Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“...and I’m going to fail my math test, no doubt about it! On the last one, I got a 57, and this is gonna be even worse. No matter how much I study, it doesn’t matter.”

Mirage and V1 sat on the ground, Mirage complaining loudly about her school life while V1 polished his Marksman revolver and every individual coin inside. He was scraping off flakes of metal from the outer shell, both for extra ammunition and to give it that well-used look.

“Is there anybody you can go to for help?” V1 suggested, looking over his firearm from every angle and clicking the coin cartridge open and shut. Once he was satisfied with it, he set it aside and moved on to clean up the Sharpshooter next. It had been jamming recently, and he was determined to fix it once and for all - electric weapons weren’t built to be unjammed properly, since jamming was very rare in the first place. He had just gotten unlucky.

Mirage shook her head. “Did you hear me say it? I don’t have any friends. And I’m not going to a teacher for help, that’s embarrassing. And I can’t just try running diagnostics on my processing unit, that’ll take a lot of time. And I don’t have any time! The test is tomorrow!”

As V1 shoved his fingers into the mouth of the Sharpshooter, trying to find the root of the jamming issue, he kept thinking. “I could help. Or do you also hate that idea?”

Crossing her arms, Mirage scoffed, looking away from him. “You’re a war robot. What makes you think you could handle math work?”

V1 looked up at Mirage, his optic unblinking and glowing brightly. “We are the same model. You just live somewhere different.”

Mirage looked around at the destruction surrounding them, the scorched remnants of Earth where they’d taken a pit stop. She could see the ruins of a building that reminded her of her school. “Yeah, way different… but just because we’re the same type of machine doesn’t mean you’ll understand fuckin’... algebra or whatever.”

“It doesn’t seem like you’re understanding it, either.” V1 retorted, returning his attention to the Sharpshooter. Once he was satisfied that it seemed unjammed, he moved onto his Core Eject shotgun as he spoke. “I learn fast. I could figure it out.”

“Yeah, but you’re not the one taking the test.” Mirage picked up the previously abandoned Marksman revolver, weighing it in her hands. Curiously, she opened the coin cartridge, taking one out and attempting to flip it into the air. Instead, it tumbled uselessly onto the ground. V1, who had been watching, picked up the coin instead. With practiced ease, he tossed the coin into the air, swiftly shooting it and watching as the bullet ricocheted into a nearby building while Mirage flinched away. She stared at the spot in the bricks where the electric shot had left a small darkened mark.

“You have to teach me how to do that.” She commented, picking up the Piercer revolver that had also been on the ground. V1 watched, wanting to make sure she didn’t try firing it without practice. 

“I could. It’s easy once you get the hang of it, really. And if you shoot the coin when you see the flash, it splits.” To demonstrate, V1 tossed another coin into the air, waiting until he saw it glint before shooting and causing the two halves to fly in different directions.
Mirage sighed, drawing her knees up close to her chest and hugging them. “Your life sounds so much easier than mine. I know you’re constantly in hell or whatever, but I’d rather mindlessly fight other people than have to worry about things like math or bullies.”

Mirroring her pose, V1 stared at her, considering her words. “I want to know what it’s like to have a life like yours sometimes. It sounds a lot like what the humans apparently had before all their wars. I’ve always been curious about that life.”

Mirage looked over the revolver in her hand, considering it more thoughtfully. “We’re practically identical, aren’t we? Would anybody even notice if we swapped places?”

As soon as the words were spoken, both machines stared at each other. They knew they had the exact same idea in their head. One of them just had to speak it - and, of course, they had to pull it off.

“We could try it out.” V1 finally said, setting aside the shotgun. “Just for a day. I can do your math test for you and you can take care of things in Heresy for a bit. I’ll show you how the weapons work and you can teach me the basics of what it is you’re doing.”

Mirage was quiet for a moment, trying to make it seem as though she was considering it even if she’d already made up her mind. She nodded, relaxing a little more and setting the revolver in her own hands onto the ground. “Considering you… I doubt it’ll take you too long to pick up the basics. But I have no idea how to work these things…”

Before Mirage could keep lamenting, V1 shook his head, his wings fluttering slightly. “It’s not difficult. The humans designed these things to be really easy to use, especially as the demand went up. Even the stupidest husk could figure out the basics… the only issue is recoil. That’s where our advancements come in.”

Handing Mirage the Piercer once again, V1 instructed her on how to lock her arm in place to minimize recoil. Pointing at the nearby ruins for a target, he made sure she was holding it correctly before standing up straight again.
“And… fire!”

Mirage’s finger found the trigger, her eye squeezing shut, and she felt her arm absorbing the jolt of the gun as it shot a burst of electricity into the nearby wall. She opened her eye again, looking at the targeted wall to the gun to the wall again. She had just shot a real firearm. She was amazed, and looked at V1 again.

“How do I reload this?” She asked, but V1 shook his head.
“You won’t need to worry about that. All you need to know is the piercing shot. That button right there on the side, it charges a more powerful shot…”

Slowly, V1 went through his entire arsenal, showing Mirage every single weapon and their special feature. He made sure to specifically show her how to flip coins with the Marksman, since that was what she had been interested in. He even showed off some more advanced techniques, such as shooting coins with the Electric Railcannon, just to show her what she could do with the weapons she’d have on hand. He especially showed her how he stored the weapons in his mechanical wings, and his technique on switching between them. Then, finally, he detached his two extra arms and laid them out on the ground.

“This one is the Knuckleblaster,” he began as he pointed to the red one. He then pointed to the green arm, “and this is the Whiplash”. 

Mirage picked up the Knuckleblaster, tracing her fingers over the sharp claws and holding it in her lap. “This is huge. You’re compatible with it?”

V1 shrugged, tugging at the hook of the Whiplash. “It comes from a similar model.”

Mirage nodded, before watching as V1 showed her how to attach and detach the arms, speaking about them as he did.

“The Knuckleblaster has a stronger punch, but it’s heavier, so it takes longer to wind up. And if you have the arm extended for long enough, it shoots two shotgun shells. But it can’t parry projectiles like our arms can, so watch out.” He explained, holding the Knuckleblaster in his own hands before passing it back to Mirage, picking up the Whiplash instead. “And the Whiplash has a hook that can extend and retract. You can pull yourself to heavier enemies or pull lighter ones to you, and also use it to traverse.”

Mirage nodded again, setting the Knuckleblaster down. Once she was sure she had the basics down, reciting all of them to V1, she reached over to grab her bag and dragged her binder out of it.

“Fancy battle talk over, we have to move on to different topics. How familiar are you really with math?”

V1 watched as she flipped the binder open, processing the different numbers and letters and symbols on the pages inside, along with the frustrated writing and doodles in the margins of the paper. “It was used to create us. I think I can figure it out.”

Mirage rolled her eye, unzipping her pencil case and pulling out a red pen. She slowly explained the basics of her math work to V1, using the pen as a pointer as she went along. V1 didn’t say a thing as he processed the information, before he was handed a sheet of paper with the problems on it. 

The next ten minutes were spent without talking as V1 figured out the various questions on the paper that had been handed to him. The atmosphere was silent apart from the occasional sound of Mirage practicing her shooting, feeling a sense of accomplishment the better her aim got. When V1 was finally done, he tapped her on the shoulder, before handing the paper to her. Mirage sighed, before picking up the answer sheet, looking over V1’s work like she was a teacher and humming as she went along.

“Okay, so…” Mirage began, pointing at question number 8. “The answer here is wrong. It says on the sheet that the correct answer is 427, but you answered 432… And honestly, I have no fucking clue what you did wrong! The paper doesn’t show what the process is! It just shows you that you got the question wrong and leaves it at that!”

V1 was caught off guard by the outburst, and waited for her to stop talking so he could say something. “No, it’s fine. I got most of the questions correct, didn’t I? I can pass the test for you with 85% at least.”

Mirage tucked her knees up to her chest again and shoved her binder aside, sighing. “In all honesty, the math isn’t even the most difficult part. V1, you aren’t ready for my life. …Sorry.”

V1 tilted his head. “Oh. How?”

Mirage grumbled, turning her head to look him in the eye. “Do you want the full rundown? Just to prepare you.”

V1 nodded, his wings perking up curiously. Mirage sighed again. “If you’re sure.” She began counting on her fingers as she listed off all the important information.

“The dress code is easy. Wear your uniform, no makeup, no headphones in class, no rolling up your sleeves unless you absolutely have to, no drawing on yourself or other people. We have English first period, Drama second, lunch, study period third, and Math fourth. We go to the library for our study period. Stuff as much information as you can into you before the Math test. We sit by the tree in the courtyard for lunch and that’s the only time we’re allowed to listen to music.”

Mirage paused for breath, ensuring V1 was still listening. When she started speaking again, her voice became more serious, leaning in slightly closer.

“But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The social stuff is even worse. We do not have friends. Do not talk to anyone. Our worst enemy is Miracle - she looks like a red version of us, and she thinks she’s so much better. She has the same study period as us, make sure you sit on the opposite side of the library to her. She will try bothering you. Just don’t respond. We’re too cool for her, alright?” 

Mirage waited for V1 to nod before continuing.

“Then there’s Gabrielle. She’s even worse, if you could believe it. She thinks she’s so perfect, and she’s just mean to everyone. She ruined Minerva’s life. Minerva was at the top of the social hierarchy before Gabrielle came along. And when Sienna tried to stand up to Gabrielle, she was stopped very quickly. You’ll know exactly who Gabrielle is when you see her. Her uniform is impeccable, and she has a golden cross necklace. She’s always flanked by her four friends. They call themselves the ‘Virtues’, but everyone thinks it’s stupid. Their names are Violet, Victoria, Valerie, and Vanessa, but nobody ever cares so don’t refer to them individually. Gabrielle is only kind of nice to Freya, who has a huge crush on her, but everyone knows Gabrielle is way out of her league. We share Drama class with Gabrielle. Just don’t look in her direction and you should be fine. And Minerva and Sienna, don’t talk to either of them. They’re both losers now. If you talk to them, you’ll also be seen as a loser. They’ve been saying something about having a comeback, but right now they’re just outcasts. Got it?”

V1 could feel his processor overheating from all the information, and he took a moment to let it cool down, hearing the fans whirring in his head. He then nodded, relaying everything he’d heard to her. “Don’t talk to anyone, ignore Miracle, avoid Gabrielle. That’s it?”

Mirage thought hard, before nodding. “Yeah. Now we just need to pull off switching places.”

The two looked at each other. V1 reached over his back. “My wings can be detached. I brought my toolbox.”

For the next 20 minutes, V1 and Mirage tried figuring out how to detach V1’s wings. There had never been a need to do so, and as such V1 didn’t truly know how to get them off. But after some fumbling with the tools, all eight wings were off, and now they just had to attach them to Mirage.

“You’re gonna have to get used to having your clothing off if you want to disguise as me.” V1 commented as he looked away while Mirage removed her tie, shirt, and blazer.

“I know! It’s just… weird. It’s gonna take me a bit to get used to it.” Mirage bunched her clothing up in front of her chest, tapping V1 on the shoulder to signal that he could start attaching the wings. As the mechanical components clicked into place, they kept talking.

“It’s just for a day. I’m not used to wearing clothing, so I have to get used to that.” V1 said as he fumbled with the tools.

“At least you get to keep your modesty.” Mirage grumbled. Once the wings were in place, she practiced moving them up and down, flexing them out then folding them up. She then noticed V1 reaching out, requesting the clothing she’d removed, and she reluctantly handed them over.

“At least we’re not humans.” V1 commented as Mirage shuddered slightly. They compared themselves for just a second, then realized something very important; where V1 had the designation mark with his name, Mirage had nothing. They stared at each other for a moment.

“I have a marker in my bag.”

Once V1 had lined up his mark with her and drawn it on, Mirage handed over the rest of her clothing and V1 put it on. It felt restrictive, but he reminded himself that he wouldn’t need to fight anything in her world, and felt a little better about it. Once they were fully swapped, they compared themselves. They were pretty much identical, apart from Mirage being an inch or two shorter. V1 stared at her.

“Open your eye all the way. It’ll look more convincing.” He advised, and Mirage did so, adjusting her posture as well. 

“Should we swap voice boxes? You don’t exactly… sound like me.” Mirage suggested, and V1 considered it. After a moment, he nodded.

“It’ll take a bit longer, but we’ve got time.” He agreed, picking up his toolbox once again as they knelt on the floor to solidify the swap. They were each able to remove their own voice box with ease, setting them down on the floor and considering them. V1 pointed at the voice box with a blue sticker on it then pointed at himself, before pointing at the voice box with no sticker and pointing at Mirage. Mirage nodded. Then they each put in the opposite box, attaching them easily due to their identical models. Both of them spent about a minute humming and making small sounds, trying to get used to the new voices.

“You don’t use yours very often.” Mirage commented in V1’s voice, having noticed how much less worn-out his voice box had looked compared to hers. V1 nodded in agreement.

“That’s another thing.” He said in Mirage’s voice. “I don’t speak often. Try not to talk too much or it’ll be suspicious.”

Mirage nodded, before looking at the discarded arsenal on the floor, tucking it all into her wings. V1 packed up the binder into the bag on the floor, slinging it over his shoulder. They looked at each other, and it felt strange, like looking at themselves; and that was pretty much exactly what was happening.

“The elevator over there leads to my world.” Mirage said, pointing at the lit-up elevator next to a nearby collapsed building. V1 gave her a thumbs-up, before pointing to a small doorway in a mess of jumbled construction equipment.
“That passageway leads to the mouth of Hell, and once you get into the elevator, it should lead straight to Heresy.”

They stared at each other for another moment, before wordlessly walking towards their respective destinations, prepared to spend a single day as each other.

Chapter Text

As soon as V1 dropped in through the elevator, he found himself in Mirage’s room. It was rather small and cozy, cluttered with various trinkets scattered across her desk and bookshelf. Posters were covering the dark gray walls, and an unfamiliar orange and pink flag hung proudly above her bed. V1 had never truly seen this room before, but he had the decency to not snoop - it wasn’t necessary, his mission was to go to school anyways. When he checked the digital clock on her desk, it said 4 AM. He was used to not sleeping. He could just hang out here for a while and prepare himself for the upcoming day. 

He gently and carefully cleared out space on her desk so he could properly study, pulling the binder out of her bag along with her phone. He’d never held one of these before, but he knew that the humans of the past liked them. Curiously, he tapped the screen, and it showed an image of Mirage at a concert below a display of the current time. When he tapped it again, it asked him for a password. He considered it for a moment, before putting in the first string of numbers that felt pleasing to him. It immediately unlocked, which wasn’t particularly surprising to him. They were practically the same person, after all.

V1 swiped curiously through the home interface. It wasn’t too much different from the terminals, just smaller and with square icons. He swiped cluelessly until he found a square with the word “Maps” below it, and tapped it to open it up.

The interface showed a small selection of locations at the bottom, with one of the pins being called School. That was the one he wanted. When he tapped it again, the image at the top shifted, moving fast to show a red pin on a little dark square on the blue background. Below, there was a button that said Directions , which he selected. A bright blue line appeared, connecting the School pin and the Home pin. V1 took a moment to properly memorize the directions, before shutting off the phone and setting it aside. 

Next, he pulled out her binder once again, flipping to the math section. He could at least study some more in preparation. Simply holding a pencil was fascinating to him. He was so used to wielding powerful guns, so having something this flimsy in his hand felt strange. Looking down at the paper, he hunched over it and began to work, taking his sweet time and making sure he was truly prepared. From what Mirage had told him while they were swapping wings, school began at 8:35 and ended at 2:45, and he’d have a 10 minute walk there. That was easy. 

V1 found himself feeling strangely nervous for the upcoming day. He was a war machine, he wasn’t meant to interact with other people in a casual environment. Even with the distraction of all the studying he had to do, he found himself obsessively polishing his metal body and adjusting the clothing that was slowly starting to feel less heavy on him.

Minutes and hours passed. Just before 6 AM, he found himself feeling incredibly hungry. Since Mirage didn’t exactly have a family, V1 ended up wandering through an empty apartment until he found the kitchen, and as such, the fridge. When he opened it, it was stocked full of bottles full of blood - and strangely enough, blood based foods. Chocolates and congealed slices and whatnot. None of these were fresh blood. These were just meant to be eaten for enjoyment, not nourishment. V1 stared at the items, before selecting one of the bottles. He didn’t exactly have a mouth, and he was used to just having blood be sprayed on him in battle.

V1 stared at the bottle for a minute after he closed the fridge door. Then he went over to the nearby sink, leaning over top of it and dousing the bottle onto his head, watching the excess flow down the drain. He felt a sense of relief as the blood flowed through his metal plating and into his body, fuelling him. He’d have to prepare quite a few of these in advance for the day, though he was slightly annoyed that he had to clean himself off all over again.

Grabbing a handful of bottles and wandering his way back to Mirage’s room, V1 shoved the stash into her bag before selecting a few tissues to wipe himself off. It took several wipes before he felt satisfied, dumping everything into the nearby trash can that was already overflowing with wrappers from those little blood chocolates. He shoved his arm into the mess to crush it down, making room for all the blood-soaked tissues. He had about two hours now, enough time to get more information into him before he started heading on his way to school.

It took V1 ten minutes to figure out how to set an alarm on Mirage’s phone. But eventually he did, and set it to go off at 8:10. He opened up her binder again, taking the pencil in hand so he could continue what he’d started.

The time flew by surprisingly fast, and the alarm startled V1 badly, instinctively making him prepare for battle. He stopped himself just before he punched the phone, then calmly picked it up and put it into the pocket of the bag, followed by the binder and pencil case. He stood up a bit straighter, hesitating for a moment, before letting out a mechanical sigh and picking up the bag to head out of the front door. He’d already fully processed the directions, and he just had to be on his way.

The last time V1 had truly felt fresh air was in Limbo, so it was nice to experience that again. It was a sunny day, a real sunny day, a beautiful one. V1 began walking on his way, reminding himself that people usually didn’t run, even if it was faster. He paced himself, looking at the scenery around him. The sky was half obscured by clouds, darker towards the horizon, promising rain later. There weren’t many people around, and the few people he did see were gone fast, so he couldn’t properly process them. That was fine. He’d meet more later.

