Caroline and Ishaan took the first watch while Ella, Ben, and Renee slept. The two of them sat on adjacent couches and gazed beyond the glass walls, watching streams of hovercraft waver and contort. Something seemed different about Sector 8 tonight. The lights were dimmer, the air quieter, the buildings larger.
Caroline could not stop her leg from bouncing. She was worried of course about the impending danger of Ainsel, but there was a deeper, more irrational stress gnawing at her.
What if this means we have to go off grid? Leave the megacity? All her work on Sabersong would've been for nothing. All that prep for Battlegrounds Month and Mecha Realm would've been for nothing. Her life would've been wasted, and that was scarier than death itself.
"I've never stayed up this late," Ishaan remarked after a bit.
"Really?" Caroline said. She remembered the dozens of all-nighters she'd pulled, most of them simply because she'd been caught up in what she was building.
"Can't be missing sleep if I want to pilot well."
"Just sleep more the next day."
"Can't be inconsistent, either."
Caroline wanted to roll her eyes. She used to think she was obsessed when it came to mech-fighting, but there were clearly levels to this.
"Do you ever take a break?" she asked.
"Of course," Ishaan said. "I'm not a machine."
"Do you wish you didn't have to take breaks?"
"Usually. Do you?"
Caroline shrugged. She prioritized having breaks as long as she didn't feel guilty about them. She enjoyed hanging out with Ben and Renee, and as of this year, Marvin, too.
"I just wish I had more time," she said. "And I wish we didn't have to deal with all this Ainsel AI bullshit."
"I guess Mecha Realm won't mean much if Ainsel kills us all," Ishaan agreed.
Caroline smiled. She wondered if it was a bad thing that they were still thinking about Mecha Realm at a time like this. There were people like Sunwoo and Marvin dealing with life-or-death situations, and here they were worrying about a competition.
But this danger would pass in one way or another, and in one of those timelines, Mecha Realm was something to live for afterwards.
-----
When Caroline took her second watch after sleeping for two hours, she found that Marvin, Amir, and Sunwoo had returned. They were sitting at the dining table, as silent as statues.
Amir was the first to move as Caroline approached. He looked surprised. "You can go back to sleep," he said. "We'll take the watch from here."
"I'm not tired," Caroline said. "What happened with Hallowshard? Did you find the memories?"
Marvin shook his head dejectedly—his first movement.
Caroline pursed her lips. "That's alright. We'll still meet with Inspector Kobayashi tomorrow, right? You have the recording—there's no way he won't believe us."
Marvin nodded. Still said nothing.
Caroline walked over to him. "Are you alright? Did something happen?"
"Nothing happened," Marvin said. He looked up at her, and the light in his eyes softened ever so slightly. "I just… have a lot to think about."
His cameras flicked to Sunwoo, who still had not moved, had not said a word. Caroline looked at the mech. Despite sitting down, he was still nearly the same height as her.
Then she heard a click. Something shifted on Sunwoo's back as a light appeared and disappeared. Then another click and another blink of light.
He's been moving this whole time, Caroline realized. Those lights were the rocket thrusters in his back. He was periodically folding and unfolding them.
A stress response? Something akin to fidgeting?
Caroline pulled out the last chair at the dining table and sat down. Amir didn't object, and Marvin scooted slightly away from her.
They sat in silence for a while. When she wasn't looking out the window, Caroline tried to discern Marvin's state of mind. He was probably thinking about Sunwoo. That wasn't what she was concerned about. She thought back to their brief talk in her room, and how Marvin's responses had seemed more automated than usual. He wanted her to get her memories back, it seemed. He wanted to know if she was responsible in any way for his death.
What if I am?
But if she were to see her memories, she would risk severe brain damage, and truth be told, she didn't want anyone else seeing them. It didn't sit well with her—someone knowing more about her than she did.
Does that make me a bad person? Shouldn't Marvin have a right to know?
But another part of her disagreed. She had all the rights to her past. No one else.
