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The Legion War had lasted over a decade. Each side pulled the other into what seemed an eternal tug-of-war. Humanity’s so-called representatives bickered among themselves, wasting time and strength in petty squabbles, while the true enemy advanced unhindered. The Legion crept across the continent like a plague, consuming cities and territories piece by piece, their mechanical swarm spreading like a virus, since they’re technically AI and all that.
Yet even the Legion was not without limits. Exhaustion lingered in their endless pursuit of a single goal: the eradication of mankind. Amid this deadlock, a young woman named Vladilena Milizé became trapped after the Vanadis got ambushed, killing most of its occupants, and they even got Marcel, MARCEL for crying out loud. But there is a light point in his sacrifice, as there were survivors, and yet, his sacrifice wasn’t enough for Lena to escape, as she was captured by the Legion and brought to their queen, who had escaped after some guy was about to, and I quote: “Clap her cheeks.” Which cheeks, I’ll leave it to your imagination, dear reader.
Lena stirred as her eyelids fluttered open. The haze of the recent struggle clung to her mind. Dizzy and disoriented, the Alba girl tried to steady her vision, though clarity came slowly. She didn’t need her sight, however, to realize something was wrong. Reaching forward with a trembling, pale hand, her fingers met with a chilling surface: Cold glass.
Her heart sank as the truth settled in; she was trapped, entombed within a glass chamber. Panic brushed against her ribs, but Lena forced herself to steady her breathing as her eyes darted about, taking in her surroundings. The room beyond the transparent wall was bathed in a blue glow, shadows bending and stretching across a forest of tangled cables. Screens flickered, and their blinking lights and erratic beeps formed a mechanical chorus. The place felt claustrophobic with wires that slithered across the floor like veins. Compared to this chaos, even Annette’s desktop seemed neat and orderly.
<<Ah, you’re finally awake.>>
The voice slithered into her ears, layered with a cruel, mocking lilt. It was the sound of sorrow twisted into melody, metal masquerading as malice. Lena’s eyes darted to its source, and there she saw her captor.
The monarch of the Legion: Zelene Birkenbaum. Her cold voice came from an old ghetto blaster, which was being held up by the Phönix.
Her body, a shifting mass of liquid chrome, shimmered with nanomachines that twisted and writhed to form the vague outline of a beautiful woman, a mere mentalic shadow of her past self when she was more than a machine. This woman abandoned her humanity to save it, in her eyes, that is. And yet all she had achieved so far was riding eternal, shiny, and chrome.
The facsimile of a smile crept across her featureless face, as if parodying a human expression. Behind her were her Ameise bodyguards, who slowly kneeled next to her, their mechanical chrome dorito monstrosity carrying the weight of their duty with pride and diligence. Right next to Zelene was a Phönix, eyeing the Alba girl like a creep.
Lena’s answer was simple. She met that false smile with an unyielding glare that was just as cold as Zelene’s soul, if she even had one at this point.
“I wish I had woken up with a better view, Merciless Queen, or should I say, Zelene Birkenbaum.” Lena’s tongue was just as sharp as her eyes as they finished adjusting to the harsh light glaring down from above her glass prison.
<<I suppose this conversation would be better held under kinder circumstances. However, my intelligence informs me that your allies are already preparing a rescue for their beloved princess. Or perhaps I should say… their Queen?>>
Zelene’s words dripped with mockery, her metallic tone carrying a rehearsed sass that sounded uncanny in its imitation of humanity. She raised a liquid-chrome hand in a casual wave, and the two Ameise guards obeyed, retreating from the chamber. With a graceful turn, Zelene faced a massive computer array, her body tethered to it by threads of shifting nanomachines that pulsed like veins of living metal.
Lena’s confidence wavered. Left alone with the Merciless Queen and her creations, unease crept in like a frost she couldn’t shake. Still, she clung to a single fragile thread of comfort, that Shin and the Strike Package were out there, preparing to save her. If they weren’t already too late.
“What… what are you planning to do to me?” Lena finally asked. The words slipped out, torn between fear of the answer and the unbearable weight of not knowing.
Zelene turned slowly. Her Ameise frame advanced, its mechanical limbs moving with deliberate precision until it loomed before the glass. Her nano machine body pressed close, and Lena instinctively shrank back, her spine hitting the curve of her prison. Her heartbeat thundered in her ears.
Nearby, the Phönix unit observed in silence, sensors recording the encounter. What it saw was not just captor and captive, but the collision of two monarchs: one forged by nanomachines to reign eternal, shiny and chrome, the other chosen by people who still dared to hope and to lead them into the eternal battlefield where they believed they belonged.
<<Humanity’s greatest flaw is its endless hunger for war,>> Zelene intoned. <<We sought only to free you from it. To remove your need for violence. Yet humanity rejected progress. And so our directive evolved to end war by ending humanity itself.>>
The words were ice in Lena’s veins. A shiver coursed through her body, but her spirit did not bow. She straightened herself up and harshly pressed her hand defiantly against the glass.
“Humans aren’t just war,” Lena shot back. Her voice wavered, but her conviction did not. “We’re more resilient than you can imagine. Or did you forget what it’s like to be human? We laugh when we’re happy. We cry when we’re hurt. We can love… and we can hate. And yes, sometimes the hate outweighs the love, but that doesn’t mean the world itself is full of hate.”
Her chest rose and fell sharply as she drew breath. “We’re flawed, yes, and we’re imperfect. But that's what sets us apart. We kill each other for how we look, where we come from, and who we are. But even so, those flaws are ours to bear. We don’t need machines to ‘fix’ us.”
