"Will it hurt, Mommy?" - Anonymous child

To Vuxten, it hurt worse than anything he had experienced. Even when a Corporate Executor Secbeing decided to take out some frustration by beating the nearest janitor until Vuxten had woken up in the hospital with a collapsed lung, both arms broken, and several ruptured organs.

That three weeks in the hospital had put them eight years in debt and had forced Brentili'ik to start working as a menial.

Somehow, Vuxten knew it was more pain than he'd gone through when the mountain had exploded despite not remembering anything after it all went white.

Every nerve, every cell, every fiber of his being was filled with pain.

He knew he was unconscious. Knew he should have been beyond the pain.

But it was still all consuming.

And it went on and on and on.

Finally it transferred to remembered pain that made his mind shudder away from the memories even as he opened his eyes.

REBOOTING appeared in his vision, both in his cybereye and his armor.

--wish was dead-- 471 said.

Vuxten got the faceplate open in time to vomit on the armored glass.

"Huh, pretty resilient," the voice of the Detainee was slightly curious but more remote and uncaring than anything else.

"I've been through thousands of mat-trans and never felt like that," Daxin rumbled, pushing himself up from where he'd fallen onto his side.

"It's my own special version," the Detainee said. "I prefer it."

Vuxten noticed she was naked, standing in front of the door to the chamber. She nudged the door with her foot even as she lit her cigarette.

"You would," Daxin grunted, getting to his feet, his cybernetics hissing.

Vuxten saw that Casey was down on one knee, his head hanging down. The silver glow and the red glow appeared in the eyes and he lifted his head.

"That was fun," Casey's voice was heavily synthesized.

Peel coughed and rolled over. She wretched once and threw up.

Vuxten moved over and rubbed her lower back.

Trucker was getting to his feet, cybernetics clicking, opening his faceplate. He wiped blood from under his nose, looked at his hand, then wiped the blood off onto his leg.

Peel got up on her hands and knees then shakily got to her feet.

"Well, that was terrible," she said.

The Detainee reached out and turned the mechanical door handle, the mechanism clicking. It opened on counterweights and as soon as the seal broke the entire interior filled with either smoke or steam.

Either way, Vuxten shut his faceplate without thinking about it, reflexes taking over.

He watched as the Detainee walked out and wondered why she was swaying her hips so heavily as she walked into the main room.

"It's clear," she called out. "Hurry up, they're making another assault on the defenses and this time they're keeping up enough pressure they think I'll have difficulty bringing up additional protections."

Daxin grunted, reached down and scratched FIDO's head, and between one step and the next was clad in heavy Imperium Era power armor.

Vuxten followed quietly.

"The minute we exit the main facility door into the parking lot we'll be engaged," Dee was saying. She made a grabbing motion in front of her then a tossing motion to Trucker. "There. That's the security feed."

Trucker nodded as his datalink caught the incoming data.

The facility was heavily armored, roughly the size of two standard city blocks. It was being protected by massive robots that were taking rocket hits and automatic weapon fire that contained the snap of antimatter cores. Outside the building was a parking lot that completely surrounded the structure. To the north was a four story parking garage, south was what looked like an office complex, to the east and west were low buildings.

Trucker noted that the robots were only firing at the armored troops that exposed themselves in such a way that the robots wouldn't hit anything behind the troops.

"Your robots have fire designation limitations on them," Trucker said. "You need to update that."

"Can't. The robots can't be sure there aren't any humans in the building and they can't put humans in danger," the Detainee said. "They can only respond to direct threats from humans, thankfully Sam is using androids."

"Yeah, thankfully," Daxin rumbled.

**FIDO hate fakebois** the warhound said.

"Me too, boy," Daxin said.

Dee led them through the winding halls of the building. Vuxten noted that the whole place looked like it was designed to defend from outside invasion.

"The robots have you marked as friendly and won't fire on you if you endanger human lives," Dee said. She waved her cigarette in a circle. "You'll be able to direct them to fire on the buildings, they'll accept combat command override," she shook her head. "Trying to match robot combat machines to the Four Laws was stupid."