Ten minutes doing nothing but walking to a destination, no searching or anything, was a new experience for V1. His trigger finger twitched, a small instinct he knew could pass off as fidgeting. He memorized every turn and corner, even if he knew he’d never return here ever again. Every small rustle of the leaves-

A flicker of movement out of the corner of his eye caught his attention. V1 glanced as discreetly as he could, slightly turning his head so he could see across the street.

Minos. Minos Prime. He was right there , right across the street, casually walking in the same direction. Except, V1 had to remind himself, this wasn’t Minos. She was wearing a similar outfit, but with a gray tie and skirt, carrying a book bag. She didn’t even look in V1’s direction. Was she going the same way? Was her name also “Minos” here? V1’s trigger finger tapped faster. He hadn’t even interacted with anyone here, and already he was a nervous mess.

There was another movement, and... was that Sisyphus? Or whatever her name was here, with her orange skirt and tie and a head that looked like the sun... he hoped that wasn't spoiling anything. She ran right up to Minos, and V1 barely caught them addressing each other; Minerva and Sienna, apparently. The ones Mirage had told him not to talk to, because they were ‘losers’. Well, they seemed to be doing pretty well to him, chatting and laughing with each other. He forced himself to look straight ahead. He had to seem normal, just for the day, just to complete Mirage’s test for her. Already this decision felt like a mistake, but it was too late to turn back now.

A few more blocks, and V1 found what he assumed was the school. A large building, more intimidating than anything he’d seen in Hell. Lots of girls sat around on benches and under trees outside, and he remembered what Mirage had said, that this was an all-girls’ school. There was apparently an all-boys’ school nearby, and indeed, V1 had spotted a few on their way there instead. He recognized almost all of them. The Malicious Face. Cerberus. The Earthmover. All of them with those strange humanoid bodies.

Instead of just standing around staring, V1 approached the shade of a tree that didn’t have anybody sitting underneath. He sat down, crossing his arms and opening up the bag to pull out the binder once again. He would work as much as possible. He needed to ace this, for Mirage’s sake, and so this all wasn’t just a waste of time.

V1 pretended to work, but really he was just waiting until the bell rang. When it finally did, he practically fled inside, remembering what Mirage had told him about where the classes were. English class. Second floor. Seven minutes between the bell warning them to get to class and the bell for when class started. He had time.

Traversing the sea of people, V1 tried not to make eye contact. When he reached the English classroom, he realized something important; he had absolutely no idea where Mirage sat in this class. Embarrassed, he just stood around near the doorway, trying to look casual while he waited for everyone else to file in.

“Everything alright, Mirage?” Asked the machine he presumed to be the teacher, who thankfully wasn’t anyone he recognized. V1 shrugged in response, glancing at her briefly before looking away again.
“Bit restless, but fine. Don’t mind me.” He responded, before the teacher nodded and returned to her desk, waiting for all the students to file in. There were a few faces V1 recognized in the crowd. His finger was tapping again. Even just a minute before the second bell rang, there were still a few empty seats, and V1 knew he’d just have to guess so that he didn’t just stand around and embarrass himself.

Eye briefly scanning the room, he spotted a desk with doodles on it; doodles that reminded him of Mirage’s art. He went for it, shoving his bag under the desk and taking a seat. 

Next to him, one of the Virtues sat. There were apparently four, but he didn’t know the difference between them, and it was easier to ignore her regardless. He stared straight ahead, waiting for the teacher to address them, just wanting to get this over with.

The time that passed was surprisingly relaxing. Apparently, it was a ‘free period’, something that meant they could just relax and work on their own time. That was good with him. Leaning back, he pulled the binder out of his bag, opening it up on his lap so he could work discreetly.

“Finally doing work, M?” Said a voice beside him. V1 looked over, seeing the Virtue staring directly at him. If she had a proper face, no doubt she’d be smirking, but instead the wings on either side of her head subtly twitched.

“Something wrong with that?” He retorted, twirling the pencil absentmindedly and trying to focus on what he was meant to do.

“It’s just so out of character! You’re usually slacking off all the time. And, actually, is that math work? Did nobody tell you what class it was?” Oh, no. V1 could feel his inner components heating up from anger, but he forced himself to calm down, looking her directly in the eye.
“Maybe you should be more worried about your own work? If I want to pass a test, is that a problem?” V1 grumbled, rolling his eye exactly like Mirage did. The Virtue scoffed, but opened up her computer anyways, finally shutting up.

That class flew by quickly, and the bell startled V1 badly, though he calmed down fast and packed up his things. Drama was next, apparently. He’d supposedly share this class with Gabrielle. He could infer who that was.

The drama room was in the basement. It was a large carpeted room with no chairs, and people simply lingered around talking to each other. The Virtue who shared the same class with V1 immediately shoved past him in the doorway to run up to three identical girls… and one other.

Good lord, they looked so similar. Same white and gold helmet with the cross on the front, except this one also had a golden cross necklace over the yellow tie that matched with her skirt. She seemed to be gossiping and laughing with the Virtues that surrounded her, and V1 averted his gaze to the chalkboard instead so he didn’t stare so rudely. 

It wasn’t long before the second bell rang, and about thirty seconds later, another frazzled-looking teacher rushed into the room and closed the door behind itself. Thankfully, it was another machine that V1 didn’t recognize, though the flowers on its green shirt reminded V1 of the Limbo layer that he had destroyed a while ago. It greeted and addressed the classroom in front of it, getting everyone to go quiet.

“Good morning, class,” Its voice was calm yet cheerful, with a hidden energy to it. “I’ve been busy grading your individual projects, and results should be back tomorrow. From what I can tell so far, you all did very well, alright? Nobody’s failing here. In the meantime, it’ll be a calm day, alright? When I say ‘go’, you get into groups of two, then wait for further instructions. Alright?” The teacher waited to see nodding from the students in front of it, then nodded back. “Okay. Go!”

Immediately people started pairing off, finding their friends and sticking by their sides. There were an even number of people. V1 couldn’t do anything but watch, knowing that he wasn’t friends with anyone in the slightest and didn’t know who to go to first.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw something else; the Virtues splitting off into two groups of two, leaving their leader all alone. He glanced around the room, and everybody else was in a pairing, leaving him and Gabrielle staring at each other from across the room. Hesitantly, V1 approached, standing close enough by her side so that it was obvious they were partnered up but just far away enough to make it clear that he wasn’t interested in talking to her. He crossed his arms, waiting for the teacher to say something else.

“Alright, alright, everybody’s paired up? Great!” The teacher clasped its hands together, before picking up a piece of chalk and writing on the board. “Now, we’ll be practicing our improv, and the prompt is that you two knew each other a long time ago but have nearly forgotten one another…” 

V1 heard Gabrielle groan, and turned to face her. “Something wrong?” He asked hesitantly, quietly, and Gabrielle turned her head just slightly towards him; an eyeless version of a side-eye. She was surprised to even be spoken to by who she thought was Mirage.

“You wouldn’t get it.” Gabrielle sighed, one hand fidgeting with her cross necklace. Immediately V1 forgot all nervousness and every instruction from Mirage, replaced by the need to pry deeper.

“Oh, trust me, I don’t want to be here either. I think this is a boring as hell thing to do for, what, an hour?” V1 had processed Mirage’s speech patterns a long time ago, and thought he was doing a pretty good job replicating it. At least, it was fooling Gabrielle.

“I know! You’re just here for the extra credit.” Gabrielle scoffed, crossing her arms irritably and looking away again. “I actually want to be here, unlike some people. But I want to know what my grade is for the project today ! I don’t need to be doing all this improv stuff. I’m already fantastic at drama, and I especially don’t need to be talking to you.”

V1 was slightly taken aback, but he kept prying, never giving up. “We can at least make it enjoyable?” He offered, his finger tapping against his arm.

Gabrielle immediately turned to look at him, looking him up and down, before laughing quietly. “I don’t need to be talking to a freak like you. You’re lucky to even be paired up with me. On a normal day, we would be paired up with other people. But, no, I’m stuck with you.”

“Come on.” V1 continued. He had fought countless creatures before, he could get this girl to enjoy herself. “It’s not like your social status is going to be ruined by being in a group with me one time. Look at those Virtue girls, they’d follow you to the ends of the Earth.”

Shaking her head, Gabrielle kept fidgeting with her necklace, her gaze drifting away from V1 again. “Them? They’re more like fancy little parasites than anything. Considering how often they gossip about other people, I doubt any of them even have personalities of their own.” Realizing that she was talking to someone she believed was lesser than her, Gabrielle shook her head, fully facing away from V1. “But it’s whatever. I’m going to get a perfect score anyways, and I don’t even need to talk to you to get it.”

V1 glanced over at the mentioned Virtues, watching them whispering and giggling amongst themselves. Even if they’d split into two groups, all four had merged into one large group once again. They were exactly the same, apart from slightly different heights and accessories. How the hell did those four even end up meeting each other? V1 glanced at Gabrielle, who still wasn’t looking at him. She was just as pretentious as Gabriel from his universe. V1 looked away from her again, silently accepting that they just wouldn’t talk to each other.

Suddenly, another wave of hunger came over V1 - he needed blood, now. He looked over at Gabrielle, tapping her awkwardly on the shoulder. Before she could snap at him, he weakly reached a hand out, rasping out a request. 

“Can you pass me my bag? The black one.” He asked, making Gabrielle look between him and the bag in surprise before reluctantly handing it over.

“Your eye is dimming a lot.” She commented, slightly bewildered. 

“I know. Just- just give me a moment.” V1 insisted, tugging at the zipper and pulling out one of the bottles of blood. He didn’t want to seem too desperate, but he never realized that he needed fuel until he was physically being affected by it. He poured a splash of blood onto the area where he assumed his mouth would be had he been human, and felt relieved, though a few drops spilled free onto the shirt and tie he was wearing. Gabrielle, who had been watching, let out a small snicker.

“Oh dear… you’re lucky that tie is red, hm?” She snorted arrogantly, crossing her arms. V1 closed the bottle awkwardly, trying to wipe it gently away with his fingers. Gabrielle stared, before sighing, pulling a handkerchief from one of her pockets and wiping at his clothing with it before tucking it away. It cleaned up some of the mess, though there were still red stains. V1 stared down at himself, before shrugging.
“Oh, well. It’ll come off in the wash.” V1 concluded, making Gabrielle cock her head curiously.

“We have, what, four or five hours left of school? People are gonna notice. That sort of thing takes a toll on your social standing, even if it’s small.” Her voice was still arrogant, pointing at the red stains visible on the collar of V1’s shirt. V1 considered it again, before glancing out the window.

“It’s raining out.” He commented, and Gabrielle gasped, shoving him firmly but strangely gently at the same time. 

“Just clean it off in the washroom, idiot!” She hissed, staring at the stain for a second longer before looking away again, staring at the clock on the wall. “The bell’s about to ring for lunch anyways. Just clean yourself off and forget I ever spoke to you.”

As if on cue, the bell rang loudly, signalling that the students could go leave and eat lunch. V1 hadn’t even noticed he was still holding the bottle of blood, and he put it back into the bag as Gabrielle shoved past him without another word. He gave her as much of a glare as he could, before following along with the crowd, planning to find a rest stop to eat then clean himself off fully.

Chapter Text

Holy shit. Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit.

Mirage didn’t know what she had to expect. She knew she needed practice, and fumbling with that yellow machine in the elevator, she was able to read up on something called the Cyber Grind. If she hooked herself up, she could go into battle without the risk of dying. It had taken her forever to figure out how to get connected to the terminal, and after messing with its wires for a little while, she was finally dropped into the simulation. Initially, she had expected it not to be too difficult, but wave after wave proved her wrong. Seeing the enemies coming at her, she knew that it was sink or swim now, and if she wanted to do this she had to be a swimmer.

On the flipside she was, thankfully, getting the hang of it. She hadn’t even realized her true battle potential until she was in the middle of it. It felt so good to finally be able to stretch her legs, and she’d never experienced this much activity at once.

Then again… a lot of these faces were very similar to ones she knew. She had to block that knowledge from her mind, to remind herself that these versions were aggressive, they wanted nothing but to stop her and end her streak. And, surprisingly, she was rather successful with ignoring all of that. The euphoria of getting to fight, to douse herself entirely in blood rather than taking small splashes from bottles, overrode any inner guilt from slaughtering the equivalents of these people she knew. She wasn’t friends with any of them anyways. Some of them were downright mean to her… that reminder made her feel slightly less bad about it.

Her wings spread out wide as she launched herself into the air, taking aim at one of the little red husks and taking it down with a headshot before it could fire an orb at her. She loved this arsenal a lot. She couldn’t believe V1 talked about these weapons so casually all the time. She found it cool as fuck that she could launch a chainsaw and punch it back at the enemies over and over again. 

And she kept dying. A lot. But it was worth it, for the practice. And the yellow terminal that was placed at the entrance helped, telling her about every enemy she had fought and would fight. She found it interesting to just sit and read about all these things, the equivalents of the people she knew and exactly what was known about them.

Every face on the roster was one she recognized. Even Miracle’s equivalent was there, and…

Gabrielle.

Mirage didn’t know why the reminder of Gabrielle made her stop in her tracks, but it did. She stared at the small icon for a moment, knowing that this was Gabrielle but also not. It was making her processor whir faster, thinking about these small parallels between her world and V1’s. She hesitated, her finger hovering over the screen, before tapping the icon.

His name was Gabriel. How unique. According to the data provided, he was the judge of Hell here, a beloved and feared archangel… huh. Cool. She wondered if he was as prideful as Gabrielle… most likely.

After a moment, Mirage closed the little information tab, drawing the Marksman from her wing. She weighed it in her hand, wondering if she was ready to finally descend into Hell. She looked at the Terminal, then at the weapon in her hand, and decided to enter the Cyber Grind one last time.

Now a lot of it was starting to come easier to her. With a few ground slams and coins, the first few waves were taken out easily. She was even getting better at parrying, starting to understand the timing needed to deflect the projectiles. The further along she got, the more satisfied she felt. She didn’t know how she could remember all this battle stuff while she couldn’t understand math, but that wasn’t what was important to her. She was winning, and she was having a hell of a time doing it.

She was even losing track of time. She estimated that it had been, what, two hours? Maybe three? She didn’t bother to stop so she could check. She would find out afterwards, once she was finished with this run.

Parry. Chainsaw. Switch weapons. Ricoshot. Parry. It came to her like clockwork, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t still having fun. It was difficult for sure, but that was all part of it. Every new thing she encountered, she was enamored by. That was a distraction, though. She couldn’t afford distractions.

And yet, even if it came to her like clockwork, a clock is still able to break. A single misplaced explosion sent her flying off of the map, and try as she might to dash, she fell into the void and her run was over.

When she returned to the terminal once again, she viewed her report. Ten minutes, thirty waves. Not bad. Lots of style, which was a category that made her feel strangely proud of herself. She checked the clock and-

Good lord, it had been seven hours already. She had to get moving.

And Mirage had to admit to herself - she was scared. The Cyber Grind was fun, but she knew it was a simulation, so she felt safe. There, in Hell, she could actually die if she slipped up like she had before. A missed parry, or a poorly timed jump, and she would be done for. It was a thought that made her feel… a bit small. She had been a nihilist before, not caring about life since death was inevitable, but the prospect of dying truly staring her in the face made it feel all the more real. She had been slowly recovering from her depressive thoughts, and now this…

But she couldn’t let herself regret it. She was having a lot of conflicting thoughts, but that wouldn’t stop her from doing what she came here to do. Descend into Hell on V1’s behalf, and kill those bastards.

Turning back to the terminal, Mirage pressed the button to return to her mission.

When it asked her if she was sure, she hesitated a moment before clicking “Yes”.

Chapter Text

“And Gabby T is dating Benji! The height difference is insane! ”

“Benji? Didn’t Gabby M have a crush on him for, like, ever? She’s gonna be pissed about that.”

“My bet is that they break up within the week.”

“And then Minerva goes for him next. I wouldn’t expect anything else from that slut.”

Gabrielle sighed as she listened to the Virtues gossip. It wasn’t anything she particularly cared about, but it was the only entertainment around. Lunchtime was always boring, since she didn’t need to eat to survive, and she had a limited list of foods she enjoyed eating anyways so she usually didn’t bother. On top of that, the Virtues only ever shared whatever rumours were going around, which could be interesting but usually just got repetitive. Who cared about which people were dating at any given day? Good for them. But Gabrielle never expressed how bored she felt. That would be dishonourable of her, to abandon the Virtues out of nowhere. And it would be dishonourable to be friends with anyone other than the Virtues, and dishonourable to be a loner. So she just sat there and listened.

“And I heard that Stella is a smoker.” One of them whispered. The four Virtues had only slight differences between them, ones that most people didn’t notice but that Gabrielle did. The one speaking was Valerie, who was rather soft-spoken compared to the others.

“Cigs?” Violet guessed, leaning back with her head resting in Vanessa’s lap. Valerie nodded.

“Yeah. She’s been skipping class to smoke behind the school, and yesterday Miracle caught her. Didn’t snitch to the teachers, though she did tell Mia-Faye.”

“Is Mia-Faye gonna dump Stella for that?” Victoria asked, preening the wings on the side of her head as she spoke.

“I thought she already dumped her?”

“Why would Miracle tell her if she already dumped her?”

Gabrielle stared out the window as she idly listened to the Virtues arguing about whatever was happening between Mia-Faye and Stella. She had her arms crossed, a deliberate choice on her end. If her arms weren’t crossed, it showed that she was staring out the window because she was meek or shy. If her arms were crossed, it showed that she was always ready to defend herself, that she was confident and independent.

It was raining outside. Mirage had commented on that when Gabrielle was talking with her earlier, hadn’t she? That hadn’t been more than half an hour ago. Already it was pouring, and Gabrielle could see a few flashes of lightning. It was the worst storm she had seen recently. And it had been so sunny that morning… she wondered if there was a possibility of a power outage. At least that would make things interesting.

