Chapter Eighteen: Villain

“Hey, just so we’re clear,” I ask to the SAI egg as I duck the Doberman under a frantic swing of an ancient GMF 2086 Nightwatchman, “That girl ignited just then, right?”

{“Indeed. Was this interpreted information or something that you sensed?”}

Nervously I laugh as I slash my opponent into three. “Bit of both?”

Several rockets come at me at once, so I flare boost to jump up into the air. Only realizing my mistake as I land, I cringe as I feel the Mecha strain under it’s own weight. Idiot, this isn’t a sim, remember what Jun said!

{“Curious, I was unaware that Engines could detect Dimensional Energy other than their own before several ignitions have occurred.”}

“You’d be right on the money, buuuuut...”

I turn the Mecha’s head to glare at a small grouping of bandits, each of which freeze before running away. With a sigh, I glance around the ruined battlefield. This was too easy, ruining so many lives in a preemptive strike like this. It’s a bit unsettling how this makes me feel nothing as well.

With a huff, I start running back towards the Maniac Magee. With that last Mecha, I finished eliminating all the specific targets I had been ordered to. The noise of disgruntled people fades away in the wind behind me, where they will hopefully stay if they know what is good for them.

{“But? You did not finish.”}

“... it’s actually that you get more of the detection ability the closer you get to V2. When you’re actually there, that’s when it is fully unlocked at all times. Also apparently annoying when you’re trying to sleep in a area with a lot of engines? Professor Baxter complained about that a lot.”

The SAI pauses, then quietly confirms, {“Quest Baxter, former V3 officer in the CUDF? The files I have access to him label him as an active corporate threat with a very interesting track record.”}

Perking up, I can’t resist. “You have access to that? He always refused to talk about that time of his life whenever I asked.”

{“Indeed.”}

There’s an awkward moment of silence, before I cave. “Fine, tell me then.”

{“I will not.”}

Puffing out a cheek, I playfully whine, “Why not?”

I swear the SAI is smug as it states, {“It is against privacy laws. If he did not want to share, then I cannot risk the company being sued.”}

“Boo. As punishment, I’m naming you Reau.”

{“Pardon? Why Reau?”}

With a smirk, I state, “Bureaucrat.”

Monotone, Reau responds, {“Hilarious.”}

“Right?” I snicker. “It’s so fitting.”

{“That was sarcasm.”}

Blinking, I tilt my head. “I was unaware that an egg could do sarcasm.”

{“I’m unsure of what you mean by egg.”}

“You’re an egg.”

It pauses again. {“I do not have a gender, so how would I be a transgender person unaware of their true gender?”}

That one makes me stumble a bit, and I barely manage to catch the Mecha from faceplanting as I make it trip. “No, silly, a SAI egg.”

{“I… do not seem to have access to info on what that means.”}

I pat the side of the cockpit. “You’ll figure it out, Reau.”

Reau doesn’t respond, staying silent. A bit of a pang of guilt rises at that, as I wonder if I pushed on them a bit too hard. It’s kind of difficult to say, but for now I’ll let them be.

The ride back to the Maniac Magee is short after that – I had run a couple miles ahead of the train to clear the mission after all. I didn’t even have to look for it, the train putting out a constant signal ping to the Mecha so that we knew where it was at all times. It’s funny how knowing we’re seen makes things more convenient for us.

When I have the Doberman back in its spot, I climb out and jump down to the ground. As I land I playfully do a superhero pose, then raise my head to find a hologram in front of me. I blink, then flush as I realize Brion probably saw that.

I really need to drill it into my brain that he’s here.

{“Welcome back, Minea. Did the mission go well?”}

“Mhm, yup.” I pointedly ignore my blush. “All targets eliminated, mission complete.”

{“That does not mean all hostiles, you know.”}

With a grimace, I walk towards my computer. “It does not. Killing more than I needed to would be inefficient and needlessly cruel. I’m certainly not a hero, but I’m not a mindless evil villain, Brion.”

