Dim white neon lights escorted the pair down. They walked in silence. Kazuki's blood seeped through his shirt onto Eliza's clothes. Synthia kept her company, as Eliza's mind was rife with chaos...

What are they going to do?! They're being cornered in… If they ran for the plaza, it would have been riskier, though. Dammit…

"Kazuki... maybe this isn't such a good idea," Eliza inquired, slowing down. White paint stuck to the solid concrete walls, signifying the level they are at. She noticed a faded number '13' imprinted onto the wall. "That robot came from down here…"

"We have no choice. The lower Ball Palace is large, approximately seventy per cent of the station. Enough place for us to hide..." Kazuki said, keeping pressure on his wound. Eliza tried to position herself to help but had to keep one hand to steady Kazuki, and one hand on the railing. "Synthia?"

'We'll be able to hide quite well, but I must stress that you need medical attention.' Standing on Eliza's shoulder, Synthia walked across towards Kazuki as she peered at his wounds.

"Secondary Concern," Kazuki said. He started to move faster as if to prove Synthia wrong. Eliza tugged him back into a steady, sustainable pace. "I'll live."

"No, you won't... I can help patch you up," Eliza said. "Sato and Claire taught me some basic first aid…"

Kazuki shot her an unconcerned glance. "I'll live," he repeated. Eliza was his sole focus. He cannot let her die. Not here. Not now. Kazuki gritted his teeth through some pain.

Failure must be struck down. He failed to protect Eliza before. He failed to save Victoria. Failure is unacceptable, especially here.

Slowly, they descended, one step after another. The bottom was in sight, a baseless steel-concrete floor with a double door exit into the lower station.

"This might be a trap," Eliza said.

Kazuki nodded. "Of course it is. Isolate us… But you saw how many were up there."

'Under the given circumstances, this was very much the right move,' Synthia said. 'There's no telling what those drones above would have done, or even if there were but just thirty of them!'

Probably more, Eliza worried…

The dimly lit walls and lights highlighted the dust in the air. There was none of that fluff or warm lighting and decor that was in the suites, shopping centre or gathering ball halls, all that was here was a cold sense of dread, filling Eliza's lungs with each icy breath.

Kazuki's bleeding was getting worse!

"Kaz... you're... we're treating it now," Eliza said, as she took her jumper off. A rush of coldness came over her arms as she stretched them out. Kazuki glanced away, up, then back at her.

"No need."

"There is very much a need!" Eliza shouted as she tried to get an angle to wrap it around Kazuki. He resisted lightly. "Synthia, please back me up here, will you?"

Following her command, she propped right up to Kazuki's shoulder. 'You'll be more combat effective if we bandage you up.'

"Fine," Kazuki replied begrudgingly.

Eliza wrapped her jumper tight in a diagonal, covering the wound on his chest. She tightened the knot, gripping it with both her hands. It was shoddy work… Then, Eliza's uplink lit up. Two drones appeared out of nowhere, helping Eliza tighten the bandage as she scooted around to his back.

"That's enough."

"No," asserted Eliza, continuing as she used components provided by the drones to help patch Kazuki up.

'You know how to control drones?' Synthia inquired.

"I…" Wait, she does? Eliza nodded slowly. "I had to learn on the fly a few months ago, Kaz was in danger so…" Eliza awkwardly shied away as she fixed the fluttering sparks coming out of Kazuki's exospine. "It's not completely fixed, but it should stop the aching."

"How did you know I was aching?" Kazuki asked.

Eliza smirked. "Intuition, I suppose."

Despite all of this, the work was seemingly rather shoddy, in Eliza's opinion. However, it was better than nothing.

"Didn't know you knew first aid," Kazuki said.

Eliza chuckled and remarked, "It's not much, really, just something Lilly and Claire wanted to teach me." It was a self-deprecating statement. Finally, she flicked a level on Kazuki's exospine.

A bout of steam released from his nape as Kazuki grunted in annoyance. "What was that for?"

"Manually reclocking it helps," Eliza commented. "I guess you didn't know that, right?"

