Report from Diana Ulrich and Belle Rockfel regarding the missing children in New Houston Yards to their Corporal, Alex Lopez, on October 14th.

During our investigation of New Houston Yards, we happened to receive reports of gunfire yesterday originating from an abandoned railway station. There, we found countless corpses of Steel Tygers members in what appears to be a gunfight between them and the Iron Devil. In the files attached, you'll find confirmation of communications retrieved from the scene of Steel Tygers affiliating themselves with Metal Heavens. Unfortunately, the children appeared to have been moved prior to our arrival, we assume to central Metal Heavens locations near the river-system.

October 13th

8:12 PM

We'd just finished doctoring all the evidence necessary, Diamante had some mechanism to alter any video recordings to make our arrival to the scene appear later than usual and make him the sole attacker of the base. With our story, we could leave ourselves out of the initial assault and also provide a continuation of today's events into a grander investigation. It was the best case scenario for the grim revelations we had today.

I sat down on the stairs alongside Belle while Diamante was busy gathering extra information and organizing transport for the children out of here. Diamante had a personal grievance against Metal Heavens, but it didn't mean we inherently trusted the Iron Devil of all mercenaries.

"So… I heard a lot of names." Belle rasped.

"A lot that can get you killed." I settled my hands between my knees.

Hesitantly, he took a seat next to me on the stairs. "You've been dealing with this all on your own?"

"No, there's Dryder. You heard me talk about him. He's… complicated, but a former police officer who got involved with Soul Killer a long time ago."

"Is he really that good that you'd vouch for him?"

"He's the only one fearless enough to go after Soul Killer."

"That's the one who mind controls people, right?"

"I kept quiet before a word crawled out of me. "Yeah."

"Is he how Anthony got hurt?"

"Yeah."

"Why was that a lie?"

"Because it is." To me.

Belle stayed quiet, and for the first time, I found myself speaking without further questioning.

My voice cracked. "I'm the one who hurt him, the same way I… hurt you just a few hours ago. I absorbed his Warp Energy, his Mutagen… all while trying to clear Soul Killer's influence from him."

"Doesn't sound like you're the one who hurt him."

"Anthony ended up as a living corpse anyway because I couldn't—."

"You don't know that, maybe he can still wake up."

"I don't know the first thing about how to make it happen."

"What about others?"

"Maybe."

Dr. Moira was a good geneticist but I needed someone specialized. Someone capable of tearing into Implants just as much as the Uncaged were.

Maybe… Ripley? He'd told me he could read into and modify BUGs, what about branching into SIMs? I held the infected BUG close to my heart, if there was some sort of Mutagenic component infecting it, then it was likely there was a Warpcode mechanism installed to activate it. Ripley had seen one of Dogwhistler's homeless thralls turned into a MAL without him dying, the same way Soul Killer had figured out a way to remotely activate Soul-Death.

I'd been thinking about it for a while, that maybe he had away to help me beyond just investigation. Looking at Diamante, who was plugged into a few consoles, I spoke up. "When are we going to contact Dreadwire?"

"We aren't." Diamante said dimly.

"We… aren't getting him involved?"

"It's not him that's the issue, it's his company." Diamante said with a grit in his voice. "If we work together, I don't want them involved."

His company?

"Mirage?" I guessed and Diamante stilled. Slowly, he gave an affirm nod.

"Why?" I asked.

"She works for Skeleton."

"I thought she worked for you."

"She works with us. And for him." Diamante turned around. "Don't tell him this by the way, the situation's complicated, but we have contingencies. She isn't an enemy, but she's an ally only when she feels like it."

"What's this about contingencies?"

"Not for you to know. Just if you're working with him, keep in mind his girlfriend will know all about it too."

"And then, likely, Skeleton." I concluded. "What's the deal between all of you and the Uncaged, anyway?"

"We've had our run-ins with them. It didn't start out bad, got worse until we finally decided to handle them."

