Once Zero Three left the lab, Sam just sat there staring blankly at the door. The words she left him were difficult to process. Coming from anyone else, their meaning would have been easy to comprehend. But the one who spoke them was a Valkyrie, and the implications came with a wave of terror that couldn't be ignored.
The young Valkyrie always had a sharp tongue, but this was the first time she had gone this far. He felt the contempt in her voice and the hate in her glare. Her dissatisfaction with the current state was clear, and though understandable, a weapon of war showing such a sentiment was...
'That's it…' Sam thought, turning to his terminal to start working on his report. 'Something definitely is wrong with them! There is no way that was normal!'
If there was one sign that an AI was about to go out of control, it would be them looking down on humans while showing contempt toward the way they're being used. Zero Three refused to take his advice, believing she knew better, and though that was indeed true, the way she delivered it was worrying.
As he wrote his report, Sam made sure to mention the strange behaviors the Valkyries were showing. Of course, he remembered to change a few things about what happened with Nine and repeatedly stressed how the walking weapons were acting out of the ordinary. Pressing the send button, he gathered his things and quickly left the lab.
There was no telling how the HUR headquarters would react to his report. At best, they might send some replacements as they worked on resetting the three Valkyries. If destroying them is the only way to avoid complications, then that would be the preferred course of action.
'Better safe than sorry… '
Even as he thought that to himself, Sam couldn't stop the guilt that slowly tightened its grasp on his heart. The Valkyries' expressions flashed in his mind; the seriousness with which Zero Five asked him if he saw her as a human, the curiosity in Nine's eyes as she inquired about embarrassing details, the anger in Zero Three's gaze as she told him to fight in her stead. If their purpose was to fight in a desperate war, did they truly have to be made so human?
'Damn you, Odin...'
~◇~
After rethinking everything more thoroughly, doubts started to occupy Sam's mind. One of the things he failed to account for was that it wouldn't be strange for the higher-ups to pin the blame on him, saying his incompetence was what caused all of it, but that wasn't what bothered him the most. Ironically, it was the chance that the HQ might take his report seriously that was the source of his unrest. If that were to happen and the three Valkyries were deemed a threat, it is practically guaranteed that they would cease to exist as they are.
'Maybe I shouldn't have sent it after all…'
"Doctor? Is something wrong?"
Snapping back to the real world, Sam looked across the table and was met with a concerned look from Shizuru. The fact that he didn't remember when he had made it to the cafeteria, let alone when she arrived, told of how stressed and tired he really was. Dealing with the human-like weapons placed a heavy toll on his mind, and that's without considering the need to constantly control himself around them.
"Nothing..." Sam answered, poking a small piece of vegetables with his fork. "I'm just… a little tired, that's all."
"You didn't get much rest since yesterday, huh?" Shizuru said. "I... I have heard about what happened. Is Zero Three alright?"
"Yes… The restoration process was successful. She should have no trouble carrying out her duties as usual."
"I see…"
For a couple of minutes, the two ate their food in silence, or they tried to, at least. Sam went back to staring at his tray while Shizuru played with a piece of carrot, moving it around. As if tired of pretending, she let out a long sigh.
"You're worried about it, too, huh?" Sam asked.
"You could say that." She replied. "We've been on high alert in case another Calamity showed up. Thankfully, nothing happened."
"Those things keep popping up out of nowhere," Sam said, gritting his teeth. "Seriously, how do we still know nothing about the hellhole they crawled out of?"
"Yes, it would be nice if we could go on the offensive from time to time. Though the Valkyries would be doing all of the fighting."
The two sighed at the same time, their fatigue becoming more apparent. Shizuru glanced over the cafeteria. Normally, it would be crowded around this hour, but currently, none of the tables were full. The region guarded by the Forty-Sixth base was supposed to be one of the safest parts of the frontlines; it's for that reason why only three Valkyries were assigned to it by the headquarters. A B-class Calamity paying them a visit was enough to rob most soldiers of their appetite, but things got much worse once they heard about one of the Valkyries being injured in battle.
"Well, I guess it's our fault for getting too lax," Sam said.
"Indeed. We should consider ourselves lucky that the damage was limited to just one Valkyrie."
It would've been a nightmare if all of them ended up in the same state as Zero Three. The base would've been defenseless until reinforcements arrived, and in the meantime, the weak, useless humans would be left to fend for themselves.
The two finished their meal in silence. To Sam's surprise, Jordan didn't show up this time. Maybe even a pushy guy like him knew when it wasn't a good time to be a pain in the neck. Sam decided to go back to his room and get some sleep. He remembered the book Shizuru asked him for and promised to bring it to her the next morning, but the Asian girl said he didn't have to. It would've been impossible to enjoy it under the current circumstances anyway.
The walk back was a slow one. Entering his room, the first thing he did was take a shower. He then brushed his teeth and went to bed. As expected, despite being exhausted, Sam was unable to sleep right away. Zero Three's words kept repeating in his head again and again, not allowing him a moment of rest.
"Then... why don't you go fight them yourself?"
"All you humans do is complain!"
"You're all weak, pathetic bags of flesh. Especially you!"
"Keep your advice to yourself next time."
"Though in your case, it's nothing but bones!"
'Am I really that skinny?'
The young Valkyrie was tired of being told how she should fight, or maybe she was tired of fighting altogether. The more he thought about it, the more stupid he felt for telling her to be more careful. The Valkyries were created to fight Calamities, after all. What made him think he knew better?
'Maybe... maybe I should apologize to her…'
A few minutes passed, and he was still unable to sleep. Lying down didn't help, so he sat up and rubbed his face. Turning on the light, he aimlessly looked around the room until his eyes fell on the two books he had brought with him. Having nothing better to do, he picked up the one titled Valkyrie Smash, smiled despite himself before opening it and flipping through the pages.
It was bad. He had read most of it as he waited for Zero Three's treatment to be done, and as expected, the quality was trash to say the least.
Putting aside all the typos, grammatical errors, and misspellings, the plot itself was nothing more than an elaborate porn script.
The protagonist of the story was a man in his thirties and a part of the maintenance crew tasked with taking care of the equipment the Valkyries use. That alone was evidence that the author knew nothing about how the Resistance bases are run. At the start of the book, the protagonist has a few interactions with the beautiful human-like weapons, then, using their lack of experience with humans to his advantage, he manages to trick them into performing sexual acts with him. The Valkyries learned what pleasure was and fell in love with the protagonist. Their secret relationship somehow continued from there, without anyone ever finding out.
The whole book felt like it was nothing but the sexual fantasies of some horny teenager. Despite it being that bad, Sam still found himself reading through it again, and for a very simple reason: it was just pure dumb fun.
Going through it again, he felt a smile creep on his face. He read through the first chapters, intending to stop after a few pages, but soon he found himself flipping through them at a quick pace. Unlike his previous readthroughs, something about the book caught his attention this time around, prompting him to go back to the start and begin reading through it once more.
"This is…"