"I don't know," Kazuki stated, his eyes glancing elsewhere. "Sometimes... My mind's a bit fuzzy. I feel like I know that, but at the same time, I don't... I don't know."

Eliza slowly placed her thumb on Kaz's cheek. "Come on, now isn't the time to get all sentimental," she said. "I doubt you'll forget something twice, or… at all."

Kazuki gently placed one arm around her. "Either way: thanks," he said in a weak and low voice… Eliza calmed down, as the drones around her deactivated, falling to the floor with a lack of connection. The bright soaring faces they had on their eyes went dim.

Eliza took a step back, shivering slightly from the cold and her nerves. Her eyes glistened, then remembered the situation they were in… She'll reminisce about Kaz's softer side later… Kazuki tightened it further, almost like a tourniquet around his body. "Won't last long."

"It doesn't need to, Kaz, it just needs to hold long enough for us to get you proper attention. Right... now..." She turned to the door a few flights down, dreading what might lay behind it. "We might be in a bit of an issue if something's in there."

They finally reached the bottom. Section 14, it seems. Eliza and Kazuki were at around Section 5 at the start… How long have they been climbing down?

Kazuki merely nodded and kicked the door open. Eliza leapt back, letting off a muffled shriek, surprised at the loud crash of steel against the floor. "Empty," he said. Eliza peered over his shoulder.

The lower section's lights were barely on. Only a few flickers of emergency lights were on. It was dark, dusty, dull…

It wasn't a maintenance shaft, nor was it a storage room… It was a whole plaza, with old statues and aesthetics that looked distinctly Kastí, 'Beaux-Kastí Eliza believed is what they sometimes referred to it, filled with dust and death - leaving off a pungent smell of a bygone age.

"What… happened here?" asked Eliza.

"The war," said Kazuki.

Synthia continued, 'Many of the generational aristocrats perished in the crisis… As such, entire sections of the Ball Palace became empty."

He entered, with Eliza following suit. 'I'll keep a lookout behind us, whatever you may call them, my eyes, can see in the dark,' Synthia proclaimed.

Floors stretched up and above, closed down shops and routes to long-dead halls and suites. An everlasting dead gloom lingered across the floor. Each step they took echoed through the large plaza, with a park in the centre of it, still somewhat alive with various plants - though overgrown and wilting. "Let's... just find somewhere safe to hide, right?" she asked.

Kazuki nodded, as the two walked into the park, a large spot of green and dense shrubs and trees. His eyes lit up, his arms wrapping around Eliza and throwing himself and her behind a tree…

The darkness hid them as best it could, with Eliza's rising heartbeat. "Is it one of them?" she asked, lowering her voice.

Kazuki nodded, hearing a mechanical grind against the floor of the plaza across the distance.

"Hacked," Kazuki said in a presumptive, dead voice. "They wouldn't be alive if this was abandoned. They're compromised." 'Uplink only.'

Eliza nodded slowly.

'We don't know that!' she whispered to him, slowly sliding to his side. She peered out from behind the tree, seeing a pair of security robots patrol the plaza square. They seemed to fill the place, with their beeping lights shining forward, with even more similar lights filling the air from above.

Synthia nervously chuckled. 'Not recommendable,' she remarked.

'If you want to see for yourself, be my guest,' Kazuki replied.

Eliza nodded, peering even further out from behind the tree and overgrown vibrant bushes.

'I was being sarcastic.' Kazuki dragged Eliza back to his side.

She peered back up at the Levels of shops far up above. 'The upper floors!' she murmured to him. 'There must be some shops we can hide in.'

Kazuki looked out, the two seeing the grated covers and bolted-down shutters across all shops on the base floor.

'They might be alarm triggered if they're opened. If that happens, we're dead. This isn't the silver screens. These robots are made for security, to protect the Ball Palace no less.' His flurry of remarks made Eliza realise just how dumb her idea was... Even so, her eyes and face formed into a frown.

She anxiously knelt, glancing away. 'Fair point,' Eliza said.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Kazuki sighed at her reaction. "Don't act like that. I'm not Archius. I'm not going to smooth you into understanding. I'll tell you face to face. Got it?"

