Ticia followed after Laura and her robots as they walked along the corridors of this clone installation. They had already passed through the entry, which had been forced open by the recon party sent by the empire, or so she had been told by Laura. The person herself engaged in small talks with Ticia about the state of the empire and such, as well as the empress's keen interest in this exploration’s result. Laura herself did not seem to know much about this place apart from what was written on the report though.

The first thing that they noticed was that the freezing cold had invited itself before them for who knows how long, with a visible amount of  ice that had settled pretty much everywhere, making their journey a bit more tricky. 

Obscurity was also all around with no end in sight. If not for the robot’s lights and the help of their helmet, Ticia and her daughters would not be able to see anything and would have to rely on their helmet’s night vision.

This place… it’s not right… Ticia thought to herself as they went further in. The construction material of the corridor itself was not very different from other clone installations, but she could not help but feel an eerie feeling as she went deeper…

This was very different from the feeling the other three clone installations had given her, or perhaps it was just her feeling slightly confused about this place. CI3 was a warm place, a place Ticia herself recognized as worthy to be called ‘her’, something she owned by her own hands and would protect. CI26, while nothing but empty, did not leave any bad feeling on her and as for CI1206, even though the place did not leave the same impression as CI3, it still left a calm feeling…

Meanwhile, as Ticia slightly tensed up, Laura looked around with eyes filled with curiosity.

“So this is a clone installation… Interesting…” She said as she kept walking. “Say Ticia, are all CI like this? Not the ice, I mean.”

“No…” Laura only got a weak answer, which forced her to turn as she felt something was not right.

“Ticia?”

“...” Ticia did not answer this time however… She was having a deep reflection on their current situation…

A clone installation where ice has overrun the place and leaves a bad feeling…

She turned her attention towards her daughters. Apparently, they too seemed to have felt something was not right. They had all tensed up and closed the ranks of their escort formation around her. Fana looked alert, while Bronz kept giving orders to her sisters to report anything and everything they saw. Even Jinxy was worried, fidgeting slightly as she looked around for any sudden event.

The girls also feel it and it’s affecting their mental state. They'll probably share my opinion, this  place doesn't feel ‘right’ as a clone installation… As expected, this oppressive feeling, it’s fitting of a prison, or rather, a place you don’t come back from…

As she came to her conclusion, Rebot-ia called out to her.

“Owner, I don’t like this place… I can’t even map it…” The AI said in a meek voice, which Ticia had never heard before. If even Rebot-ia agreed with her and couldn’t even conduct a scan and detect if anything was wrong, then it really meant that this place was pretty bad…

“Me too Rebot-ia, me too…” She could not help but say as her mind tried to piece out what could have happened in between those very walls…

“Hey~, Ticia? You doing ok?” A face with star shaped eyes appeared through her visor, interrupting her thoughts. Laura was standing in front of her, a curious look on her face. She seemed unaware of the uneasiness Ticia and the clones felt about this place.

Not good. Nothing will come out about just thinking about what this place is… Ticia thought as she shook her head, trying to get the bad feeling away from her mind…

“...Yes. Excuse me, this place is just…. I have a bad feeling about it…” She said briefly to Laura.

“Is that so…” Laura’s expression immediately became thoughtful. “If this place leaves such a bad impression on you, then as expected, this place’s the one we’re looking for…”

She then looked back towards Ticia. “This is a good sign. We’re at the right place. ‘He’ might be here after all.”

“...” Ticia did not answer as Laura turned and began walking again, now fired up more than before. She still felt that some things weren’t right, but Laura’s words also pushed her forward. There was hope not only for Rebot-ia’s request, but also for her to get the answers she wanted…

And so, she looked towards her daughters, Bronz nodded, understanding what Ticia wanted to ask before she could say anything. Despite being unable to see their faces, Ticia also understood what they meant.

Those girls will follow me to the end even if this place makes them feel uneasy.

Ticia nodded back, acknowledging the will of her daughters. She decided to let her worries in the back of her head for now…

“Hey, what are they doing in front of us?”