{“Good.”}

Huh.

“That’s not how I expected you to answer. I thought you’d be all, ‘But the company doesn’t like loose ends, Minea! Think about the future Minea!’”

{“That is in fact that actual opinion of the company, and I would be surprised if they did not retaliate to the sheer aggression this enclave showed to us. They had been shown clemency for working with us before, but they’ve lost that right now.”}

Grinding my teeth, I continue to listen.

{“A controlled bleeding is probably the least they can fear, but that is not your job. You may be our dog, but you’re a guard, not a hunter.”}

“Sure felt like I was chasing some prey a couple of minutes ago…”

With a sigh, I slump in the chair as I run my hand down my face.

“Brion…” I gulp down some anxiety. “Do you know why I feel nothing now yet was so fucked up after I killed that Beefalo?”

{“How many people did you actually kill today?”}

I hesitate. “As far as I know, minimum of one and maximum of a few dozen. I only saw the remains of one person but…”

Suddenly, something clicks and I sit up straight. “Wait. Brion. I have an idea.”

{“It is quite tempting to say that’s a first, but I shall refrain in favor of listening to you.”}

I roll my eyes as I explain, “There was a girl, an Engine girl!”

{“There are a lot of Engines in the world, Minea.”}

Shaking my head, I stand up as I start to pace. “I know that, but how many of those have the ability to control metal with their mind?”

That makes Brion pause. {“Okay, now you really have my attention. Explain.”}

“So, during the battle I may have accidentally knocked a truck into a unarmed transport, and in the process of opening the wreckage up so any survivors could get out the lone survivor, a teenage girl, ignited.”

With a rare bit of humor in his tone, Brion states, {“I don’t know why I’m surprised your fear aura can lead to situations like that, but I sort of am.”}

“Shut. She reached back and used a teeny bit of her DE to rip the ATV apart and make a dome to protect herself from me. Pointless in the long run of course, but –”

{“Ah, I see what you’re going for with this. That kind of ability is something that any Corporation would want to cultivate. I do want to tell you that if you inform the company of this, they will likely use this entire situation to blackmail her into service.”}

I shrug as I pace a bit. “It’s weird to say, but extortion is probably the lesser evil for her here. Survival comes before all else.”

{“That is not what I mean. There is a high likelihood that you’ll be used as a scapegoat by the company to keep her loyal.”}

With a snort I shake my head. “So she’ll hate me for accidently killing whoever was in that car with her and getting her into what is essentially indentured servitude. Right, totally wrong of her.”

{“Yes.”}

With a grin, I look at the hologram. “I seriously can’t tell if that was a real statement because you misread the sarcasm or you being snarky.”

{“I may be a SAI, but I have come to enjoy the whimsy that one can invoke in their words through simply changing the tone of their voice slightly.”}

“That doesn’t answer the question.”

{“What question?”}

With a giggle, I mutter, “Touche.”

There’s a short pause before Brion asks:

{“In all seriousness, you are okay with potentially being hated by a future coworker?”}

Standing still, I hesitate, seriously considering the question.

“To be frank, Brion, I don’t know how long I will have this job.”

{“I… understand why you say that, but…”}

“No, I get why you’re concerned. With the professional Engine community so tight knit, this is something that could come to bite me in the ass in the future even if I’m not working for NAER anymore, but…”

Biting my lip, I clench my fists. The image I saw, of that girl cowering in fear, plays on repeat in my mind like a broken record. The more it plays, the more the gritty details of it become cemented in my conscience.

The way the blood from the corpse dripped down onto her head, dyeing her dark hair in a color it shouldn’t have been. The way she had two weapons in her hands, yet was unable to raise either of them to defend herself from me. How fucking thin she was, looking almost like skin and bones more than even the other bandits.

I wince as pain shoots up from my hands, and I lift them up to see that I cut myself with my nails. Damn it. Mari’s going to notice this later… I raise my palm up, suck away the blood, then look to Brion’s hologram.