My gaze grew intense. "We're going to take care of them."

Belle nodded by my side, his gentle eyes were heavy. "I agree."

Diamante took both of our proclamations in stride, sighing out in a way that made him seem like he was annoyed. "I'm calling Maiden up. I'll introduce you to her, if you find any situation like this then she's your best contact."

From out of a small dot on Diamante's forehead, a beam of light cast and a small holographic blur formed. A few seconds later and the head of an old woman appeared, her skin dark and wrinkled while gray-white hair was tangled in a bun and she had remarkably little inorganics except for black-steel eyes with glowing blue irises. "You better be callin' for the reason I think you're callin', Di."

"Maiden, take a look around." Diamante's eyes shone white, and he scanned around the area to broadcast the scene over to her.

"Oh you have got to be shitting me. Dreamframes? I thought you hit up the last shipment of them!" Maiden's hands came into frame, she squeezed them tight over her eyes. "Who're the other two?"

"SIO."

"Are you trying to get me killed?!" Maiden hissed. "For goodness sake, tighten the damn bolts in your head!"

"They're on our side." He insisted, and it was strange but I felt a flutter of confidence from his… chest that radiated in the waves of his Warp Energy. Soul Resonance, I wasn't sure why, but it did give me a grasp on emotional states.

"A scrapped chance of that." Maiden scoffed.

"Take a closer look," Diamante jabbed his stumped arm in my direction, "one of them's got that fancy Gold SIM."

Maiden's gaze flicked to wherever I was in her view. "That… Silversky?"

"Silvereye. That's the one."

I tentatively waved my hand out into the image of the old woman, she studied me under a scrutinizing gaze. "Now this is a twist of fate. Alright, Di, send me the files. You organizing transport?"

"Like you would." He scoffed.

"What happened to respecting your seniors?"

"I do respect you, Maiden, hence why I'm trusting these kids to you."

"Alright, alright, you oversized microwave. Send me the files."

A brief pause occurred after Diamante tapped an invisible button, then Maiden shouted behind her shoulder to someone beyond the view of the hologram. "Hey, brat! Take a look at these with that fancy AI in your head and help an old woman!"

"Hold on a moment! For my claws are deep within an omental bursa, this stomach requires additional reinforcement!" A voice called, it was faintly familiar.

Diamante shook his head. "You picked up an assistant? Kid's got a mouth."

"Nah, I picked up the brat carrying the goldmine AI running around in him. Reminds me of Daylight… but smarter. As for the mouth, tell me about it."

"Another Persona user?" Diamante scoffed. "Swear to Mazhyr's tits, everyone's scrapping their minds in two these days."

"Not a Persona." Maiden hummed. "A fully functional Artificial Intelligence passing every bar on the Mazhyr Scale, better than our Seraphim. An Emulect. A living person, honestly."

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"Fuck. How'd you find someone able to develop an AI like that? Tech's locked up deeper than the Firewall. You getting him to help you develop the countermeasures?"

"Funny, you ask…" She took a humorous glance at Diamante. "You found him first."

Diamante's teeth screeched. "…Have I been on speaker?"

"You're plugged into the systems here, so yeah. Brat! Come here or I'll drive a wrench up your waste disposal!"

"In just a moment, let me perfect this man's intestines. He'll be thankful for what Dreadwire did to him!" Okay, now I definitely recognized that voice.

A man pulled into the holographic view, his hair far more different than what I remembered, but the face was just the same. His hair fell across him in a middle partition and was snow white. He also wore a pair of goggles this time that completely hid his eyes. "By the ten tenets of Mazhyr's electromagnetics?! Those Frames, are they Dreamframes? I've never seen one in the flesh, wait, am I going to get the chance to-"

"Dreadwire…" Diamante gritted. "How the hell did you stumble into Maiden?"

"Ah, that's a long story. I was actually asked to assassinate her." He chuckled so easily as he waved it off.