'I know…' she replied instantly, feeling both safety and unease in his voice. 'Are we just going to stay here, then?'

'Well, have we got any better ideas?' Synthia asked as she peered on top of both Kazuki's and Eliza's head. The act made Eliza loosen a little bit, feeling slightly warm on the inside as she chuckled to herself. 'Sometimes, doing nothing is the best option.'

'She's right.' Kazuki knelt down, slowly, before the snapping of a twig echoed through the plaza. The echo vibrated through the air, with flashing lights all peering into the forested park, causing Eliza's face to go pale with fear... What did Kazuki just do?!

His face maintained its lethal stillness. He shimmied towards her, standing up. 'Maybe they didn't hear that?' he asked with all seriousness.

'No... they most definitely did,' Eliza said, hearing the soft mechanical footsteps approach, the cold crack against marble turning into a soft squelch under grass. 'What do we do!?'

Kazuki's head twisted left and right, looking around for anything that might be of value. He left their crevice, seeing something in the dark 'Come. There's a shed...'

Grabbing into Kazuki's hand, the two ran through the forest. Eliza couldn't see anything, totally reliant on Kazuki for vision in the darkness.

All the while, his golden eyes blared through the fog. Arriving at a small gazebo-like structure, Kazuki rushed into it. It had walls on all sides, with windows that people could see through. There was just enough room to move around. Eliza knelt down, placing her hands against her knees to support herself...

In the corner was a stack of drones, and moss-covered them. Brushing the moss off, Eliza could see water valves attached to their ventral face. These were water safety drones.

She looked up at him, his golden eyes thinning whilst peering out of cover. They did disagree on the Jin situation, but none of that mattered here, because when push comes to shove: Kazuki shoves, and he's here.

That alone eased Eliza's mind, a lukewarm sense of security overlapping dread.

He raised his SMG's muzzle up towards the door, the two hiding by the sides. Now all they had to do was wait... Wait for their eminent deaths, she supposed. Seconds passed, with Eliza kneeling next to Kazuki. She felt like sneezing, but held her nose and mouth close, muffling the noises.

The soft mechanical sounds were quickly turning into heavy lift crunches against the paved path. She placed a hand over her mouth, feeling her lungs slowly becoming uncontrollable in their satiation for air. Each puff suffocated her even more.

She felt the slow, crooked touch of Kazuki's hand on her shoulder. It was rough, but he shook her slightly. She gazed up at him, eyes holding back her heart's worries.

Contrastingly, his eyes were calm, dead yes but they had a level of compassion in them. It was like the gaze of a mother, warding away a child's worries.

It was rather shocking… Empathy wasn't in the cards she expected Kaz to have… Eliza calmed down, and her breathing stabilised.

'Sorry,' he muttered. 'It wasn't like me... was it?'

'Not really, but hey, seems you can be kind,' Eliza muttered to him, controlling the urge to pull his cheeks apart and pat him on the head. He merely glanced away, nodding.

"Thank my mother. Not me," he said, placing a finger to his lips. The crunches were approaching, a beam of light shining deep into the shed.

Muzzle pointed upwards, Kazuki and Eliza watched as steel hunched through, peering into the structure. The robot's head scanned the deep insides of the structure, as Synthia projected onto Kazuki's shoulder. He made a motion towards the trigger, and Synthia paused, thinking... Its scanning light slowly crawled to the sides, with Synthia also scanning the machine.

More security robots were around them, beams of light shining through the windows.

Eliza could see its purple scanner peer into the gazebo, with Synthia projecting a scanning ray to its underside, hiding beneath its scans. The light was crawling up to her, almost touching her legs as she pushed herself to the wall.

Just then, Synthia gave Kazuki the thumbs up.

Pulling the trigger, Kazuki disabled the drone with a well-placed bolt, exploding its chest.

Sprinting out from cover, Kazuki blasted the robots outside, shredding them all to scrap. Ducking and weaving from another robot's attack, Kazuki slammed the muzzle into his chest, firing upwards - disabling four robots in mere seconds.