“I dunno, it seems like the clones have stopped.”

“Yeah, I can see that, but the others are still moving ahead. What should we do? Hey, excuse us clones? Could you, uhm, continue to advance so that we can uphold our orders to escort our commander?”

“You dumb dumb. The commander also said to escort the clones and protect them even if we have to die for it!”

“That… doesn’t sound funny…”

““...”” Ticia and her daughters decided to ignore the bickering robots behind them. It had been like this all the way until now… 

There were two hundred robots accompanying them. While this meant more security, this also meant more noise…

Ticia had grown used to it by now, but her daughters seemed to be still bothered by the robots…

Is it only me, or can I see veins popping up on their foreheads even though they have their helmets on? Ticia asked herself as she altered glances between her easily irritable daughters and the robots that spoke their minds out each time they had the occasion to do so. In the end, she gave up trying to find any logic to it, concluding in her mind that this would be healthy to her daughters’ development, before moving ahead. Her daughters followed soon after.

“Ah! They’re moving!”

“Finally! For a moment I thought they’d just stopped working!”

“Can clones even experience short circuits like us?”

“...Can we just break them so that they shut up?” Ticia heard one of her daughters mutter. She did not know which one, but it made her smile bitterly.

“... Remember that they’re our allies, dears.”

She quickened her pace to catch up with Laura. The girl hadn’t gone far yet, in fact, she had stopped at an intersection in the hallway.

“Hmmm…” She seemed to be thinking about which way to go next.

Ticia also observed the hallways, but came to a decision quicker than Laura. Her past experience with clone installations told her that she had to take the passage straight ahead.

But as she was about to walk ahead…

“Wait!”

Laura grabbed her and held her back. Ticia looked at her with a questioning look.

“The way ahead is dangerous.” Laura answered, a serious look on her face visible through her visor.

“What do you mean?” Ticia asked back, frowning.

“My eyes.” Laura pointed to her eyes. “I can scan my surroundings with them and see through walls.”

Ticia stared at Laura’s eyes, the mysterious cybernetic eyes glowed a bit in the dark. Everytime she made eye contact with Laura, she could not help but be curious about them. She was pretty sure those eyes had some sort of ability, now she knew what it was…

“Impressive…”

“Right? My sister made them for me! There’s a lot of other functions! Like enemy highlighting, better eyesight, and even night vision!” Laura replied in a boastful manner, but Ticia could see other emotions flashing through the woman’s face… like jealousy…

“What do you see then?” Ticia asked, deciding not to delve on a personal matter that seemed rather sensible…

“Many wonderful things.” Laura said while eyeing Ticia, a slight blush on her face. Ticia stared at her with a deadpan look, which forced Laura to get back on the subject.

“Ahem. More seriously, I can see the surface behind those walls, and the answer is complete emptiness surrounding the path ahead. This is a bridge, an old bridge that seems to only keep itself up thanks to the surrounding ice, and I’m not sure I want to get over it…”

“...Is that so…” Ticia looked pensive.

A massive bridge and a vast nothingness around it… Yeah, that does sound incredibly dangerous. Is this a way to deter any escape from this facility?

“What about the other two directions?” Ticia asked.

“The one on the left seems to lead to an assortment of rooms, the one on the right also seems to lead to an assortment of rooms, but we have to pass through a big room first? I can’t say what there is in them…”

Laura said, complaining that her eyes didn’t have a ‘zoom’ option.

“What about the reconnaissance team you mentioned before?” Ticia asked, speaking about the first recon team the empire had sent when they discovered the place, but Laura shook her head.

“We’ve already passed their last checkpoint. As soon as Her Majesty heard this clone installation was discovered, she put a gag order and recalled those who had begun exploring the installation.”

“I see, is that why we didn’t encounter any problems, or was the installation this silent beforehand?” Ticia asked. She knew that clone installations always had some sort of active defense in some places…

“There were indeed some defenses they had to face. They activated when the recon team forced the entrance open, but thanks to the ice, they dealt with them appropriately and scuttled them.” Laura replied. “That’s one more reason to be cautious, actually. Judging from the lookout of the place, I’d say we’re still in the defensive sector.”