Looking away from the window, Gabrielle was rudely reminded how little anybody else wanted to talk to her and the Virtues. Where they sat in the cafeteria, there was always at the very least a 15 foot radius of empty space around them. Only Freya dared to get any closer, and she always sat alone exactly three tables away from them. She seemed to want to join their little group, and though Gabrielle knew she couldn’t realistically be friends with anyone other than the Virtues, she tried to be decently nice to Freya when they had passing conversations. And Freya seemed to be trying to meet their standards, even if Gabrielle knew the poor girl would never be allowed into the group. Whenever she felt eyes on the back of her head, it was usually Freya. Indeed, right now she felt someone staring, and as soon as she glanced over to Freya she spotted her looking away. Gabrielle sighed, continuing to look around the cafeteria. Tundra sat pretty close to Freya, though never spoke to her. She almost never spoke to anyone except Agony from the boys’ school. They were close, though Gabrielle couldn’t tell exactly what kind of relationship they had. It didn’t matter anyways, they were both just scrapheads trying to copy Samantha. Samantha was never in the cafeteria, she usually wandered around the hallways and occasionally stopped to eat something. She was very high up on the social hierarchy, just below Gabrielle, though people felt less afraid to copy Samantha and her style, especially after Minerva was knocked down several pegs and it wasn’t cool to copy her any more.

As soon as Gabrielle thought about Minerva, she immediately sought her out where she usually sat. Her and Sienna always sat in the corner of the cafeteria, never at any tables, though they never seemed bothered about it. They cared about each other more than anything else, since they were both essentially in the same situation. Gabrielle had put them in their place, and even if they were determined to bide their time and make a comeback, the Virtues just told her to ignore them. Gabrielle pretended to be staring at the mural behind them, though she could see them talking. They were both pretty smart, but they didn’t really have anyone but each other after losing all their influence. 

And there was one more thing out of place. Mirage was also sitting against the wall like Minerva and Sienna, though she wasn’t really near them. She usually sat outside, but obviously the thunderstorm had forced her in. She seemed a bit more jittery than usual, from what Gabrielle could tell… she didn’t really know much about her, and she’d spoken more to Mirage in Drama class earlier than the entire time she had known her. But usually Mirage sat at the tree right outside the window Gabrielle liked looking out of, and she was almost always the most interesting thing out there, so Gabrielle found herself staring at her a lot. Usually Mirage was more calm and just kept to herself, but today she was somewhat restless. Maybe she had a test coming up?

Gabrielle hadn’t even realized she was staring until Mirage glanced up and made direct eye contact with her. Gabrielle could feel her face getting bright red under her helmet and looked away, staring out of the window again. Even if Mirage forgot about it, which she presumably would, Gabrielle wouldn’t. She needed to be more careful, she couldn’t get caught staring at anyone, especially not an outcast like Mirage. Gabrielle forced herself to sit up straighter, refusing to look anywhere else just yet. 

A few minutes passed. Mirage didn’t approach them. Gabrielle allowed herself to relax slightly, though she couldn’t be completely off her guard yet. She just needed to pretend that she wasn’t even thinking about Mirage for a little while longer. She kept her arms crossed defensively, and she kept staring out of the window. 

Out in the courtyard, she could see puddles in the ground, and two of the boys from the other school were running past the tree and laughing. She rolled her eyes. Did neither of them care about getting rained on? Probably not. They didn’t have a reputation to uphold like she did. Several minutes passed, and she was able to isolate herself from the rest of the world, every background noise fading away as she watched the rain falling.

There was a movement out of the corner of her eye. Gabrielle glanced towards the doors leading from the school to the courtyard, just barely in view of the window. Who was going out into the rain?

Oh. It was Mirage. She was standing in the doorway, staring out into the rain as though mesmerized. Was she taller than usual, or just standing up straighter…? As Gabrielle looked closer, she could see that Mirage was covered in blood, all over her chassis and blazer. Gabrielle was aware that most machines in the school fed off of blood, but… usually Mirage just took sips from a bottle. Did she spill it onto herself like she did earlier? How did she get it all over her head? And was she seriously going out into the rain to wash it off? That wouldn’t end well. Her already bad social reputation would be ruined. Gabrielle had to intervene before Mirage did something stupid.

Standing up, Gabrielle cleared her throat before addressing the Virtues. “I’ll be just a moment, there’s a matter I need to attend to.” She told the Virtues, watching as they all glanced up at her before nodding, acknowledging her words with a symphony of ‘Alright’ and ‘Sounds good’.

Moving as quickly as possible through the crowd, Gabrielle could feel people glancing at her and hear the whispers that always followed in her wake. She allowed herself to feel proud about it, that she had such a reputation that nobody dared to look at her for longer than a second. She stood up a bit straighter, walking more confidently. Some people thought she was arrogant, or too prideful. She just ignored them, she didn’t need anyone but herself and the Virtues.

Making her way through the mostly-empty halls, Gabrielle followed the trail of blood droplets to the courtyard. She opened the door, squinting out into the rain, and sure enough Mirage was there. She was just standing in the rain, idly wiping the blood off of her hands. She didn’t even seem to be making any effort. Gabrielle sighed quietly, glancing around to make sure nobody could see her before calling out to Mirage.
“ What are you doing?!” She yelled, her voice accusatory, trying to seem more upset about this than she truly was. She could see that she’d startled Mirage, noticing her flinch and glance up in surprise. It took Mirage a moment of staring at her to respond.
“Cleaning myself off.” She responded, just barely loud enough to be heard over the smattering of rain. “It’s working, don’t worry about me!” She clarified, wiping at her chassis with her sleeve, which was also still covered in blood. All it seemed to be doing was smudging it further. Gabrielle was almost in disbelief. What the hell was going on? Was Mirage acting weirder than usual, or did she just not know her that well? She couldn’t tell.

“You-!” She started, before realizing that simple words wouldn’t get Mirage back inside, and she had to act before someone noticed them. She hesitated, focusing on the pouring rain for a moment before glancing back at the rather oblivious machine. Making a split-second decision, she ran out into the courtyard, hearing a loud thunderclap as she approached Mirage quickly. Gabrielle grabbed her by the arm, tugging her back towards the door.
“You’re gonna get struck by lightning if you stay out here! And then what?” She scolded as she dragged Mirage back inside. “You just want to let yourself break? You want to die on school property?” She slammed the door shut as she hauled Mirage into the empty hallway. The machine almost seemed confused, staring down at her body and clothing covered in blood rather than making eye contact.

“I thought it was the best way to clean all of this off.” She explained, trying to wipe at her chassis again, smearing it even further. She was a mess of rainwater and blood, her clothing almost completely soaked through. Gabrielle was thankfully less wet from the rain, but still enough to be upset about it.

“How does that even happen?!” She gestured towards Mirage, in all her crimson-stained glory. Mirage blinked in confusion, as though trying to remember.

“I thought I could go without blood for longer than I actually could… I started feeling thirsty again and it hurt more than I thought it would, so I panicked and spilled it a little.” Mirage explained, seeming a bit more sheepish than before. She still wasn’t looking directly at Gabrielle, instead anxiously fidgeting with her blood-soaked tie. “Then I knew I needed to clean it off before anyone noticed, so… I thought the rain would be the best way to do that.”

Gabrielle groaned, almost dumbfounded by Mirage’s audacity. “Did you forget about the washrooms? In my knowledge, it would be easier to wash yourself off with soap than rainwater.” 

Mirage’s embarrassment was visibly growing, and her voice became a mumble. “I was worried about anyone seeing me in there… and the rain looked really nice. I did it without thinking.”

Staring at Mirage for another moment, Gabrielle grabbed her arm, ignoring how the sleeve was still covered in blood. She started dragging her through the hallway, towards the nearest washroom. “We are cleaning you off, and then we are never talking about this ever again. Understood?” She glared at Mirage, waiting for her response. After a moment, Mirage nodded.

“Alright. Lead the way.”

It didn’t take Gabrielle long to find the washroom. Glancing inside, she couldn’t see anyone, so she led Mirage to the nearest sink. Mirage loosened her tie first, while Gabrielle turned the tap so the water would be warm. 

“Too bad we can’t plug the drain in any way.” Mirage commented as she ran her tie under the water, watching it turn red as it drained away. “That would make things easier.”

Gabrielle frowned, feeling a bit awkward as she stood around idly. “Wouldn’t there be too much blood in the water after some time?” She fidgeted with her necklace as she watched Mirage get a handful of soap, working at the fabric.

Mirage considered the question for a second, then shrugged. “True. Are there towels in here?”

Glancing around, Gabrielle couldn’t see anything. “I don’t think so. I might have one in my locker. I’ll be right back.”

She got out of the washroom as quickly as she could. She was feeling weird , being near Mirage. In Drama it had felt fine, since they were paired up for class and there were so many other people around. But like this, helping her, just the two of them? It made her face feel hot. She was meant to be back in the cafeteria with the Virtues by now. But she couldn’t just abandon Mirage, not when she was still covered in blood. Gabrielle’s walking sped up. At least her locker was nearby.

Quickly, she entered her code, then opened the door so fast it almost slammed against the locker beside hers. She rummaged around, finding what she was looking for. It was more like a handkerchief than a towel, but it would have to do. She tucked it into her front pocket, moving as quickly as she could back to where Mirage was waiting. 

Mirage was exactly as she’d left her, except now she was wringing out the tie into the sink. The water seemed to be clear by now, most of the blood gone. Mirage heard Gabrielle enter and looked up at her, holding the tie in her hands and turning off the tap quickly. 

“Hey. You got something?” She asked as she awkwardly slung her tie over her shoulder. Gabrielle nodded, fishing the ‘towel’ out of her front pocket and handing it out.

“Here. Just- take it.”

It was back to waiting awkwardly as Gabrielle watched Mirage clean the blood off of her chassis and hands. She busied herself with removing her blazer to wring out the small amount of rainwater that had soaked into it. She used one of the other sinks, leaving Mirage to continue cleaning herself off. 

It was rather quiet, and Gabrielle didn’t know if she liked it more or less than when they were talking. Once she heard someone pass by in the hallways, and had to hold her breath, hoping they didn’t enter. Luckily, they never did, and she allowed herself to let out a relieved sigh. 

Eventually Mirage had both her tie and blazer clean, and was about to move on to her collared shirt, when she froze and looked over at Gabrielle. “Uh… do you mind stepping out for a second?” She asked, seeming a bit awkward about it. Gabrielle stood up straighter, clearing her throat.

“No… I don’t mind. I’ll leave.”

She stepped out of the washroom, kicking away the wooden door stopper so the door could close and give Mirage some privacy. She crossed her arms, leaning against the wall just beside the door, hoping nobody would walk by and ask what she was up to. Time seemed to go on forever, and she had to stop her foot from tapping anxiously. Even if nobody was around, she had to seem perfect to appease herself. How much time was left in their break, even? Five minutes by now? It made her even more nervous, thinking about it. If the bell went off, would she just abandon Mirage to be on time?

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the washroom door opening, startling her badly. She immediately turned, making eye contact with Mirage, who seemed just as surprised to see her.

“Oh, you’re still here.” Mirage said, her voice somewhat monotone. She was holding the handkerchief with both hands, her finger tapping against it repeatedly. She seemed to have tried to wash the blood off of it, but there were still some faint pink stains. Gabrielle glared at her.

“Did you expect me not to be?” She snapped, snatching the handkerchief out of Mirage’s hands and putting it back in her pocket. Mirage glanced away from her, her gaze angled slightly down towards the floor.

“Well… my shirt was the last thing I needed to clean. I thought you would’ve just left, since I didn’t need you around.” Mirage explained, crossing her own arms, her finger tapping once again but against her arm this time.

“I would’ve wanted this back. Was your plan to not give it to me?” Gabrielle said almost accusatorially, gesturing towards the handkerchief in her pocket. Mirage looked back up at her, her finger ceasing its tapping.

“I have a study period next. I was planning to catch up with you after the bell and give it to you.” She explained, noticing the stray door stopper and kicking it back into place after speaking. Gabrielle was silent for another moment, before deciding to just drop the topic.

“Don’t bring this up again anyways. Helping you was a moment of weakness on my end.” She grumbled, turning away from Mirage. Mirage just blinked in response.

“Okay.” She said simply as she also turned away, not seeming to care too much. And yet somehow, the simplicity of her response made something inside Gabrielle snap. She wasn’t used to people reacting so nonchalantly to her. A response from anyone else in this school would’ve been a nervous stammer or absolutely nothing at all. Gabrielle turned to face Mirage, her shock turning into anger fast, fighting the urge to grab Mirage by the shoulders and shake her aggressively. Her arms were no longer crossed, her hands balled into fists by her sides.

“Ugh! Why are you so… so frustrating?!” Gabrielle shouted, making Mirage face her again. She could see the confusion on Mirage’s face in response to her anger.

“Um. I’m not trying to be.” Mirage muttered, glancing around awkwardly, not sure what to say. Her responses were just getting Gabrielle more riled up, and she began pacing in circles, unsure how else to express her anger. She didn’t know how to say what she was feeling at all, especially not how to explain the ways in which Mirage was frustrating her.

“You- you just- why are you so relaxed around me? Nobody else is, why are you?!” Gabrielle lowered her voice slightly, though still just loudly enough to make herself heard. She could practically hear Mirage’s processor whirring, struggling to respond.

“I don’t see a reason to get worked up around you?” Mirage said, shrugging. “You’ve got a reputation or whatever, but you don’t make me feel afraid or anything. Hell, you helped me clean myself off after that fiasco. I’d say there’s some nice parts to you.”

“I only did it out of pity, okay?! You can’t just walk around school covered in blood! That would ruin your reputation!” Gabrielle explained, though she didn’t think she needed to. What other reason would there be? Mirage was smart, she didn’t need an explanation.
“Would you do it for anyone else?” Mirage asked, and that question made Gabrielle stop in her tracks, the surprise making all of her anger dissipate. Considering it… no. If anyone else had been out in the rain… she wouldn’t have dragged them back inside. She was quiet for a moment, thankful that Mirage couldn’t see the dumbfounded expression on her face.

“I… well, does that matter?” She scoffed, crossing her arms again.

“It kind of does.” Mirage responded, making Gabrielle go red in the face again. She felt so flustered now, more than anyone else had ever made her feel. All these new revelations were making her feel frustrated all over again.

“This is what I’m saying! You’re so frustrating!” She snapped again, though Mirage held up a hand.

“Before you start yelling, I need to ask you something. You said yourself that you’re not used to people being so relaxed around you… so are you really mad , or just feeling unfamiliar things?” Mirage asked, considering her own statement for a moment before she continued. “I mean, it’s okay if you respond to unfamiliar things with anger, but are you really mad at me or just-”

Gabrielle cut Mirage off before she could continue. “Mirage, I hear what you’re saying. It’s just- ugh. I don’t like sharing all of that. I’d rather just seem angry.”

Mirage nodded, sighing quietly. “I wish things were as simple as that sometimes. But… I’m not judging you for any of it. Sure, things are complex for you, whatever. They are for all of us.”

“It’s different! I have a reputation to uphold.” Gabrielle insisted, making Mirage give her a funny look.

“I literally just told you that I don’t give a flying fuck about your reputation. Why do you think you have to uphold it around me?”

Gabrielle went quiet again. Mirage… was right. She was silently considering it, wondering if she was seeing things wrong. She glanced down the hall. Nobody was nearby. She sighed and leaned against the wall. “I assume it’s some weird instinct. You’re the first person I’ve met who doesn’t care about any of that. It’s strange to confront that.”

Mirage leaned against the wall as well, mirroring Gabrielle’s pose. Gabrielle could feel Mirage looking at her, though she wasn’t looking at Mirage, she could only hear her speaking. “Look, I only care if people are assholes to me or not, I don’t give a damn about how important they are. And you’ve been pretty nice to me. And I heard about how you did all that stuff to Minerva and Sienna, but… was that just to uphold your reputation?”

Gabrielle froze. Mirage was getting very close to uncovering the things she didn’t want uncovered. She couldn’t lie about the truth, but she had to be as vague as possible.

“Oh, it’s… more complicated than that. I don’t want to talk about it right now.”

Mirage shrugged, deciding not to pry any further. “Fair enough. Hey, it’s weird, but you’re kinda cool to me. Do you mind talking again later?” She asked. Mirage was coming on a bit strong, but Gabrielle didn’t care… She liked that offer. She didn’t want to reject it, and if Mirage truly didn’t care about her reputation…

“Sure. Somewhere else, not at school. I’m not skipping class for you.” She responded, turning to face Mirage again, hearing her laugh.

“Fair enough. There’s a cafe near my house, maybe we could go there?” Mirage offered. 

Gabrielle considered it, though the offer was a bit shocking. Was that a date? Was Mirage inviting her on a date ? Or was it just friendly? She tried not to think too hard about it. 

“Of course. Tomorrow is Friday, I can go then. After school.” She insisted, wanting the details first before they did anything. She only had to hope that Mirage would agree, and to her relief, she saw her nod.

“Sounds good.” Mirage was quiet for a moment, pulling out her phone to check the time, then let out a surprised beep once she did. “We’ve got a minute until the bell. I’ll see you later?” She said, and Gabrielle nodded.

“Sure thing. See you around, Mirage.” She offered her a smile, then realizing she couldn’t see it, cleared her throat and walked briskly down the hall towards her next class.

As the bell went off, V1 was left dumbfounded, standing in the middle of the hallway. He’d spoken to Gabrielle without even thinking, and he had just been trying to be friendly, but he wouldn’t be there tomorrow. He had set something up for Mirage without realizing it…

This was going to be very, very interesting.

Chapter Text

When Mirage entered the elevator, she had been presented with a list of options - the different layers of Hell. Everything past the first segment of Heresy was blocked off, and the first three layers had warning signs next to them that said “NO BLOOD SUPPLIES LEFT”. That left Greed, Wrath, and Heresy. She knew she was meant to be in Heresy, but considering it, she didn’t want to fuck this up for V1 in any way. He’d already seen everything there was to see in Greed and Wrath, she could just go to one of those layers, right? Nobody would care if she did. She could just kill things in there for a few hours then go home and nobody would give a damn.