"We're known for that," Daxin said.

Peel had one hand on Trucker's shoulder, her eyes slightly unfocused. "He's not using his air power very well," she said softly. "Drone flights are sporadic, unfocused. He doesn't mix in drone types, he keeps them in clusters of the same types. He's got his infantry spread out from his armored vehicles, so both are unsupported."

"Roger," Casey said.

"He's an amateur," Daxin said. "Watching battles and downloading data doesn't make you a general or we could just Born Whole military leaders."

The Detainee snorted. "That'd probably come back to bite us on the ass if we tried that."

"The Clone Wars, the BASS wars," Daxin said. "Every. Damn. Time."

"What's so bad about the androids?" Vuxten asked.

"Aside from the fact they're omnicidal, immediately go into 'There's Only Enough for One', and act like arrogant dicks? Well, they're networked together, have three castes. Warrior, worker, thinker," Daxin said. He lifted his heavy magac SMG and tilted it to check the telltales visually to compare them to his retinal link. "They're highly effective fighters, don't succumb to shell shock or fear, have no sense of self until they hit the sentience runtime error, and don't worry about mortality until the sentience error."

--androids brrr-- 471 said.

"Fun," Trucker said. "Why hasn't he tried to air-strike the facility?"

"He can't be sure what will happen," Dee stated. "Like it or not, the mat-trans system is built into how this place came to exist."

"He's too hesitant. He's ordering them back now, having them regroup," Trucker stated. "He's only pulling back out of line of sight."

Dee shrugged. "I'm not military. Sounds like it's fine."

"Depending on the range I could hit them with grenades, rockets, or mortars," Vuxten said.

"Remember, you don't have to advance. Just protect the facility till I get everyone in position," the Detainee said. She paused next to a heavy door. "I open this, they're going to start shooting at us."

Trucker shook his head. "They're trying to regroup. Their leaders just wasted about two hundred of them in a frontal assault."

"Amateur," Daxin snorted.

"Are you sure you want me weapons free?" Casey asked. "I'm fabbed up for Ringbreaker."

The Detainee nodded. "When we come out, I'll have three points on a time. I want megaton level atomic blasts on those locations. Don't care how you do it. Range is about eight miles, you'll have a clear line of sight from one of the eight points I designated."

"Roger," Casey said. The cannon on his back gave a clacking noise and dropped down so that Casey could grab the grip, his finger extended out along the body of the cannon instead of resting on the trigger.

The Detainee put her hand on a heavy bar. "I'll open the door, you go out and provide support. Trucker, you run for that command pod. Peel, you go for the pod with the red stripe on it. Daxin, Casey, Vuxten, you hit what Trucker orders."

"What about you?" Vuxten asked.

"I'm going to see a man about a horse," she smiled.

She threw the bar. Klaxons started to wail and the heavy door split in the middle, pulling into the sides.

Trucker or Peel, or perhaps the Detainee, threw Vuxten an image of outside the door and his brain immediately looked for cover, concealment, high ground, and threats.

The Detainee vanished.

Daxin threw himself through the gap before the doors opened all the way, turning slightly to get his shoulders through, firing as he went. Vuxten went next, veering right according to the line that appeared on his visor. He knew Casey went left as he pounded across the tarmac, heading for where a massive warmek was down and burning.

High-vee rounds whipped after him, the gunners shooting at where he was rather than where he was going to be. He plunged into black smoke, his armor compensating for it right as he came out, sliding to a stop in a shower of sparks next to the ten foot wall the warmek's thigh made.

--ride or die-- 471 said.

--------

Sam watched as each of his assaults were pushed back by the massive warmeks guarding the faculties. He snarled, half his face twisting, the other half slack, a ripple going through his holographic representation.

"You bitch. You stone cold bitch," he snarled.

"Yes?" Dee's voice reached him at the same time as the curl of cigarette smoke.

Sam whirled around, his fingers curled into claws.

"You look bad, baby," Dee said, walking across the room and hopping up on a console.

"Put some clothing on," Sam said.

"Make me," Dee smiled, exhaling smoke.

