“Hundred…you lied to me.”
Ten stood in front of the side exit the next morning, blocking Hundred’s path to the track.
The two Phaetons were alone in the hallway.
Hundred thought for a moment, then sighed. “…Yes,” she answered.
Ten looked surprised. “You admit it? You know, the information you kept from me nearly put me in a bind yesterday. I could be angry with you. You won’t even try to come up with an excuse?”
“The only excuse I have is that I don’t feel I can trust anyone but myself,” said Hundred. “404 wants me to keep things from you. You want me to keep things from her. I’d rather double-cross the both of you than be made into a pawn.”
Ten laughed. “Oh, Hundred! That’s what I love about you! You’ve got guts!”
She held her hands. “Please say you’ll join me. I want you by my side, really.”
Hundred blushed slightly. “Only if you give me more information,” she demanded. “Like I said before, no more secrets. This isn’t a game. You seem to be treating it like one, but the look on 404’s face said otherwise. I want to know what you’re really doing here. What you really are.”
“…I can’t just give that information out to anybody,” said Ten. “If you want me to be up-front with you, then I need an assurance that you’re on MY side and no one else’s.”
Hundred paused. She could give no such assurance. And even pretending to would severely limit her freedom.
On the other hand, there wasn’t much else for her to do. 404 had probably already sent her data to Administration; Ten’s day of reckoning could come at any moment. At the very least, by pretending to be on her side until the end, she’d be able to tell the others what Ten had been trying to do after it was all over.
“Cut me with your sword,” she said finally. “I’m going to trust you not to kill me, and that’ll be my way of saying that you can trust me. And if I do betray you later on, then you can come back and finish the job.”
Ten stared at her for a moment. Then she materialized her armor.
She unsheathed her sword, grinning.
+++
At 10 AM, Fifteen and 404 stood by the front gate, in the midst of the crowd of chattering Living Ones.
“Why did we have to meet here…?” 404 asked.
“No one will be able to eavesdrop on us very easily,” Fifteen answered. “Just stay close and listen.”
“I’ve known Ten for a long time,” she began. “We’re both from the original batch, you know. Ten Limits, ten Finishers, ten Points, and ten Strikers. Fleets were smaller then, and Exhaust was smaller, too. But as everyone knows, things got worse over time.
“It wasn’t long before we were the only ones left from that original batch. And maybe it was just for nostalgia’s sake, but we ended up forming a sort of…friendship. We always had our differences, but we were special to each other. We kept each other going.
“That’s probably why she decided to confide in me. Just a little while after that incident with the wall of Exhaust, she told me that she…that she’d found ‘life’. That was the real reason she was back, and she was going to share it with everyone. So when I hear her say things like “We’ll all be able to live effortlessly”, I know what she really means.
“But I still don’t know how she’s going to do it, or how she can do what she did with the Exhaust. She’s different now…always going around with that stupid smile on her face, and dodging questions. And after seeing that confrontation between you two last night, I’m sure that there’s more to this story. Now I want to know what you know.”
She looked at 404 expectantly. 404 stared blankly ahead, thinking.
“…You say she wanted to share this ‘life’ with everyone?” she said finally.
“Yes. She said she wanted the Phaetons to be free.”
“Fifteen…let’s go back to the Staff room. Now.”
+++
She hadn’t expected her to cut her face.
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The shallow gash started at the edge of her left eyebrow, crossed over her nose, and extended all the way down to her right cheek. It was too big and awkward to bandage properly, so 911 had simply given her a pad of gauze to hold over it and keep the solvent from dripping. “It’ll probably scar up in a few hours anyway,” she had said.
In the meantime, though, it stung. And even after it stopped hurting her physically, she wouldn’t be able to hide it. People would see it, she’d have to make up excuses for it. She felt embarrassed and ashamed in a way that she hadn’t felt since her flame had gone out.
Ten came to Hundred on the roof and sat down next to her. “…I want you to be reminded every day of the deal you made with me,” she said. “It was a shame to have to ruin such a cute face, but I felt like it was necessary.”
Hundred felt a pang of fury, but kept silent.
“Anyway, it’s storytime now,” Ten continued. “You’ll like this, I promise. When I’m done, you won’t even want to betray me.”
“Back during that last fight with the core being— you know, the one with all the arms— I was hurt really badly. Bones crushed to powder, solvent everywhere; I could practically feel my organs being squeezed into places where they didn’t belong.
“My incinerator light was flashing, on and off, on and off, and it was only getting faster by the minute. I knew it’d be my time before long. The time that comes for every Phaeton eventually. But the longer I lay there thinking about it, the more I was sure that I didn’t want to go.