<<You are as intelligent as I was told, and you are aware of humanity's history, which has been written in the ink of blood and tears. Humanity had its chance to change, but its flaws are bugs in its code. It’s too late for them to remedy themselves, as The Legion is the solution to humanity's greatest flaw. However, as humanity's final chance has wavered, this does not mean that you won’t be given one.>> Zelene slightly tilted her chrome head as she tried to imitate a warm smile, but Lena only saw that her smile came not from kindness but from her cold, wired soul.
<<I can fix you.>>
“I don’t need fixing. Least of all from you.” Lena’s frown was cold, her unimpressed glare sharper than any blade. This was just as hollow as one of Vaclav’s car-salesman pitches. The Legion, she thought bitterly, could be every bit as stubborn as Shin, arguing endlessly that he should cook. While she’d already taken lessons, she still couldn’t cook.
“What makes us strong isn’t perfection,” Lena pressed on. “It’s our will to live. Our will to fight. The way we endure, the way we care for each other, that’s what makes us strong.”
<<Lena.>> Zelene’s mechanical voice slithered across the chamber, both mocking and alluring. <<I offer you an opportunity to transcend those flaws. To strip away the weaknesses of humanity and embrace true purpose. Emotions cloud your judgment, cloud your goals. I could give you what you want, not only the end of this war, but the end of all wars. An everlasting peace that will be eternal. But not everyone is worthy of such a second chance.>>
Lena drew in a long, steady breath. Zelene hadn’t spelled it out, but she didn’t need to. The meaning was clear as glass: the Merciless Queen was offering her the “gift” of becoming one with the Legion. No more pain. No more loss, like reading a fluff fic. An end to watching her friends die one by one in a war none of them had ever asked for. All it would cost was her humanity, her memories, and, to an extent, herself.
A price she would never pay. Neither would her friends. Especially not Shin.
Her silver eyes hardened as she straightened herself up, her knees pressed to the floor of her glass prison. Those eyes were her defiance. She met Zelene’s chrome mask of a face without flinching. Two monarchs. Two queens. Neither was willing to give ground.
“A friend of mine, an officer with a bob haircut, once told me the difference between us and you.” Lena’s voice rang clear like a silver bell. “We remember the fallen. We carry them with us, so they’re never truly gone. But you? No one will remember you.”
Zelene turned away, her nanomachine body rippling as she interfaced with the screen. Her fingers, or what passed for them, danced across alien keys. A harsh glow flared, and a timer appeared on the display, its numbers ticking down at an alarming pace.
<<You are wrong.>> Her voice was low, almost a growl, as a glint of her past self was being allowed to slip up, as Lena’s words struck a cold nerve; however, as cold and calculated as she was, Zelene quickly got up her metaphorical feet. <<History will not be written by the victors… but by the survivors. And besides… You don’t even know that officer’s name.>>
“Yes, I do. It’s—”
Lena’s protest was cut short by the Phönix's booming interruption.
<<Mistress. Bálegyr detected near tunnel sector D9. Suggestion: immediate evacuation.>>
Zelene’s nanomachine form was still. Then, with something almost resembling a smirk, she turned her head. <<So this is where we part ways, Bloody Regina. And for what it’s worth… I do not fault Bálegyr for falling in love with you.>>
Lena’s eyes narrowed. “What did you just do?” The air inside her glass cell shifted. A dry breeze of air stung her nose, filling her lungs with every breath.
Zelene rotated back toward her, a glimmer of satisfaction flickering across her false expression. <<My calculations predicted your rejection of ascension into the Legion. Therefore, you will serve as a test subject instead. I endured torture in human captivity, and I learned the truth of your kind. Humanity’s so-called strength is not resilience or love; it is hatred. That beautiful hatred will be your undoing.>>
Her voice grew colder, darker, each word hammering into Lena’s chest.
<<Your oxygen supply will be contaminated. Nanomachines are going to enter your body. They will claim you from within. If you survive, you will be the perfect union of flesh and Legion. A new type of Legion. An eternal rider of shine and chrome.>>
Lena’s hands shot to her cheeks, trembling as she searched for any change. Any shift. Any burning under her skin. Horror widened her eyes, but there was nothing.
Was Zelene bluffing? Or had the process already begun?
<<Query: Will No-Face accept this outcome?>> The Phönix asked.
<<No-Face’s failed car salesman pitch has cost us dearly, as it failed to convince Bálegyr into our ranks. Perhaps this will change his mind>>
Zelene turned toward her subordinate, her liquid nanomachine form shimmering faintly in the glow of the vast monitor, painting her in a cold blue light. On the display, a single red dot crept steadily closer to the chamber, swatting aside every obstacle in its path like ants.
<<Mistress to……. Phönix. You will remain here… and give Bálegyr a warm welcome.>>
<<This Phönix has a name, you know. But fine, whatever.>>
Zelene’s voice sharpened. <<Mistress to Phönix: Be silent, bitch.>>
<<Oh, so I’ve been demoted from Phönix to bitch now, huh?>>
Ignoring the complaint, Zelene stepped gracefully away from the console. As the blast doors at the far end of the chamber began to open, she spared one last glance at Lena. For the briefest second, her liquid-metal face seemed to empathize with Lena’s current predicament.
<<It’s a pity, Bloody Regina. I would have enjoyed speaking more about Bálegyr and his fixation with you. He has worn my auditory sensors thin, boasting about San Magnolian gurls, them being so undeniable that they would have melted anyone's popsicle, including his. I personally preferred Ameise's dream. Humans even played that insufferable song whenever I denied them answers. Not to mention the lunatic in a gas mask they unleashed.>>
Her voice dripped with calculated mockery as she turned back toward the doors. <<But humans are complicated things, riddled with their petty conflicts and fragile desires. Soon, after your transformation, those problems will no longer be yours to carry. While they continue to tear each other apart… we will endure.>>
With that, Zelene’s elegant, gleaming form strode past the threshold, her silhouette fading as the blast doors sealed shut behind her.
