“Found anything yet?” Lissa asked as she and Thomas looked around inside an abandoned Medical Bay after finding four more vials of 6-18, the Medicine they require for Petra and Kyle, meanwhile, Ester and Louis are off busy looking at other rooms hoping they can find a data disk for them to learn about the serum and maybe even replicate it.

“Nothing yet,” Thomas said as he looked through the drawers, for some reason she noticed he was having a difficult time using his hand.

“Are you alright?” She asked worriedly as she helped him open a drawer containing thousands of Datadisks and both of them grabbed as many as possible. Well for the most part since she noticed Thomas struggled in grabbing some with his hand.

“Never better.” He gave her his usual grin. Lissa doubted it and turned her attention towards a nearby first aid kit on the wall and opened it and grabbed a handful of bandages, she then looked at Thomas with her usual irked look.

“Give me your hand.” She told him.

“What?”

“Just shut up and give me your right hand.” She said trying her best not to raise her voice or else they’ll get caught. He reluctantly extended his right hand, to which she immediately began to work on a makeshift splint. Since Ester was the only one in the group skilled enough to cast a healing spell on his hand, while Charl seems to be more on the offensive type as well, this was the least she can do until they can get out.

“Are you left-handed or right-handed?” She asked him as she was about to finish. “Right actually,” Thomas said with a sheepish look.

“That figures.” She scoffed as she looked at him in the eyes. “Try using your left hand for the time being then.”

“Yes ma’am.” He smiled as she went off to go and look for more Datadisks for them to use later on, as soon as she was gone he was inwardly thankful that he broke his hand punching the automata earlier.

The two of them grabbed their weapons, an old pipe that Thomas wielded with his left hand while Lissa found an old Pistol with some ammo inside it, and made their way into the hallways and spotted Charl and Arthur facing something with a tense look on their faces.

“What’s going…on?” Lissa asked until her eyes landed on a pale young girl wearing makeshift armor and what appears to be salvaged gauntlets. But her most notable features were these series of wires that

“Query,” The girl told them. “Are you the one who responsible for my reprograming?”

“What?” Lissa asked in mild confusion meanwhile Thomas looked at them only to give them a confused shrug as well.

“Query,” The girl told them again. “Are you the one who responsible for my reprograming?”

“Who are you and what are you doing in this place?” Lissa asked her as she cautiously walked towards her.

“Answer: Niltria Industries Next-Phase Automata Unit 7.” The Girl answered, causing Charl’s jaw to nearly drop. Lissa herself couldn’t believe it either as earlier this ‘girl’ was a hulking machine ready to kill them with their bare hands.

“Well shit,” Arthur commented, as he tensely gripped a pair of knives he made from Ice Magic earlier. “I did not expect that.”

“Query,” The girl repeated once more. “Are you the one who responsible for my reprograming?”

Neither of them was ready to respond, they were after all afraid that this girl might end up attempting to kill them or whatsoever.

“Yes, I am the one responsible for your reprogramming.”

Arthur, Lissa, and Thomas looked at Charl who walked towards her.

“What are you doing? What if it wants to kill you?” Arthur asked her walked towards her in a low voice. “Yeah well, I’ll take full blame if she wants to settle unfinished business instead okay?” Charl smiled she gave him a light tap on the cheek.

“I…okay fine,” Arthur said in a dissatisfied voice.

“Declaration:” The Automata said with a nod. “Understood, from now on this Niltria Industries Next-Phase Automata Unit will now pledge their loyalty to you.”

“That was convenient,” Thomas said in a low voice meanwhile Ester and Louis arrived carrying a handful of Datadisks as well.

“We’re back we—whoa who’s the kid?” Louis asked in confusion. “Objection: I am not a child of a Goat. I am Niltria Industries Next-Phase Automata Unit 7.” The Automata responded in a mildly irked tone.

“I’m starting to like her,” Charl responded with a small smile, but then her face brightened up as an idea popped into her head. “First I want you to change your designation from Niltria Industries Next-Phase Automata Unit 7 to Nina.”

“Declaration: Very well, my new designation is now known as Nina.” Nina nodded. “Next is that you will protect us while we try to find a way out of here,” Charl ordered since Rider already knows that they are here and probably managed to escape. They’ll need extra hands in getting out of the room.

“Statement: Despite my outward appearance I am very capable in a fight,” Nina explained as she immediately ran towards the said room with the six other students following after her. The site itself is a one way in and one way out, that would mean that they’ll have to take the same route as earlier.

Unfortunately by the time they got there they found Rider accompanied with a handful of other Axis Liberation Coalition soldiers as they hauled off various crates containing tons of weapons and other devices.

“Ah shit, hurry up!” Rider rolled his eyes upon seeing the seven of them, truth be told he wasn’t ready facing all six of them, which he why he chose to leave them with the defective Automata. Which he found a disappointment since he was hoping he can use them as cannon fodder in future raids against both Jorouse and Exavis sites, however upon activation the defense protocol was immediately activated causing it to go berserk and immediately attack all of them, even killing a few of his men.

Bang!

He turned around and raised his hands with a nervous grin at them as he faced them. The other soldiers aimed their guns at them only for him to tell them otherwise.