"By who?"

"…Metal Heavens."

Diamante twitched, his neck making an audible cracking sound. "When?"

"About… eleven days ago?" He shrugged, before hastily changing the topic. "So Diana, how's it feel meeting another Di?"

"Dread… was it Orthodox or Contemporary?" Diamante kept the topic as firm as steel.

"…Orthodox."

"You want to be shot in the head again?"

I squinted in confusion at that.

"I do not." He shook his head.

"No more deals with Orthodox Metal Heavens."

"That's affirmative, sir-tincan-sir."

"And you do not call me tincan."

"Understood, my dearest Aluminum Angel."

"I-" Diamante's eyes sparked. "Where are you getting this damn audacity from?"

"Uh, okay I might have split my mind just a little bit. You would not believe how much our main ego overcomplicates such trivial tasks."

"What does that mean?"

"Technically, I'm talking to you using the Alter-Ego known as The Ripper." Ripley… or The Ripper grew a sly grin.

"The… you went back to that name? Dreadwire was working well for you!"

"Right, this is supposed to be Dreadwire's Shard Operator."

Silence buried in Diamante's body for a long while. "Two headshots, maybe it'll fix up the loose screws in your head."

"Ha! You probably have experience yourself, nuts for brains!"

"Three." Diamante's voice had crackled in it's bass.

"Sorry." Ripley reached for the goggles on his eyes. "I'll take the goggles off."

As soon as his eyes unveiled, there was a moment when they went out of focus and dilated before dulling back into that rusty orange that I was used to.

Diamante stared down the hologram. "Also, what the hell was that about an AI in your head that isn't a Persona?"

"Oh, I'll make sure you get your formal introductions later but- wait, no, don't, ow! Ow!"

Diamante's eyes began to fizzle, one turned bright pink and the hologram began to glitch as a tiny… pink butterfly formed in the light. That butterfly then shaped into the most adorable child with pink hair and blonde streaks, she wore a large dress resembling the wings of a butterfly with a vivid pink and gold pattern flowing through it.

Diamante's voice was chilled as he looked upon the tiny girl. "Fucking hell… what just entered my body!?"

The child waved, a lovely voice with a bubbly tone chirping out. "Hi there! I'm Starlight, and you must be uncle Diamante, Ripley has really fond memories about you! Wow… you're a human brain inside a metal shell? That's… like a hybrid algorithm but wayyy more ineffective. And wow, I thought Ripley had a lot of spaghetti in him? Sorry, I'm still looking through, your internal coding is really fucking disorganized."

"Starlight!" Ripley shouted. "No swearing! You're a day old! And get back here!"

"Alright, alright." The tiny child muttered under her voice, she waved to Diamante and then turned to me and Belle. "Bye, bye! Nice meeting you! Sorry, but my dad's executing the Fishhook program! Diamante, I hope our circuits cross paths again!"

Diamante then shuddered again as the girl glitched out of existence, the steel of his body rattling. "What… how did she bypass my Datashield?! Did she call you her dad?! What the hell was that! Why did she insult me so much!"

"I… didn't actully know she could do that. Jump into your Datashield, I mean. She's been insulting pretty much every piece of tech since she was born." Ripley sighed. "Uh, yeah, she's learning. Starlight is, I guess, my daughter in a way?"

"How the hell did you make her?"

"That's the thing, I technically didn't… I think… she's the child between me, Twilight and Ms. Himiko."

Even I froze at that. Diamante, on the other hand, bursted. And by that I quite literally mean his right hand shot out a bullet through the bent barrel which exploded. "Four."

"I didn't even do anything for that!"

"Consequences of inaction."

"Hey… that is morally questionable." He pointed out.

Belle nodded. "I agree, don't blame the victim."

Even I joined in. "Whatever the case, it's good to have more help."

Diamante muttered something under his breath, before turning back to Ripley. "Just… does Mirage know?"