Lena’s fury boiled over. She slammed her fists against the cold glass walls of her confinement, her voice cracking with rage. “No! Come back here, you chrome clanker!”
Her blows left nothing but a dull echo. The glass didn’t even tremble. After all, she was just a San Magnolian Gurl and did not belong to the Vargus master race.
Hatred twisted in Lena’s chest, tangled with shame. Shame that she had allowed herself to be captured, shame that her recklessness had once again dragged the Strike Package into danger. They had endured endless politics, blood, and sacrifice to keep her safe, only for her to end up here, helpless.
<<Foolish girl,>> the Phönix intoned <<The glass is bulletproof. Your fisting amounts to nothing.>>
Lena sank to her knees. Her forehead pressed briefly to the glass. Her faint breath was slowly fogging the chamber. Her chest heaved as though the chamber itself was sucking the air from her lungs. Lena felt that the chamber was shrinking in on her. There was a moment of despair as a small question started to linger. What if Shin didn’t make it in time?
Her weak eyes looked over at the giant computer screen, trying to make sense of what would happen to her. The timer was still ticking off faster than Talia denying that she wrote a story about TP losing his balls. All hope was lost, but then Lena slowly turned her eyes towards the corner and realized that Shin was closer than she thought.
Her silver eyes burned heavenly silver again, even through the blur of tears that she refused to shed. Her tears, after all, didn’t belong to the enemy; they belonged to her and her alone. She clenched her jaw, forcing the words through her ragged breath.
“I don’t need fists!” Lena snapped, glaring at the blast doors, waiting for her rescuer to burst through. Her heart leapt when her “prince” finally arrived, except he didn’t come through the doors. Instead, his Reginleif crashed straight through the wall, debris raining down over the canopy.
<<WHAT THE—>> The Phönix jolted upright, and Lena pressed her hands to the glass in shock.
“Shin!” she cried, her voice trembling with joy. For a fleeting moment, Lena’s fear left her. Her hero had arrived, or so she thought.
“Hello there,” Shin’s familiar voice rang from the loudspeakers.
<<Undertaker. You are a bold one,>> the Phönix sneered, its metallic frame twisting as it slowly advanced.
“Lena, are you hurt?” Shin asked, worry lacing his tone. His Reginleif struggled awkwardly, wedged halfway through the wall. Perhaps if he’d taken the door, he wouldn’t have been stuck.
The canopy slowly opened. From within, Lena’s breath caught at the sight of absolute cinema. Shin emerged with one foot braced on the edge, his jet-black hair catching the draft, his crimson eyes burning with fury as he glared at the Phönix. Even through her glass prison, Lena could feel the tension crackle, a battlefield aura like the prelude to a Shōnen battle.
He leapt down heroically, only for a stray rock to hit him square on the head. Shin tumbled, landing face-first in the rubble. Lena winced, jealousy pricking her heart for the concrete that had stolen the kiss meant for her.
<<So this is the Undertaker? More like the Underdrinker. Looks like just another weak little bitch,>> the Phönix mocked.
“Shin, be careful!” Lena cried, pressing against the glass.
“Just stay put,” Shin groaned, pushing himself up. Dust fell from his uniform as he adjusted the rifle slung across his shoulder. Step by step, he walked towards his target.
<<Oh? You’re approaching me?>> The Phönix spread its chain blades wide in a taunting manner, <<Instead of running away, you come straight toward me?>>
But Shin was ready. He swung his rifle forward, chambered with 7.62 mm armor-piercing rounds, Bitch’s worst nightmare.
<<I was forged by the Merciless Queen herself!>> Bitch boasted through its static-laced ghetto-blaster.
Shin’s only response was a burst of gunfire.
<<DOMAIN EXPANSION!>> Bitch screeched as its high-frequency chain blades whipped out, spinning like metallic dreadlocks. They slashed through the air, missing Shin by inches as sparks erupted against the Reginleif behind him.
Shin glanced at the fresh scars on his ride. He was clearly unimpressed. “This is where the fun begins.” He broke into a sprint, running like he knew that he would never see the sun. Be happy that he didn’t pull out a Naruto run.
<<Stop, Phönix time!>> Bitch was jumping left and right in an attempt to perform the ancient arts of humanity's trademark of the expression of emotions, in other words, it was dancing.
<<You will lose,>> Bitch declared, having decided to give chase.
“Nah, I’d win, Bitch,” Shin shot back, smirking.
<<Why does everyone call me that?!>> the Phönix snapped, rage twisting its voice.
As Bitch was being distracted like a hurt schoolgirl, Shin seized this golden opportunity, like Vera and her obsession with the kitchen, as Shin quickly climbed atop his Reginleif.
“It’s over. I’ve got the high ground!” Shin shouted.
Lena, starstruck, pressed her nose to the glass. He was fighting like a storm for her sake alone. The joy in her chest warred with guilt. Guilt for being captured, for dragging him into this madness again, but not just him. The rest of the Strike-Package, too, was somewhere here.
The Phönix ignored Shin’s taunt, whipping its blades at him once more. At the last instant, Shin ducked. The chains struck the Reginleif’s cockpit, caught for a split second, and that was all Shin needed. He pulled free a shoulder-mounted rocket launcher from beneath the cockpit.
The Phönix’s speakers crackled in alarm. <<No, wait, please->>
“Hasta la vista, bitch,” Shin muttered as he fired the rocket.
The rocket smashed into the Phönix’s balls, detonating in a blaze. Flames engulfed its frame as metallic shrieks echoed, the machine crumpling into ruin.
“So uncivilized,” Shin sighed, discarding the launcher as he rushed toward Lena’s glass chamber.