“I didn’t want to disappear. Not like 1310, not like any of the hundreds of others. And I was mad at the Living Ones for making me this way. Making me to fight and then vanish. As if the ‘life-like’ life I lived wasn’t worth anything.
“I knew what could happen if a Phaeton’s energy was let into the system. But I didn’t care. I decided they all deserved it. So, with the last of my strength, I picked up my sword and stabbed the incinerator light.
“The next thing I knew, I was…somewhere else. Surrounded by black clouds and dying Phaetons. More Phaetons kept coming at me, trying to attack me. But I beat them all down. Every last one.
“I didn’t want to hurt anyone, not really. But everywhere I went, there were screams and death and firewheels. And that’s when I realized what I had become.”
Behind the gauze pad, Hundred’s eyes grew wide. Ten leaned back and stretched her legs.
“We always knew the Exhaust gets smarter when it’s made from a Phaeton’s energy,” she continued. “But who would’ve guessed it was because it absorbed their consciousness? By the way, the other three are with me, too. The Phaetons that died before they were burned away. Our minds are sort of…fused. But it’s alright, because we were pretty like-minded to begin with. We all feel the same way about this Reincarnation system, and now we think we can do something about it.
“The Residue is what we’ve all been waiting for. The return of true life, forged in the depths of death from the scraps of its remnants. It couldn’t be reborn from the ‘life’ force that the Living Ones keep contained in this system, because that’s purified and isolated. True life and death cannot be separated. The Exhaust, however, holds little bits of everything, even some ‘life’ that slipped through, despite the Living Ones’ best efforts. And our ‘life-like’ energy served as a scaffold for that ‘life’ to regenerate on, fed by the intense energy of the Exhaust.”
Ten stood up. “That’s as well as I understand it. I’m sure someone will come along eventually to give a real science-y explanation of what happened, but we don’t have to worry about that yet. Now, are you ready to hear about our plan?”
Hundred just stared back, astonished.
“We don’t have a lot of life right now, maybe enough for just one planet,” Ten explained. “But in time, we’ll get more. So I decided it was best to take this slowly, and bring our ‘Revitalization’ to one small area at a time. And where better to start than home? I found my way back to this planet, back to this fleet, just so that you all could be the first to receive the gift.”
“…Why keep this secret??” Hundred finally asked. “This is a good thing! All our troubles are over! This is what you should be preaching to those Living Ones down there!”
Ten smiled. “Maybe I should. But I won’t. Because Living Ones are arrogant. They were arrogant to think their little meat-machines would happily fight and die for them forever as long as they kept putting all the right substances into their food and water. And if we showed them our whole hand now, their only concern would be figuring out how to take control away from us and keep life for themselves. No. The Phaetons are on top now, and we’re staying here.”
“Ten, this is serious! You can’t be thinking of revenge with something like this—!"
“Why not?! It’s only fair! From now on, THEY are the ones who’ll have to learn how to find joy in subjugation! I’ll let them have their precious life…one at a time~. And in the meantime, we can use the Exhaust on the ones that are left to build up our own stores.”
Hundred dropped her gauze, horrified. “…How could you even think of doing something like that?!”
“Very easily. It’s not like I’d have to be at the scene of the crime, so even if I felt guilty it wouldn’t be a problem. Besides, they never cared when we were slaughtered. So why should I?”
She tapped Hundred’s nose. “Remember, you’re supposed to be on my side now, Hundred. Since you’re so self-righteous, you’re probably already regretting that choice. But you should also remember that your only other choice is death. And I can make death a very interesting experience for you. Don’t tempt me~.”
Ten turned Hundred’s head and pointed at the crowds below them. “Now look. Do you see that? It’s Fifteen and 404. They’ve been talking to each other down there the whole time we were up here, and now they’re going inside. I bet they’re up to something. They’ve already been causing me trouble…”
“…We should confront them and find out what they know. Before it’s too late,” Hundred said reluctantly. “They could be acting under orders from Administration.”
Ten smiled at her, surprised. “So after all that talk, you’re going to help me anyway? You won’t even put up a fight?”
Hundred steeled her face. “I don’t agree with what you plan to do to the Living Ones. But I do think that the Phaetons deserve more than what we’ve been given. If it’s a choice between the status quo and what you’re offering…I guess I have to side with you.”
Ten grabbed Hundred’s hand and pulled her up onto her feet. “Oh, Hundred~! Come on, then; there’s no time to waste! Let’s go!”