As soon as she selected Greed, Mirage heard the humming of the machinery around her, and in an instant she was falling down the elevator shaft into the layer. It wasn’t a long fall, and her legs absorbed the worst of the impact anyways, so it thankfully didn’t hurt her. But now, she was properly in Hell. And she had to be ready for anything.

Walking past the terminal placed at the entrance, Mirage went down the hallway leading into the layer until she was greeted with a crumbling green and yellow bridge over a vast sandy desert. The bridge turned just ahead, leading into a building with similar golden bricks, partially destroyed and drenched in blood and corpses. She wondered if she’d destroy the rest of the blood supplies in Greed by hunting through it. The entire layer already seemed half-dead.

A massive pyramid was visible not too far away, the silhouette dark in front of the sun, which was warm on her metal frame - almost unpleasantly so. The pyramid seemed to be crumbling, the left side slightly more slanted and jagged than the right. She could see a singular humanoid figure climbing the right side of the pyramid, though it was so far away she couldn’t tell who or what it was, and it didn’t seem to be making much progress. It didn’t matter anyways, there would be things to fight that were much closer to her.

A few steps forward and a hop over a gap in the bridge, and she was finally facing the first batch of true enemies she’d met down here. A few husks, but mainly machines there to feed off of blood just like she needed to for survival… She blocked that knowledge from her mind, similarly to how she’d trained herself over the past few hours to ignore the fact that she recognized every conscious thing here, mentally telling herself to switch into her “Battle Mode”. She knew that switching ‘modes’ wasn’t a real thing for her, but pretending it was made her feel better about it.

Drawing her shotgun, she turned off every other thought instead of don’t die. It worked surprisingly well. Despite the threat of teeth gnashing at her and flames just barely missing her metal plating, the fight was not a difficult one, and she emerged drenched in blood with a massive dopamine rush flowing through her circuitry. It was a much different experience compared to the Cyber Grind. Out here, things were dangerous, but once she won she felt amazing about it. It was… different. It was new, even compared to the virtual simulation. She wasn’t sure that she ever wanted to leave now that she was here, and she’d barely fought anything yet.

Continuing forward, another troop of enemies appeared before her and she took them down within seconds, continuing as quickly as she could through the crumbling building. She didn’t recognize faces any more, she just recognized enemies that she needed to take down ASAP. The more things crawled out of the rubble, the more bloodshed she added to the stains already on the walls and floor. Bullet after bullet, fighting came easily to her, much easier than Math or English ever did. She’d already noticed that truth in the Cyber Grind, but it was even more apparent to her now. And as she fought, a new thought crept into her mind alongside don’t die ;

I wonder if V1 would be okay with me joining him down here.

What was taking that infernal machine so long?

From Gabriel’s estimation, the machine should’ve been in Heresy by now, if not to the room where Gabriel wished to fight him. He had tracked V1’s progress, bothered the terminals until they relented and gave him the details of where V1 was in hell and where he would go next. Then all of a sudden early that morning, just before the machine was due to enter Heresy, he disappeared off of the terminal’s radar. He’d been gone for seven hours now. It was infuriating. Where was he getting all his blood? Had he somehow died before entering Heresy? That was impossible, the terminal would have recorded a death, but the machine had simply… vanished. Nowhere on Hell’s map. 

Gabriel had a lot of waiting to do.

He at least spent his time getting prepared. Working hard to perfect his playing of the organ, rehearsing everything he wanted to say V1, every last word to detail how much he hated him. He needed to express it now, right now, but no. V1 was just gone. Gabriel refused to go look for him, he wanted the machine to come to him first. Maybe if he started running out of time, he’d start going to look, but he had at least 16 hours left, which was plenty for him. Surely V1 would appear soon. Surely he didn’t just drop dead. Maybe if the machine was dead, the council would forgive Gabriel, but Gabriel wanted to do it himself. The idea of the machine dying at a hand that was not his own infuriated him even further.

Gabriel arranged the candles by the organ for perfect lighting. Preened his wings so every last feather was perfectly in place. Polished his armour to the best of his ability, bothered the terminal over and over, everything he could do to pass the time and set up a perfect welcome for when the machine finally came to Heresy. 

The most annoying part was waiting.

Everything was in place. No matter what Gabriel tried to fix up, it was already impeccable, and he wanted to show all of it off now. He had his planned monologue memorized word for word, and the song he wished to play on the organ was like muscle memory now. During his next practice, in his fury, he slammed his fists down on the keys.

“What is taking that machine so long?!” He yelled to himself, the edges of his wings being tinged a bright yellow as they flared out. He took a deep breath, trying to compose himself. He couldn’t spend all his frustration now. He had to save it for when he fought V1, but until then, he had to rein it all in and calm himself down.

“The machine will be here soon.” He told himself, looking down at his hands as they relaxed against the keys once more. “Stay calm. You can unleash all of this later.”

His wings folded against his back, returning fully to a calm blue as he bottled up his fury. A few of the candles had gone out due to him extending his wings so quickly, and with a begrudging sigh, he used the lit candles to return the flames to the unlit ones once more. He checked once, twice, three times to make sure every candle was lit and burning. These were the types used by Heaven that never fully melted, that provided a nice dim light without the possibility of getting too short and extinguishing themselves. The perfect kind to illuminate their battle, make the room a dark red like the blood they’d shed from each other. He was itching to fight right now, to express his rage in the most natural way possible. He could go check on the terminal, one more time before he went back to his organ.

The terminal had been flashing with a yellow light to grab his attention while he’d had his back turned - he hadn’t even noticed. Was it what he’d hoped for? Was the machine finally back in Hell like he needed him to be? Would he finally get to fight V1?

He practically ran over to the terminal to check its screen. Yes, yes, there was V1’s little icon, right there in-

Greed?

Gabriel froze. That wasn’t right. What was the machine doing in Greed? The blood resources there were almost completely exhausted, what was the point of returning? He was meant to be in Heresy! They were meant to be fighting soon! This… this was unacceptable.

Unable to stop it, Gabriel’s rage began to boil over. He couldn’t prevent his wings from becoming a full brilliant gold, his hands gripping the sides of the terminal as though that would change the reading and show V1 approaching Heresy. But no. It was there, descending through Greed, just about to cross the sandy dunes leading to the half-destroyed pyramid.

Standing up straight once again, Gabriel let his wings flare out, visualizing in his mind the dunes of Greed where he needed to go to confront the machine. Taking a deep breath, he disappeared in a beam of light, feeling the strange feeling of being nowhere for a split second before he manifested in Greed, just barely seeing V1’s silhouette as he appeared.

“Machine!” He yelled, seeing V1 flinch and stare up at him, absentmindedly punching one of the filth that had been running at him. Immediately that look that V1 gave him made Gabriel even more upset. Why did he not look like he was ready to fight? Why did he look so confused at Gabriel’s presence? Gabriel could feel his hatred for the machine multiplying. Oh, he couldn’t wait to tear that thing apart once he led it to Heresy. 

“What do you think you’re doing in Greed?!” Gabriel dove closer to V1 so he could make the interaction just a bit more personal. Now that he was closer… did V1 look weird? Was the machine a brighter blue, or was it just the sun overhead playing tricks on his eyes? Had he always had those notches on his upper arms? But those details weren’t important now. Gabriel had an interrogation to continue. “Have you not seen everything you need to see here? Why are you not in Heresy?!”

“Why are you getting on my ass about it? Do you really care that much?” V1 immediately snapped back, startling Gabriel badly. He realized he had never heard V1… actually speak. He’d heard his small vocalizations and beeps during battle, but usually the machine didn’t respond to him verbally, he just fought. It was a small thing that entirely threw him off, and made him start getting… suspicious. But he couldn’t back down to point that out. His priorities were set straight.

“Why do I care?! We are supposed to be fighting in Heresy! There’s no need to come back here, there’s no blood here for you, machine!” He could feel his wings twitching, the usual white plates of his armour switching into a vibrant, angry red.

“Then explain this!” V1 held up the body of the Filth he had just killed, before tossing it aside and letting it burn on the bright dunes. “That’s blood, isn’t it? Maybe I want to come back here just because I can!”

“That is not a valid excuse! ”

“Who says it’s not?!”

“Machine, I am giving you three hours!” Gabriel threatened, drawing one of his swords - Justice, to be specific - and pointing it directly at V1. “Three hours before you come down to Heresy, or I’m dragging you down there personally!”

“Quit being a bitch about it! Is our fight really that important to you?” V1 retorted, his own wings flaring out defensively. Immediately Gabriel took offense. Did V1 not see their fight as important? Did V1 not see him as important? He moved forward with a quick dash until the tip of Justice’s blade was mere inches away from V1’s chassis.

“I would expect you to prioritize it! This is not a request, machine. You will fight me in Heresy. I will be waiting for you, and you will be there, or face the consequences.”

Before V1 could respond, Gabriel disappeared in another bright beam of light, returning to where he’d been earlier in front of the terminal. 

Forcing himself to rein his anger in, his armour went back to its normal colour and his wings went blue again.

He returned to his organ, determined to practice the song one last time.

Mirage shook her head and continued through Greed, hopping from platform to platform over the burning hot dunes, shooting anything that happened to pass by. The interaction with Gabriel had left her bewildered. It confirmed that he was as much of a bitch as Gabrielle was, but why did he care so much about fighting V1?

Really, what was his problem?

Chapter Text

Minerva and Sienna were ready. After the humiliation of having their reputations destroyed by Gabrielle, they had bided their time and prepared to make their dual comeback, to truly get their vengeance. Gabrielle wouldn’t know what hit her. They both knew that they were stronger than her, no matter what she tried to dig up about them or what rumours she tried to spread. 

Minerva was the one who shared History class with Gabrielle.

So where the hell was she?

They sat on opposite sides of the classroom. But Minerva could tell that Gabrielle wasn’t there yet, when she was always on her way to the class as soon as the first bell rang. If not, then she was there by the second bell. It was one and a half minutes before the second bell, and Gabrielle was nowhere to be seen. Minerva had seen her earlier, practically running out of the cafeteria, in more of a rush than Minerva had ever seen her in. Something was getting into her, and Minerva was getting suspicious. It wasn’t like Gabrielle to leave school early, and definitely wasn’t like her to skip class. She wanted to get to the bottom of this.

The second bell rang. The last few stragglers filed in. Minerva shared this class with one of Gabrielle’s little lackeys as well, she sat just in front of her with her wings that always blocked Minerva’s view, even when they were folded. It didn’t matter too much, Minerva could just tap her on the shoulder when she needed to see the board and it worked fine. It happened often enough that they didn’t even need to communicate any more, Minerva could just tap her on the shoulder and she’d understand and move out of the way. Why their seating plan hadn’t changed yet was beyond either of them. The teacher had never said it was permanent. At least they had their little system.

Regardless, Minerva kept watching the door, her suspicion growing. If Gabrielle didn’t show up soon, she’d probably just go look for her. Another person skipping class, great. At least the teacher wouldn’t notice she was gone, that Virtue girl blocked the view of her anyways. 

No, too impulsive, she told herself. Ask the Virtue first. She might know. If she doesn’t… well, I’ll just hope that she does.

The bell rang. No Gabrielle. Another minute. No sign of her. The teacher wasn’t there yet, so Faith and Stacy were sitting on top of their desks, on their phones and chatting and taking dumb pictures of each other. Everyone was talking to someone, except for the Virtue - what was her name, even? - and Minerva. They were both quietly keeping to themselves, the Virtue picking at her nails and Minerva watching the door.

A minute later, the teacher entered, and class began properly.

When attendance was called, Gabrielle was marked as absent. She hadn’t shown up at all. Minerva would have to wait for the right moment.

At least she’d gotten something out of attendance by paying attention, though. The Virtue’s name was Violet. Minerva would rather know that than not.

Since they’d just started a new unit two days ago, today was a work period, and Minerva was quiet as the little packages were handed out. She sighed and pulled her laptop out of her bag, though the thought of actually doing research for any of the questions wasn’t on her mind. Once things really got started and the class was full of chatter, Minerva reached forward and tapped Violet on the shoulder. Violet instinctively leaned to the side at first, then realizing that Minerva actually needed something, turned around to face her.

“Is something wrong?” Violet asked in a quiet murmur, her wings visibly twitching nervously.

“Where’s Gabrielle?” Minerva asked as quietly as she could, wanting to get straight to the point. The question left Violet silent, and she glanced across the room to where Gabrielle usually sat before facing Minerva again.

“I don’t know. She ran out of the cafeteria during lunch and I haven’t seen her since.”

It was stuff that Minerva already knew. She sighed heavily, before quietly nodding. “Thank you anyways.” She muttered, before turning to face the door again. She raised her hand to call the teacher over.

“May I go out to get a drink?”

As soon as Minerva was dismissed, she left the class quietly before beginning to rush down the hall. From what she remembered, Sienna had a study period right now, and she liked sitting near the music room. Minerva didn’t understand it, she heard the screeches of instruments being tuned more than she heard actual music from that room. But that didn’t matter right now. She needed to find Sienna and tell her about this.

The music hall was mostly empty, apart from lockers lining the walls and Sienna sitting on one of the benches with her computer in her lap and headphones on. Minerva ran towards her, ignoring the obnoxious sound of the clarinets squeaking from the music room. It was way too loud even with the door closed.

“Sienna!” She shouted, almost running straight past her, startling her badly. Sienna grabbed her laptop quickly before it fell onto the floor, taking her headphones off and letting them rest on her shoulders.

“You scared the shit out of me,” she muttered, before clearing her throat and addressing Minerva properly as she set her laptop aside. “What’s the emergency?”

“Gabrielle’s completely missing. Do you think somebody told her about our plan?” Minerva asked, sitting down beside Sienna on the bench. Sienna turned to face her.

“No. Nobody else knew about when we were going to pull this off, yeah?” Sienna said, though she didn’t sound convinced. Minerva’s hands clenched the fabric of her skirt, but she didn’t let her irritation explode, staying calm and collected as she contemplated what could have happened.

“Did one of those Virtue girls eavesdrop? They love gossipping. No doubt they could’ve told Gabrielle.” Minerva guessed, and Sienna thought about it for a moment.

“No… I think there was something I overheard from Miracle talking about Gabrielle.” Sienna was trying to recall what exactly she’d heard, because she was just now learning that it was important. Minerva stared up at her, waiting for her to remember. Sienna was glancing around, trying to see if there was anything nearby that would jog her memory.

Both girls were quiet for a few moments, Minerva not wanting to interrupt Sienna’s quiet concentration, Sienna searching through her memories from earlier in the day. Suddenly, she sat up a bit straighter, prompting Minerva to do the same.

“I remember. I overheard Miracle saying that she saw Gabrielle with Mirage in the halls.” Sienna said. “I didn’t think too much of it at the time, but now that I’m thinking about it, maybe Mirage has something to do with this.”

Minerva tilted her head curiously, still showing confusion even on an expressionless face. “So you’re suggesting that Gabrielle may be somewhere with Mirage? And that’s why she’s skipping class?”

Sienna nodded, closing up her laptop and putting it in her bag, any work forgotten for the time being. “Perhaps she’s using Mirage as a shield. Trying to get someone to save her from us. I always thought she saw herself as confident, I have no idea what’s going on there.”

Minerva straightened her tie just a bit, wanting to look perfect. “Well then, let’s not waste time. We need to find out where those two are.”

After Sienna packed up her things, the two girls stood hand in hand, ready to find Gabrielle and really show her what she was in for.

V1 sat in the library, his finger tapping on the desk nervously as he stared at pages upon pages of lined paper and equations. He knew the answers and he knew how to get there, but he simply couldn’t bring himself to write anything down. His pencil was within reach, yet nervousness was setting in, knowing that the test was next period and if he messed anything up then the consequences could be disastrous. He had to do the equations to pass. But the mere idea of messing any of them up made him unable to even pick up the pencil.

He eventually pulled out Mirage’s headphones, trying to listen to some music to calm himself down. He hadn’t heard her music taste before, but it was surprisingly similar to a few of the songs he heard in the Cyber Grind, and he liked it. While the music did calm him down, it didn’t help him to solve any of the questions, and he found himself simply tapping his foot along to the rhythm instead of writing anything down. Eventually, he put the headphones away, trying to regain his focus.

The first ten minutes of his study period were spent like this. Staring at the papers anxiously, trying to do something to calm himself down, then just getting distracted instead. If it was this bad the period before the test, how bad would it be during the actual test? Would he be able to handle it, or would he completely break down? The mere thought made him anxious, and his internal systems were beginning to overheat.

The feeling of someone staring at him was what brought him back to reality. He looked up, glancing around the library, trying to figure out who was looking at him. Finding nothing, he returned to his work, hands gripping the sides of his head as he looked over it.

Mere moments later, the feeling returned. This time, when V1 looked up, he spotted someone glaring at him from across the library. Mechanical like he was, bright red, a searing rage in her eyes. As soon as they made eye contact, she stood up, striding across the library towards V1 and standing in front of his table with her arms crossed.

“So now you notice me.” She hissed. This must have been Miracle. Seeing that familiar red metal, V1’s trigger finger began tapping faster. He reminded himself of what Mirage told him. Ignore her. He didn’t know how to ignore her when she was standing right there. Hating the direct eye contact, he looked back down at the math work, before a hand slammed down onto the pages and startled him.

“Don’t just ignore me, you bitch!” Miracle hissed, forcing V1 to make eye contact with her once more. She was very distinctly wearing blue eyeshadow, reminding V1 of one other thing Mirage had told him.

“Makeup is against the dress code, you know.” He pointed out, making Miracle seethe and her shoulders tense.

“Don’t pretend like you don’t ignore that rule all the time. I’m surprised you don’t even have eyeliner or anything else today.” Miracle snapped back, still keeping her voice low in an attempt not to capture too much attention. Yet already other students at the library were looking their way, knowing something would happen, something that wouldn’t be pretty.

V1 felt like a deer in headlights. He didn’t know all these things. But he didn’t back down, slamming his binder shut and forcing Miracle to withdraw her hand. “Maybe you could do with some pointers, then. The only reason none of the teachers notice mine is because it actually looks good on me.”