"Not yet." Ripley sighed.

"Keep it that way." Diamante declared. "She has a tendency to kill anything that Himiko touches."

"I- she's my girlfriend, man."

"She's also… look, just do it. For now. Until we figure out what's going on."

"Alright, alright." Ripley raised his hands in peace. "So when are you getting back here, anyway?"

"Admittedly, a while. New Houston Yards is going to need me to be a boogeyman if they don't want to end up in a gang war right now, and I suspect there's still more Metal Heavens influence here that I need to snuff out." Diamante tapped his foot on the floor. "I'll get Missy to come by using a boat and move the chil-

I spoke up. "I'll oversee the kids' transfer to Maiden."

They all turned to me, but I made my point clear. "It's the responsibility I took when I chose this job, I'm seeing it through."

Diamante tilted his head, before humming. "Fine. Diana'll get the kids to you, Dread, but Missy will get a truck over to load them into. She'll have the right equipment to keep them stable."

"Don't have an issue with it." I affirmed, that was for the best.

Diamante returned his voice over to Ripley. "So you're two-timing on Anderson are you? Maiden paying you for the work?"

"Nope, I'm kind of repaying a debt." Ripley shook his head, but a noticable look of guilt flashed in his gaze. "The Shardware I get to work on here is… you know. How come you never told me about it?"

"Too many reasons, kid. Better we continue this in private."

Ripley looked hard and long before sighing. "Alright, I'll see what I can do."

Maiden returned to call, an amused smile on her. "Now that was entertainin'."

"You're a damn witch, you old hag," Diamante muttered, "don't let him touch my stuff." With that, the call closed.

Belle was the first to speak up. "So… was that guy Dreadwire? He's a lot weirder than I thought he would be. Sabrina was onto something."

"He is, and he is weird." Diamante said while rubbing his eyes, his voice deepened. "Keep that to yourself."

"He's against the Uncaged… he's fine by me." Belle sighed. "Though, he does have a heavy list of crimes."

"So do I, and you'll have to get to me before you get to him." The crimson in Diamante's eyes brightened.

"Yeah, don't worry about it. I'll keep my lips tight, at least this explains why Diana's always lying all the time." Belle sat down on the stairs, his eyes briefly turned to one of the many children whose brains had wires dug into them like worms on rotting flesh. His gaze only lasted a second before falling to the floor in silence. "Dealing with this… it's a lot. You did a good thing, Diana, taking this case when no-"

"Thank you, Belle." I genuinely was glad to hear his support.

"It's what my Aunt Vicky would want me to do, I'm no stranger to what drives people into these crimes. Doesn't make it right, but I'm willing to fight against… these bastards who came to my home and stirred shit up."

"Diana," Diamante's steel voice hardened against me. "It's your job to explain to him what that means, especially for Soul Killer."

"I… I will." I took a deep breath, beginning to open my mouth. "Soul Killer can-"

Belle shut me up. "Infect SIM Adapters, that's what I gathered from your conversation. Don't worry, my Aunt's a BUG Adapter. And like you know, Diana, I have security in place for her. Hell, I have criminals on my payroll who are protecting her. I'll make a deal with the Devil — The Iron Devil — anyday if it means saving the woman who raised me."

Diamante gave a stern look at that statement, but accepted it. "Alright, then you go and check up on the Fourth Precinct, Raiden sent them a message that I arrived so they won't be investigating here too soon. Show your face up early next morning, make them surprised that you're alive but don't say much."

"Shrug it off, make them think that we're in cahoots." Belle surmised. "Because, well, looks like we are now."

"Don't get too ahead of yourself. I don't even know your name."

"Belle 'Vineyard' Rockfel."

"Vineyard? What, you grow alcohol?"

"I used to. Went sober."

"Huh, maybe you deserve a little respect then." Diamante tipped his hat.