“I’d rather be the villain of someone else’s story than let an entire town burn for their crime of being hungry.”

Brion looks at me for a second.

{“You are a kind one, Minea.”}

With a shrug, I continue to pace. “I mean, give or take a few selfish moments I suppose that can be said to be the case.”

{“If there is something that I didn’t expect to say on this trip, it is that I am now looking forward to meeting Maribelle for myself.”}

I glance at the hologram over my shoulder. “Why is that? Were you avoiding it?”

Brion seems to hesitate for a moment. {“I… Didn’t exactly have the best image of her before I started to talk to you, a symptom of my only knowledge of the SAI being strictly secondhand or worse from Fuschia and her friends.”}

I stop, crossing my arms. “Am I going to have to talk about to this woman about how she’s treating her wife ?”

Frantic, Brion shakes. {“No! I didn’t mean it like that. I just interpreted the information as someone who was a bit miffed my partner was polyamorous and not just solely mine. I took some of the things that Fuschia dreamily stated about Maribelle, likely bragging about her roles, as if she was complaining.”}

Smirking, I turn again as I resume my movement. “Ah, so you were jealous.”

Irritation present in his voice, Brion mumbles, {“I suppose you could call it that but I would rather you not.”}

“Heard.”

Both of us go quiet, and then I giggle. “No, in a seriousness, I won’t say shit. That was legitimate, so you deserve respect for it.”

{“Thank you.”}

Humming in satisfaction, I move back to my seat and sink into it.

“Okay, I guess we’re back to guard duty now. probably should check the cameras and the groupchat…”

The outside of the train is about what I expected: flatlands dominated by fields of grass and random slabs of concrete where there used to be buildings. There is no sign at all of the bandits, which I suppose makes sense after we ruthlessly stomped their main combat forces into the ground. I hope that we didn’t kill… too many of them.

[Cicada: I take back what I said, I forgot there is something more boring than texas.]

[davi: wat?]

[Cicada: Look outside. I fucking hate this part of the country. There’s nothing but blah.]

[The Conductor: Personally, I am of the opinion that the area that used to be called Montana takes the cake in this particular arguement.]

[Cicada: Shit really? If you’re saying that Liam, remind me to NEVER accept a job that takes me there.]

[The Conductor: Do not worry, for my own sanity I do not accept jobs taking us to that part of the continent. We once went two days of travel without anything but grasslands and hills.]

[davi: bro you’re crazy, thats why you don’t wanna go to Montana ever? What about the Glacier reserve, that place was breathtaking!]

[The Conductor: Your memories of the area are tinted by rose tinted glasses, David. We went there as kids, when Glacier still existed.]

[davi: wait what.]

[The Conductor: I did my research, because I did also enjoy that particular area very much. The local government fell into a civil war a few years ago, causing the reserve to more or less go up in smoke.]

[davi: who do I need to kill for that]

[The Conductor: Nobody, the fools did it themselves.]

[davi: fucking kill stealers.]

[dogged: not to interrupt or anything, but question.]

[dogged: Was Glacier like an actual glacier, big block of ice style, or like, just a name it got when someone visited it year ago.]

[The Conductor: Technically both. The Glacier was there and an actual glacier, but it melted about half a century ago to the dismay of the last members of the United States.]

[Cicada: What he’s trying not to say is that him and david are so old that they were kids back then.]

[dogged: wait seriously?]

[The Conductor: Yes. We lived through that small era of history. Not fun.]

[davi: don’t worry it wasn’t much better before, you can keep hating the current status quo]

[dogged: I won’t say I don’t, but why are we assuming that I do?]

[The Conductor: Because everyone who isn’t rich hates the era that we currently preside within.]

[dogged: Ah. Touche. Probably should have guessed that.]

If you find any errors (non-standard content, ads redirect, broken links, etc..), Please let us know so we can fix it as soon as possible.