“It wouldn’t be strange if the whole first floor would be one, actually.” Ticia commented, adding her own experience. She and A-4 had left the first floor empty in case anyone entered the installation, but the AI did mention that it was possible to transform the floor into a defensive complex since it already had the blueprints for it. Ticia preferred taking the fight outside though, so those plans were left in the back in order to concentrate the remaining resources on Ticia’s strategy.

“Then which way do you think we should go, Miss Clone Mother?” Laura asked, smiling as she added the last part.

“...Jinxy, come over here.”

“Yes Mother.”

At Ticia’s call, Jinxy approached them, her sisters made way for her, as if already knowing what would happen.

“You chose the way, dear.” 

“Understood Mother.”

Ticia commented with a smile and her daughter saluted, acknowledging the order. Laura looked at Jinxy with a curious look as the latter went to the middle of the intersection. She looked left, then looked right, then to the center. She shook her head, denying any possibility to take the center as that would be too dangerous based on the information they had. She then looked left and right again, thought for a few minutes, before pointing towards the left.

“I think we should head that way, Mother.” She declared.

“Right.” Ticia smiled. “Lead the way then.”

“Understood.”

But no sooner had Jinxy taken a step forward, she slipped on the icy ground and fell on her butt…

“Ok then!” Ticia clapped her hand, smiling from ear to ears. “Jinxy fell over that way, so that means the safest way forward is to the right!”

“Agreed.” Bronz nodded in affirmation, the other clones also seemed to agree. Meanwhile, Laura stared at Ticia and a still confused Jinxy with a baffled look.

“Are we really going to leave it to luck? Just like this?” She asked.

“Yeah. Sometimes, it’s better to leave it to luck, and Jinxy is the right girl for the job!” Ticia boasted, though Laura’s incredulous look seemed to ask whether this was something to boast about or not…

In the end, she sighed as the clones began to follow Ticia and took the path on the right and followed after them.

Meanwhile, a group of ten robots went over to where Jinxy was. She was still on the ground and struggling to get up over the ice.

“Miss, do you need any help to get up?” One with a red dot on his face asked after witnessing the poor efforts of Jinxy as she tried to get on her feets.

“...” Jinxy stared at them in silence for a few seconds, before nodding her head.

“Okay then, here, take my haaaand?”

The robot finished on the ground before he could even finish his words…

““Pffft”” The other robots laughed at this.

“What are you all laughing for? Help us get on our feets!” The robot with a red dot on its face barked.

““Roger roger section chief, pfft.”” The other robots nodded, still laughing, but this did not last long, as not soon after, they too slipped and ended on the ground…

Each robot tried to get up again and again, but failed continuously. The situation happened for a moment, with the robots giving up one by one…

“How did you all end up on the ground, you big idiots?!” The one with the red dot yelled.

“You’re on the ground too section chief!”

“Yeah yeah! This is your fault we’re all on the ground!”

The robots bickered again as they were all struggling on the ice, rejecting the blame on their section chief.

“My fault!? I was just trying to help our new comra-oh, she’s up…”

The section chief muttered as he looked towards Jinxy, only to see her on her feet. While not successful on her first attempt, Jinxy had managed to get on her feet and move to a safer, less slippery ground!

“...”

“...”

“...”

““...””

Both groups stared at one another for what felt like hours, before the section chief robot hesitantly asked.

“Uhm, could you please help us get up?”

“...” Jinxy stared at the poor robots in silence.

“S-she’s not gonna leave us here alone… right?” One of the robots asked one of the others.

“...Apologies, I need to catch up with Mother.” Jinxy finally said before departing without looking back.

“Wai-Ouch!” The section chief robot tried to raise his hand after Jinxy, but he ended up slipping and falling head first on the ground.

…The struggle of the robots had only just begun…

 

***

 

“This place is?”

“A control room.”