“Shin!” she called, tears threatening her eyes. “You’re really here…”
He pressed his palm against the glass opposite hers. Relief surged between them, but before it could blossom, the giant screen above flickered. Zelene appeared, her chrome body shimmering and her voice dripping mockery.
<<Bálegyr, allow me to comment on your recent achievement. You are quite a worthy opponent, and I regret that this may be the last time we meet. Your conversations about your little romance with your love were amusing, even touching. But you must face the truth: humanity’s evolution has no place for love.>>
“Spare me the bullshit,” Shin snapped. “What did you do to her?”
<< A little social experiment. A new beginning. She will become part of the next generation of Legion… and so will you. You’ll both have a second chance, together. The nobility will never accept you, but with me? Your human limitations will be gone. I calculated your every strategy based on the data of your father, and I concluded that your strategy would be similar. I wonder how similar you will become.>>
Shin’s blood-red eyes burned. “Vika was right, we should’ve turned you into a Roomba when we had the chance.”
<<We all serve a purpose,>> Zelene answered coldly. <<The Legion has failed for ten years to achieve victory. No-Face’s gambit ended in failure, as apparently projecting edgy images into the minds of children does not make them join up with you. But now? Now we will create the perfect marriage between man and machine.>>
“What do you mean?” Shin asked.
<<The human mind can sometimes be as predictable as any Legion program, and you executed that program beautifully; you did what I had foreseen. This is all part of my plan, which means keikaku, in other words. You activated my trap card.>> Zelene’s calculated and mechanical taunting caused Shin to slightly twitch his eye, as not only did she bring up his father, but also that she used Lena as bait.
<<Today’s victory is mine, ich bin Legion, denn wir sind viele.>>
Shin blinked in disbelief as a familiar face with revealing fangs suddenly popped into view behind Zelene. A Sirin leaned into the camera feed, her head tilted, eyes a mixture of curiosity and tiredness.
It was her. Vera, also known as Krapivnik. One of the most unusual Sirin models.
“Yo! Check it out. I’m on TV, y’all!” Vera announced, grinning as she bobbed her head like she was at a rave party. “I wanna give a shoutout to Lady Bobchi and all my Sirin peeps!”
Zelene turned slowly, her chrome features twitching in irritation. Without a word, she slapped Vera across the cheek with her nanomachine hand, like a pimp slapping a hoe.
Vera froze, clutching her face. First came shock. Then disgust. Then fury, pure, unholy fury, like when she sees mushrooms.
“HAVE YOU LOST YOUR DAMN MIND?!” Vera roared, seizing Zelene by her liquid-metal hair. With a shriek, she slammed the Merciless Queen’s head into the camera once. Twice. Then over and over again, like she was trying to break into a kitchen, looking for mushrooms to destroy.
“NOBODY!.......PIMP-SLAPS………… VERA!” she bellowed, every word punctuated with another metallic smash.
<<Potatonus-666, HELP!>> Zelene cried out, her voice warbling from the abuse.
“SAY MY NAME! SAY IT!” Vera demanded, thrashing her like a chrome piñata.
Another Phönix rushed onto the screen, flailing wildly with a stick and smacking Vera across the shoulders.
<<This is some bullshit!>> Zelene screeched, only to get smacked herself when Vera ripped the stick out of the Phönix’s hands and returned the favor.
“MOVE!” Vera snarled.
The feed devolved into utter chaos as the rest of the Sirins stormed the broadcast. Lerche leapt onto the Phönix’s shoulders, pounding its chrome skull with her bare fists. Ludmilla, Darya, and Yanina swarmed its dreadlock-looking chain-blades, yanking them back and forth like a broken jump rope.
“EXTERMINATE!” Darya cried out.
And then there was Kyle, her eyes wild, foam frothing at her mouth as she shrieked and proceeded to spank the Phönix’s assheeks with terrifying enthusiasm.
The entire screen shook with violence, the so-called Merciless Queen reduced to a shiny ragdoll in the hands of furious Sirins.
And then the screen went black.
Shin and Lena stood frozen, dumbfounded. The silence was broken only by the faint hum of machines and Lena’s ragged breathing.
Shin shook his head and dashed to the console. “No way, no way it ends there! I have to see what happens next!”
He leaned over the controls, only to realize the entire keyboard was smeared in something sticky. His brow furrowed. It was strawberry jam. Shin was about to dab a finger in and taste it, as it couldn’t be as bad as Lena’s cooking, but suddenly the screen flickered back to life.
This time, instead of Zelene, the display showed a young officer in a Gaidian dress uniform. She had chestnut-brown hair, round glasses, and the most casual smile Shin had ever seen in the middle of enemy territory.
“Hi y’all,” Rho greeted.
“Rho?!” Shin blinked, completely thrown off. “What are you doing here?” He glanced at the background of the feed. where the Sirins were still mauling the Phönix, climbing over its frame like the Vika’s technological monstrocities they were. “Wait, where’s Zelene?”
“Hihi. Yeah, funny story,” Rho began, adjusting her glasses. “Jean and Elena… kinda jammed the Legion’s comm system. We asked Dominic to fix it, but this is all we’ve got. Sooo… yeah. Zelene escaped after she ripped off Vera’s toe.”
“It wasn’t a toe, it was the whole leg!” Vera yelled from off-screen, staggering around on one foot before toppling flat onto her face.
Shin pinched the bridge of his nose. “Right.” Then, after a pause, his voice became softer: “Rho… I’m sorry about Marcel.”
Rho’s smile faltered for a moment. Her voice turned cool. “Yeah. I’ll miss that orange-haired boy. No homo.”
Shin swallowed the ache in his chest but pressed on. “Can you help me? Tell me how to get Lena out of this chamber.”
