I held my head in my hands as Atlas Strafe, or rather, Un, continued to laugh behind me. X looked exhausted from her duplication, and had currently returned inside my Judgment Panel. I looked up at Winter, who was avoiding my gaze with a smile on her face.

“You knew what happens when Judgments absorb one another?” She turned to look at me, and shook her head.

“Not exactly. The founder knew that his program wouldn’t be terminated, only moved to a different location. Not to mention, he gets moved down a peg on the hierarchy, which, for a man like him, I find hilarious.”

“Winter Strafe, you will not badmouth your grandfather while he is in the room.” Un spoke, and Winter immediately lost her smile, turning to face the AI.

“Yes, founder.” A complicated expression showed itself on Un’s countenance, and he mimicked patted her head.

“Now, now. I’m not trying to spoil your fun, but merely reminding you to be respectful of the people around you when they’re present.” Winter didn’t respond, but nodded her head at him.

Now placated, the AI turned to look at me. “Ah, I do believe I owe you an explanation, don’t I? What would you like to know first?”

What do I even fucking ask? I drummed my fingers on the table while I thought. Let’s start with how your personality is still in-tact after being consumed by X, and how you knew it would be that way?

Un looked at me, and then back at Winter. “Can you please repeat that out loud, for my granddaughter?”

I rolled my eyes, but repeated the question for the sake of Winter. “Wait, you can communicate mentally?”

Winter looked stunned, but I was the one that was surprised. “You didn’t? How would you communicate over long distances then?”

The mercenary glared at Un, who started to laugh. “Why didn’t you tell me!? Do you have any idea how much easier that would have made our missions!?”

“Come now, granddaughter. I was training you as a soldier, not as a Judgment User. You should know the practical difference between the two by now.” Un’s tone flattened out into an annoyed grumble, and Winter quickly avoided his gaze.

“To answer your question,” Un resumed, as if nothing had happened, “I was the first Judgment program created by the mainframe. At the time, it was experimenting with how far it could push artificial intelligence, and I was born. Judgment had received a copy of my mind’s data from the military when I died, and it used that as the base for what you see before you now.”

He gestured up and down his body. “The result is what you see before you now. Of course, Judgment didn’t appreciate my fast wit and human ingenuity, so it decided to eliminate human minds from the AI creating process starting with the second model onward.”

“Any questions?” He paused, and I saw Winter frown out of the corner of my eye. Apparently she wasn’t being as subtle as she thought, because Un also caught her expression, and matched it with one of his own.

“What is it, Winter. Speak.” The mercenary looked at Un, then at me.

“Why are you only telling this to him? I was with you for most of my adult life, and you didn’t reveal a single thing to me besides what kind of program you were.”

Winter didn’t sound upset, or angry. No, she just sounded defeated. Un smiled sadly at her, and said, “It had nothing to do with your personality, or because I didn’t think you were capable enough, granddaughter of mine. You simply don’t have the power to protect yourself from politics.”

He looked at me, and smiled. “Not like he does, anyway. Boy, you really lucked out on who the system chose for you, didn’t you, X?”

X reappeared from my panel and glared at Un, but didn’t say anything. “Anyway, where was I?” Un continued, pacing about as if he were a normal human.

“Ah yes. As for how my personality is still, ‘in-tact,’ as you put it, after being downloaded by X… well, the answer is in the question.”

“What do you mean?” X grunted, still clutching at her chest. Un gave her a pitying look, and then turned to me.

“Tell me, what happens when you download a program normally?” I thought about it for a moment, and then realized how stupid I was for trying to overcomplicate things.

“You retain the data downloaded already, but the new data is allocated space on your hard drive.” Un nodded, and pointed to X.

“She is the hard drive. What she experienced was an influx of my program file, which is quite large, I might add.” X rolled her eyes, but Un either didn’t notice or didn’t care. “As such, the pain she felt is her free space being forcibly taken from her.”

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I rubbed my temples again, and asked, “Ok, but how come you’re still you? Shouldn’t you be… I don’t know, just stripped down to your functions and just become data?”

Un nodded. “Ah, so that’s what you meant.” He grinned and pointed to the sky. “Blame our diligent AI overlord for that one. Although each Judgment has an appropriate amount of space to store the other nine, it didn’t necessarily give us the processing power to execute all ten programs simultaneously. Therefore, the Judgment mainframe decided that each Judgment program would be the one to execute its own functions.”

“That bitch!” X growled, and Un patted her on the back.

“Now, now, it’s not all bad, is it? You get a new companion to travel with, plus, you’ve gained a fantastic new ally today!”

X snorted, and slapped Un’s hand off of her. “Please spare me the sophistry. You’re a slave, not an ally.”

Un chuckled at her. “Of course, of course. I wasn’t referring to myself though. I was talking about Winter here.”