Ticia answered as Laura entered the room. It was filled with screens and buttons, which were unaffected by the surrounding ice. The machinery emitted a slight hum, noticing Ticia and her group that they were still functional. 

Apart from the overwhelming presence of ice all around the place, this was a very familiar sight to Ticia… if you omitted the two frozen bodies on the side of the room that were too cold to even decompose…

It would feel just like home if you remove this awful feeling… Oh, and the ice… aaaaand the two frozen bodies on the side… Isn’t there a fucking heater system that we can activate somewhere?

“If so, then this is the right place to search.” Laura said, looking at the myriads of buttons and ignoring the two bodies that had been preserved by the cold. “But, touching something that you don’t know anything about isn’t really advisable, so I’ll leave it all to you there.” She put her hand over Ticia's shoulder as she said the last part, a smile on her face. Ticia broke her smile quickly enough however…

“I don’t know either.” Ticia said as she looked at the buttons, frowning slightly. Over at CI3, A-4 did everything for her when she asked, so she never bothered to learn what each button did…

My little darlings would probably know, but then again, they aren’t here. Maybe Bronz?

Ticia looked over towards Bronz, but the latter only shook her head. Apparently, A-4 hadn’t bothered to include this knowledge in their implanted knowledge…

“Rebot-ia, any advices here?” She asked her last hope.

“Hmmm… I’d like to say yes on the spot, but as expected, this stuff is younger than me, so they probably changed some things… I could still try though, it shouldn't be that complicated. Owner, could you try to connect me with the system? I think it’s still working.” The AI said with a thoughtful tone.

“Meaning there’s an AI behind this?” Ticia asked back with a frown, but the AI denied.

“No, I don’t think so, but the security here is still tough, so I need direct access.”

“Okay then… Here.” Ticia began to take out the microchip in which Rebot-ia resided from her helmet.

“Oh? You have an AI with you? Interesting, would you mind if I inspected it?” Laura said after hearing the exchange, a smile on her face.

“Ew, no way no way! I’m the peeping tom here, not you, you flat-chested girl!” Rebot-ia expressed outright disgust. Even though she wasn’t in Ticia’s helmet right now, she had maintained a private communication line with her.

“...” Good thing she didn’t hear that…  Ticia commented in her mind, remembering how she first met Laura. If Laura had heard Rebot-ia’s comment, she might have just destroyed the microchip…

“Mh? For some reason, I got a feeling I just got insulted?” Laura tilted her head, before shaking it quickly. “Anyway, let’s take care of this.”

Ticia nodded. She carefully manipulated Rebot-ia’s microchip and put it in one of the microchip ports that hadn’t been covered by the ice yet. there was a few seconds of silence as the screen lit up in front of her, before…

“Mguawa!?”

“Rebot-ia!?”

They heard the painful cries of Rebot-ia resounding through the speakers of the room…

“O-Owner! It hurts, please take me out of there!”

At the AI’s begging, Ticia quickly acted. She immediately removed the microchip and put it back in her helmet.

“N-never again… I’m not touching this place, EVER!” Rebot-ia commented as her emoji face reappeared on Ticia’s HUD. this experience had apparently left a trauma on  the AI, judging from the emotions the emoji face displayed…

“Rebot-ia, calm down, can you tell me what just happened to you?” Ticia asked.

“The security system here is crazy, Owner.” Rebot-ia said, this time using the comms so that everyone could hear her. “When it detected that I was an AI, it did everything to erase me from existence! I’m not touching that again!”

“Mhmmmm…” Laura was deep in thoughts. “Perhaps this clone installation was specifically made to work without an AI…”

What she said actually made sense. If this clone installation had been built as a prison after a rebellion in which AIs were involved, then of course they would not rely on an AI to keep the place going… Besides, it would also make it harder for an AI to hijack the system…

“It was hell, but I did manage to get some things out of this. Look at the screen, owner.”

Rebot-ia declared, suddenly changing tone. She boastfully directed the group’s attention towards the central screen where a video was about to play.

“...A video?”