“You don’t suppose if you let me and my buddies off we’ll leave you some vehicles to ride in?” He asked innocently. “Sounds like a good haggle if you ask me,” Thomas muttered in a low voice only for Lissa to glare at him.

“Alright.” All of them turn their heads towards Arthur who kept a serious look on his face as he walked towards them and extended his hand. “We’ll keep quiet about this whole mess in-turn let us off with a Vehicle.”

“Alright then.” He grinned and shook his hand and attempted it with a Hi-five only for Arthur to dismiss it and then handed him a set of keys. The Axis group then walked past them but Rider blinked twice as he spotted a seventh member, only for him to shrug it off.

“Oh and by the way! Here’s something interesting about what you were looking for.” He called out to them as the other ALCs went back to loading their equipment on Trucks. “Serum 6-18 requires some blood in it, specifically someone that matches the blood type of the two dudes or at least someone related to them, where the Clones are made from that way it can permanently prevent them from further deteriorating and would be able to live normally without any continued maintenance.”

“How did you—” Charl gave him a look of mild horror. “CCTVs.” He gave them a genuine smile as he watched them get into the Truck and drive their way out of the Facility.”

[Axis:Legacy]

“Do you think he’ll keep his word?” Charl asked Arthur as they drove back to Axis, it was already evening and they had received word that both Kyle and Petra’s conditions have worsened causing Nurse Slate to put them under stasis until they were to get there.

“He better be,” Arthur said tensely gripping the steering wheel, he noticed the disappointed looks that Lissa and Charl were giving him and let out a sigh. “Look, we weren’t there to catch him, the fact he was there was pure coincidence. Our priority is to find a way to save Kyle and Petra.”

“But that also allowed them to get extra equipment and weapons there,” Charl countered. “Weapons that they’ll most likely use against the general public in future raids or incidents.”

“But they are not our priority. If we had tried to arrest and capture them then it would be too late for us to be able to save Kyle and Petra.” Arthur continued this finally got Charl to remain silent.

“I’m a bit concerned about what he said,” Louis commented and finally breaking the silence once more. “You think he was telling the truth that we’ll need someone with Andras and Arios’ blood, or specifically someone related to them, to get their condition to fully stabilize.”

“You seriously believe a word he said?” Thomas asked raising an eyebrow. “For all, we know he could have just been lying to us.”

“Objection: No he is telling the truth,” Nina spoke as she each looked at them. “But where will we find someone with the same blood type as they have?” Ester pondered.

“Declaration: I am equipped with scanners that can determine someone with the highest compatibility with two patients. Provided that I am able to see the two patients.” Nina continued.

“You sure filled with a lot of convenient functions,” Arthur commented with an amused chuckle.

“Declaration: I have been designed Niltria herself to surpass what you fleshlings are, which is quite easy. Given how fragile you are, my only flaw is that my structural integrity is fragile as you fleshlings are.” Nina said, for a moment Lissa and the rest spotted a glint of pride in her eyes.

“Did she call us fleshlings?” Thomas chuckled as they finally arrived in the Academy with Lissa and Thomas hurried to the Nurse’s Office holding the vials of Serum 6-18 causing them to find Kyle and Petra contained in stasis, but they both can see clearly that the deterioration had worsened with the blackening of their veins had been spread across their body.

Both Lissa and Thomas couldn’t utter a word in shock, with Lissa only handing the vial in silence towards Nurse Slate.

“We…found the vials…” Lissa spoke in a low voice. “This is plenty of serums needed to even replicate and create more for them.” Nurse Slate said in a low voice as he hurried over to the two Clones in stasis and began to inject the serums into them and to their relief, the black veins on both Kyle and Petra’s began to disappear stabilizing their condition for a while.

“I heard that we can undo the deterioration if we use blood that matches that with Arios and Andras’ but I don’t think we can find someone with the same one,” Thomas commented in a low voice.

“Objection: No it is possible.” All three of them turned around to find Nina entering the room followed by the others of the Team. “Uh…” Nurse Slate looked at the two in mild confusion.

“Long story.” Both of them answered at the same time.

“But wait,” Lissa asked Nina. “What do you mean it’s possible? You mean you know someone related to them?”

“Statement: Were you not paying attention earlier Fleshling?” Nina glared at Lissa. “With my scanners, I can find and determine their Paternity.”

“Well then…you shoud—Ow!”

“Hey why did—Hey!”

Both Lissa and Thomas glared at Nina, whose fingers had then been replaced with a series of small needles, this was then followed by her taking Arthur’s, Charl’s, Louis’, Ester’s and even Nurse Slate’s Blood. She also proceeded to take blood from Kyle and Petra’s that were still in stasis.

Both Arthur and Charl raised their eyebrows in curiosity as they watched Nina’s fingers revert to their original form while her eyes glowed for a moment and then looked at the two of them.

“Conclusion: Yes…I found a blood sample with a 90% Compatibility rating,” Nina said with a nod towards Thomas and Lissa who simply gave her a confused look on their faces.

“Confirmation: It would seem that both of you have the highest Biological Compatibility with both Clones,” Nina concluded.

“What?” Both Thomas and Lissa asked in confusion.