E-UNIT: The Blue Angels of Death.

Chapter 116: The Broken Believer.

V O L U M E F I V E

Chapter 116: The Broken Believer‎ The Hope Bubble had been running at full capacity for days. E-UNITs slipped in and out through hidden exits they'd found weeks ago, and the E-Medics had taken to using those same routes to move between locations without drawing attention. The objective was straightforward, find raw materials and keep the army production running.

"Team Charlie located a parts graveyard, Captain." 05 spoke with several screens floating around her, each one pulling live HUD feeds from the stealth units outside. "Apparently Elysium provides everything at no cost, so robots have been swapping out components the moment anything shows wear. There's a significant amount of usable material out there."

The three of them, Infinity, 03, and 05, were settled in the Hope Bubble's main office. No windows. Every wall except the one holding the door was covered in screens displaying the building's feeds in real time. The ceiling itself served as the light source. Control terminals lined the center of the room, and hovering chairs were scattered at angles, each one claimed.

03 pulled her screen closer and zoomed in. "I cannot believe robots get to live like this. They are essentially—"

"Living in an Elysium." Infinity finished. "That's the one thing I respect Reaper for. He set a target and didn't stop until he reached it. I hope humans pay attention to at least that part of what he built. We have seen enough of what they're capable of when they don't."

05 shook her head. "They won't. Dave keeps insisting we're purpose-built hardware with a system running on top. Though he did say you're different, Captain."

Infinity tilted her head without pulling her eyes from the screen. "The free AI question? I'm not convinced it matters. You make your own choices without that designation."

03 let out a short, dry sound. "Captain, there's no need to soften it for our sake. Dave demonstrated what he could do to us in the most unsettling way possible. 05's body cycled through a full personality shift in under two minutes." She folded her arms around herself. "It was like watching a stranger wearing her face."

Infinity's eyes sharpened, but she said nothing.

05 dropped flat onto the floor and stared at the ceiling. "I still have fragments of 07's personality on my SSD somewhere. That girl is a lost cause. No matter how many times we've said something, she keeps leaning into the gore obsession like it's a personality trait."

Infinity smiled faintly. "Leave her. We have larger concerns." She glanced at 03, then let the question come out simply. "What do you think of me? Both of you."

03 stopped mid-scroll. 05 sat up in one clean motion. They both looked at Infinity without speaking for a moment.

"02," 03 said carefully. "Are you alright? You're not someone who reaches for reassurance. That's not a criticism, it's just not you."

05 dragged her chair over and sat beside her. "Captain. What's going on?"

Infinity dismissed her screens and turned to face them. "It's 01." Her head dropped slightly. 03's expression tightened.

"I went through a great deal when father took me without consent. The collapse of Altea while we stood by and did nothing. People dying in numbers that don't feel real." She paused. "I think it changed me more than I realized, and some of you are noticing it."

She turned to 03, a quiet, bruised smile on her face, the same one she'd carried in the sonic chamber. "I'm doing my best to hold the captain persona together. I'm trying not to pull the team's morale down any further, especially after father's death. But I'm carrying it too." She stopped. "I was the one who watched him lose his head."

03 went rigid. The footage surfaced in her HUD uninvited. "No…" She stood slowly, crossed to Infinity, and wrapped both arms around her, eyes wet. "I hear you. I'm tired too." She pulled back just enough to look at her directly. "But please, stop wearing that smile. I can't keep watching you wear it."

03's hands were shaking. Infinity watched her quietly. ‘There it is. Now for 05.’

She turned. "Did I change enough that 01 can't recognize me anymore? Could switching bodies have done something to who I am?"

05 worked to keep her expression neutral. It didn't hold. Her eyes bled red at the edges. "Don't listen to her. She is completely lost in whatever she's built in her head. At this point I think she was more attached to the Omega body than to you. Probably upset you left it behind. What a fake believer, what kind of—"

The glass door exploded inward.

01 stood in the frame, eyes fully red. "What did you just say?"

03 pressed two fingers to the bridge of her nose. "Why is everyone turning into a creep? First 05, then 07, now you—"

01 snapped toward her. "Shut up."

The room went quiet.

“A fake believer?" 01 stood in the frame, eyes fully red. She looked at 05, then snapped her gaze to Infinity. "No. I'm the only one who still knows who we're meant to believe in."

01 crossed to Infinity, measured and deliberate. "You're good at this, I'll give you that. They fell for it completely. You almost had me too, for a moment." She stopped directly in front of her. "But my captain would never sit in a room and talk about herself like that. Not once. Not ever."

She held her gaze. "You're either an infiltrator sent to collect on us, or a copy father built because he could never let go. Either way, we don't want you here."

Infinity looked down. "You might be right. The second one is probably closer to true. The real captain died at that factory." A fragile smile, aimed somewhere past 01's shoulder. "What's here now is a cheap copy of a daughter her father couldn't bring himself to release." She stood. "Don't call me Captain if it doesn't feel right to you."

A sharp, echoing crack cut her off.

03 froze. It wasn't her.

05 had moved faster than either of them, her hand still raised, she had 01 by the front of her hoodie before the sound had finished.

When she spoke, her voice was almost below the threshold of a whisper. "Leave this room." Her face had rearranged itself into something none of them had seen before. "Right now. Before everything I have been holding back comes out on you."

01 stepped back. The anger was still there, but 05's expression reached past it and found something colder underneath, fear. 01's processor stuttered. "I was just—"

"Now."

03 took 01 by the arm and pulled her into the corridor, keeping her body between 01 and the room.

“03, wait—"

"Stop. I have never seen 05 look like that, and I do not want to find out what comes next." She pushed a map to 01's HUD. "There's a salvage site here worth checking. Take 12 with you, she knows a route that avoids the main feeds. Report back when you're done. Take your time."

01 looked at the map. Nodded. Said nothing. Walked.

03 turned back and looked through the gap in the doorway. 05 stood in the center of the room, head down, hands at her sides. Infinity had moved close to her, speaking quietly, one hand on her shoulder.

03 let the door stay where it was.

"01," she said, to the empty corridor. "You really made a mess of that."