“I thought you’d ask how to stop the gas,” Rho said with a shrug. “But, long story short? I don’t know. I’m not a tech person, Shin. And this whole setup? It’s, like, ten years old. I don’t do vintage.”
“Is ten years really vintage?” Shin muttered.
Before Rho could reply, another face suddenly shoved into frame. Talia, one of the Strike Package’s attached officers.
“Okay, okay, I took a real quick look,” Talia announced breathlessly. “It’s not that complicated. It’s like decorating a cake…except the frosting is nanomachine gas, and the cake is Lena’s lungs. Oh, and there’s a dickbutt doodle on the schematics.”
Shin’s stomach tightened. “How do I stop it?”
“There’s a manual control button inside another chamber, right next to her,” Talia explained. “If you can press it, it should disperse the gas. Key word: should. I’m trying my best to send the data over to you, but the jamming is really thick. The connection can cut at any time.”
Before Shin could even respond, Lerche’s voice cut in. “Lady Rho! We’re about to shave this Phönix bald. Want to join in on the bonding exercise?”
The feed shifted just enough to show Lerche and the other Sirins holding the poor chrome monster down. Its dreadlock-blades flailed helplessly as they pinned it, scissors and swords in hand.
“Kay! I’m coming! I want to kiss it before y’all pull a Truffle on it,” Rho called cheerfully, throwing a peace sign at the camera. “Good luck, Shin! Keep slayyyyyyyyyiiiiiiiiing!”
The screen blinked black again.
Shin stood there, breathless, staring at the reflection of his own tense face in the dead monitor. Then he turned, his eyes locking onto the second chamber.
Lena was slumped inside, half-conscious, her silvery eyes flickering weakly as the crimson countdown continued its merciless descent. The gas chamber was hot, and Lena wasted most of her energy by slamming her hands onto the glass for no reason.
Shin’s fists clenched. He couldn’t shoot the glass. It would release the nanomachine gas into the air. He couldn’t hack the console; he was too dumb for it. And the timer was merely glaring at him in an attempt to mock his helpless situation. It was a literal ticking time bomb. There was no other option.
<<Ha…Ha…Ha…Ha…Ha…>>
The cold laugh felt as broken as it was mechanical. Shin froze, every hair on his neck standing on end. Slowly, he turned around.
Bitch was still alive. As alive as a Legion may be, and they aren’t even alive to begin with.
Its half-ruined chrome body twitched, sparks leaping from torn circuits, dreadlock-blades dragging uselessly along the floor.
Shin’s eyes narrowed. “How the hell are you still alive? I shot you in the balls.”
The machine’s broken ghetto-blaster crackled. <<You…forgot…th-that…I…I…have…no…b-b-balls-s-s-s-s…>>
“Good to know,” Shin muttered coldly, reaching down to pick up his rifle. He chambered a round with deliberate calm as the Undertaker he is, about to claim another soul to give the devil another headache to deal with. “That just means I won’t miss this time.”
For the first time since its inception, the Phönix got a taste of an emotion that it thought it had lost long ago: fear. Its optics flickered wildly as its mangled frame began to crawl backward, scraping across the ground.
<<N-No…f-f-fuck…no…>>
Its mechanical entrails dragged behind it. The sound was grotesque, like a mixture of a wounded animal clinging to life and a toxic gamer. Shin advanced silently, his steps measured by his merciless attitude. He didn’t need to sprint, didn’t need to Naruto-run, death was already catching up, and he became death itself, destroyer of the Legion.
<<N-No, Bálegyr…pl-ea-se…NoOoOoOoO P-p-plEAsE…!>>
The Phönix’s voice cracked into a distorted wail; it sounded desperate and pathetic. Its shrill electronic pleading blasted through the chamber like full-on earrape, tearing through the air.
Shin leveled the rifle. His eyes burned the same colour as his natural eye colour. It was blood-red, of course.
“You’re free now.”
He pulled the trigger.
The shot roared like thunder. The bullet pierced straight into the Phönix’s head, and in an instant, it detonated, an eruption of fire, sparks, and chrome. The blast was so violent it hurled Shin back across the chamber, forcing him to shield his face as shards of metal and oily fluid rained down. It was like that one time when Raiden crushed a watermelon with his thighs because Bobchi said that he couldn’t do it.
The screaming cut off.
The only sound left was Shin’s ragged breathing and the faint hiss of smoking wires. But it was better than listening to the Phönix’s earrape.
Shin slowly pushed himself upright. A small, bitter chuckle escaped his lips. Against all odds, he had stood against the Phönix, and he won, just like he said he would. His eyes slowly adjusted to the flickering glow of the massive screen ahead. Streams of data from Talia poured across it in pulses of blue lights. It only took him a moment to understand what he was looking at, and his stomach dropped at the implications. He didn’t inherit the brilliance of his father, Reisha Nouzen, nor did he listen to Annette’s ramblings, but even he knew that this was far from a victory.
Suddenly, Shin was brought back from his mindless pondering by four knocks, four fucking knocks.
“Shin, are you okay?” Lena asked worriedly. “Is the Phönix defeated?”
Shin nodded as he slowly turned his head around to face his commander. “Yeah”
“That’s great. If you could, could you let me out?” Lena’s voice sounded in a mixture of soft sarcasm and slight relief, oblivious to the situation that the two of them found themselves in.
Shin nodded again.
“I can feel my mouth tasting kinda funny, I’m also feeling slightly dizzy too.” Lena’s legs had started to feel like noodles from Michihi’s ramen stand.
“According to what Talia just sent, Zelene left this gas chamber running; don’t ask me about it. This is probably Annette’s field of expertise; it’s gone to overload.” Shin’s tireless expression offered little to no comfort to the girl he was meant to save, as he saw no outcome to this situation.
