“Open your mouth, ahh~” Charlotte holding a piece of gateaux cake with both of her hands - trying to “spoon feed” to Haven. “Please, this is not the right time.” Haven pushes her face away, still trying to hear of whatever is going on outside.
“But it’s boring, I’m just trying to get closer with you!..” Charlotte pouts a little, as she places the cake down.
“Mistress, I understand your boredom. But we must stay here until the Federation leaves. Even if it costs my life, I will always protect you, against your will or not.” Fianne finally speaks, she has watched enough of “bonding” between the Monos.
They have been under this shelter for a week already. The Federation has decided to spread their power even more, by invading other planets. So what happened exactly, to lead them hiding under a dirty bunker?
“This is all because of you. If you accepted just a handshake, we wouldn’t have been here.” Haven seems a little mad, pointing her eyesight at the reason - Charlotte. Charlotte can only smile awkwardly, still regretting at what she did. “Not only you declined that, you also called them…’stink force’” Haven says as she cannot get anymore disappointed, facepalm again for the n times in just today.
“Well.. Do we just wait until they leave? Cause I think they won’t until they find me.” Charlotte sighs, she is tired of living in the boredom of 4 walls around, filled with scientists, engineers, maids and Haven.
“Obviously. They would leave immediately by just a command from the Headquarter. But this is still early in August, they are free to wander everywhere without being scared of their bosses calling their ass back to the Headquarter at any moment.” Haven explains to Charlotte.
“There might be an actual a way to kick them away from here, but only 'might'..” An old scientist speaks from behind, as he scaredly raises his hand, slowly, as if he’s trying to make the Mistress mad. Charlotte looks at Fianne, then back at Haven, then directly to the old man. He is intimidated. From just a glance of her eyes. “P-please forgive my stupidity! I won’t say anything like that, again!”
Charlotte gets up, walks up to the man.
“Tell me, what is the plan?” She sits in front of the man, asking him with a soft voice, like she is trying her best to scare him.
“A-ah..” He was startled for a moment. “Well, they have 5 Screamers - a hasty Model, outside. They cannot beat our Rampager on LB mode - Limit Breaker. There is only one problem in this plan..”
“Hmm? What is it?” Charlotte asks him.
“Basically, if you 'Limit Break', you will be able to control the machine by just your waves of thoughts, but the problem is you are going to handle and suffer an immeasurable amount of pain, because of the information that the machine sends into your brain..” The guy sighs, disappointed at himself. “Sorry Mistress, we cannot let you do this, It’s too dangerous.”
Charlotte falls into her river of thoughts again.
“Hey, Haven.” Charlotte calls. Haven replies back with an eye contact. “Do you want to ride ‘Banshee’?” Charlotte turns around, pointing upward - as they are directly underneath the secret facility room.
“No thanks.” Haven speaks as her mouth is filled with cake - “It’s a disgrace. One pilot per Model, only. You’re selling your soul cheap here, basically.” - While still eating. Charlotte looks disappointed, then, immediately, a light bulb pops up on her head. “But didn’t you teach me about the legendary 2 pilots? One controls the fight, while the other one thinks of what to do next. A pair!” Charlotte once again is so full of herself, proud at remembering something like that.
“Also,” - Charlotte walks toward Haven, stops right in front of her, opening her palm - “We are ‘Mono’ right? We are two beings, two being one, the ‘Mono’ - Only one.”
“...Fine.” Haven finishes her cake, cleaning her hand in the worst way possible, making her dress even dirtier than ever.
“Hey, smart guy.” Haven speaks to the old scientist. He looked back, giving a “Yes?” look back at her. Haven takes a deep breath. “Can you open the ‘Preactor’? You know, the second reactor. So I can freely connect to the Model.”
Everyone fell into silence, leaving only Charlotte in confusion. “H-hey, why the sudden silence? Did she say something bad?” Charlotte gets closer, hugs Haven’s left arm, worrying about what’s about to happen. The old guy takes off his glasses, cleaning it again, again over again. Fianne turned her face away.
“Y-you sure? Only ‘human waste’ can handle that kind of pressure. It’s 100, no, 1000 times more painful than just Limit Break itself!” He sweats, as he keeps on cleaning his glasses, like he’s about to break it.
“H-human waste?” Charlotte asks, but what she received again is silence.
“Don’t worry, smart guy.” Haven opened up her right hand’s sleeve, showing a black imprint on the wrist. It's very small, but can still be visible for him. “I can handle the pressure. This won’t be the first time anyway. I have 5 of these."
'Human waste' is worse than slaves, basically. They have nothing. They belong to everyone else, anything else. They can only eat when they get to eat. They can only speak when they're allowed to. Absolute no rights f0r anything, breathing even. They are easily the best experiment targets, the free lab rats for the Federal. Every waste goes through a process called ‘Stamping’. It’s a very dangerous surgery, with the survival chance at 2%, and only 1% of those 2% can only ever succeed, without the target being disabled, if not brain dead. The more stamps they got, the more powerful they are, but they are still wastes - cannot fight back, and their best chance? To only ever work as a weapon nonetheless, at the very least, they are not worried about foods.
Haven got 5 stamps. 2 on her back, 2 on each of her wrists, and 1 right in the middle of her chest.
Everyone else in the room is disgusted, scared, discombobulated, Fianne even throws up. 5 stamps. How did that even happened? How did she survived? How can a person goes through that much? No one knows, and no one wants to either.
“U-understood, I will open the Preactor..” The guy’s hand is still trembling from what he just heard and witnessed.
For the first time ever in her life, Charlotte feels empty inside, doesn't know what to say, a little sad even. Haven gives her a light clap on her cheeks. “Hey, let’s go kick those metal bitches. Isn’t this what you asked me to do?” Haven holds her face, looking at her eyes closer than ever. “A-ah yes, right, let’s go.” Charlotte finally snapped back to reality.
This time, Haven drags Charlotte with her, to the 'Banshee'.