On the rainy day of sunday,
The rain fell softly outside the academy dorms, pattering against the window of Simni's room.
Her body sat at her desk eyes glowing faintly blue, face unmoving as her fingers typed a rapid sequence of diagnostic codes on a holographic panel. Her systems flickered with warning signals, sparks of light tracing down her wrist.
"Error… subsystem 47 unstable… recalibration failed," she muttered mechanically, though her voice trembled slightly.
Her head rested on the table beside the flickering screen, detached for maintenance. Her body worked independently, guided by her automated subroutines.
"Basei… this is Unit Simni," her voice echoed through the comm-link, distorted for a moment. "Field report subject 'Mila'… continues showing unstable mana fluctuations."
Basei's voice came through, steady and calm. "Simni, you sound corrupted. Are you sure you're stable enough to maintain cover?"
Her body paused, the glowing circuits dimming briefly.
"I am… mostly stable," she said, the word mostly drawn out as her system glitched, her tone momentarily shifting from robotic monotone to her usual warm cadence.
Basei sighed faintly through the line. "You always say that. Just make sure no one sees the truth, Simni."
Simni's head twitched slightly as the circuits sparked again. "Understood… commander."
The link closed with a soft tone. Silence filled the room, save for the hum of her power core. Her hand twitched involuntarily, causing a small spanner on her desk to roll off and hit the floor.
Meanwhile, across the academy courtyard
Milly sat near her window, watching the rain fall, lost in thought.
She whispered under her breath, "Celeste… that teaching pattern… those calculations, those mechanical hand movements…"
A faint memory flashed in her mind
A dimly lit room inside the Forgotten Fortress. Sparks flying. Simni standing beside a broken drone, hands moving with perfect precision as she rewired its systems. Milly's voice laughing in the background as she offered her a drink.
Milly blinked, gripping her chest. "Simni…?" she murmured softly, the name slipping out without her realizing.
Then she shook her head quickly. "No, no, that's impossible. Simni was… at the fortress…"
She looked back out the window at the storm, unaware that the person she missed was right across the campus glitching, twitching, fighting her own systems just to stay undercover.