As Belle began to leave, I made one last effort to say what was on my mind. "I- I'm sorry. For the lies, for dragging you into this, I don't blame you if you find it hard to trust me."

"Oh please, even after all that this damn neighborhood's done to its people, I believe in it. You're easy. Hell, you're Silvereye. The whole city wants to believe in you, Founders know they need it." Belle assured me with a smile, it struck something in me. "Take care of yourself. I'll be seeing you soon at the First."

"You too… and… thank you. Your aunt raised you well."

"You raised yourself well."

———

I was reminded of why I didn't want to be a Shard Operator as me and Diamante stitched skulls back together. It was rough work, he said it himself, far from what these kids deserved. Shard Operating was an art form I'd never been able to appreciate, there was too much blood for me.

The irony was in my clothes, drenched and sticky.

"You need to hammer it a bit harder." Diamante directed me, he didn't have any working hands so I'd been doing the dirty work. Just following orders.

Holding the hammer tight, I smacked steel and hoped it would bind to flesh. I didn't know what I was doing, if I was helping or harming these people.

Children. Damn it, why couldn't this city at least leave its young alone? No one was safe, everyone was wounded, and their scars spread onto others. Like an infection you were ill with from the moment you were born.

"You were good with that sword." Diamante made idle chat as he went to look for another endoskeletal skull. "Experienced?"

"Some."

"Cradle?"

I wasn't surprised lately when people knew my whole life story. "Yeah."

"You should have Ripley make one for you." Diamante, as much as he chided Ripley, seemed to have some level of affection for him as well.

"I'm not the R0N1N." I calmly responded, but I couldn't deny the satisfaction that burrowed into me of burning away the rot with a single swipe. "And I… I'm more of a ranged specialist."

"Can relate to that, there's something disrespectful about punching someone to death. A shot's more honorable."

"That's a strange philosophy."

"Better than just having murder stay murder."

…

My breath felt false, like I was an imitation of who I was supposed to be. "Was it wrong? You tried to stop me before and even offered to let them go, why?"

Diamante seemed to think for a second. "Because they deserved worse. They deserved me. And also… it's just a thing I do. If I'm out on a personal vendetta, I give them a choice. Me, or those they work for. Steel Tygers were dead men walking, they'd either be assimilated into that cult or be stripped for steel. Metal Heavens has ways to torture the flesh and mind to it's molecular level."

"Were you a part of them?"

"Not by choice, that's all you're getting from me. Now hammer this skull." He grabbed one out from a bin, and I got to work.

Somewhere amidst the pounding noise, he began to speak again.

"You asked me if it was wrong, right? Truth is, I don't know. But it made me think about a story to tell."

"A story?"

"About an officer who went over to a bar, sat down and enjoyed a drink but the guy next to him was mumbling. On drugs, or so says the reports. Guy pulled out a gun and thought he was playing some old kid's game back from memories pulled by 'Embrance. Officer shot him down in cold blood, not a word exchanged between the two. I don't know the truth of that day, I doubt I ever will… but that day changed a little boy's life, the son of the guy. Sometimes, I just think, that maybe… maybe if that officer talked to the guy then that kid wouldn't have grown up to be so miserable. To be a killer."

"Ripley?"

"It's just a story." Diamante said simply, hiding his eyes behind the shade of his hat. "Not my story, but one that should be thought about. Even the smallest of actions have consequences, and one day… they appear. It might not even affect you, but it'll affect someone."

———

The boat had arrived, it was being piloted off-site by Missy. We'd hauled in the kids, their brains still connected to computers and looking like corpses, but this way we'd give them a chance. A real chance.

Sitting alone as the metal rocked beneath the river current, I opened up my chat log and messaged Katherine from the club.

[Thank you for being there for me that night.]

I waited, and no message came back.

In fact, that message would never be read. Ever.

And I would never know why. I didn't want to know why… of what the consequences had been for Katherine helping Lilian Rose that night.

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