“That’s right! This is the last minutes of recording of this room from the control system!”

That could be extremely useful in understanding what happened here… Ticia thought in her mind. Understanding what happened in the last moments of this installation might provide them with some answers…

“Good job, Rebot-ia.” She praised the AI

“Hehe, praise me more, Owner!”

“Yes, yes…” Ticia sighed at the spoiled act and decided to play along for a bit since the AI did hurt herself in the process, before focusing on the screen again. “Now then, let's play this record.”

Laura nodded. She pushed the play button on the display. The video then began to play.

Two people were present there… the very same that were currently frozen in ice on the side of the room…

It was a discussion between those two people… One seemed both depressed and angry, while the other seemed worried…

“I-it’s over… They abandoned us…”

“D-don’t say that! This installation’s playing a big role in the current council’s plans! They won’t abandon us this easily!”

“They… won’t? Hans, they sealed down the fucking doors! How are we going to get out of here when they sealed everything out!?”

“I-it’s to protect us from the virus, I’m sure! It’s just temporary confinement.”

“Ha! As if… This confinement, it’s not to protect us Hans, but rather to avoid the ones down there to get out. All those we are guarding and even those fucking soulless clone sentries that are keeping guard ith us are like time bombs for the current council! If only they hadn’t chosen to keep those ‘defectives’ for their fucking experiments!”

As the depressed one began to swear curses out loud, the other one tried to calm him down.

“C-calm down Weiss, we’re doing it to find a countermeasure against the virus!”

“Virus my ass! We’re nothing but ‘half-blood’ to them, you hear me? Nothing!” This time, the scream made the other flinch and he fell on the ground powerlessly, losing all the hope he had left on the spot. 

“N-no way…”

The one called Hans sighed, calming himself, before sitting next to the one called Weiss.

“Listen up Hans, whatever they told us, we’re doomed. The war is over and we lost it, that's all.”

“I-I know that…”

“Because they sealed the other parts of the installation too, we’re stuck here until the confinement order stops, which won’t, mind you. So that means that the others are probably in the same condition as us, isolated into the rooms they were last in, and that we’re stuck together in this room for the rest of our lives.”

“...”

“Sorry I destroyed all your hopes, but I didn’t want to see you hope for something that would never happen…”

“No, it’s alright Weiss, I understand, I-gah!? C-cold!?”

“T-those freaking bastards! They’re gonna freeze us to death!”

The video ended as a visible spray of cold water splashed both men and Hans took a protecting position over weiss.

““...”” Ticia and Laura stood quiet after the video ended. A heavy atmosphere settled in the room as both silently looked at the two, thousand years old frozen bodies. They were still in the same position as the one they had at the end of the video…

Ticia stared at them, noticing the color of their hair that full if ice crystals as well as their eyes that would probably remain open forever…

Their hair is gray… as for their eyes… normal? that one did say they were ‘half-blood’ though, so perhaps… She came to a conclusion as to their identity.

They were either born from one human parent and one clone, or they’re just people who have some slight genetic compatibility with the clone gene…

As Ticia came to her conclusions, Laura approached the two bodies, a sorry look on her face.

“A tragic end huh? Rest in peace, your memory won’t go forgotten with us…” She said, before sighing and turning towards Ticia. “So this place got abandoned too…”

“Yeah, and they purposefully destroyed it too. Seems like the radicals weren’t keen on this installation being discovered…” Ticia said, disgust growing towards the radicals.

They also said they were leading experiments, and his comment on the clone sentries is also worrying… No wonder I got such an awful feeling about this place. It’s not a place where clones get born, but just a gigantic laboratory…

“Well, it seems like they did a half assed job in the end? The installation is still santing, I mean…” Laura said, a meaningful smile on her face. Ticia could not help but nod.

“...Shall we explore the next rooms?” She suggested as she looked towards one of the multiple doors. It seemed to be sealed too, but no door so far had been able to resist Laura’s robots, so Ticia wasn’t that worried.

Laura nodded in agreement and they began to work.

