Chapter 14

 She walked along the sands of the mysterious beach, the ocean is what that large stretch of water was called. At least, when she asked about it, that was the answer given though… no one had ever seen an ocean before, only heard stories about them from the past.

Still, she must’ve seen this place before, right? It felt way too real to just be a program.

She stopped in her tracks, looking back to her footprints in the sand and how far she’s walked from her original position, thinking about why she wants this place to be real. “Is it just another memory echo? Something my past self desired?”

The chiming of the bell again. The door had appeared once more, this time in the ocean. Its upper frame poking out above the waves. Once more she felt compelled to open it. She took a step, when suddenly a window notification popped up in front of her.

It was an invitation to link with Sofia. “I can do that?” She looked past the window to the door, she was curious but ultimately decided to join Sofia in her mental space.

The world around her faded into a swirl of colors, before the scenery was remade in the form of a large classroom of sorts. Desks were aligned in orderly rows, lessons written on a blackboard about various subjects, a row of backpacks hanging from hooks in the back of the room. Outside was uncharacteristically sunny, even though she had never seen the sun or a blue sky outside of her own mind space. She could faintly hear the sounds of children playing.

“Yo.” Sofia greeted, appearing on the teacher’s desk, sitting with her legs crossed. She hopped off the desk, twirling her cane, before holding out her arms to gesture to the room as a whole. “Welcome to my inner mind~”

HK waved, cautiously. “Is… is there a reason for calling me here?”

She tilted her head to one side, “Do I need a reason to check-in on a subordinate?”

She averted her eyes, “I guess not.”

“Good!” She sat down on one of the chairs, and gestured for HK to do the same to the opposite chair. “So, how’re you doing?”

“I’m… a bit confused.”

“Yeah, I can tell, you’re pretty quiet and a bit too formal. Sorta like you’re afraid of something, is there something up with that?”

Something quickly flashed in her vision, but she couldn’t make sense of it, another buried memory perhaps. “I’m not sure. Maybe my past self was like this or… perhaps this is just how I was made? How does it work, exactly? Are our personalities based on our old selves or are we rewritten with a new personality?”

Sofia stayed quiet for a few moments, seeming to be deep in thought… before anticlimactically shrugging and saying; “Heck if I know. I do know that most Gatekeepers are like that at first, but eventually, like when Leon went over your factory settings, they ease up, learn to express themselves more. You should see what I looked like back when I was a rookie. Actually, you can totally see. Watch.”

Except for the chairs, the rest of the classroom sank into an unknown liquid form beneath their feet, the landscape then changed to a Hanger of some sorts, a group of people in full-military garb, they saluted what seemed to be their senior officer, a dark-haired Gatekeeper with orange eyes, and a stern presence. She wasn’t a person of many words, but she had a way of keeping them in line. At first, HK thought that might’ve been Sofia, until… she spotted a girl in the front row, and despite looking much more put together, as in all her parts were from a single manufacturer rather than the mix-and-match she has now, and lacking that characteristic “I can do whatever I want” demeanor, the girl was undoubtedly Sofia, but a younger version of her.

“That’s you?” HK asked while pointing at her.

“Yeah, I was a real cutie back then. Though, the me of back then was much more uptight and formal. Yes Commander! Right away, sir! Order confirmed! I was a real tool back then, still… I’m just as cute, right?”

“.....” She looked away.

“Oi, are you trying to pick a fight or something?”

“No, of course not.” She was being sarcastic, but was unsure if it was coming off properly. “That was my attempt at sarcasm and humor, did I do it right?”

“Hah, give it a few more weeks and you’ll be talking like a normal person before you know it. We all go through this process, consider it a rite of passage.” She gazed sadly at her past self as she walked up to the image of her saluting past form. She sighed. “It’s probably more accurate to say this girl is a version of a past me, since I’ve died a few times since then.”

“You died? You still look fine to me.”

“Well, yeah, Gatekeepers have their memories backed up regularly, but our bodies can still be destroyed. It’s also not easy to replace us if we suffer a full frame destruction.” She walked among the row of assembled people. “Every single Gatekeeper here, for example… they’ve been dead for years; destroyed frames, decommissioned, repurposed, or just simply… stopped functioning. We can talk, we can joke, we can make friends, and Kumoko for example can even fall in love… but at the end of the day, we’re just gun platforms that taunt the enemy while we shoot them. Still, I won’t be just their machine, and I will never treat any of my Gatekeepers like disposable pawns. Someone’s gotta look out for you near-suicidal defects.” She turned away from the image as it faded, being replaced by the previous classroom.

Sofia took her seat, “Though, Soluna would prefer us to be mindless automatons who blindly follow orders and shoot things, they’re all like that. Honestly, in some ways, Soluna resembles a country of robots than humans.”

“I guess?” She remembered Cassius and his wanton cruelty and disregard for life. “How does a man like Cassius get to such a high rank? He seems… more of a liability.”

Sofia grimaced as if she just smelled something rotten, “Why would you bring up that waste of flesh?”

“Sorry, I was just curious… they mentioned he was a Paragon’s descendant?”

“Was he?” A window formed next to Sofia, she scrolled through the information and stopped at Cassius record. “Redacted? Well, let’s get that out of the way.” With a flick of her wrist. The blocks on the record, quite literally, faded into nothingness. “Now, let’s see what they were trying so hard to hide.”

