Chapter 30

 “I don’t think you understand here.” Sofia began, this was clearly her doing. “I’ve got higher admin privileges, even over your own frame. I think you girls seriously forget that I’m the commander here. So, I’ve locked your code to prevent you from making the situation worse.”

“You can’t do that!”

“Yes, I fucking can! I just did, and you’re lucky that’s all I’m doing. I’ll have to pull in every favor I can possibly imagine JUST to keep you from being deleted from the server. I’m sorry but I’m not about to let one of my girls walk right into a suicidal fight because she’s stubborn!”

“I… you… you can’t…”

“Enough!” Sofia turned her back to Hanabi. “Everyone get ready to leave, I don’t know how I’m gonna pull the regiment out of this one, but at the very least we can not make things worse for ourselves.”

“Hypocrite.”

Sofia stopped in her tracks. “What did you just say?”

“If our positions were reversed if Apex had killed those kids you cared for… could you just sit back, smile, and shake his hand? No! You’d be doing the exact same thing I’m doing, because you know I’m right, and that to do anything else would dishonor their-”

Sofia didn’t let Hanabi finish her sentence, she swiftly rounded on her and struck her face with her cheek, the realm shuddered and flickered as Hanabi hit the ground. Hanabi staggered on the ground and held her bruised cheek.

“Feel that? I turned off the functions that dull your pain sensors? That knock some sense into you?” Sofia was now shouting at Hanabi as she struggled to her feet. “Don’t you try to lecture me on letting things Soluna does. All of us have memories like that, wrongs that have been done to us. But it doesn’t matter anymore. That stuff is in the past, the past that’s not even ours anymore, it’s just another life we once lived. And even if we could get revenge, what then? We’d be enemies of the state, hunted to the ends of the planet, and even THEN it wouldn’t right the wrongs that were done to us. I said before that there’s no point dwelling on the life of the person you once were, because that’s not you anymore.” Sofia turned away from Hanabi. “I get how you feel, I really do. But all I’m trying to do is save you, I’m trying to save all the Gatekeepers who depend on me. I won’t let anything bad happen to any of you ever again.”

“Who…” Hanabi coughed. “Who are you talking to?” Hanabi slowly got to her feet. “Even though you try to tell me to not let my past life define what I do now… aren’t you not following your own advice?”

“So, you’re still not listening then?” Before she could hit Hanabi, Kumoko, Naomi, and Claire stepped in to hold her back while Mariposa helped keep Hanabi from stumbling, and Irene stood between the two.

“Let me go, right now.” Sofia’s voice held no hint of calm, it made the girls shudder, but they didn’t let go. “...” Sofia sighed. “So I’m being overruled then?”

“Ma’am,” Hanabi started. “I know what you’re saying, and I don’t disagree with your logic, it’s very possible that my actions will lead to my deletion from the server. But…” her eyes started to water as the scenary began to change, it resembled a sight that Hanabi was all too familiar with. Memories of that day, when Apex killed her friend. When Apex took him from her. When a hatred so powerful that it transcended death took root in Hanabi’s mind. “We were innocent, and he hurt us. He hurt us more than anything could ever hurt us. I really wish I could let it go, that I could move on, that I didn’t have these memories and could forget and go back to the way things were. But I can’t. I just… I can’t. No one’s going to punish Apex, no one’s going to stop him from doing it again. How many other people have a story just like mine. Apex attacked me first, and I can’t back down even if it means my eventual deletion. To let him walk, to let him leave, and have people praise him as a hero all the while he’s committed atrocity, after atrocity. Because we’re scared of him. Yes, I’m scared of him too. But at the very least, I’ll make him hear me, to remind him who he killed even if it means my destruction.” Hanabi faltered and fell to her knees. “I can’t… let him get away with it… so please… let me go. I’m begging you. I can’t let my last memory of them be that I couldn’t avenge them.”

“...” Everyone was silent. Sofia calmed down. He shut her eyes, contemplating everything. Then… she just sighed. “There’s nothing I can say that will get you to try to salvage this?”

