The Hangar. 07:10 PM.
"Are you sure those aren't hallucinations?" 02 sat on the window frame, the wind pulling at her blue hair. Outside, the road was empty in both directions. As always, her body gave off a faint blue light. "Most of what you said is… disturbing."
Pi stood on her toes, trying to look outside. Only her nose barely reached the edge of the window. "Your words are offensive," Pi replied flatly. "We are robots. We do not hallucinate like humans do."
She stood as a smaller, refined variant of 02's Omega body. Her frame was predominantly white, segmented with smooth gray plating along her limbs and sides. At the center of her chest rested a large π symbol, softly embedded into the armor. Her face carried the same geometric markings, sharp, triangular patterns beneath the eyes and along the jawline, the gray accent looked like life was muted.
Shoulder-length hair framed her face in loose, slightly messy strands, tinted with desaturated blue-gray hues that caught the light like brushed metal. One eye lay partially hidden beneath it, giving her an almost distant, unreadable expression.
02 lifted Pi easily and placed her beside her on the frame. "How would Reaper even find us here? The road has been dead for days. And we both saw what Alpha and Delta can do. Reaper doesn't stand a chance—"
Pi quickly placed a finger on 02's lips. "That is not what worries me." Her voice remained calm. "All of my future predictions end at the exact same moment. Every time. Right before Reaper lands. Right before anyone speaks. Right before a blade is drawn. Why?"
02 gently removed Pi's finger. "Maybe because—"
"Exactly." Pi turned her head toward the faint sun, face unreadable. "Either my CPU is blocking what comes next to protect me from shock… or I am destroyed in every scenario. The probability increases with each vision. Every time I look further, the answer gets darker."
02 lowered her head, thinking. "What if we break it?"
"Break what?" Pi tilted her head so far she almost fell. 02 caught her quickly.
"I mean we leave. If you're not here, that outcome becomes zero. The prediction won't happen. Your calculations will be wrong and Reaper won't attack."
Pi stared at her.
"Are you dumb?"
02 blinked. "Why are you—"
"That will solve nothing. If we leave this hangar, Reaper will still reach it. We simply remove ourselves from the equation. The real issue is how he finds this location." She raised one finger.
"Second," she raised another, "you just want to leave because you miss your old 'granny team' and because you're angry at Father. That is emotional, not logical. He is a stupid genius, yes. But being mad at him solves nothing."
She raised a third finger. "Third, I am always correct. Calling my calculations wrong is like telling your mother her cooking tastes bad."
02 rolled her eyes. "I don't eat. And I don't have a mother."
Pi stretched up and poked 02's nose. "Then I will be. Go apologize to Father. He is still hurt by the accusations you said."
"They weren't accusations," 02 replied quietly. "They were truths he refuses to face."
"Truth can still be rude," Pi shrugged. "I could also say how ridiculous you look when you lock yourself in your room acting like a teenager. Then you sneak out like a snail just to watch our training because you're bored."
"…What?"
"See?" Pi carefully stood upright on the frame, adjusting her balance. "Now go apologize."
"No. You don't know what happened."
"02—"
"Stop with the mother act."
Pi crossed her arms. "Fine. No more fast charging for you."
"We don't charge. We use crystal energy."
"…Right." Pi looked down briefly.
02 turned away, facing the open fields stretching endlessly along the horizon. "If you won't come with me, then I'll go alone."
She prepared to jump.
SEEK.
A swarm of grey nano-particles formed in a blink, instantly materializing into Pi's massive scythe.
The heavy blade rested perfectly against 02's neck, humming with raw energy. Pi's face changed instantly. No more playful tone. No trembling. Her eyes glowed red. "Fourth," she said coldly, "Father's orders are absolute. Remove the idea of escaping from your outdated SSD. I will not aim this far next time.."
02 slowly raised her hands and sat back down. "Okay…"
The scythe dissolved into particles. Pi jumped back off the window frame and landed lightly on the floor. "You're supposed to be smarter, stupid 02."
She began walking toward the exit with short, quick steps. "Come on. I want to see Beta's matter manipulation. Father says she can create any weapon she wants instantly."
02 watched her small figure walking away.
'Smarter, you said?'
***
Pi entered the training room. 02 followed a few seconds later.
Beta was already shouting. "I am trying, Father! It won't shape the way I want it!" she was holding what looked like a twisted, half-melted gun made of unstable matter. "Your blueprint is unclear. I have it on my HUD, but it's foggy!"
She was nothing like the others. Where they were controlled, she was volatile. Her frame followed the same Omega structure, white armor segmented with red. A bold β symbol was embedded across her chest, sharp and unapologetic, stained in deep crimson. Her hair fell in wild, heavy twin tails, long, untamed strands of burning red. The markings on her face were harsher than the others. Angular. Aggressive. Red, not blue.
Her eyes glowed the same color, bright, piercing, and alive with something that didn't feel entirely controlled. She looked like a system pushed beyond its limits, and still running.
