Some time later, Hundred stood in front of the ‘Staff’ door, fully armored. Her Engine idled, and her sword hummed in unison. She slowly lowered it towards the doorknob.

Everything about what she was doing felt wrong.

It wasn’t that it was against the rules: the facility hardly had any rules, since Phaetons nearly always did as they were told. They were purposely designed to be agreeable, and the culture of wartime camaraderie among the soldiers only added to the effect.

Everyone trusted one another so much, no one would even be watching. But knowingly taking advantage of that fact made Hundred feel even more guilty. Reluctantly, she let the blade sink into the door.

The knob clattered to the floor. It was the first time she had used her sword on anything outside of battle, and she was surprised at how easily it went through the metal.

“…We’re very dangerous, aren’t we?” she thought as she stepped inside.

+++

The ‘Staff’ room was small, and filled to the brim with odd-looking machinery that hummed at several different frequencies. She stepped around a cylindrical object and saw 404, seated cross-legged in the middle of the noise.

Her eyes were closed, but as soon as she heard Hundred’s footsteps they fluttered open. “What are you doing here?” she asked gravely.

Hundred felt nervous, but tried not to show it. “I could ask you the same question,” she answered.

“…I’m doing research, if you must know. I’ve been scouring the Internet for days,” she closed her eyes again. “To tell you the truth, it’s about Ten. I want to know what’s really going on with her. Don’t you?”

“…Yes.”

“I thought you would. You always were a thinker. I could tell you what I’ve found…if I can trust you not to tell her about any of it.”

Hundred’s shoulders tensed. Now both parties wanted her to keep secrets from the other. The situation was getting messier by the minute…still, getting at the truth would be worth it. “I won’t,” she said.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

404 opened her eyes again. “…Alright,” she began.

“I started by looking into Ten’s claim that the circumstances of her return were being kept secret by the higher-ups of Administration. For some reason, I just couldn’t believe her…and my suspicions seem to have been right. All projects concerning the Residue, even those marked as classified, are still in the research phase. If Ten was the result of one of those projects, then at least one of them should be in the testing phase. But I didn’t see that. I couldn’t find any mention of a current test subject, not even a hint.

“What’s more, new projects have been opened to find out why that wall of Exhaust formed around our Facility and suddenly disappeared. But Ten was able to detect the Exhaust before it appeared, and was supposedly the one who dispelled it. Why would Administration start new projects to look into something that they already know so much about?

“There are a number of things that could be happening. One is that Ten is telling the truth, and Administration is putting a lot of effort into making it look like they don’t know anything about her. But I’ve been looking into correspondences, and that explanation is becoming less and less likely.

“Another is that Ten is lying. About everything. Administration doesn’t know about her or her abilities, and she doesn’t want me to tell them. That’s the explanation I’m leaning towards.”

“…But,” said Hundred, “If she wants to be kept secret, why is she making such a spectacle of herself? There must be videos of her little speeches all over the place. I think she’s already been on TV a few times…”

“That’s confusing to me, too. I don’t really understand it,” 404 replied. “But I do know that the kind of data I could give to Administration is much more valuable than a few videos of her talking nonsense. As the head Management Phaeton, I can collect and store operant data on every Phaeton in the fleet. And although Ten’s new signal doesn’t make any sense to the system, I do have it. I have the raw data on all of her functions. I think Administration would be very interested in seeing it.”

“…Are you going to send it to them?”

“Not just yet. Ten’s little threat about me ‘getting into trouble’ sounded pretty hollow, which is the reason why I started to distrust her in the first place. So I decided to play along with her temporarily.”

“And when you’re done playing along with her…then what?”

“…I don’t know. I’m going to try to convince 911 to get some physiological data on her, and then I’ll send it all along to Administration. But after that, I have no idea what will happen. If Ten is…dangerous, I suppose you soldiers will be the ones who have to deal with her.”

404 stood up and stretched. “Mmm…I want to thank you for sneaking in here. A little conversation is just what I needed. I feel much more confident now.”

“Now, don’t worry about a thing, Hundred,” she said on her way out. “Strange things like this can happen from time to time, but order will always prevail. Before you know it, everything will go back to normal.”