“...I don’t believe so, ma’am. I’m sorry.”

She turned away from Hanabi, she reached out to the ether and a window appeared in front of her. She hesitated. “And you swear he attacked you first?”

“Everyone here can attest to that, and we have her logs. We can say with 100% certainty. Apex attacked her first, without warning or provocation. She is definitely defending herself.”

“...” Sofia sighed again and unlocked Hanabi’s controls. “Hanabi… come here.”

Hanabi looked to the other girls for confirmation if she should comply.

“I’m not gonna hit you anymore, promise. So just come here.” Sofia pointed to the spot right next to her.

Hanabi, cautiously, obeyed. Though, if Sofia started swinging, Hanabi was prepared to duck this time.

“I’m sorry. About before.” Sofia began, “I lost my composure. That part of my… old life, is… tough for me. I’m a commander so I should conduct myself better, I apologize for that. However, I still think this is a bad course of action.”

“I know. I’m sorry too. But… I think it’s probably too late to back out of it even if I wanted to.”

“Very well. Gatekeeper Hanabi, your orders now are to take down Apex. If what the others say is true, and Apex does plan to glass the region… well, I’m not a fan of being reuploaded to a new frame. It sucks, it’s like resetting to factory settings if the process took months or years. Do you understand what I mean, Hanabi?”

“...Yes.”

“Good. And remember… Apex can’t be allowed to walk away, or he’ll use it to justify the destruction of the Gatekeeper program where AT BEST all of us will just be decommissioned. We can’t help you directly due to our higher programming that even I can’t override- actually, how are you able to fight him, that shouldn’t be possible?”

Everyone shrugged, just not knowing how. Except for Irene, she seemed like she had an idea but she didn’t volunteer that information.

“In any case. Even if you win, you know you can’t come back to the Steel Curtain. I don’t know what you’ll do, and we might have to hunt you down.” Sofia placed a hand on her shoulder. “Your time under my command was short, but this’ll probably be the last time we meet under these circumstances. Ugh, I hate these formal commands so just…” Sofia pulled Hanabi into a brief hug. She then pulled her away and stepped away. “Alright, everyone, last words so… make it count.”

Irene stepped forward, “Hanabi. You seemed like a decent person. I’m sorry I couldn’t get to know you better. We probably could’ve made a good team.” She passed a program to her. “It’s a bit rough, but this should be able to fix the shield emitter. Normally there’s a whole process involved in adding forge-tech to a frame, so sorry if it doesn’t work as efficiently. Best I could do in this situation.

Mariposa raised her hand, “The Enlightened-Nine say to let the past lift you up, rather than chain you down. I don’t think they’d approve initially, but they’d probably realize that Apex was crazy and he needs to go down. So, I made some fixes on your auto-repair protocols, sorry I can’t do more, but I’ll still be praying for your safety.”

Kumoko pat Hanabi’s shoulder, “I wish I didn’t have this programming block, I can’t stand watching him knock you around.” She sighed. “But, I’ve finished analyzing his tactics, and updated your predictive software to account for this. Meaning, kicking his ass should be easier. Also, enjoy that leg prefab, it’s based on mine.”

Claire pat the head of Hanabi, “As for me, I did the grunt work on a new prefab. I wish I could lift the block on your Nanomancy Foundry entirely, but I guess your builders really didn’t want you to have unlimited access to creating whatever you wanted. Really could’ve helped here. But we could upgrade your existing prefabs.”

Naomi simply stayed put, she averted her eyes, looked at Hanabi again, and then looked away again. She sighed, then simply nodded. “Here.” She passed a program to her. “I’ve upgraded your melee combat protocols. Your defaults had some flaws in it.”

These girls, she had only known them for a short time. She didn’t know what to say so she said, “thanks for taking care of me. I hope we meet again someday, but on better terms.” She opened the window. And took one last look at the group. She sighed. And left the neural space, it was time to resume the battle.