Eliza peered to watch his victory.

He turned to her, with a blurry visage steaming through the forest towards him. A bolt ricocheted off the shed's walls, with Eliza rushing back behind cover. FUCK! That was close!

Kaz's body twisted, slicing the attacking robot, emptying the SMG's magazine into its head… Kazuki dropped the SMG, not even scratched by the encounter. Scurrying to her, he placed a hand over his wound.

Eliza saw her jumper with blood on it, seeping out from the wound. She jolted up, ready to help him, but he stopped her. Eliza paused for a few seconds, before grabbing it. "That won't be the last of them. Let's move," he said.

'Your wound... it's still bleeding,' Eliza said as the two walked down the storage halls, between large containers and crates. 'We should re-attach it I'll retighten it with something else.'

She looked around her person, seeing that she only had her space-dog shirt to offer… Not exactly the best thing to offer to him, she thought.

'You'll get cold,' he said, continuing with her deeper into the park. There was a dried-up pond nearby. His answer shocked Eliza. Was he not even worried about himself, in a time like this?! 'Don't fucking strip.'

Eliza replied, 'Well... better to have the sniffles than a nasty case of death, wouldn't you agree?'

'She makes a quite valid point,' said Synthia. 'I've analysed the robots, most are outdated, but that doesn't mean they're mere playthings.' 'My wounds will clot soon,' Kazuki stated. He placed a hand over his wound.

Eliza grumbled before Kazuki's scanning eyes stopped them in their tracks. He pushed his hand out, stopping Eliza from walking past him.

'Hmm?' Eliza glanced around. The trees and dead branches obscured the view from below,. Something was wrong... but she couldn't place her thumb on exactly what it was. "It's... quiet..."

Kazuki continued from her, 'Too quiet. No footsteps... Keep—'

Golden eyes ignited. He kicked her, her body crunching and flying back into one of the many glowing trees behind her. A cacophony of gunfire followed suit. Eliza looked up.

An ambush! Two robots careened through the treeline, smashing them aside - with two additional robots firing sporadic but inaccurate bolts from the levels above.

The two converged on Kazuki, forcing him into a dance against the brutes. The rattle of gunfire was only interrupted by swings of protruding stun sticks. Kazuki ripped off one of the robot's stun sticks, using whatever he could to fight back.

Yet with a clear line of sight, the drone on top aimed.

"KAZ! WATCH OUT!" Eliza shouted, trying to scramble up to help.

She watched as he narrowly escaped a bolt aimed for his head, as he plunged back in towards the fighting. Eliza could see that those above refused to fire… Why? Did they know that if even a single one of those robots falls, Kaz will immediately gain the advantage?

Eliza started to stagger away, as she felt stray bolts enter her body. The impact shook her to her very being, as she crumbled onto the floor. Blood… it stained Eliza's leg, pouring out from her knee.

Kaz took one glance at her, before jamming the stun-stick into the viewport of one of the closest security robots. Despite his best efforts, the security robots were doing a number on him. Eliza took a deep breath, glancing back the way they came.

An idea sparked in her mind! She connected her uplink to the drones… A mind-numbing headache struck her, but she weathered the storm, flicking the drones to life as she rushed them forward. Through the darkness, she unleashed the fire safety drones on the robots.

Spouts of high-density water and foam came pouring from the drones' valves, freezing and short-circuiting a few robots! The jabs and wounds Kaz had dealt were turned into lethal shocks with a single burst of water!

One of the robots brushed their hand, protecting their components whilst firing away at the drones. The headache turned into a sensation of pure writhing pain as Eliza shrieked, watching the drones fall to the ground.

Was… Was she okay?! Eliza placed a hand to her head, thinking she had been shot there, but she was fine, physically. Kazuki took this singular moment to pounce forward, disabling the robot as it was distracted.

Then, Eliza saw her blood slowly fall onto the grass below. A stream of blood was slowly leaving Eliza's nose and wound.

"Nice hit!" Kazuki shot over.

Eliza coughed up. "We'd make a good team, right?" she asked, trying to connect to the drones fruitlessly.