Not soon after, as they were about to enter the next room…

“Mother.” Jinxy appeared from the hallway and reported to Ticia like a kitten who needed attention.

“Ah, perfect timing Jinxy. Could you keep guard of this room?” Ticia said with a smile.

“Y-yes?” Jinxy acquiesced immediately out of habit, still a bit confused. Ticia patted her on the shoulder at this answer.

“That’s my daughter~. I knew I could rely on you!” she said, before moving towards the unsealed door.

“And if you happen to find those lazy pieces of junk that didn’t make it in time, tell them to also keep guard of this room. Also, don’t touch anything!” Laura added before following Ticia, the other ECGs also gave a nod of acknowledgement towards Jinxy, before following after them.

“...” Jinxy was left in a terribly confused state, wondering what had just happened, before making a sad face over the fact that she could not be with her mother. 

After a moment, the robots that were struggling with the ice rejoined her and the room became lively as they bickered between themselves, not even blaming Jinxy for abandoning them in the first place.

…They were not the only ones who came, however…

 

***

 

“Was it really ok to leave her behind?” Laura asked after they had walked some distance away from the control room. Ticia nodded, a bitter smile on her face.

“Yes. Jinxy is… well, she can be quite clumsy sometimes, so leaving her to stay on guard is actually better.”

While Jinxy was clumsy, she was also the victim of random misfortunes more than lucky ones… Ticia was scared something might happen to this daughter of hers if she followed them…She concluded it was better to leave her in a safe place and while it was a blatant proof of her being overprotective and doing some favoritism, it was something all other ECGs also agreed upon.

“Clumsy? What an interesting clone… I’ll remember her name.” Laura seemed interested in Jinxy’s case. She nodded to herself as her eyes glowed a bit stronger for a short moment.

The few rooms they had passed by were long ones but mostly empty. They seemed to be living quarters for the guards, which got confirmed by the frozen bodies they encountered from time to time…

After a while, Laura notified Ticia that she felt machinery at work in the next room. After some unsealing, they both entered the new room… 

What they encountered there however baffled them…

“T-this is…” Ticia lost her voice as she looked at what the robots’ lights were illuminating…

In front of her, rows over rows of pods she was familiar with, yet seemed a bit different, were piled up in ranks and files. so much so that she could not see the end of it.

More than that… All the pods were occupied. It was something she didn’t even need to confirm, since the pods in front of her had hatches made of glass, making what they contained visible to the outside…

Those were cryogenic pods, not incubating ones…

“Ooh, so this is what they meant by ‘clone sentries’ huh?’ How many clone guards are they keeping here…” Laura asked, intrigued. “Do they still work? Mh, seems like it…” She said as she approached one of them, the slight hum of the machinery was faintly audible…

“Hundreds… no, perhaps thousands of them are kept here, and that’s not including the other rooms…”  Ticia said, her voice trembling. she instinctively knew that these clones weren’t her allies…

“Not only that, they’re all in arms and all… Ready to jump into action…” Laura added as she glanced at what was inside one of the pods. She seemed calmer than Ticia, even though she too probably knew the danger those would be were they to come out of their pods…

“This place is too dangerous.” Ticia warned out loud.

“I agree.” Laura nodded. “I suggest we go back to the base for today and plan our next move before trying anything we might regret…”

“Sounds good to me.”

But as the both of them agreed on withdrawing for the day, the room was suddenly illuminated by red lights.

“Emergency protocols manually activated! Sealing CI 2005’s door’s… Error… Proceeding with opening all sealed rooms. 

Scanning for any problems… Warning! Northern entrance has been forced open! Initiating defense protocols!

Releasing all clone sentries from their cryogenic pods… Error, a partial release of 1/10th of all the installation’s cryogenic pods shall be forced open…”

““!!!”” Everyone present tensed up at the announcement made by the robotic voice.

“What the hell happened?!” Ticia yelled.

“I dunno! This might get really dangerous, let’s go back!” Laura replied back. Ticia nodded and the two of them began to trace back on their tracks.