Miracle glanced around for a brief moment. The librarian had left to get itself a coffee. As soon as she realized that, she turned back to V1 and pointed directly at him.

“I’ll just cut to the chase. What’s got you all buddy-buddy with Gabrielle? I saw you two in the hall. Your collar’s still got some blood in it, don’t pretend like nothing happened.”

V1 glanced down at her finger pointing at his chest before looking up again and glaring into her eye. “Why’s it any of your business? Has anyone ever told you it’s not nice to snoop around all the time?”

“I think any sane person would be suspicious about this.” Miracle retorted, feeling a bit embarrassed about the accusation of snooping but not letting it show. “You’re a loner and she only ever talks to the Virtues. You two getting along is unheard of, and you’re lucky only I saw it. Now tell me what’s going on before I tell everyone else.”

“I don’t think a single other person would give a fuck, actually.” V1 said, standing up so they could be at eye level. “If you think this is groundbreaking, maybe you need better material.”

Miracle was getting riled up now. She didn’t care about keeping her voice low any more. “You’re a bitch, you know! I think people care about that.”

V1 looked around at the students in the library who were now all staring at them, a few murmuring amongst themselves. “I think the only thing any of them care about is having a normal study period. And you’re just interrupting tha-”

Before V1 could finish his sentence, Miracle grabbed him by the collar and hauled him over the table, knocking them both to the ground. All V1 could see was bright red metal and blue plaid fabric as he was forced to block her attempts at hitting him, and all he could hear were the excited exclamations rippling through the crowd as they each tried to get a better view. Behind him, there was the dull thump of Mirage’s binder hitting the carpeted floor, and he could feel papers brushing against him as they scattered across the floor.

Before he knew it, he found himself pinned under Miracle, as she tried to hit him and tug at his tie to deliberately choke him. He could tell she was a war machine just as much as he was, as Mirage was, as V2 used to be. But she had no practice, she was fuelled by pure instinct, which he knew wouldn’t get her very far. He was the one who knew what he was doing, and he was confident that he’d win because of that.

Unfortunately, without any firearms, their fight quickly just became a pathetic struggle of hands and fists as they tumbled along the carpet. V1 found himself kicking and scratching in close range instead of the deliberate long-range maneuvering he was used to, and he was unused to his hits being blocked, so her defensiveness was catching him off guard. Instead of having the upper hand like he’d expected, the brawl was turning out to be surprisingly equal. He could hear people in the crowd whooping and cheering them on, though that wasn’t what kept him going. He just needed to win.

V1 managed to get a tight grip on what felt like fabric, and Miracle tried to tug herself away from him. At the same time, he pulled, trying not to let her get away.

You’re not getting away.

V1’s senses became a blur, zeroing in on the feeling of tugging at something that was resisting. His grip refused to relent. Something had to break soon.

There was the loud sound of fabric ripping, and V1 found himself tumbling backwards, a long scrap of fabric still clutched tightly in his hands. When he got his bearings, he was sitting on the floor, Miracle sitting a few feet away and rubbing her head. The left sleeve of her blazer was missing. V1 looked down at his hand. He was holding it.

There was still a crowd around them, someone holding their phone, though they put it away within a few moments. Once Miracle came to her own senses, she noticed something was off. She looked down at her arm, the sleeve ripped away to reveal the white sleeve of her button-up shirt underneath. She looked up at V1, realizing what had happened, and immediately lunging towards him. 

“What the fuck is wrong with you?!” She snarled, though this time someone finally intervened to drag her away. It was the girl that looked like a Mindflayer, though right now that didn’t matter. Miracle was still shouting, cursing V1 out as she was dragged away from him. “These things cost a lot of money, you know! And now I’m gonna have to buy a new one! And I’ll have to walk around for the rest of the fucking day with a sleeve missing! Thanks a lot, asshole!”

Not sure what else to do, V1 tossed the sleeve towards her, and the Mindflayer-like student caught it - her name was Mia-Faye, from what he’d heard? That wasn’t important. The crowd was dissipating. V1 sighed and turned to pick up the now scattered papers left by the knocked-over binder.

As he knelt on the floor to gather the papers he’d dropped, V1 noticed a second set of hands helping him and he looked up, finding himself staring directly at Gabrielle. He stared for a second. He stared for another second. She was still there. He wasn’t just hallucinating.

“What are you doing here?” He asked as he started picking up papers again. As he did, he considered something else. “Don’t you have class right now?”

Gabrielle avoided eye contact, not responding as she shoved the papers into his arms. V1 let out a surprised beep. “Oh, you’re skipping! Didn’t expect that from someone like you. I thought you said earlier that you wouldn't skip class for me.”

“Look- can you not bother me about it?” Gabrielle snapped under her breath, before sighing quietly, staring down at the papers under her hands. “Yes, I’m skipping class. But I just wanted to check in on you… to see how you’re doing after everything that happened at lunch. That's my priority, I'm allowed to change my mind.”
V1 stared at Gabrielle. She was willing to do that? She’d do that for… well, not for him, but for Mirage. She still thought he was Mirage. 

He looked up at the clock. It was 12:23.

“The period started fifteen minutes ago.” He pointed out. “You only just found me?”

“It’s not like I know exactly where you are in the building. I just stopped because of the commotion in the library and walked in to see the end of… all that.” Gabrielle explained, handing V1 the last of the stray papers. “You okay? Not hurt? Not, um, dented?”

As he tucked the papers into the binder, V1 looked down at himself. No visible scrapes or dents. “No, no, I’m fine. And I’m also fine after everything that happened earlier. You don’t need to worry about it… and you should probably go. If Miracle sees us like this, we’ll never hear the end of it.”

Hearing V1’s urgent tone, Gabrielle stared at him. She didn’t want to leave so soon. But eventually she nodded, standing up and brushing her skirt off.

“If you think it’s for the best.”

V1 watched as Gabrielle left. He sat down and opened up his binder again. Now he felt more confident doing these questions, and he actually managed to pick up his pencil, ready to begin writing down his answers.

Before the pencil could even make contact with the paper, footsteps approached him once more. Damn it, what the fuck does everyone want from me? V1 was tired of being bothered in the middle of his work. He sighed and looked up.

Minerva and Sienna were standing in front of him, staring him down. V1 felt a bit uncomfortable. He knew they weren’t there to hurt him, but it felt like they were. Still recovering from the fight, having them approach him felt almost like a threat. He took a sip from one of the small bottles of blood.

“Do you need something?” He asked, and Minerva nodded.

“Do you know where Gabrielle might be?”

Immediately alarm bells went off in V1’s head as Minerva asked that question. Two people whose lives Gabrielle had supposedly ruined, and they were looking for her. There was no way they had any form of good intentions. At least they hadn’t seen her walking away from the library… the timing couldn’t have been better. For Gabrielle, at least.

“No, haven’t seen her anywhere.” V1 lied. The two girls stared at him for a moment, before Minerva nodded, followed by Sienna.

“Alright. Sorry. Just looking for her.” Sienna said. As she spoke, V1 noticed their intertwined hands, a revelation that surprised him.

“So you two are a thing?” He asked without thinking, catching the two off guard. Minerva and Sienna looked at each other, before looking at V1.

“It seems like we are.” Minerva said, and Sienna nodded. “We just haven’t openly announced it. I don’t see a reason to.” 

V1 nodded. “So she’s your sunshine?” He said, pointing from Sienna to Minerva as he addressed them each. He laughed to himself, finding it funny, though realized that he had inadvertently made them both flustered. Now they were staring at each other instead of V1, Minerva sighing heavily.

“I cannot believe I didn’t think of that.” Minerva muttered, before giving V1 a small wave as they turned to leave. “We won’t bother you any longer. Good luck.”

V1 watched them leave, sighing in relief as he returned to his studying. Thankfully, it seemed like nobody else was lined up to bother him. His earlier nervousness seemed to dissipate because of that - after the fight and the back-to-back interactions with Gabrielle then Minerva and Sienna, he felt strangely thankful to get back to work in peace. 

Hopefully this sense of calm would persist into the actual test.

Chapter Text

By the time the first bell rang, V1 had everything ready. He headed towards the classroom he was meant to be in, starting to become jittery at the reminder of the test he had to take there. He’d been studying for several hours’ worth, but now he was heading towards what he’d been preparing for, and knowing that felt terrifying. His nerves were on end as he packed up his things and headed towards the Math hall, mentally preparing himself.

So this is how Mirage feels. V1 thought, glancing at the posters on the walls saying things like “BE KIND” and “BE YOURSELF”. All the time.

V1 knew how suspense felt, he’d been in hell long enough for that. But even when nervous, he knew he was capable down there. Here, he had no idea what was coming for him, if he’d even be smart enough for it. He had no idea if those long hours of studying would be worth it in the end.

Wow, it is so much harder being a student.

He found the Math classroom, hesitating just a moment before entering. There weren’t too many people already there, and the two girls that were in the classroom were talking about the test and laughing as they teased each other about the terrible grades they would supposedly get. It didn’t help V1’s nerves. The test wouldn’t affect him, but if he failed, it would be bad news for Mirage. He’d be dead within days. She had a whole life ahead of her.

Being reminded of that made his finger tap against the strap of the bag he held.

Finding a seat, he sat down and waited patiently. More students quietly filed in, finding their own seats, the chatter getting louder the more friends found each other and began talking. 

The second bell rang loudly, and the teacher entered shortly after, beginning to address the class and demanding silence. V1 wasn’t listening. He was just waiting until the test was handed out. He glanced at the clock, though his nerves made him unable to process it. His finger was still tapping, this time against the desk. He could feel glares on the back of his head after a few seconds of tapping, and forced himself to stop.

He watched as a couple of students left the room to take the test in a quieter place, then mere moments later, the test was placed on his desk.

He flipped through it. Despite his jitteriness, he felt relieved to recognize the structures that he’d spent the last several hours struggling to understand. Once he was done reading the questions, he rummaged around in the bag next to his desk for a pencil, and began.

Beginning his work, V1 shut out everything but the questions on the page, pencil jotting down his calculations in the margins, circling his answers for emphasis. 

Once he really got into the workflow, time seemed to lose meaning as he kept calculating and writing and doing everything he needed to do. He felt an immense satisfaction every time he checked his work and it was correct, and before he knew it, he was done. Flipping back to the first page, he wrote “MIRAGE” in large letters at the top.

And, barely visible below it, so messy and light it just looked like a chicken scratch left there by mistake, he wrote “V1”. 

Looking up, he checked the clock once again, this time really processing what time it was. It had been 50 minutes since class had started, with another 25 minutes to go. Glancing around, he saw a few other people finishing up or walking over to the teacher’s desk with their completed tests, and looked down at his own. He hoped, deep down in his heart, that he had gotten everything correct. For his own satisfaction, and for Mirage’s sake.

Quietly standing up, he walked over to the teacher’s desk with the papers in hand, quietly placing them on top of the pile already there and walking back to his desk. He looked at the whiteboard, which had words written on it.

WHEN YOU ARE DONE, YOU MAY:

• COMPLETE UNFINISHED WORK

• COMPLETE WORK FROM OTHER CLASSES

• DRAW

• LISTEN TO MUSIC

DO NOT GO ON YOUR PHONES FOR ANY REASON OTHER THAN MUSIC.

Well, that settled it. V1 pulled Mirage’s headphones and her phone out of the bag, putting on the headphones and starting up the music once more. He liked it. He could relax like this for a little while longer, then go back to Hell and keep fighting, and leave Mirage with the completed test… and the date with Gabrielle.

As soon as the thought of Gabrielle crossed his mind, the reminder of Gabriel followed.

Then he started to feel weird. A sort of nervousness settled deep into his circuits, the feeling that something was wrong that would have dire consequences if he didn’t fix it now. Had he missed a question? No, he’d double checked his test… was his music playing out loud? No, he shifted the headphones slightly and didn’t hear it playing from the phone…

His finger began to tap again, faster this time, against the skirt he was wearing so nobody else had to hear. Nothing in his immediate surroundings could be fixed to make that feeling go away.

He’d have to figure it out later, and suffer through it now.

Mirage lost track of time fast. 

In her wake, bloodshed and gore and falling structures were left, and in front of her bullets flew as she destroyed everything she came across. Fresh blood was on her, covering her so thoroughly she reminded herself of Miracle and had a good laugh about it. After that, the thought of her home world was pushed to the back of her mind once more.

This reality was not a place where she had to worry about math, or drama, or waking up on time for anything. Reality here was a place where she had to fight to survive and euphoria ran through her veins, Greed was a place where the sun shone brightly overhead and the sand could burn her if she wasn’t careful, and she knew the pyramid was where she wanted to be.

It was redundant to even think any more about how destructive she was being. She was an unstoppable force, adopting that role so thoroughly she felt almost like she was turning into V1. She felt truly alive, without the worry of death hanging overhead, the fear of whether she’d ever truly mean anything.

She was destroying everything. She was leaving an impact, and if she died, she’d go out with a bang and nobody in her old reality would miss her. Hell, people like Miracle would be glad, so why bother? When V1 came back, she would convince him to let her stay and he’d agree and everything would go perfectly as they fought side-by-side.

When Mirage reached the entrance to the pyramid, she looked behind herself. The rest of the layer was destroyed, blood and rubble and the bright bright sand. She smiled internally to herself, something she couldn’t truly do externally. She felt happier than she’d ever been. 

I don’t ever need to be Mirage any more.

She made her way into the pyramid. It was dark, dusty, with streaks of blood on the floor as usual. A fire pit full of ashes was on the other end of the room, and between her and the fire pit was a pedestal with a burning torch on it. The torch had a handle stained with blood, a sight she was used to seeing. She picked it up, walking towards the fire pit and lighting it up, watching as the smoke started to rise and the door in front of her opened. Immediately she understood what she was here to do, and entered the real challenge.

Beginning to wander and search for more fire pits, she noticed a few pillars that had been knocked over and husks struggling out from underneath and behind them as they sensed her and began to attack. It was easy. Take them out fast, and she could keep going.

With every fire pit illuminated, another door opened, taking her further into the dark labyrinth and into more battle. The only difficult part was trying to see, but having the torch helped, and she could hear and sense when enemies loomed out of the darkness behind her. She had never really been afraid of the dark, and in here, it could be fun, even. Not knowing what might approach her next left her excited, waiting for more. 

She nearly got lost a handful of times, as it was a massive labyrinth, but she always found her way back and picked up the pace again. 

The final room was interesting, as she was presented with a pedestal to place the torch on. As soon as she did, the pillar in the center of the room began spinning, projecting green light all around her as enemies began to loom from the dark. She gripped her gun tighter, clenched her fist, and launched into battle.

Bullets and blood flew. Everything was focused on her, a bright blue force to be reckoned with. And everything that faced her lost, adding to the blood that stained her, that added to the dark brown stains left behind by V1.

I can be just like him. Just wait and see.

Once everything was dead, she landed at the door to the final elevator. A massive crash sounded behind her and she whipped around just in time to see the last of the ceiling giving way, revealing a hole through to the slanted wall outside. She hummed in satisfaction, before entering the elevator, being launched up to what she assumed would be the final battle. It was in the pyramid, after all.

It had to be important.

Once she finally entered the brighter segment of the pyramid, she silently moved forward, trying to stay quiet so she could hear any hint that an enemy may be approaching. 

When she entered a room with a door in front of her and another to her right, she glanced at the door to her right. It was open just a crack, with a blue skull on its pedestal in the room beyond. Curious, she peered through. She couldn’t reach the skull from where she was standing, and she couldn’t fit through the door.

She glanced down at the green arm attached to her. The Whiplash. Analyzing its arrowhead hook, concluding that it was narrow enough to fit through the crack in the door, she got curious. She’d never really thought about using it until now. Lining up her shot, she launched the hook through the door, watching in fascination as it latched onto the skull and started pulling it back towards her. As soon as the skull was off the pedestal, the door was open, and she entered.

On one wall there was a portrait of a cat, and on the other a portrait of a… mouse? Rat? She couldn’t be sure. She kept walking forward cautiously, waiting for an ambush. Finding one of the launch pads, she let herself be thrown up into the air and onto the next layer of the pyramid. 

Turning more corners, walking down another hallway, she found a large door with a massive skull on it. Excitement rushed through her circuits like an electric current. Standing up just a bit straighter, she began to walk forward slowly, watching as the door slowly opened and allowed her passage.

There wasn’t a large boss waiting for her at first glance… that was fine. But upon further inspection, there wasn’t anything small either. Just a throne in the center of the room, nobody sitting in it, dark brown streaks of dry blood along the sides. 

Fuck, right. She remembered. Whatever was here, V1 defeated it already.

Feeling disappointed, she instead began to walk to the hole that led out to the slanted edge of the pyramid. Climbing out, the hole was rough around the edges with rubble surrounding it. This must’ve been made during the battle.

She sat down on the wall of the pyramid, beginning to slide down, hugging the Marksman to her chest as she did. The bricks were golden and smooth, making for an easy slide. Once it was done, she landed on a platform on the sand with a large stain of blood on the other side that surprised her when she spotted it.

She stared at the pool of blood for another moment before continuing, seeing more platforms that were too far away to jump to but instead had green orbs above them. She looked down at the Whiplash in her hand. She looked back up at the orb, before launching the hook towards it and pulling herself along. 

It was easy to find the elevator from there. Looking around at the destroyed remnants of Greed as one last goodbye, she entered the room to the elevator, finally starting her descent into Wrath.

Once the bell rang, V1’s goal was to get the hell out of there. He packed his things up, rushing out of the class and to the nearest set of doors that led outside. The rain had long since stopped, leaving a soaked town under a sunny sky. Students were leaving in crowds, talking and laughing with each other. He was ready to run back to Mirage’s home, to find out what was going on, when a voice cut through his thoughts.
“Hey, Mirage!”
It was very familiar. V1 froze, turning to face the person who’d addressed him - well, addressed Mirage, but they thought he was Mirage so it didn’t matter. And it was Gabrielle, of course, carrying her own bag as she approached him.