. . . . .

Sofia suddenly burst out laughing while reading! “Are you serious, THAT’S who he’s related to?! Ha! No wonder they hid it! Check out who he’s related to!” Sofia slid the window to HK.

She scanned the document, skipped past some useless information, and read the name of the paragon aloud; “Eclipsa Of The Void?” The name didn’t seem familiar to her, but judging by how amused Sofia was… it must’ve been someone important. This called for a trip to her built-in-glossary.

“Eclipsa of the Void: She was a first-rank member of the Paragons, aka as founding member of Soluna as a whole. She fell during the Sector 13 Uprising while valiantly trying to stop members of her own family from participating in the uprising, she was a martyr and her sacrifice ended the uprising because of her deep love for Soluna and its people.” The entry was surprisingly brief as she read it aloud. “What was wrong with Eclipsa?”

“That’s the manufactured history, here’s the real history.”

The words on the screen distorted, and shifted into a new message. “Eclipsa of the Void and her kin attempted to seize control of The Forge in a failed coup. During the battle, Eclipsa killed First-Class Paragons Blight and Meteor-Havoc, they were subsequently avenged by Apex. The only members of the Eclipsa clan spared were branch family members who chose to side with Soluna during the uprising. However, over the years the Eclipsa survivors would all meet their doom in one way or another, prompting concerns that systematic foul play might be at work; however, as of now, there are no investigations into the matter. Currently, the only member of this line is Commander Cassius Ironsides of the 47th Legion.”

She read the words back just to be sure she was reading it right. “So he’s descended from traitors who also happened to be a Paragon?”

“Yep! Basically, when he joined the military, it looks like the media tried to turn him into a poster boy of patriotism. The descendant of traitors, and carrying on Eclipsa’s “heroic” legacy to bring glory to Soluna and restore his name. He was a pretty famous figure for a while.”

“So, I’m guessing that-”

“Yeah, turns out he wasn’t nearly as great of a soldier as Eclipsa was, and after the public grew bored with his exploits, he was assigned to a frontier outpost where chances for glory were rare.” She turned to another page in the window and it showed a lone outpost out in the frontier but away from any of the marked major combat spots.

“From a quick guess,” she said; “His unit is pretty isolated out there, it’s almost like-”

“Yep. His sole purpose in the military now, is to serve as a canary in a metaphorical coal mine. Though in his case, the canary is his underequipped unit and the coal mine is full of bullets. Basically, his main base is close enough to enemy territory, that the only purpose he serves is to be bait in case of an incursion by enemy factions, where his base’s destruction becomes an early warning sign to others in the area.”

“I see.” She skimmed the entry again, a question started to form in her mind. “Why did Eclipsa attack the Forge?”

“Oh, that one’s real easy to answer. See, remember when I said one of the things we fought were people with super powers?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, guess where we send the bodies?”

“The Forge?”

“Bingo. Basically, the Forge is… as the name implies, charged with harvesting their powers to turn into equipment. Several pieces are part of your hardware. And mine. And every Gatekeeper. So, can you guess why Eclipsa attacked?”

“Because… if she were to take command of it, she’d essentially have access to dozens if not hundreds of pieces of equipment that take on the properties that Supers possess?”

Sofia clapped, “that’s correct, I’ll get you a prize when we get home. As for why Eclipsa, who was a 1st-class Paragon, would attack Soluna at all… well, the Paragons aren’t exactly heroes. Sure to the public they certainly seem like it, but in actuality… they’re backstabbing, lazy, manipulative, pieces of shit. The majority of the surviving 1st-Class Paragons spend their time in their enclaves, enjoying their status, and doing nothing to help the country unless it benefits them personally. Actually, when you think about it, a lot of the country’s problems can be traced back to their complete immunity and adherence to their random whims. The only thing that really stops one of them from crowning themselves as an absolute monarch is that the remaining Paragons would likely unite to remove them from power. Make no mistake, the Paragons aren’t heroes, allies, or friends. They’re unchained monsters that roam around doing whatever they feel like, but ones that prevent our enemies from making major attacks against us and can be directed against them.”

This was starting to sound a bit personal now, she sensed. This level of anger, it wasn’t just from someone who has opinions, but rather someone who might have experienced this level of cruelty first-hand. She hesitated to ask, but… “Sofia, why is this place a classroom?”

Sofia’s smile faded, the light in her eyes began to dim as she stared at HK with a blank face. “Huh? Why is it a classroom?”

The classroom flickered and shifted, an image started to take form. The desks were stained with blood, the boards lessons were changed to just a constant stream of “help me!” messages and the sound of children playing were replaced by the sound of gunfire and explosions. It flicked back and forth from the chaos to the orderly images as if the facade was cracking.

Sofia tilted her head off to the side, “Some things are better left unsaid.” She smiled as she answered, but there was something distant and hollow about her voice.

Suddenly, a message notification cut through the darkness. Sofia pushed the button, and a message from Mariposa popped up. “We’ve got a problem!”

Sofia sighed as she hopped off the chair. “Well, guess we’re being called, better go deal with it then.” Before she exited the mind map, she turned to HK. “For what it’s worth, sometimes it’s better to not remember things.”