After a while, they noticed a change outside in one of the traffic streams as two shuttles broke off and began heading their way. At first, they looked like they would overshoot Renee's apartment, but their trajectories slowly shifted down.
Caroline, Amir, and Marvin stood up and moved into the living room. It may have been a trick of perspective, but it looked like those shuttles were going straight for their glass wall.
"Do you think…" Caroline began
"I don't know," Amir said, staring ahead. The shuttles kept getting closer. They might not have been on a collision course to their room, but they were certainly bound for the apartment building.
"We can't take any chances," Amir muttered. He turned to Marvin and said, "Get everyone to a lower floor," and continued with orders of what to do to escape. Amir himself would go to a higher floor and try to identify the shuttles.
As he talked, Caroline heard a series of thuds, then a click. She turned around cautiously. The front door to the apartment was slightly ajar. She glanced at Marvin and Amir, who were still talking and had not noticed, and then peered around the corner at the dining room. The table was empty.
Caroline felt a spike of alarm, and she raced to the door.
"Caroline?" Amir called.
"Sunwoo's gone!" she called over her shoulder, not bothering to wait for them. She had no idea what Legionnaire's pilot was doing, but none of the possibilities bode well.
Caroline burst into the stairwell and paused. Listened. Footsteps were going up, receding at a terrifyingly fast rate. She began to run, taking the stairs two at a time, but she was far too slow. There was another faint click and Sunwoo's footsteps became inaudible.
Is that the roof door? She had to assume it was. Was he trying to escape, or…
What was it Saeyung told Marvin on the roof? Caroline thought with a chill. Something about human instinct?
Soon, she reached the door to roof access. Sunwoo had already broken the latches, and she pushed it open and stumbled out into the harsh night air. Suddenly, everything was simultaneously too loud and too quiet. A concrete expanse sprawled out before her, and at the edge of it stood a singular mech, framed by the neon lights of the city.
"Sunwoo!" Caroline shouted, running forward. "What are you doing?!"
Sunwoo turned around and took a step back, and Caroline froze. His foot was too close to the edge. Twenty feet or so separated them, but there might as well have been a twenty foot pole pressed against both their chests.
"What are you doing?" Caroline repeated, quieter.
"I have to know." There was a desperation in his voice that his voice box distorted and tried to cut out but couldn't.
"Know what?" Caroline said.
"If I'm human."
Caroline remembered the words. If you went on standby and I pushed you off this roof, would your thrusters activate to break your fall?
"Admit it," Sunwoo continued. "I'm of no use to you anyway."
"No, we need you," Caroline pleaded. "When we meet with the Inspectors."
"My memories will be gone by then. Maybe… maybe this will bring them back." Sunwoo's voice grew eerily calm. "Let me do this for myself. Please."
"Sunwoo. This isn't the same as holding your breath." Caroline brought her leg forward, but Sunwoo slid his foot back, so she backtracked.
"Why not?"
On another day, Caroline could've given him a million answers, but her mind was racing too fast. She looked at the door behind her, praying that Amir and Marvin would walk through. They would know what to say. They would—
There was a scrape of metal against concrete. Caroline spun her head around, and that expanse in front of her was suddenly empty.
No no no. What have I done?
She sprinted to the edge and looked over. A shadow drifted away from her, falling head-first into a sea of darkness.
His thrusters will activate, she thought numbly. I'll see him light up.
She almost saw it in her head: a ball of fire igniting below, growing dimmer and dimmer until landing safely on the ground.
But there was no light. No indication either of when he hit the asphalt. Not even a sound.
The door behind her slammed open. She caught the blurry shapes of Marvin and Amir running towards her, and before she knew what she was doing, she intercepted Marvin, wrapped her arms around him, and held him from moving. Marvin froze, limbs going slack.
"Don't look," Caroline implored between quick, panicked breaths.
Marvin didn't ask what happened. He didn't try to shake her off and move past her.
He already knows. What's the point of me doing this if he already knows?
But Caroline held on, and she felt Marvin's head lower until his chin was resting on her shoulder.