“We’re still on for tomorrow after school, yeah? Nothing’s coming up?” Gabrielle asked hopefully, though seemed slightly concerned at V1’s panicked state.
“Yeah… yeah, tomorrow is good. I really have to get going.” His voice held obvious nervousness, making Gabrielle concerned.

“Are you alright? You seem a bit… hm. Anxious.” Gabrielle asked, taking a step closer to V1, who was shifting his weight from foot to foot. He initially shook his head, before switching to nodding.
“I’m fine. Just have somewhere I need to be, nothing you need to be worried about. It’s only my business.” He tried to make his tone as reassuring as possible, and before Gabrielle could argue any further, he took off running. He could hear her shout something from behind him, but he ignored her. He had somewhere to be.

V1 ran all the way down the path, to Mirage’s residence. He’d seen her room, the door to the elevator wasn’t there, it had to be somewhere nearby. He ran around the back of the building to check, and not finding it, he kept looking. He ran his hands over every wall, checked for secret seams in the concrete and bricks, but found nothing. It had to be at least decently hidden, otherwise more people than just Mirage would’ve stumbled onto it. She’d never told him where it was - they’d never thought something like this would happen where they’d enter each others’ realities. And he knew that being dropped directly into her room when he entered didn’t mean there was a passageway to Hell there. It was likely a one-way portal to this reality, and now he had to find the one that would get him to his home reality.

He stopped himself, making himself truly think. Okay. Which places around here would Mirage like hanging out? 

Mirage liked sitting in the shade of trees, especially in places where she’d be hidden from others. That was what she’d told him. But typically trees weren’t pushed up against walls… V1 looked around, hoping to spot something.

Jackpot.

A building opposite the one he was at had a stone bench up against a concrete wall, half-obscured by the branches of a small weeping willow that had managed to survive in the desolate area. V1 glanced around to make sure nobody was watching before approaching the bench, kneeling on it as he ran his hands over the wall.

There was a tiny seam in the concrete, making his heart race. Pressing his palm flat against the wall, he started forcing it to the side, and with some difficulty pried the door open. Beyond was a familiar red hallway that led to the elevators, filling him with a massive sense of relief and familiarity. He slipped through, immediately leaping into the elevator shaft, hoping that finally returning home and getting things back to normal would chase away that strange feeling in his circuits.

The difference between Greed and Wrath was staggering, but Mirage liked it. Going from the bright sun on her blue plating to the cool and moist cave, the contrast was interesting and very much welcome. It was quiet at first, with a ceiling stretching high overhead and a musky coolness in the air around her, though this was Hell so it couldn’t be quiet for long.

Stalagmites dripped strange cave water onto her, and she tried to keep moving. She hadn’t faced anything yet, but she was curious to find out, and kept moving through the cave system until she found herself plunging through cold salty water in a bright underwater cave. She’d been out swimming before, but here it gave her a feeling of wonder, looking around at all the structures underwater, along with the enemies that had begun to spawn.

It was like flying with more resistance, as she dove towards the things trying to attack her, the blood mingling with the water as it sprayed out of them. There weren’t many enemies, and it was pretty easy to clear them all out. As soon as she was done, she spotted a large crack in the stone wall on the far side of the underwater cave, and it seemed large enough to fit her. She swam towards it, hesitating for just a second before beginning to pull herself through.

She had never been claustrophobic so she didn’t hesitate, and her internal flashlight turned on as she pulled herself through the flooded cave system, swimming towards the faint light and fresh air that she could sense coming from above her. It wasn’t difficult, and she wasn’t afraid.

There were twists and turns, but soon she started to breach the surface, and there was just a small stretch of dry tunnel to go before she was able to get to the source of the fresh air. Her flashlight turned off as she dug her fingers into cracks in the stone, hauling herself up and through to the proper surface.

She was greeted by a massive expanse of ocean, with relentless rain coming from the clouds overhead that were so dark gray they were almost black. Light was limited, though there was more than there had been in the tunnel system that led her here. She was approaching the ocean from a crack in a massive boulder that jutted out of the water, with a dock attached that led to a wooden pathway across the waves.

She didn’t have to worry about analyzing Wrath for long, though. In her endless excitement, she’d completely lost track of time. A brilliant beam of light appearing beside her finally made her realize - it had been three hours.

“Machine!” Gabriel yelled as he appeared, just barely holding his rage back enough to appear white and gold rather than red and gold. He approached her, arms crossed, very visibly unhappy. “It has been three hours. You are meant to be in Heresy now.”
Mirage glared at him, wings flaring out as she stood her ground. “Too bad.” She grumbled, though now she knew she didn’t have a choice.

Gabriel took a deep breath. “Machine, you are very lucky I am not unleashing all my anger right now. I have enough dignity to transport us to Heresy first. I am not waiting any longer!”

He grabbed Mirage’s arm, startling her as he enveloped them both in a beam of light again. Like most people, Mirage had never experienced teleportation. It was strange, being disconnected entirely from physical existence for a brief moment before she was somewhere new. Heresy was very red, a reflection of what she’d expected Hell to actually be like. Gabriel had dropped her off just outside a large door with a familiar skull design.

“Wait here!” Gabriel demanded, glaring at her. “I have some things I wish to say to you.”

Gabriel teleported beyond the door, and a moment later, Mirage heard him start to talk. He was doing some funny monologue, and she couldn’t stop herself from giggling. What a dork. She thought, rolling her eye as she disregarded his instructions and entered the arena regardless.

Gabriel heard the door open and slammed his fists down on the organ Mirage had heard playing. He immediately whipped around to face her, standing up as his wings flared out.

“Machine! I told you to wait! You were meant to hear what I had to say, and you’ve ruined it!”

Mirage stared at him. Gabriel just kept ranting.

“I didn’t need another reason to destroy you, but now I have it. I will break you apart, unmake you, and this time you won’t get in my way! ”

As he yelled, he sprung into the air, his armour turning bright red and his wings brilliant gold. Mirage was ready for this fight. Excitement thrummed through her, drawing one of the shotguns and immediately charging towards him, ready to fight for her life and emerge victorious.

Then maybe return to Wrath. She wasn’t quite sure.

All she needed to do right now was win.

As Gabriel fought who he’d thought was V1, he started to really notice something off about it. While he dove towards it, striking with his swords and yelping as he was hit with bullet after bullet, he inspected it a bit closer. That brighter blue hadn’t just been a trick of the light in Greed, it had been present in Wrath and was present here too. Those notches on its upper arms… too precise, like tally marks, not from any bullets or tooth marks. 

This machine was too short. Its posture hadn’t just changed dramatically, its actual height was different. Its optic was slightly too big, with… an eyelid?

And what stood out to him even more was the designation mark. V1’s designation had always been on the left side of its chest. This one had it on the right.

This wasn’t the machine he knew. Knowing that, his rage diminished a little, but immediately flared up again.

Why did this stranger think it was okay to take the place of V1?
Why did they look so much like him?

How did they get his arsenal?
And most importantly;

Where was the real V1?!

Mirage could tell the illusion was wearing off. Gabriel’s taunts slowed down as he seemed to be analyzing her, and her excitement turned into panic, but she just kept fighting since she didn’t have any other choice. She could feel the energy in the air changing, his rage changing, as though he’d found different reasons to hate her. 

He had caught her, but she was so close to defeating him, she could tell. Just a hit from the Electric Railcannon, a few more shots from any gun she had on hand… she couldn’t panic. She needed to defeat him.

“Who are you?!” Gabriel finally demanded as he struck at her with his sword, trying to grab her shoulder or arm so he could properly address her, disregarding the electric current that ran through him as she shot him with the Electric Railcannon. “Where is the real machine? I demand to know!”
Mirage ignored all his questions. If she just kept fighting, she could defeat him and he wouldn’t keep bothering her about it. She slid and jumped, dodging every attempt of his to strike her or grab her. He was impossibly angry by now, making her nervous.

“Answer me now! You must know where that machine is, and I will make you tell me!” He was teleporting more frequently now, not stopping his attacks to speak like he usually did, overwhelming Mirage and starting to back her into a corner. 

But she was so close. Just another shot and she’d win. Even if he was interrogating her, she knew he was weakened and just needed one more shot to be defeated.

Tucking away the shotgun which she’d been using, Mirage instead drew the Sharpshooter. As soon as Gabriel stopped for just a second, she pointed it at him and pulled the trigger.

Click.

Oh.

No.

Click. Click. Click.

No, no, no.

No matter how many times Mirage pulled the trigger in her panic, the Sharpshooter didn’t fire a single bullet. As she was distracted, Gabriel grabbed her wrist, making her drop the Sharpshooter and unable to draw anything else. 

“Tell me now! Who are you?!” Gabriel demanded, drawing his sword as a warning. Mirage was left frozen. She didn’t know how to explain. She was about to die, not going out with a bang but instead ruining things for both her and V1. 

She could feel Gabriel’s glare boring right into her eyes. She had no idea what to do.

She needed to get out of this somehow, and she needed to get out of it right away.

But she had no idea how.

Chapter Text

The tension in the air was interrupted by the door suddenly being slammed open, a blue figure barrelling into the room so fast it was a blur. Both Mirage and Gabriel immediately turned to see who had entered, watching as V1 finally slowed down before he could crash into them. He was visibly jittery, hands flapping nervously.

“I think I’m late.” He said awkwardly in Mirage’s voice, not quite sure what else to do. 

Gabriel looked between the machine whose arm he was grabbing, and the new machine that had entered, near-identical except for that familiar shade of blue. He glanced between them for another second, realization dawning on him. 

“Machine!” He shouted, shoving Mirage aside and diving towards V1 to grab him by the collar. “Where in the world have you been? Who is that? Why has it replaced you? And what are you wearing?! ”

Gabriel’s anger didn’t subside, but was slowly overwhelmed by confusion as he tried to rationalize what was going on. As far as he’d heard, there was only one V1. Who was the other one? He turned to stare at Mirage, who had fallen back onto the floor with the force of his shove and was finally getting back up.

“I guess the jig is up, huh.” She muttered, stretching her arms above her head and putting the Sharpshooter away. She walked over to V1, standing by his side, before glancing over at Gabriel. “I’m guessing we have a lot of explaining to do?”

Gabriel took a step back, completely speechless, stammering for a moment as though he wanted to say something before sighing. “So there’s two of you?” He said, crossing his arms and standing up a bit straighter. He felt a bit threatened, but didn’t show it.

V1 shrugged. “Kind of. This is Mirage, she comes from a different universe of sorts. We thought we could get away with swapping places for a day.” He explained, and Mirage nodded along in agreement. “It wasn’t meant to get… well. This bad.”

Considering their words for a moment, Gabriel didn’t seem satisfied by the explanation. “How did you even find out about each other? What kind of ‘universe’ are you talking about? Are there any other-”

He was cut off by a fourth voice coming from the door.

“Um? Anyone care to explain what’s happening?” The newcomer sounded distinctly confused yet irritated, and the other three immediately looked in their direction. Mirage gasped sharply.

“Gabrielle?! What the hell are you doing here?” She exclaimed in disbelief, and V1 seemed just as nervous. 

“You followed me?” V1 shouted, earning a glare from Mirage. 

“Did you seriously let her follow you? I told you not to even speak to her!”

Now it was Gabrielle’s turn to be confused, walking towards V1 and Mirage. “In all honesty, I do not know what’s going on. One of you has to be Mirage, right? I mean- from what I can tell, it’s not you.” She pointed at V1. “I knew something was off about you. And you.” She pointed at Mirage. “I’m just hoping you’re the real one.”
Tensing up, Mirage nodded, still infuriated at V1 for even looking in Gabrielle’s direction but now having to place her focus elsewhere. “Yeah. It’s me. I don’t think you heard, but this is V1, him and I tried switching places for a day. We kind of hoped nobody would notice.”

Gabrielle nodded to show that she understood, before addressing V1 again. “Were you planning to tell her about- um.” She cut herself off, her focus switching from directly at V1 to just behind him, where a very familiar face was staring back at her. “Who are you ?”

“Tell me about what?” Mirage tried asking, though she was ignored instead as Gabriel responded to Gabrielle.

“I could ask you the same question.” He responded, taking a step closer so she could hear him more clearly. He was much taller than Gabrielle was and was using his wings to hover off the ground, making her feel strangely threatened.

V1 stepped in, trying to ease tensions before Gabriel and Gabrielle began arguing. “Yeah, where Mirage comes from, there’s people there that are like equivalents to the residents of this universe. Gabriel, meet Gabrielle. Your names are spelled differently.”

Even as V1 tried smoothing things over, Gabrielle and Gabriel were still glaring at each other, until Mirage beeped to get V1’s attention.

“We should… probably switch back to normal.” Mirage suggested once V1 turned to look at her. V1 looked down at himself, still wearing the school uniform, and nodded. “Yeah, agreed. You probably want to get your stuff back on.” He turned to look at Gabriel and Gabrielle again. “Don’t argue while we’re busy. Actually, I think you shouldn’t talk at all, that’ll be more likely to avoid a confrontation.”

“What makes you think we’ll argue?” Gabrielle said defensively, crossing her arms. Gabriel nodded to show that he had the same sentiment, and V1 considered his words carefully.

“You’re both like that.” V1 decided to say, before rushing over to Mirage, dragging her to one corner of the room so they could finally get things back to normal. Gabriel looked offended, but now that he couldn’t properly yell at V1, he just complained to Gabrielle.

“That machine is absolutely insufferable.” He grumbled, glancing at her in the hopes that she’d agree. Gabrielle nodded half-heartedly.

“Yeah.” She sighed. She was distracted. Realizing that it had been someone else in Mirage’s place, she felt upset knowing that it hadn’t been Mirage herself who had suggested the date. She kept her hopes up, clinging to the small chance that Mirage would want to go with her anyways, but the way she’d greeted her said otherwise. 

V1 was quickly getting out of Mirage’s uniform, relieved to be free of it. As he piled up the different items of clothing, he stretched out his arms and legs, feeling less confined by the now-absent fabric.

“Shit, where’s your toolbox?” Mirage asked, twitching the wings that were still attached to her so V1 could help. V1 reached into one of the wings, pulling out a blob of energy that quickly manifested into the desired object, opening it up and pulling out the necessary tools. As he worked on detaching the wings that were still connected to Mirage, she began speaking.

“So what did Gabrielle want you to tell me about?” She asked, taking the pile of her clothing that was on the floor and pulling it onto her lap. The question made V1 go silent for a moment as he kept fumbling with the tools, not sure how to explain what had happened.

“Um. Please promise me you won’t be upset?” V1 said hesitantly, making Mirage look over her shoulder to give him a suspicious glare. 

“Is there something that might make me upset?” She asked, watching as one of the wings was detached. She felt a pang of sadness, feeling almost like her freedom was being taken away, but tried to push down the feeling so she could focus on V1’s explanation.

“Well. Gabrielle and I… um, I ended up talking to her.” V1 started, making Mirage sigh quietly.

“I assumed that much. What happened when you talked to her?” She asked, earning another moment of silence only broken up by the fumbling and clinking of tools.

“Her and I kind of ended up liking each other.” V1 decided to say, leaving out the way they’d started talking, when she’d dragged him inside from the rain. “And one thing led to another, and I might have… ended up setting you two up on a date tomorrow.”

“You did what?! ” Mirage gasped sharply, loud enough for Gabrielle to hear from where she was waiting. She winced, knowing exactly what Mirage had learned about. She was sitting at the top of the stairs, with Gabriel hovering just next to her, waiting for V1 and Mirage to properly switch back to normal; and, of course, tell each other about the exact ways they’d fucked up each others’ lives. Even as Gabrielle got increasingly more heartbroken, she clung to that small hope that Mirage would understand, that she’d want to go on the date regardless. It wasn’t likely, but Gabrielle still silently wished for it.

Beside her, Gabriel had dropped the small distance to the floor and was pacing in circles, his wings twitching in irritation from where they were folded against his back. He longed to grab his swords, to kick Gabrielle and Mirage out of the room and just fight V1 right then and there. But his precise planning, with his scripted monologue and music and everything, had been ruined. He could wait, send V1 back to the start of Heresy, but it had to happen fast. He grumbled, fighting the urge to yell at Mirage and V1 to hurry up. 

Meanwhile, V1 was desperately trying to explain how everything had happened, setting down his tools for a moment. “Okay, yeah, it sounds terrible, but she’s really not that bad. She did get a bit impatient with me, yeah, but I think she cares for us… well, for you. I just managed to get her to show it.”

Mirage glanced over at where Gabrielle was sitting, and noticing her staring, lowered her voice to a whisper-shout. “How does that even happen? What did you do?”

Finger tapping nervously, V1 tried to downplay it. “I kind of spilled a little bit of blood on myself and she helped me clean it off. I was just trying to be nice, then suddenly I was agreeing on your behalf for a date tomorrow.”

Mirage sighed heavily, turning around to face the wall again. “Just detach the wings. We can discuss it after.”
V1 nodded, picking up his tools again. Three of the wings were off, five to go. “Yep. Luckily the test wasn’t too hard, and I think I did pretty good for you.”
Nodding, Mirage finally got to relax. “That’s good. At least you did what you were there for.” 

V1 set another wing aside. He’d have to get the second worst of it over quickly. “I also might’ve gotten in a fight with Miracle and ripped her sleeve off, so she hates you even more now.”

To his relief, Mirage laughed instead of getting upset again. “The bitch deserves it. We already despise each other enough, why not add a little more?”
Laughing along, V1 nodded. “There wasn’t really anything big that happened apart from that. Minerva and Sienna tried speaking to me when I was in the library, but they didn’t really bother me too much, and they left after a bit. Neither of them noticed that I wasn’t you. Nobody noticed, actually… apart from Gabrielle, obviously.”

Mirage nodded, glancing at Gabrielle again, who wasn’t looking at her this time. Gabrielle was looking down at the ground, making Mirage feel bad. She regretted shouting so loud after being told about the unexpected date, and looked away again, feeling the last wing finally come off. She sighed quietly, picking up the clothes piled on her lap, knowing that she was going back to a life she didn’t enjoy.