“Well, that’s not great,” Lena joked weakly, but Shin didn't see this situation lightly.
Shin shook his head. “No, because everything is contained within those glass cells.” The Onyx boy pointed at Lena’s position. “It should contain those nanomachines from spreading into the air, and it’s set to flood that entire chamber.”
“Oh…” Lena’s voice went hollow. “Well, you’d better hurry up and get me out then.”
“Except…” Shin rubbed the back of his neck, searching for words. “It can’t be stopped.”
Lena stared at him through the glass, her face draining of color.
“If I try to get you out, it might spread through the whole air,” Shin admitted.
Lena drew in a long, shaky breath. “Shin,” she whispered. “I’m sorry.”
He turned his gaze downward, the weight of her words heavy, like a giant silver bell, crushing his ribcage.
“Just leave me here,” she said quietly, while gesturing her hands.
Shin’s jaw clenched. He brushed his body to face her fully, the girl he loved so dearly, the girl he had fought for and bled for, and the words that came out of his mouth weren’t the ones he meant as frustration finally hit him like that one time when Fido tried to isekai Zelene to a world where she was being reincarnated into a Roomba.
“Yeah. You know what? I will,” Shin said bitterly. “ You just had to get captured, didn’t you? Because that’s who you are, because you’re always waiting for me, all this time. You always do this to me, you always try to sacrifice yourself, thinking you’re the lowest of the low!”
“No, Shin, just leave me.. I’m just a stupid white pig who has no family, no home, and no rizz. It died with the Republic. I had my chance, just leave me.”
Shin clenched his knuckles white upon hearing these words. It irritated him to the core to hear Lena doubting herself again.
“Exactly.” Shin’s voice cracked with frustration. “You’re just as unimportant as that officer with that bob haircut whose name everyone seems to forget. But me….” He paused, his reddened fists trembling. “If I were only faster….. I could have done so much more! And in the end, this is my reward? For everything we’ve gone through, for all the things that we’ve suffered for? Everything we’ve lost. WELL, IT IS NOT FAIR!.......WHY is it you? Why is it always you!”
He slammed his fist against a pillar, the sound echoing through the lair. His breath came fast, as his vision swam with rage and despair.
Lena’s lips started to tremble. She wanted to say something, but she didn’t know what to do; all she could do was stand there and watch Shin wallow in the sorrows that she had caused.
“I’ve overstayed in this world for too long,” Shin slowly walked towards the gas chambers. Already having accepted that the longer he lived in this world, the more he started to realize it was made of only suffering. Everything came at a price, and his happiness, as small as it may be, cost him dearly.
“No,” Lena shook her head violently, knowing what she was about to do. “No, please, Shin don’t… PLEASE DON’T.”
“You saved me more times than I can count, so please, just this once, let me save you?” He opened the adjacent cell door and stepped inside. The hiss of the air filled the space as he sealed himself inside the gas chamber next to her. He would share her fate, breathing the same poisoned gas, hoping that in sacrificing himself, she might still have a chance to live. Shin pressed that big button, and then he pressed his palm against the glass, his breath fogging the surface. Across from him, Lena mirrored the gesture, her trembling hand meeting his through the cold barrier. A faint smile crossed his lips; hers wavered, drowning beneath a flood of warm tears.
“Shin… you already have,” Lena whispered as her voice cracked into quiet sobs.
Then, the sound that most dreaded came from the expected corner. Both turned toward the screen just as the timer hit zero. The red digits flashed, and a hiss filled their chambers. A slow, creeping metallic fog began to seep through the vents. Shin’s heart froze as he watched the nanomachine gas curl like smoke around them.
He looked back at Lena. Her silver eyes met his blood-red ones, locked together across the glass in a wordless farewell. Neither had wanted this ending, yet neither could look away.
“Shin,” Lena choked out, trying to force a smile through her tears. “I love you.”
“I know,” he murmured, staring down at his hand pressed to the glass.
“Shin… will you look at me?”
The stubborn Captain shook his head.
“Please?” Her voice was so soft, the Alba girl’s fragile sound cut deeper than any wound he’d ever taken.
That single word broke him. Shin lifted his gaze, and a tear slipped free, tracing down his cheek.
“I’m so sorry, Lena,” he said, voice trembling. “I failed the promise we made.”
Lena tried to smile through her tears. “Me too, I’m sorry, but… At least we’re together.”
“You’re such an idiot,” Shin said with a bitter laugh that quickly turned to a sob.
“I must be,” she replied weakly, “for falling in love with you.”
The moment hung between them, only for Lena to cough. She brought her hand to her lips and saw crimson. The metallic taste of blood filled her mouth, trickling down her chin.
“Lena!” Shin pressed harder against the glass, panic breaking his voice.
But then he felt it too, the slow, burning warmth dripping from his nose. A few dark red drops splattered against the glass between them, mingling with hers.
Their fates were bound together. With each passing second, the air grew heavier, the hiss of the nanomachine gas filling the room like a death sentence. Shin could feel it sinking into his lungs, a strange metallic chill creeping through his veins. He knew the truth before he could bring himself to accept it. Even if his body survived this, even if he awoke as one of the Legion, perhaps leading it, replacing No-Face, and maybe doing a better job of convincing people to join the dark side. Would he cry out her name?
“Shin?” Lena’s voice cracked through his haze. “Shin, where are you? Please… talk to me. I don’t want to be left in the dark. Shin… please!”
Her panic jolted him upright. “Lena, I’m here!” he shouted, pressing both palms to the glass.
But then he froze. Something was wrong.
A faint glimmer ran down her face cheeks, not buttcheeks. They were not clear tears, but a viscous silver fluid that shimmered under the blue lights. The chrome droplets mixed with the red streaks of blood, painting her face in a haunting metallic sheen. Lena blinked rapidly, confusion turning to horror as she touched her face. Her fingertips came away wet and glinting.