This proved to be the right move, as they heard a lot of clunking sounds resounding at the same time and machinery getting excited. Ticia knew well what it meant…

“Shit! Grenades, any explosives, throw them in that room!” She yelled.Her daughters silently obeyed, throwing their grenades into the room. The explosions resounded as they ran further and further away until they reached the control room, only to be greeted by a weird sight…

“J-Jinxy!?”

“Mother…”

Jinxy was staring back at her mother while holding her left flank. There was something protruding out of her armor, as well as red warm liquid flowing down slowly…

It didn’t need much for those present to tell that Jinxy was wounded…

“Oh my god! What the hell happened to you!?” Ticia rushed towards Jinxy, extremely worried, before glancing at the flustered robots in the room. “What the hell happened here!?”

“It wasn’t us! Some intruders suddenly appeared and shot harpoons at us! This clone faltered and fell on the control board, so it wasn’t us who did it!”

The robot with a red dot said in a fluster.

“Intruders?! Damn, we got followed!” Laura quickly caught on to what was happening. Her face became void of emotions. “Sorry Ticia, I wasn’t careful enough. We need to move quickly before those clones fully awaken!”

“F-first aid kit. W-where did I put it…” Ticia did not hear her however. She was all panicking over Jinxy’s wound… “You’re gonna be alright dear, it’s not a grave wound.”

“Mother… Forgive me…”

“It’s okay, I’m to blame. I made a wrong judgment by leaving you behind alone…” Ticia blamed herself as she applied some pain killer to the wound of her daughter.

“Shit! They awoke faster than I thought!” Laura suddenly said. She was glancing at the corridors they just came from and what she just told was enough for the ECGs to understand the situation was turning dire…

Bronz and Fana looked at each other and nodded.

“Mother, we need to move.” Bronz reminded, while Fana took her mother’s hand and pulled her towards the exit. The other ECGs also activated their energy shields and began to fire at the directions their enemies were coming from.

“R-right, we can’t stay here…”  Ticia said, her face was now pale from worry. She also understood it wasn’t the time to treat Jinxy’s wounds however. For now, the latter was hurt, but seemed able to run just fine.

I can’t lose my temper, not right now…

As they run, the sentry clones fire back at them. The ECGs at the back held their shields into scutum mode and stopped as many of the coming laser beams as they could while firing back. 

“Uhm, should we shoot back, commander?” One robot suddenly asked, feeling confused. This question made Laura explode.

“Is that even a question!? Yes! Shoot back! Don’t hold back! Make sure to hold them as much as possible while following us! And make sure the clones are safe or else you’ll be all sent to the scrapyard!” She yelled.

“Roger roger! We shall hold the enemies as much as we can!” At this command, the robots finally began to fire back at their enemies. Those at the back provided useful support to the clones, but were also easier targets for their enemies. Some robots began to fall to the enemy fire…

They were reaching the end of the hallway however and would be able to soon be outside!

Or so they thought…

“I can see the intersection! Wait, are those… Ionians!?” Laura exclaimed in pure surprise, joined by Ticia.

“What!?” She looked over there, seeing silhouettes of people wearing armors running ahead of them… 

Out of all people, Republican commandos!? Are you fucking serious right now!?

But then, as the group of commandos reached the intersection, they stopped for a bit. All of their group then advanced straight ahead, then one stopped a distance after entering the hallway. That person looked straight in Ticia's direction, as if observing her, before pushing the button of a remote control…

“H-hey, what are they- No!” Laura seemed to have caught on what he was doing, but before she could even finish her words, explosions reverberated at the intersections in front of them…

*KABOOM*

The smoke mixed with Ice mist and ice shards flew into them, and they were soon enveloped into the cloud of dust and mist.

Ticia and her daughters activated their night visions to compensate for their now reduced visibility, while Laura cursed out loud.

“Those bastards! They blew up the entry!”

“Where do we go next?! Up ahead!?” Ticia asked. They needed to find another path right now…

“No, the Ionians blew that side too after going inside!” Laura said back, before clicking her tongue. “We have no choice, we’ll have to cross the bridge and enter deeper into the facility!”