V1 was waiting for Mirage to get her clothing on, finger tapping again, itching to get his wings back on and weapons back in his possession. He subtly glanced at Gabriel, wanting to fight him as soon as possible, waiting until the sound of rustling fabric stopped so he could face Mirage again. She was already picking up the tools, and V1 beeped happily, turning around once more to let her attach them.

“You didn’t mess up anything for me?” He asked hopefully, and Mirage thought about it for a moment, before shaking her head.

“I wiped out the rest of Greed, but that’s just normal you behaviour. The only thing I really messed up with was getting Gabriel kind of impatient, but I think his only focus is fighting you, so he’s probably not going to care for too long.” She explained as she attached every individual wing to V1’s back as quickly as she could. It felt almost unfamiliar now, not having the wings on, but she couldn’t muster up the courage to ask V1 if she could join him in Hell to continue fighting.

“I doubt it.” V1 muttered, looking over at Gabriel again, his finger tapping even faster. Now Gabriel was looking at him as well, and they gave each other matching glares, both refusing to look away until the other did first. The silent stare-off was finally broken when Mirage attached the last wing, tapping V1’s shoulder to get his attention and making him turn to face her once more.

“We should switch our voice boxes back to normal.” She suggested, reminding V1 that they had even done that in the first place.

“Oh, yeah.” He said to acknowledge her words, nodding. “Really quickly. You and Gabrielle need to return back to your world soon.” 

As quickly as they could, they removed the voice boxes and got them each back to their rightful owners. V1 sighed in relief, his wings fluttering as he made sure they were properly recalibrated, drawing each gun and being reminded of how familiar they felt in his hands. Mirage just watched sadly, standing up quietly and returning back to Gabriel and Gabrielle. V1 trailed close behind, beeping as he slid across the floor to catch up.

“We’re done.” Mirage said flatly, and Gabrielle stood up from where she’d been sitting on the stairs. V1 rushed to Gabriel’s side, and now that things were back to normal, the four were standing in pairs - the two from Hell and the two from the other world. Gabrielle tried subtly reaching over to hold Mirage’s hand, but Mirage didn’t reciprocate, and she withdrew.

“I guess this means we’re going back home.” Mirage said to break the silence, looking over at Gabrielle. Gabrielle nodded in agreement, crossing her arms.

“Machine, you should return back to the start of Heresy.” Gabriel suggested in a voice that was surprisingly calm but with a simmering resentment beneath it, and V1 nodded, stepping over to Mirage and Gabrielle’s side.

“I’ll go with you.” He said, before changing his mind in a split second and decisively shaking his head. “Actually, scratch that. I need to move fast to get back to where I’m meant to be. Goodbye!”
V1 immediately dashed forward to gain momentum, sprinting towards the door. Mirage beeped in surprise, and with courage that she didn’t know she had, reached out a hand to get V1’s attention.

“Wait!” She cried out, making everyone else in the room look at her. She could feel every mechanism in her body whirring faster as she stared at V1, making direct eye contact with him. She stood up a bit straighter, bottling up every bit of nervousness in her body as she finally said what she’d wanted to tell him for hours.

“I want to join you down here.”

Chapter Text

Silence. Mirage’s words hung heavy in the air. V1 was staring at her, his expression unreadable but definitely not happy. Gabriel looked even more outraged at the mere idea of such a thing, of having someone else involved in his fight with V1 and V1 only. Gabrielle finally let go of her hope that Mirage would want to go on the date with her. If Mirage would rather be in Hell than with her, then maybe it wasn’t worth it.

Mirage was just as quiet for another moment, before continuing to clarify. “I want to fight in Hell with you. We could wipe everything out twice as fast, working side by side.” She kept staring at V1, her expression hopeful, waiting for his answer and wanting it to be good.

V1 was frozen in place, trying to figure out a way to respond to her request. His inner circuits were practically working overtime, fans whirring audibly out of stress, trying to figure out a way to tell her ‘no’ nicely. He glanced from Mirage to Gabriel and Gabrielle, neither of whom seemed happy about her suggestion. Gabriel looked infuriated at the idea and Gabrielle just looked miserable. He looked back at Mirage, sighing, knowing he’d have to break it to her sooner rather than later.

“It wouldn’t work, Mirage.” He said plainly, his wings drooping slightly and shoulders slumping. He felt awful having to say it at all. “I can’t exactly split my arsenal. Everything I have on hand, I need it at all times.”

Mirage initially looked dejected, before her expression switched back to hopeful, trying to think of a logical way it would work out. “We can work as a unit. If you need a weapon from me, you can draw it from my storage, and vice versa.”

V1 shook his head, twitching his wings. “We only have one set of wings to even store the weapons in.” When he noticed Mirage looking like she was about to respond, he shook his head again. “And don’t even think about saying that we should split them evenly. Our mobility would be so much more limited. It wouldn’t work. Plus, the arms.” He flexed the Knuckleblaster and Whiplash. “There’s only one of each of these. We can’t share them.”

“Please, V1.” Mirage begged, feeling desperate now. “We’ll figure out a way to make it work. I can’t go back to my regular life, I feel so much better down here. I struggle so much less.” She took a step closer to him, pleading with him desperately, leaving Gabrielle behind. “If we just find a way to work together and share the arsenal, and trust me when I say it wouldn’t be difficult, we can fight everything down here so much more efficiently.”
“It’s not just about the fighting!” V1 snapped at her, before taking a moment to calm down, immediately feeling regretful for shouting. “Sorry. But I’m being honest, it’s not just about the killing.” Even if he’d lowered his voice, it was still firm and serious. “I’m trying to survive down here. The blood keeps me alive , it keeps both of us alive. If we kill the things down here twice as fast, we die twice as fast. I’m not interested in bringing you down here to die within a day.”

“A day? You can’t be serious.” Mirage kept pleading, not wanting to believe him. “What if we fight down here, kill everything else, then I bring you back to my world? I have so much blood stored. We’ll make it happen.”
“That’s not how it works, Mirage.” V1 asserted, wings still twitching and shifting. “This is where I come from. I don’t want to die, but when I do, this is where I want it to happen. I can’t just live a lie in your world. What would I even do? I don’t want to be locked in your apartment forever.”

“We could swap places on occasion.” Mirage suggested, but V1 shut her down firmly.

“No. I already said no. We can’t do this, it wouldn’t work for any of us. People would notice your absence. Look at Gabrielle! She’s been staring at you this whole time. If nobody else would care, she would.”

That was what finally grounded Mirage properly. She turned around to look at Gabrielle just behind her, who was staring back at her as V1 had said, looking absolutely heartbroken.

“Gabrielle…” Mirage started to stammer, finally acknowledging her. Usually she hated Gabrielle, but looking at her now, she realized that she was getting to see a side to her that nobody else usually saw - a much more vulnerable one, a striking contrast to her usual dismissiveness. She was finally starting to realize how she was hurting her now, and didn’t know what to say.

Gabrielle kept staring, before finally sighing, starting to speak up. “Yeah, he’s right, I’d miss you. Things are just… complicated? Obviously I don’t want you to die, but I don’t want to force you to go with me tomorrow if you don’t want to…”

The two girls were left staring at each other, Mirage’s thoughts racing so fast that her inner cooling mechanisms activated. Through the audible whirring, she struggled to come up with an answer. “I- I…”

“ I would recommend you go back home.” Gabriel finally interrupted, stepping forward to make his presence known once more. He crossed his arms, his wings twitching irritably. “Hell is no place for you. Either of you. This is a fight between me and that machine.” He pointed at V1, and V1 nodded, his own wings perking up slightly as Gabriel kept speaking. “Go home and solve your problems there.” 

Mirage was now fidgeting nervously, before sighing, walking past Gabriel and towards Gabrielle. She stood in front of her, though not too close, afraid to overwhelm her. “Look, I’ve been acting like a total dick, I’ll admit it. This was just… unexpected.”

Gabrielle nodded, looking down at the ground. “I’m not any more happy about it. I kind of hoped that you’d want to go anyway, but it wasn’t even you who set it up…”
Both Gabrielle and Mirage turned to stare at V1, who wasn’t even paying attention to them. He was staring at Gabriel, the two of them glaring at each other the same way they had before. Both V1 and Gabriel looked restless, and it was obvious that they weren’t listening. Mirage and Gabrielle turned to face each other again.

“Yeah, sorry about the whole swap thing.” Mirage sighed, finally verbally acknowledging that it had been a bad idea. “I thought it would be in-and-out. Easy. I just wanted to do this to avoid my math test, and now we’re here.”

“You did all this to avoid a math test?” Gabrielle said, raising her voice by accident, in disbelief and a bit upset at her. She sighed heavily, quiet for a moment, then spoke up again. “Honestly… I can’t blame you. If I had the option to take the other Gabriel's place for a day, I would.”

Mirage was surprised by that, staring at Gabrielle in shock. “Seriously? I always thought you loved school. You get such good grades.”

Gabrielle stared at the ground again, slightly ashamed to admit it. “Just because I get good grades doesn’t mean it isn’t difficult. Sometimes it’s a downright nightmare.” It was strange for her to be telling anyone this, but even if Mirage had gotten upset at the idea of the date, she still trusted her in a strange sort of way. “But I keep going.”

Mirage glanced over at Gabriel and V1 again, nervously this time. Even if they were still glaring at each other, she was worried they’d overhear the conversation. “Maybe we should talk about this later… Gabriel’s right, we need to get back home.”

Facing Gabrielle once more, Mirage finally nodded. “I’ll go with you tomorrow after school. Just… to see what it’s like. Where were you planning to go?”

Gabrielle was immediately flustered, and she was thankful Mirage couldn’t see how red her face was. “Oh- right, I would’ve wanted to, um… There’s a cafe not too far from the school, I can take you there, maybe?” She offered, trying not to stammer and failing.

Mirage nodded. A cafe sounded good, somewhere simple for them to go. “Yeah, I don’t see any problem with that. Right after school, or do you want time for us to get ready first?” She was still a bit hesitant, but willing to try it out, and maybe she’d end up enjoying her time with Gabrielle.

Gabrielle considered it, humming thoughtfully. “We should get ready first. I don’t like the idea of being in these uniforms all day.” She looked down at herself, tugging at her yellow tie and frowning. “And speaking of which… yeah, we should go home.”

One last time, Mirage glared at the V1, still trapped in his staredown. “Hey, asshole. We’re ready to go home.” She called out to him, and it took V1 a moment, before nodding and springing to his feet.

“Yep! Yep. I’m ready.” He agreed, nodding as he started to run after her and Gabrielle. Gabriel watched him go, his wings twitching in relief, sighing quietly. He had a rehearsal to get to as the machine fought everything else in Heresy. 

“If you’ll excuse me.” Gabriel muttered, returning to the organ at the far end of the room, giving one last longing glance at V1 over his shoulder before sitting down and waiting for everyone else to leave. 

Gabrielle offered her hand to Mirage once more, and after a moment of consideration, Mirage took it. “I hope you don’t mind this.” Gabrielle said nervously, and Mirage shook her head.

“No, no, I don’t mind. Just… trying this out.” Even if she was just trying it out, she couldn’t deny that it felt right, but she only admitted that to herself in her mind. She couldn’t say it out loud. Not yet. As they left the room, V1 practically bouncing in excitement as he followed, Mirage felt a huge weight lift off of her shoulders. Maybe staying in Hell hadn’t been the right option after all.

V1 accompanied the two to the elevator, making sure nothing could ambush them and they could get home safely together. Even if he was itching to get back to battle, he wanted to make sure Mirage was safe, and by extension Gabrielle. Hell was no place for either of them, not when they were unable to defend themselves. 

Stopping by the elevator doors, Mirage turned to look at V1, finally realizing that it might be the last time she saw him ever. She gave him a wave, and not wanting her goodbye to feel too definite, settled for “Hope you have a nice time.”

V1 nodded, waving back, optic glowing as he let out a small beep. “You too. Have fun on your date!” 

Gabrielle, not wanting to feel rude or left out, gave V1 a small wave as well. Then, turning to face Mirage, finally spoke the words. “Ready to go home for real?”
Mirage gave one last good look at Hell, at Heresy, then nodded. “Yeah. I’m ready.”
V1 watched Mirage and Gabrielle leave, then turned to run as quickly as he could, mounting a rocket to get back to the start of Heresy as quickly as possible. It took a little while, but eventually, he was there. He was bathed in red lighting that reminded him how good it would feel to douse himself in blood soon. Once he was making his way through, excitement coursed through him. And as the first few enemies started spawning, prompting him to draw his Marksman, all he could think was Oh, it is good to be home.

Chapter Text

Friday morning. Mirage sat up in bed, grumbling quietly. The last day had felt like a strange sort of fever dream, even if she knew it was real. She turned on her bedside lamp, before forcing herself out from under the blankets to get dressed and actually make herself look presentable. 

As usual, she had washed her uniform last night and hung it up fresh in her closet, quickly throwing it on once she got up. Today, she was a bit more careful than usual, tightening her tie all the way for once. She went to the washroom to clean every bit of metal on her body, making sure any possible grime was gone, polishing her optic as well. Once she was satisfied with her shine, she continued on, heading back to her bedroom to pack up her binder and refill the empty bottles of blood.

Carrying all her bottles to the kitchen and refilling them with fresh blood, Mirage noted that she was running out and would have to get more soon. She spilled a little bit onto one of the bottles, but quickly cleaned it off with a tissue, before replacing the caps and stuffing all of them into her bag. That was pretty much all she needed to do to get ready, and she still had half an hour left until she needed to head to school.

Sitting down heavily on the couch with a loud sigh, Mirage pulled out her phone, okay to just scroll aimlessly until she needed to leave. Setting a timer so she didn’t miss it, she quickly skimmed through all the random texts from people she barely knew. Random girls from her school and guys from the other, who just wanted to bother her for fun. It was annoying, but sometimes she got some funny things out of it. Not today, though, it was all dumb bullshit.

She tucked her phone away and stared up at the ceiling. Was she gonna be able to make it through this school day? She already felt so anxious, and it would just get worse as the day went along. She wanted to impress Gabrielle, she wanted to make a good impression, but so many worries ran through her mind about how it could go wrong. It was driving her crazy. She sat up again, taking out a bottle of blood and taking a sip. Feeling the freshness run through her circuits grounded her just a little more, and she sighed, tucking the bottle away.

She picked up her bag, fishing out her keys so she could lock the front door behind her when she went out. It couldn’t hurt to show up at school a little early.

Gabrielle had been spending at least twenty minutes seated on the edge of her bed, preening her wings. She never even had them out, they were too large and unruly to use pretty much anywhere. Any indoor space, there were too many things to knock over, and in any outdoor space, they drew unwanted attention and annoyance from others. Even so, a part of her felt obliged to make sure every feather was in place, especially for today. She always wanted to look perfect, but today she wanted to be more than perfect. She wouldn’t allow a single flaw in the way she presented herself.

It was making her frustrated. After spending way too long on one particular feather, moving it back and forth, she cried out in frustration and slammed her fist into her mattress. She forced herself to take a deep breath, sighing it out. She had to stay calm. Getting frustrated would just make everything worse, and she didn’t want that for either herself or Mirage. 

You’ve got 7 hours until you even need to be at the date. You’ll be fine until then, you’ll have time to get ready.

Finally setting the feather in place, Gabrielle stood, gathering her things. She looked around her room, which was pristine, the furniture and decoration almost entirely in white and gold. Sometimes, it felt strangely suffocating. 

Picking up her bag, she shoved her things into it carelessly, putting her phone in the inner pocket. She double checked to make sure she had everything, before slinging the bag over her shoulder, turning off the lights, and starting to head out.

Gabrielle’s walk to school was long. Her current high school, her and the Virtues were newer to than everyone else there, and her former school was exactly halfway between her house and her current school. The walk had gone from fifteen minutes to thirty, which could be annoying in worse weather, but today was thankfully a nice sunny day. She didn’t like looking at her old school when she passed by, since there was almost always someone who recognized her.

Heading out of the front door and locking it, she started to walk down her street. She had the path memorized. The walk was mostly downhill on the way there, then uphill on the way back, which was a nuisace at first but eventually she got used to it. Lots of houses had flowers blooming in their front gardens, and Gabrielle briefly wondered if she should pick some for Mirage.

No, someone will ask me about them. She immediately dismissed the idea. And that’s way too straightforward… this is our first date, I don’t even know if she actually likes me yet. Or what her favourite flowers are.

The flowers were out of Gabrielle’s sight as she turned a corner. The walk was going to take forever today, and she knew it. Her mind was racing, even as she tried to shove her worries away. All she wanted to do was impress Mirage today, and she could already tell that it would fuck her up all day. For a brief moment, she considered just going back home and missing a day of school.

I can’t. She told herself. What excuse would I even make? Someone will get worried about me. Mirage will get worried about me. And I usually walk with Vanessa, what will she do if I don’t show up? I don’t want to leave her waiting and make her late too.

Gabrielle was so caught up in her own thoughts she hadn’t even noticed she was passing by her old school until someone called out to her.

“Hey, Gabrielle!” A girl called out to her, sitting next to another girl on a bench just outside the entrance. Gabrielle immediately recognized her. She didn’t want to talk to her.

“Hey, Zara.” She replied half-heartedly. “I’ve gotta get on my way.”
“You don’t wanna stay and talk?” Zara sounded dejected. One of her wings appeared to gesture at Gabrielle. “Surely there’s something for us to catch up on. How’s it going at… your new school?”

Gabrielle looked away, crossing her arms. “It’s going fine. Not much new is happening. Really, I need to go. I don’t want to be late.” She kept walking before Zara could respond, leaving her behind. She could just barely hear Zara wondering aloud to the other girl what Gabrielle’s problem was, then they were out of hearing range.

After another minute of walking in silence, Gabrielle heard footsteps behind her, rushing to catch up. She slowed down, and then Vanessa was next to her.

“Hi.” Vanessa said. She was uncharacteristically quiet, and Gabrielle became even more worried. Was Vanessa upset? Was it somehow about something she’d done?
“...hey.” Gabrielle responded, glancing over at Vanessa. “Is something wrong?”