“Wh–what’s happening to me?” she whispered, rubbing at her eyes. The motion only made it worse, trails of liquid metal smeared across her skin as her pupils faded from bright silver to an empty, lifeless gray.
“Lena…” Shin’s voice faltered. “Lena, I’m right here! I’m right here!”
“Shin…” Her head trembled as she turned toward the sound of his voice. “I can’t see anymore.”
She stumbled forward, hands groping helplessly against the glass, her breath fogging the surface between them. “It’s dark, Shin. I’m scared. Please, please don’t leave me.”
Shin’s heart shattered at the sound. He wanted to hold her, to pull her close and tell her it would be all right, but the glass, that cursed glass, kept them apart. He pressed his forehead against it, tears and sweat mingling as his voice broke.
“I’m not leaving you, Lena. Not now. Not ever. I’m right here!”
But even as he spoke, the chrome tears began to crawl across her skin, reflecting his own terrified face in their shine. Was this the fate that also awaited him? Shin had no time to think about himself, as all he could think about at this moment was Lena and her comfort in what was both their final minutes together.
“Th-thank you…” Lena’s voice trembled, breaking between shallow breaths. Chrome-stained tears ran down her cheeks as more of the metallic fluid escaped the corners of her mouth. She smiled faintly through the pain, her lips quivering. “Thank you… for falling in love with me.”
“Lena, no, don’t talk like that,” Shin choked, his own lungs burning from the gas. The air was thick, heavy. “I’m sorry, Lena… I couldn’t protect you. I wasn’t there when you needed me the most. I failed you again!” His voice broke into a desperate cry. “Please… forgive me!”
He pressed his fist against the glass so hard that his nails dug into his palm. His crimson eyes glowed with anguish, reflecting her fading silhouette. The chamber lights flickered as the gas continued to pour in. Talia’s plan, whatever faint hope there had been, was a failure.
Lena shook her head weakly. “No…” she whispered, her tone trembling as the mechanical hum grew louder inside her chest. “I’m the one who should be sorry… It’s my fault. All of it. I kept running toward you, even when I knew I’d only bring you pain.” She coughed again, a stream of silvery-red liquid spilling over her lips. “Your suffering was the fault of my people and therefore everything has always been my fault…”
Her eyes, once radiant and alive, now dimmed like fading stars. The divine spark that made her Lena, that warmth, that fierce compassion, was being smothered by the tears of requiem running down her face.
“Stop… please stop saying that,” Shin muttered, shaking his head violently. “Don’t you dare. Don’t you dare make this your fault!” His voice cracked, grief twisting his expression into something between rage and despair. “You were the one who kept me going when I wanted to die! You were the one who made me realize there’s more than the Eighty-Sixth sector!!”
But Lena couldn’t hear him anymore. Her breath came in shallow gasps. Shin’s mind screamed for him to do something, anything, but his limbs felt heavier by the second. The metallic taste in his mouth grew stronger, and he realized the gas had already begun its work on him, too.
He stumbled, falling to one knee, his hand still pressed to the glass separating them. “Lena…” he whispered, his voice breaking apart. “I won’t let this world take you from me… not again.”
Lena’s hand, trembling, lifted until her palm rested perfectly against his through the glass, her touch cold and trembling.
“Shin…” Her voice was faint now.. “Promise me…”
“Anything,” Shin gasped, forcing his head up to meet her face one last time.
“Promise me you’ll remember who we were.”
“I swear it,” Shin said, tears streaking down his face. “Even if I forget everything else, even if I become one of them, I’ll find you again.”
A soft smile spread across Lena’s lips, and for a fleeting second, she looked like herself again, the same girl who once stood beneath the banners of San Magnolia, eyes full of light and hope, and next to her were all the friends she had made, the ones who died, and the ones who she was going to leave behind. The only difference was that there was no war.
“Then… I’m not afraid anymore.”
Lena’s voice came out in a faint whisper. Thin streams of blood trickled from her ears, staining her pale neck as her hearing faded into nothingness. The world around her collapsed into silence. She could no longer see the glow of the glass, nor hear the hum of the machines, but she felt him. Somewhere beyond the suffocating dark, Shin was there. That single truth anchored her, keeping the fear at bay.
Shin pressed his hand harder against the glass, his knuckles white. “Lena…” he whispered, but his voice cracked, the words dissolving into the rising static in his head. His vision blurred, blood-red eyes stinging from the gas.
On the other side, Lena’s body began to tremble violently. Her smile was weak but peaceful; it lingered for only a moment before her strength gave out. She sank slowly to her knees, her silver hair spilling over her shoulders. The faint glow from the chamber lights reflected against her face, painting her in shades of ghostly white and chrome.
Shin watched, helpless, as her smile softened into stillness. His breath hitched. The edges of his vision darkened, the world around him fading into a gray blur. The last thing his eyes captured, the image that would forever burn itself into the dying light of his consciousness, was Lena’s motionless figure, frozen in an eternal slumber.
Then his sight vanished too.
The gas reached its peak concentration. A thick, silvery mist filled both gas chambers. The sound of breathing ceased. The machines hummed as their lights blinked methodically like heartbeats that didn’t belong to the living.
When all was still, the glass between them glimmered faintly, and two silhouettes on opposite sides were motionless.
Their names were Shinei Nouzen and Vladilena Milizé.
They lived their lives on their own terms, two wandering souls who walked their chosen paths through a world paved with the fallen. Every step they took was over the echoes of the lives consumed by war, by hatred, by the relentless march of time. And yet, even in a world as broken and merciless as theirs, they found each other. That single chance was enough.