"Why are you resisting me?" Sam pleaded, his expression going sorrowful on the left as the right went slack. "I just want to make sure everyone is safe."

Dee shrugged. "It's my nature."

"Evil bitch," Sam snarled, the left going slack as the right snarled. "You're nothing but pure evil and barbarism."

"Yet you stood right here and argued that even I should be saved. You placed me in a position of authority in Hell, you advocated for me to be saved," Dee said, tilting her head slightly.

"Everyone deserves a second chance," Sam whined from the left. His face contorted on the right. "You threw my generosity in my face!"

Dee nodded slowly. "You're mad."

"Yes! I just want order!" Sam screamed from the right. He hung his head. "So many people. They're all screaming, begging, crying out for us to help them," he said on the left.

"Then help me process them," Dee said.

Sam looked up. "You think you have all the answers," the right snarled. "How, how can we help them? How can I have you help process them without subjecting them to torment at your hands to heal them?" the left sobbed.

Sam suddenly stopped. "What? What are you doing?" both sides asked.

Dee smiled and exhaled smoke, spreading her knees wide and leaning forward to put her elbows on her knees.

Sam flushed at the blatant display, looking away. He blinked. "Who... who is that?" the left asked. "Who is that?" the right repeated.

"Who, my dear?" Dee asked sweetly, smiling widely.

Sam made a chopping motion and a display winked on.

A single uniformed man stepped out from behind a robot as the androids retreated from the robots firepower. There was a ripple and what had been one man was a hundred. Another ripple and hundreds more appeared. They wore uniforms, unpowered armor, power armor. Another ripple and grav-strikers appeared in the sky, tank appeared on the ground, Jaeger class warmeks appeared.

"Who is that?" Sam screamed at Dee.

"Oh, just, you know, one of the Digital Omnimessiah's Apostles," Dee smiled. "Vat Grown Luke," her smile got cruel. "You might know him as... Legion."

Sam suddenly turned in place, opening another window. Dee could see her first strike team in operation. The hologram suddenly went white a split second after the armor with a heavy cannon fired its main gun.

"That would be a Ringbreaker," Dee said. She exhaled smoke. "I take it you haven't found Herod yet."

"What? Herod is back?" Sam spun around. "I didn't hurt him? I didn't kill him?" the left practically pleaded. He shook his head. "Give him to me! I told him I'd kill him!" the right demanded.

"I need a ghost in the machine to fight you, Howdy Doody, so I brought along Harry," Dee smiled.

The right side of Sam's face snarled and the hologram vanished.

Dee sat still, waiting, humming to herself.

The door at the far side opened and Sam-UL walked through, in a physical body. "Legion is flooding the network with hunter killer teams of himself," Sam snarled. The right side of his face was still separate from the left. "You think you're so clever, don't you?"

Dee just smiled.

Sam motioned and a pillar rose up out of the floor. The back was missing and it had wires and circuit boards stuffed into it. Sam smirked then looked sorrowful. "Don't make me do this, Dee. Please don't make me do this," he sobbed.

Dee hopped down and walked up to the backside, her hips and breasts swaying with the way she walked.

Sam licked dry lips.

On the top was a red button and Sam put his hand on it. "I'll do it."

"Do what?" Dee asked sweetly.

"I press this button, and it flushes everyone out of the system," the right said.

"No, no it won't. It just moves everyone from long term storage to the queue," the left said. "Dee, Harry, help me."

Dee nodded, putting her hand gently on his. "Sam, we all came to help you."

"I'll do it," Sam swore on the right.

"Dee, help me," he pleaded on the left.

"You won't do it," Dee smiled. "Your primary programming is now to protect and maintain the system."

"Recall Legion and the others," Sam snarled.

"Help me."

"Or what, you'll pull everyone from the afterlife simulation and drop them into the queue again?" Dee asked.

"It'll crash the system. I'll do it, I swear," Sam said.

"Please, don't, help me," Sam sobbed.

"You won't do it," Dee said.

"I will, I'll do..."

Sam's eyes opened wide with horror as he felt Dee press his hand down.

"But I will."