Vanessa shrugged. Her bag was slipping off of her shoulder, and she immediately readjusted it before it could fall. “You could say that. Pierce and I broke up.”

“Ah.” Gabrielle nodded. She’d completely forgotten that Vanessa and Pierce had even been together in the first place. Vanessa nodded as well.

“Yeah. Him and I aren’t really on bad terms, so it’s just… confusing? I don’t feel entirely upset, things are just complicated.” She explained.

“What even happened?” Gabrielle asked, and Vanessa sighed.

“Him and I just never spoke to each other, really. The relationship was thrilling for like, a month, then we drifted apart. We spoke about it this morning, and he and I both agreed that we were just in a relationship for the sake of a relationship, not because we really liked each other. He asked to split, and I agreed.”

Gabrielle nodded again, trying to stay calm to hide her own anxiety. Would her and Mirage end up like that? “I mean, it was a pretty sudden thing… you’ve known him for years, but I really don’t remember you two even being friends.”
Vanessa’s wings drooped. “I guess. I’m still kind of upset. I just… really want a relationship, honestly.”
Gabrielle gently put her hand on Vanessa’s shoulder. “I don’t blame you. But you’ll eventually run into someone you actually like, yeah?”

After considering Gabrielle’s words for a moment, Vanessa looked at her, feeling a bit better. “Yeah. You’re right, Gabs. Thanks.”

“Anytime.” Gabrielle responded, before withdrawing her hand and continuing to walk in silence. The brief discussion of Vanessa and Pierce’s breakup had made her even more nervous. What if she was only pursuing Mirage for the sake of a relationship? What if they didn’t actually click? She was afraid of how it would end. She stared down at the ground, and she could feel Vanessa’s concerned gaze on her, though Vanessa didn’t say anything. They walked in silence the rest of the way to the school, before Gabrielle finally spoke up again.

“Remind me what you have first period?” She asked, and Vanessa had to think about it for a moment.

“Science.” She replied, sighing. “My least favourite. I always get so nervous.”

“At least you’re getting it over with.” Gabrielle murmured, before waving to Vanessa. “I’ll see you later, then?” She said, and Vanessa nodded.

“Yeah. See you later.”

With that, Gabrielle started to hurry to her first class. She didn’t want to risk seeing Mirage, who she guessed would skip Drama as usual. They didn’t have to talk to each other until after school.

You’ve got a full day. You can do this… you just need to stay calm.

As the first bell rang, Gabrielle began to walk faster, knowing that the school day would end up feeling like it was lasting forever.

After school, Minerva and Sienna had a brilliant idea - to go to a cafe together to relax after the long school week, and for their one year anniversary, which would come up the next Tuesday. They were used to setting up dates by now, so it hadn’t been too difficult to plan a time for 4 PM, with plenty of time to get ready and for Minerva to walk to Sienna’s house so they could walk to the cafe together. 

Everything had gone exactly as planned. They walked together, hand in hand, under the bright sunny sky. The cafe was a small place, not entirely empty but not nearly full. Sienna liked sitting where the sun could shine on her, and Minerva didn’t mind it at all, so it wasn’t difficult for them to agree on a place to sit by the window. They recognized a couple of the workers as being from either their school or the boys’ school, people just working for the job experience. They both studied the menu signs from a distance, trying to decide what they wanted.

“I wonder if there’s anything that we can share.” Minerva muttered, and Sienna shrugged.

“Probably not, but I don’t mind either way.” She said, and Minerva nodded in agreement. She glanced over at Sienna for a brief moment.

“Just to be absolutely clear, you are paying?” She asked, and Sienna nodded.

“Yep. I’d never forget.” She narrowed her eyes at the menu. “They have a hibiscus lemonade? Well, now I need to try that.” She looked over at Minerva. “What do you think you’ll be getting?”

Minerva was still studying the menu intently. “They have scones… I guess I’ll be getting that.”
“What kind? And are you getting a drink?” Sienna asked, and Minerva thought about it for another moment, considering the options.
“Cinnamon. Oh, they’ve got green tea, I haven’t had that in forever.” She responded.

“Then it’s decided. Wait here, I’ll go order everything.” Sienna stood up, knowing Minerva would insist on going with her if she didn’t move fast enough, and went up to the ordering counter. There wasn’t much of a line, and they got everything surprisingly quickly. Sienna then returned with both drinks and Minerva’s requested pastry.

“You don’t want anything to eat?” Minerva said, staring at Sienna. 

“Just wanted the lemonade.” Sienna responded before sitting down next to Minerva, sticking her straw in her drink then handing Minerva’s drink and scones to her. 

“You had better have a good dinner later.” Minerva muttered, breaking off a piece of the scone and shoving it into the hole in her face. Sienna had gotten so used to seeing how Minerva ate, she’d completely forgotten how freaky it could look from an outside perspective, and didn’t even blink. She took a quick sip of her lemonade, before speaking again.

“So we’ll get back at Gabrielle on Monday?” She asked, wanting to make sure their plan was laid out perfectly. Minerva nodded. 

“I’ve got our plan memorized. Lead her out behind the school at lunch, beat her up and threaten her into going home and telling nobody.” She idly stirred her tea, her tone casual as though they weren’t discussing anything more interesting than the weather. “And if we see her before Monday, do it then.”

Sienna nodded, reaching over to squeeze Minerva’s free hand. “Perfect. It’s gonna be satisfying as hell. Can’t wait.” She took another sip of her drink. “Wow, this is good. Wanna try?” She offered, but Minerva shook her head.

“No thanks. Have your damn lemonade.” She laughed. “You’ve gotta have something if you’re not eating.”
“I’ll take a bit of your scone in exchange.” Sienna said, Minerva’s laugh infecting her and making her giggle as well. 

“You say that like you’re the one able to offer it!” Minerva replied in a tone that was exaggeratedly upset.

“Did I not call it your scone?” Sienna argued, her glow getting just a bit brighter with happiness. The fit of giggles that they were both in, however, wasn’t enough to drown out the sound of the bell as the front door to the cafe opened. They both turned to see who was entering.

Mirage walked into the cafe, followed closely by Gabrielle. Neither of them noticed the stares directed towards them as they both glanced around, taking in the layout.

“You wanna sit over there?” Mirage offered, pointing towards a table in the corner. Gabrielle followed where her finger was directed, then shrugged.

“I’m not picky. If you want to sit there, then we should.” Once it was decided, they walked towards their decided table, Gabrielle taking a seat while Mirage stayed standing, looking at the menu from afar.

“What do you want to order?” She asked, and Gabrielle shrugged again.

“Just a plain water. I don’t really eat or drink anything too fancy.” She replied. Mirage gave her a thumbs-up to show that she’d heard, before heading towards the counter, placing both Gabrielle’s order and hers. It only took a minute before everything was ready, and Mirage paid before returning with Gabrielle’s water and her own order of a simple cup of blood.

Gabrielle stared at the blood, still not used to how the machines fed. Quietly cradling her water with both hands, she glanced at Mirage. “I’ve always been curious about how that stuff tastes.” She said, a not-so-subtle invitation for Mirage to explain. Mirage glanced at her, then down at the cup full of blood which she’d been about to sip from, before setting it down so she could speak.

“For most non-machines, they aren’t used to drinking blood, so they really taste the iron. But every machine I know, including me, we get past that taste at some point. Kind of forget it. Other than that, blood tastes pretty salty, and the oxygenated stuff is really fresh.” She took a sip, before continuing to explain. “Some types of blood taste different depending on the source, but most places don’t separate it, so it’s kind of a gamble. This specific cup of blood, I can tell it came from something with anemia.”

Gabrielle kept staring, a million thoughts racing through her mind. “Where is all of the blood even sourced from? Is it all… ethical?” 

Mirage shrugged. “I did a project on it once when I was, like, thirteen. There’s a lot of blood donors and people that offer to get their bodies drained after they die. And people who were convicted of only the worst crimes.” She shuddered. “I don’t like thinking about the specifics for the last one.”

“Ah.” Gabrielle nodded. “What about deoxygenated?”
Mirage sighed, rolling her eye. “Oh, don’t even get me started on all of that. It tastes like shit, in my opinion, but because of the chemical difference compared to oxygenated I’m personally allergic to it. So I’m kind of biased on that front. Other machines, though, there’s a lot that are convinced deoxygenated is ‘healthier’ for them. It’s not! It literally has no oxygen in it, it can’t sustain them! People on deoxygenated-only diets are killing themselves, I’m telling you.”

Gabrielle was surprised by Mirage’s outburst. She hadn’t realized there’d been such controversy amongst the machines. She’d always thought that all blood was really the same, but now she was intrigued. She’d have to find some sort of video essay on it to watch later. Grabbing her water, Gabrielle lifted her helmet just slightly to take a sip.

Mirage stared at her, waiting for Gabrielle to swallow and put her helmet back down to normal before speaking. “Wow, I never really realized you actually had… well, anything under there. I kind of guessed, but I never spent time worrying about it.”

Gabrielle was taken aback, a bit flustered and embarrassed. “Yeah… I do. I just don’t remove my helmet all too often. I prefer having it on.” She explained. To her relief, Mirage seemed satisfied with that response, and nodded.

“Alright. Is it alright for me to ask why?” She said a bit hesitantly. Gabrielle looked down at her water so she wouldn’t have to make direct eye contact.

“There’s… not really any specific reason. Just having it makes me feel better about myself. I’m not exactly insecure about my actual face, but I feel better with the helmet anyways.”

“Oh, I fuck with that.” Mirage responded, nodding. “I always stand by wearing what makes you happy, and not giving a fuck about societal expectations.” She gestured down towards her own outfit, a more alternative styled getup, all dark colours with as many accessories as she could get her hands on - which admittedly wasn’t much yet, but she was determined to get more. “I love dressing like this. I like being kind of a freak to other people.”

Gabrielle gave Mirage’s outfit a good look, then glanced down at her own - a simple white turtleneck and black skirt. She nodded in agreement. “Yeah. The way I dress is probably what you mean by societal expectations, but… it’s genuinely what makes me happy, personally.” She admitted.

“Then wear that.” Mirage said simply, gesturing towards Gabrielle with one hand. “You rock it. Trust me. You look great in… well, I’ll admit, everything I’ve seen you wear.”

Gabrielle could feel herself blushing profusely under her helmet. She cleared her throat nervously. “Oh… thanks. You look fantastic too.” Her voice was quiet, shy, as though afraid to say it. Mirage, however, felt a warmth flow through her circuits.

“Thanks.” She said, suddenly feeling just as shy. She was able to finish up her drink very quickly, then stared at Gabrielle, who had barely even touched her water. “Are you, ah, finishing that?” She asked. She didn’t like seeming impatient, but she was worried that Gabrielle was forcing herself to have something she didn’t enjoy. Gabrielle was a bit caught off guard by the question, confused for a moment before she looked down at her water.

“Ah… um…” She hesitated. She didn’t want to make it seem like Mirage had paid for nothing, but she also didn’t want to lie then force herself to drink something she didn’t want. “...no.” She eventually admitted. “I don’t like the taste of plain water… I don’t like the taste of many things. I just felt awkward not ordering anything.”

Mirage nodded, thinking quietly for a second about what to do with the drink. “Well, it’s just water. We could probably dump it somewhere. Water the plants a little, yeah?” She smiled, and Gabrielle nodded in relief, knowing that Mirage wasn’t upset with her.

“Alright. There’s a park not far from here… we could head there, maybe?” She picked up her plastic cup of water, putting the lid back on from where she’d set it aside. Mirage stood, and Gabrielle stood with her. 

“Yeah. Let’s head out. Maybe we can hang out there for a bit, too. I’ve been having fun.” She admitted shyly. Gabrielle clutched the water a bit tighter to her chest.

“I… I’ve been having fun too. You’re nice to talk to.” She confessed, before clearing her throat. “Let’s go. The sooner the better, yeah?”

With that, the two girls left the cafe once more, the bell above the door dinging quietly. Minerva and Sienna, still sitting by the window, were left staring at each other. They were quiet for a minute, both having eavesdropped on most of Gabrielle and Mirage’s interactions.

“You think they’re gonna get together?” Minerva finally asked. Sienna took a moment to respond.

“Probably. I’m not sure. If they do, it could mean some sort of bad news. All I’m thinking is that we need to ambush Gabrielle sooner rather than later.” She said. She grabbed her half-empty cup of lemonade, signaling that they should head out. Minerva, getting the signal, picked up her own drink and food. They stood up, waiting a minute to make sure Mirage and Gabrielle wouldn’t see them when they left, before rushing out.

Once Gabrielle and Mirage reached the park, they found a flowering bush and poured out the cup of water overtop of it. Walking to the nearest trash can, Mirage threw away the plastic cup, as Gabrielle trailed behind her. 

“Well, that’s done.” Mirage said, before turning to face Gabrielle again. “Wanna go up there?” She pointed up a nearby hill, which had a tree at the very top. As soon as Gabrielle nodded in agreement, before she could even speak, Mirage took off running. “Race you to the top!” She shouted, and Gabrielle’s eyes widened, immediately taken off guard.

“What- hey, wait up!” She began sprinting as well, determined to catch up with Mirage. She was decently fast usually, though the adrenaline made her even faster, rushing up the hill just on Mirage’s tail. 

Mirage, however, reached the top first, her hand touching the trunk of the tree just a few seconds before Gabrielle’s did. She collapsed, laughing, not even out of breath while Gabrielle was left panting heavily. “Unfair. You’re a machine.” Gabrielle complained, though it held a playful tone. She sat down at the roots of the tree, and Mirage scooted over next to her, their shoulders touching.

“That’s why you don’t race me.” She said playfully, making Gabrielle laugh.

“You’re the one who started the race!” She exclaimed, shoving Mirage lightly. Mirage continued laughing for another few moments, before sighing, leaving them in silence for a couple of seconds as they stared out over the field below. Eventually, Gabrielle spoke, her voice quieter and a bit more serious.

“I’m still wondering what’s happening… with the other us ?” She asked awkwardly, not sure how to word it. Mirage was quiet, shrugging.

“Probably beating the hell out of each other, if I had to guess.” She replied, tucking her knees up to her chest. “They’re having fun, though. I’m pretty sure of that.”

Gabrielle nodded, though she still had millions of questions that she was pretty sure would never get answered. She decided to go for the more pressing one. 

“If it wasn’t for me… would you have stayed in Hell?” She asked quietly. Mirage’s playful demeanour immediately dropped. She was quiet for a moment, caught off guard by the question. 

“I…” She stammered. “I… probably… yeah. I would’ve found a way to convince V1 if it wasn’t for you being there.” She confessed, her voice quiet and a bit ashamed. 

Worried that she’d asked the wrong question, Gabrielle immediately turned to trying to reassure Mirage. “Well, I honestly completely get why… it kinda sucks here.” She said. “I know I mentioned it already, but really, life’s shitty up here. I get why you’d want to stay in Hell… even if it meant… death.” 

Both of them went silent. Things had gotten into very serious topics very quickly, and it took Mirage some time to finally muster up the courage to continue speaking. “Having a taste of life there, it makes it even worse to come back up here. Everything here sucks except for you.” She looked over at Gabrielle, her gaze showing just how earnest she was. “If it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t be in our dimension right now. And if it wasn’t for V1…” She trailed off, looking away from Gabrielle again, her voice shaky as she continued. “...I’d probably be dead.”

Gabrielle’s face fell. She glanced at the notches visible on Mirage’s upper arms before returning her gaze to Mirage’s face. “...oh. Honestly… I don’t blame you for that. I’ve had… I’ve had thoughts of that myself. Stress and exhaustion and everything… it builds up.”

Mirage nodded quietly. She wasn’t showing it, but she was completely relieved to have found someone she felt safe talking about these topics with. She crossed her arms, hands gripping her upper arms. “You might’ve noticed already… but in the past, I’ve struggled with… hurting myself.”
Gabrielle sighed, unsure how to approach the topic carefully. “Yeah… I noticed. I didn’t want to ask about it in case you didn’t want to talk about it… but I want to understand. I want to hear your perspective.”

Mirage was silent for another moment. She was unsure how to start. “It started about a year ago… I had an especially bad night. It was two in the morning, I think… I found a box cutter somewhere, took it, and… gave myself a couple cuts.” Her hands tightened on her arms. “I didn’t cut deep enough to bleed, that’s pretty difficult, but it did hurt… and the pain became addicting. There wasn’t really any reason. It just gave me some sort of dopamine rush, and every time I had some sort of mental breakdown after that, I gave myself more cuts. And well, I’m made of metal, so they… they can’t really go away now that they’re here.” 

Gabrielle gently placed her hand on Mirage’s back, wanting to remind her of her presence. “Is it… still happening?” She asked. Mirage shook her head.

“About a month ago, I finally got myself to throw away that damn box cutter. Honestly… I only did it because I was convinced I’d kill myself soon. Then I ran into V1, and that didn’t happen. And now you’re here, and I’m still alive, and I…”

Mirage trailed off, immediately breaking down into sobs. Since she didn’t have tear ducts, no tears actually fell, but she was still crying loudly. Gabrielle wrapped her arms around Mirage quickly, holding her close, trying not to start crying herself.

“It’s alright, I’m right here.” She murmured, holding Mirage close. Mirage wrapped her own arms around Gabrielle in return, clinging onto her as she cried. For a minute, they both just stayed like that, Mirage letting out all her emotion until she felt exhausted. Then she finally pulled away, letting out a small sigh.

“...thank you.” She whispered, finally allowing herself to relax. Then she leaned against Gabrielle again, in a more calm manner this time. 

“You don’t need to thank me.” Gabrielle replied, letting Mirage snuggle closer. “If you ever need anything… please, look for me. I promise, things will get better.”

A few days ago, Mirage wouldn’t have believed that. But now that she was here, with someone she finally trusted and could be close with… she could. She nodded. “Yeah… they will. Now that we have each other.” Her head settled against Gabrielle’s shoulder. “I don’t care if it’s too early to say this or whatever. I love you.”
Warmth bloomed in Gabrielle’s chest. She held Mirage closer, resting her own head on Mirage’s.

“I love you, too.”