time, it was one I perceived as the first genuine smile of his I'd seen.

Ludwig's confidence felt like it was what I needed right then. His hand squeezed mine again, and I squeezed back. Grandpa and his friends would win against those bad people and deep within my chest, I held onto this belief.

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"Now, we're almost there, little miss. Just a few more corners and we should see the staircase leading down there to the cafeteria—"

Boom!

The wall next to us exploded and small chunks of it dashed against my forehead. I cried in pain as my body fell to the floor, red blood trickled down my face. What was that!? What happened? My vision went blurry as I tried to sit on two knees. I shook my head and put a hand over my bloodied forehead, the wound stitching itself back together.

After the smoke cleared up, a tall woman dressed in a tight, black outfit was gazing at me. Her disdainful gaze gripped my heart the moment our eyes met.

"I-Intruder!" shouted a man who appeared from a hallway to my left.

The dark-haired man aimed his assault rifle at the woman, but within the blink of an eye, his target vanished. I shifted my stare to the man himself where a gloved hand pierced his chest from behind.

"Gaakh!"

The woman kicked him to the ground, her right hand soused in thick blood as linear streams of it dribbled to the floor.

"I see... You're one of the high-ranking soldiers in the Great Corporate United, huh?" said Ludwig standing five meters away to my right.

My eyes fixated on the man's corpse and after a few moments, I breathed heavily, my pupils dilated. The nightmarish memories slipped into my mind—soldiers shooting at me—corpses everywhere within sight—the "Aegis" killing people in cold blood. Those harrowing views blinded my vision and the next thing I was aware of was my own deafening cry.

"Aaaaaaaaaah!"

"Ava!" Ludwig's voice echoed throughout the corridor. I looked over my shoulders when at the same time, he appeared behind me surreptitiously.

"Let's get you out of here," said Ludwig.

"You two aren't going anywhere."

A dark-gloved hand got in between the two of us and I instinctively dragged myself to a wall as fast as I could. Ludwig stepped back just as that blonde woman was about to grab at his lab coat, avoiding the few attempts following it. A smile painted on the woman's face when Ludwig had managed to escape her grasp without much effort.

"You're fast. But you don't look athletic at all. Genetics?" said the blonde woman as she twiddled the rubbery edge of her dark gloves. "Still, to escape my glove Iliad on the first try is quite a feat. I adjusted the attraction force between the Iliad and you lower than usual, so my attacks should connect when I want it to, but still... What are you?"

Ludwig glanced back and forth between the woman and me. His feet shifted ever so slightly preparing to dodge if he needed to.

"Officer Franucci Tergett!!"

Three soldiers who were referred to once by the blade-wielding woman before as Teria soldiers—they appeared one after another from the destroyed wall. These were the ones who could turn invisible within the blink of an eye if I was not mistaken.

"That's Officer Tergett for you, idiots. Anyway, that little girl... I saw her wound healing itself back," said Franucci in a low voice, "That's not possible. How could she be one of them?"

One of them. Again, I was referred to as someone who bore a striking resemblance to a certain group of people. Who were they? Why did the bad guys glare at me like so? What... Just what was I in their eyes?

"Urkhh... Ughhh..." My head throbbed suddenly and I clasped my scalp as hard as I could to deaden that rebarbative feeling. Memories of dead soldiers—red spikes, and swords—entered my mind and slowly, these scenes playing out chipped at what little sanity I had left. I tried to make it look like I could bear it—this pain, the feeling of not knowing mostly anyone around me, and my longing for Mommy and Daddy. Everything piling up began to knock at the gates of my emotions' threshold, heralding a fate where I would break down and lose myself.

"...It hurts. Everything hurts. My head, my chest, I don't like it. Someone, please stop all this. I'm begging you," I said as tears welled up in my eyes.

The woman called Franucci pointed her gloved hand towards me and it glowed pale blue for a moment. When I blinked, the next thing I saw was Franucci's stature shadowing my entire body. When did she move!?

Her right arm darted across the little space between my face and her, before a red object flashed in front of me. Franucci took a few steps back and held her right hand close to her face, except, she was looking at a severed arm of her own.

"Graagghhh!" Franucci stomped her boot repeatedly as she held her severed right arm.

"No... The same thing will happen again. I-I don't want to kill people ever again!" I shouted.

Three sickles made up of red crystals had sprouted out from my right arm, and it must be the same weapon that cut off Franucci's arm in a flash.

"I don't want this. Don't come anywhere near me... Just... Just go away!!"