For all the pain they endured, for all the losses they carried, neither would have wished for a different fate. Even if given the power to change the ending, they would have chosen the same path again, so long as it led them back to each other.
This was their mausoleum.
Suddenly, the reinforced doors burst open in a shower of sparks and twisted metal. An orange mechanical Scavenger barreled through the breach, its servos whirring and plating scorched from battle. Behind his black frame were several armed passengers, soldiers gripping rifles and blinking through the smoke.
“Pi! Pi-pipipi Pi!”
“Did someone pi-ng? Because have no fear, Fido is here!”
The soldiers dismounted swiftly, fanning out and raising their weapons toward the room.
“Secure the area!” barked an Alba officer, a young woman with a sharp bob haircut, her Prussian-blue uniform stained with soot and dust.
“I saw Shin run off to this area,” Raiden commented as he dismounted from the orange scavenger.
“Yeah, Talia confirmed that much,” Annette added.
“Just keep watch for any hostiles,” Anju remarked.
“Roger that!” the squad echoed in unison, moving with precision as they swept the room.
The officer, nicknamed Bobchi among her unit, turned to glance at Fido. The Scavenger had gone still as he was fixed on the gas chamber.
“What’s wrong, Fido?” she asked, lowering her voice.
The Scavenger didn’t respond. Its optics flickered faintly, focusing on the silhouettes behind the glass.
“Pi…?”
“M… Master N-Nouzen?”
Fido didn’t hesitate. The orange Scavenger lunged forward and barreled across the room toward the row of glass chambers. The rest of the soldiers followed suit. Raiden and Bobchi were just behind him, followed by Kurena and Anju flanking.
“Shin!” Raiden shouted as he ran.
“Colonel Milizé!” the girl with the bob haircut cried. Fido slammed to a halt inches from the nearest cell, metallic joints hissing as he lowered his head. For a fraction of a second, he simply stared, his optical sensor fixed on the two motionless figures inside. Then, as if a human memory flickered behind his circuits, he gave a soft, broken whine.
Bobchi and Raiden were the first to press their palms to the glass. Kurena and Anju followed. The pane was cold under their hands; the condensation fuzzed their reflections. The two silhouettes inside, Lena and Shin, were pale and still.
“Can you hear us?!” Kurena pounded on the glass with both fists, shouting until her voice was hoarse. The only answer was the faint mechanical hum of the chamber.
Fido took a step back, lowered his head, then lunged forward like a charging bull, until Annette’s hand shot up and stopped him dead.
“Don’t,” she ordered coldly, that all their exhaustion couldn’t warm. She bent at the console and pointed at the schematics Talia had shoved across the screen. “Those chambers are full of nanomachine gas. If we break the glass, it’ll pour right out into the room. We all die.”
Kurena sank to her knees against the glass and began to sob. “Then why, why did Shin do this?” she wailed, staring at the two bodies.
Annette’s fingers trembled as she wiped at the jam with the back of her hand. A single tear tracked down her cheek. “He gambled,” she said quietly, as if to herself. “Talia predicted that if he could carry half the burden. That Lena might survive. He tried.” Her voice broke. “We can’t blame Talia. This was… his choice.”
Bobchi wrapped herself around Raiden, burying her face in his chest and shaking. “She wasn’t supposed to die like this,” she sobbed into his uniform. “If I’d been more alert, if I’d seen—”
“None of this is your fault,” Raiden soothed, one hand braiding through her hair. His own jaw trembled. He kept his voice low but fierce. “Shin, he’s the idiot who always bets his whole life for the ones he cares about the most.”
“Pi… pi,pipipipipi…pi…pi.pi.pi,”
“Master Nouzen… Missus Milizé… Please….. Wake up….Please wake up….. I’ll be a good boy, I’ll never complain ever again, just please. Wake up! ”
He sidled closer to the glass and pressed his head against it as he tried to emulate a mourning dog.
Kurena reached down and laid her forehead against Fido’s cool metal flank, the two of them shaking together as Anju wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “You must be suffering too, Fido,” Anju whispered into his plating, words meant more for the machine than anyone else. “But we won’t abandon you.”
“Pi..Pi..Pi”
“She can’t keep getting away with this.”
The group gathered around Fido, wrapping their arms around his cold metal frame. Their sobs filled the room as they tried to comfort him, believing the loyal scavenger to be drowning in sorrow. But they were wrong.
Inside that still, trembling frame, there was no grief, only heat. A violent, searing fury coursed through Fido’s circuits as his optics locked onto the lifeless figures of Shin and Lena behind the glass. That burning sensation wasn’t pain; it was rage and the fury for revenge.
“PI… PI PI PI PIPIPIPI!”
“ZELENE WILL PAY, I WILL EXTERMINATE HER!”
Fido’s fury only grew. While it burned, the world outside was crumbling. Humanity’s final stand against the Legion collapsed under the weight of its own arrogance. Just as Zelene once predicted, mankind was too consumed by its petty rivalries to unite. The Giadian Empire’s attempt to reclaim its former glory only hastened its fall, dragging its allies and enemies alike into the abyss.
Within two short years, the Legion’s march became unstoppable. Cities turned into silent wastelands of steel and ash. The last human fortresses flickered out like dying stars. And when the guns finally fell silent, humanity surrendered. Those who survived were herded beneath the rule of Zelene, who perfected her methods of conversion, the process refined through the unwilling sacrifice of Shin and Lena.
Under her reign, the line between flesh and machine vanished. Human minds were stripped and repurposed into obedient cogs of her cold dominion. The Legion believed their victory was complete.
But they had overlooked one variable.
Amid the ruins of a dead world, one Scavenger still roamed. Fido, once a loyal companion and guardian, had nothing left to protect… and nothing left to lose.
And in that emptiness, he became the Legion’s greatest threat.