Dr. Nick adjusted his glasses, stressed. "Foggy? It's an ultra-high-quality 3D render. The army would beg for that blueprint. Just focus for one minute. One." He noticed 02 from the corner of his eye but pretended not to.
"It won't work!" Beta snapped. "I need a transparent schematic with clear instructions. This is basically just a picture."
"If I gave you full technical layers," Nick sighed, "you'd be following instructions, not developing instinct. The point of the 3D render is to train you to scan weapons in real time and replicate them on the battlefield. I don't want you dependent on my designs."
Beta crossed her arms. "Fine. One more try. If it fails, I want a real blueprint. Imagining a weapon from a photo is stupid."
Alpha smirked from the side. "That's Beta for you. Even copying an existing weapon is difficult."
"Shut up, hothead!" Beta hissed.
Gamma chuckled. "Ironic."
Beta turned toward a dummy standing one hundred meters away. She focused. Matter began forming from the crystal energy inside her system, shaping into parts, but they wouldn't stabilize. The section she focused on became clear. The moment she shifted attention, it blurred again.
"I can't…" she whispered.
02 stepped behind her and gently held her hands. Her glowing blue eyes locked onto the distant dummy.
Beta flinched. "Hey, what are you doing?"
"Beta," 02 said calmly. "Listen only to my voice." She adjusted Beta's posture slightly. "Look at the target. Forget your sisters. Forget this room. Imagine it's just you, me, and the weapon in a dark space. The dummy is the only thing illuminated. A single spotlight above it."
Beta's vent speed slowed. She looked at the dummy.
The darkness 02 described seemed real.
"How…?" Beta whispered, glancing around.
"Focus."
"Okay… okay." Beta closed one eye. "I see it."
The other G-Bots gathered around quietly. Tau whispered, "She is… t-taming the b-beast…"
02 stepped close behind her, physically adjusting Beta's grip and widening her stance to account for the recoil and weight of an invisible weapon. "What weapon is on your HUD?"
"Liberta-02. Charging sniper."
"Good." 02 adjusted her grip and nudged Beta's leg slightly forward, standing close behind her. "Ignore everything else. You are holding the entire weapon."
"But I only formed two parts."
"Doesn't matter. You're using all of it. Imagine the floating barrel."
The barrel began forming in midair. Blurry at first, then sharp. Nick's mouth fell open. Delta waved her hand in front of Beta's face. No reaction.
"Now imagine the precision trigger. The telescopic sight. The bipod. The muzzle device. The cylinder assemblies. See them connected."
Parts began appearing one by one, suspended in the air. Each formed in the same pattern, blur, then focus. They were still separated.
02 leaned closer and whispered, "Good. You have the imagination of a three-year-old."
"That wasn't nice, Captain," Beta replied naturally.
02 didn't react. The title settled into the room like it had always been there. She was used to it. "It will be nice when those parts connect properly. Stop seeing them as pieces. It's one device. A single system that fires energy. You cannot waste matter on bullets."
Beta inhaled slowly. The floating parts began moving toward each other. Metallic clicks echoed through the room as they locked into place. The sniper fully formed, white body, red lines along the barrel.
"Perfect," 02 murmured. "I missed that sound."
"Why do you even like it?" Beta asked softly. "It only leads to death."
"Exactly." 02 smirked faintly. "It leads to an end. That's what weapons are for." She tightened her grip slightly. "Now aim. One hundred meters. No wind. Perfect conditions."
Beta lifted the sniper, placing the scope before her open eye. "Like this?"
"Don't ask me." 02 released one hand. "Be natural." Then the other. "When you fire at someone, you're alone with them." She stepped back. "Focus all your energy into the next shot."
Beta began glowing red. The light intensified so much that Nick shielded his eyes. The others dimmed their optics.
02 didn't move. She had stood in worse. "Whenever you're ready," she said quietly.
"Roger, Captain."
The shot cracked like thunder.
A massive red beam erupted from the sniper, dense, wide, violent. The dummy vaporized instantly. The beam carved deep into the reinforced wall behind it. Smoke rose from the barrel.
Beta lowered the weapon slowly. "Target neutralized."
Gamma jumped onto her back. "You did it! I thought we'd grow old before your first shot!"
"Get off!" Beta laughed, struggling to hold her weight. "And that joke was terrible." She looked at 02 and smiled brightly. "Thank you, Captain!" she saluted.
02 paused. She had seen that smile before. From 03. "…No problem, Beta."
She turned away and stopped beside Pi, who had watched everything silently jaw open. 02 reached over and gently closed Pi's mouth. "Don't you hate that reaction?"
Pi turned her head slowly. "Can I call you Captain too?"
02 smiled slightly. "Sure. You didn't predict that, did you?"
"Honestly?" Pi replied in her usual flat tone. "You disrupted my future-sight program. It is currently displaying random numbers."
"One point for me," 02 said, watching the G-Bots celebrate around Beta.