Ticia nodded in silence. She took a turn to the right when they arrived at the now blown up intersection. She checked behind her too. Her daughters were all there, even Jinxy, who had managed to keep up the rhythm with her, but now seemed to be struggling.

She made the choice to go last over the bridge, after all her daughters were in her sight and, most importantly to her, in front of her. It was dangerous, but some robots stayed behind at the intersection to cover them and hold the enemy. As luck would also have it, no enemies faced them up front…

The bridge was uncovered after a few meters, offering a view of the surroundings. The cloud of dust and mist had dissipated, leaving Ticia to stare at the view.

She could see multiple flashes of red lights of the alert in the distance coming from openings in the distance, as well as multiple other bridges linking the two sides. This infrastructure spread down a gigantic hole like Laura had said, but also over them.

T-this place… Ticia paled at the size of the complex. It’s humongous, no clone installations I’ve been at can compare to it!

What was even more frightening was the fact that she could not see the end of it, whether it be over her head… or down the hole…

It was the size of a large ravine in itself!

“R-rockets!” Rebot-ia suddenly warned.

“Where did those come from?!” Ticia exclaimed, but did not have time to look around as tremors shook the entire bridge.

“They’re targeting the bridge from other bridges! We need to hurry and cross! Right now!” Laura exclaimed.

Not only that, laser beams were now coming from the side, raining on them. The ECGs took a defensive formation and protected themselves with their shields, but the robots weren’t as lucky. A lot of them fell down the hole after being shot, never to be seen again…

“Mother!”

“No!” Ticia immediately shot down Fana’s distressed call. She wouldn’t get ahead in the formation, not when Jinxy was beginning to lag behind…

All that remained behind them now were a couple of robots, one with a red dot alongside them.

They managed to reach the end of the bridge like that, but even then, the bridge began to collapse.

“Quick! You’re nearly there!” Laura encouraged Ticia as she offered some covert fire. Most of their group had now crossed over, and the only ones that remained were Ticia, Fana, Jinxy and a few robots… Their only bit of respite was the fact that their enemies had stopped firing at them…

*CRAAAAAAAAK*

The bridge made an ear tearing metallic sound as it began to uncontrollably tremble all over. It was now impossible to walk safely while avoiding sliding on the ice…

“Come on Jinxy, we’re near the end! We can do it together!” Ticia encouraged as she helped Jinxy to stay on her feet. She too was having a hard time standing by herself. She would be able to cross by herself, but she did not want to abandon Jinxy…

Fana did what she could to pull the two of them towards her while the robots fell one by one into the void.

“Just a bit…”

“Mother…” Jinxy suddenly said weakly, she had stayed quiet for the whole escape, but she now opened her mouth and looked straight at her.

“What is it, Jinxy? Does it hurt too much? Don’t worry, we’re gonna fix that in a flash!” Ticia tried to reassure her, confusing her weak words as fear…

“...I’m sorry…” Jinxy silently muttered…

“What? What are you apologizing for, it’s oka-... Eh-!?” Before Ticia could even finish her words, or even begin to understand what was happening, her view suddenly shifted and she felt her body thrown to the front.

In those little seconds, Jinxy had pulled all the strength she could muster, finding stable ground to push her mother forward…and away from her.

Fana also took the hint and held Ticia, jumping over the last part of the crumbling bridge, where Bronz and the other ECGs received them with open arms, securing them.

“Jinxy!” Finally realizing what had just happened, Ticia raised her arms towards Jinxy as Fana held her back.

Jinxy had slipped, the force she had put behind her throw had actually moved her back and away from the exit of the bridge. 

The bridge had finished crumbling, and Jinxy, as well as the remaining robots, began to fall into the dark abyss…

Ticia stared down with increasing dread as her daughter fell for what felt like an eternity to her.

Her voice broke as she screamed her heart out, seeing her daughter leave her sight into the unknown darkness…

“JINXYYYYYYYY!”