Kazuki clambered onto one of the final robots, using the chaos and mess to cause them to attack one another. Amid the fight, Kazuki ripped the robot's auto rifle from its hands. The gun tumbled down - directly into Kazuki's hands.

A string of bolts clambered into a suppressing robot above. Eliza crawled to the side, watching the carnage unfold, before collapsing against another tree, clutching at the pain in her chest. She coughed... no blood, thankfully.

The robot Kazuki was on shook him off, as the dead robot from above crashed down into it, disabling it. Kazuki released a fusillade of electric bolts into the two remaining drones. One fell, as the final robot charged Kazuki, using its appendages as shields.

Stepping to the side, Kazuki narrowly avoided the charge. It crashed into a tree, sending it flying out of the park area - slamming into the shutters of one of the shops.

The robot swept its arm at him.

Eliza watched it connect, the rifle was knocked towards Eliza's general direction. Her eyes grew in horror, with Kazuki's body flung back, grinding across the ground into a tree.

The robot ignored her, continuing its assault as it walked up to Kazuki. Even in such a state, Kazuki was clambering to his feet.

She shot a glance at the rifle, slowly reaching out towards it. It was just out of arm's reach... Come on... She moved her legs, aching and in pain. She was getting closer, but her limbs gave her all they could offer…

Looking over at Kazuki, she could see the drone slowly lift him up.

He was frantically trying to push the drone away - using everything. He even ripped the robot's head off, trying to cut out its computation core, yet it continued to move. Fuck.... FUCK, nothing was working, she thought.

Kazuki was ripping into the robot, as it choked him, his arms and hands ripping component after component out from the security robot's neck cavity.

Eliza knew she had to do something. She kicked herself forward in a crawl, ignoring the pain in her knee...

She gritted through it, she had to get to the gun. She slammed herself harder, digging her nails forward and into the rotting grass - just to get an inch closer.

"E..." Kazuki shouted towards her. She glanced towards him, he was still being choked slowly. "Over...c—"

Was he trying to overclock!? She slowly shook her head, that'd kill him surer than the suffocation. But he wasn't playing around.

Kazuki lifted a finger to his exospine's power source.

A bright green light shone, as Eliza knew what he was going to do. Overclock, and destroy that robot... Elizabeth had no idea if her repairs to the Overclock system worked, after all, there was no way to "test" it without properly damaging Kazuki.

Her concerns were written all over her face. However, none of those seemed to match Kazuki's cold, brutal exterior.

Then, a shout rang from the side.

And within a single slice, a golden blaze cut through the air.

The robot was bisected and then dissected into a billion parts. Kazuki dropped to the ground, choking and coughing for air... Eliza ignored what just happened, satisfied knowing that her… Kazuki was safe.

Eyes glow red, as Kazuki staggered towards her. A Phoenix was perched on his shoulder, licking his wounds.

He looked exhausted, battle-weary and bloodied. Kazuki was directly in front of her, as white-clad figures stormed across the place, with black-suited guards.

"Kazuki..." she trailed off.

He said nothing, merely glancing over her wounds, being licked at by the pet phoenix. He then sighed, blood trickling down his face, over his golden eyes.

"It's alright," he said. His lips and face were stone-cold solid, yet his eyes were warm, like what he had done before. Yet coldness and ice stabbed through the lens.

His legs then failed, with Kazuki collapsing to the ground in front of her.

Lady Antiar rushed over, immediately tending to Kazuki. She muttered something to herself, as she took several injectors and stabbed Kazuki with them, stabilising him.

She looked up at Eliza. "Don't worry, your friend will live."

"Thank you…"

"We'll need answers," she said. "A lot of them."

Eliza nodded, feeling the coldness wrap around her. They were safe, yes, but something struck a chill down Eliza's spine... As if something was very wrong, as if they were faced with something they couldn't even fathom. These robots... It must have been a powerful hack, she thought.

This had to have been Obadiah, she thought. His threats were adamant… Still, Eliza's open mind realised that it could have been someone else. But who else?

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