The mercenary’s eyes went wide, and her mouth hung open for a moment. “Founder, what are you talking about?”

Un frowned at her. “Didn’t I tell you to call me grandpa? We don’t have to hide our relationship now that we’ve made a powerful ally.”

“Don’t try and distract me, Founder! What do you mean!?” Winter had gotten up out of her chair, and was now face-to-face with Un, who sighed in defeat.

“You and I both know that the government wants to eradicate the Strafe family, as the mere mention of our names brings about waves of unwanted rebellious thoughts.”

Winter nodded slowly, but didn’t take her eyes off of Un. “In fact,” the AI continued, “Thomas was executed yesterday.”

Winter’s eyes widened, and her gaze fell to the floor. “Uncle Tommy is… no, that has to be a lie!”

Un shook his head sadly. “I’m afraid it isn’t. Those of the nobility have begun to break our contracts, and while they pay a hefty fine for reporting our location to the government, they just collect that money back from the bank after we die.”

“Starlords damn it all!” Winter kicked over a table, and the loud crash drew Leray back into the room.

“Winter, is everything alright!?” The Felis turned to me with an angry glare. “Damn it Paladin Cole, I swear by the starlords, if you did anything to hurt her-!”

“He didn’t do anything!” Winter shouted, causing Leray to jump. “Just… just go back to the kitchen. We’re almost done here, anyway.”

Leray gave me one more disgusted look, and I rolled my eyes. She looked offended, and clicked her tongue before exiting the room once again.

“So what do you want from me, founder?” Un smiled, and placed a phantom hand on Winter’s head.

“I want you to go with the Paladin, and act as a bodyguard for him.” Un told Winter, and gave her a reassuring smile.

“Like hell you will.” I spoke up, and Winter quickly turned to face me. “I have enough god damned trouble from the crown without adding a wanted mercenary to my list of employees.”

Un grinned. “Oh, but you will. You forget, now that my program is inhabiting your body, I can see your memories. I know what your end goal is, Joshua Cole, and to that end, Winter will be an indispensable asset. Especially for the second part of the Trials of Damocles.”

“Tell me what you know about the trials!” I shot to my feet, and approached them. “What is Judgment trying to do!?”

Un laughed at my outburst, and said, “If I could tell you, then I would. However, I, as well as other Judgments, are currently incapable of communicating about the specifics of it. All I can tell you is that you’ll want as many people on your side as possible.”

God damn it! I slammed my fist on a nearby table, and an angry shout came from the back. “Knock it off you two, this is a business! If you break something, you buy it!”

I exhaled deeply to calm myself, and straightened up, adjusting my vest and tie in the process. I made to leave, when Un blocked my way.

“Take her, Paladin Cole. Trust me when I say the things that I do. I’ve never led Winter astray, and I wouldn’t do the same to you.” I stared at the program, contempt for him growing in my heart.

“Fine, but she signs a contract under my rules, and my conditions.” Un laughed, and X let out a tired sigh.

Surprisingly, it was X who spoke. “Joshua, I know that you’re trying to protect yourself, but what you need right now are allies, not employees.”

“No. What I need right now are less problems, and she’s a pretty large one that you want me to let into my life unconditionally.”

“Don’t forget,” I said, turning to face Un, “You hold no sway over me, and now that she doesn’t have you, neither does she.”

For the first time since our meeting, I saw fear in the man’s eyes. Fear that I would actually abandon his precious granddaughter, and the fear that he had miscalculated by assuming the kind of person that I was underneath all of my persona.

“Fine, she’ll sign.” Un said hurriedly, and Winter looked as though she wanted to object. “Not a word, Winter. We’re on thin ice. I was hoping he’d be more of the sympathetic type, but I guess I was a little too on point when I said he had a mind for war. Unless you want to be left to your own devices against the nobility, sign whatever contract he brings up.”

She glared at Un, who avoided her gaze. “Fine,” she said after a long pause. “I’ll work as his servant.”

“Maid.” X and Un both clarified at the same time. She shot them both a look, and I let a chuckle slip, even though I tried to suppress it.

“Mercenary.” Winter said resolutely, and waved her mask in front of the two instances of Judgment, as if to remind them of something obvious.

“Battle maid.” The two said in unison once more, and this time I had to physically turn away to keep myself from losing it.

Ugh, I really need sleep. I can’t keep functioning off of three hours forever. “Why didn’t you say so, Master?”

X floated over and waved a hand over my panel, causing the nanites to remotely inject caffeine into my system.

“You already look human, why don’t you use your legs?” Un scoffed at X, who returned his criticism with a bitter smile.

“I was wondering why you didn’t float, but it seems you lack the R.A.M. necessary in order to perform the function.” Un glared at her while Winter watched the whole thing in amusement.

Fantastic... I get saddled with a large helping of responsibility, and my AI is now suffering from dissociative identity disorder. Fantastic.