“It’s been a while since we’ve walked side by side like this, just the two of us.” Two-six mused as they strolled down the empty streets, carrying boxes of spare parts in their arms.

“Yeah…”

One-six thought back to that night, when he and Two-six had snuck out of their base and into the city. It was that night which started it all, the night which set them upon that path of discovery and rebellion.

“Do you still remember that night?” Two-six asked, looking up at him. Two-six wasn’t that short by any means, but One-six was almost half a head taller than her. She was happy that One-six was taller, it made her feel safe when she was with him.

“How can I forget.”

“Did you ever think that it would end up like this?”

“Like what?”

“We end up as rebels, fighting against the city which created us, the future of the world on our shoulders.” Two-six paused. “Do you blame me for it?”

One-six looked down at Two-six, as if angry at what she had just suggested. “Why would I be?”

“I pulled you out of your blissful ignorance.”

“Well I’m glad that you did it.”

Two-six nodded her head and looked down at the ground gratefully. She was glad that One-six didn’t hold a grudge against her. Part of her wished that she never suggested sneaking out of the base that night, but part of her was happy that she did.

“I’m not all good either.” One-six spoke up again. “I should probably apologize to the others too.”

“Why?”

“Because it’s me who suggested this whole plan. There was no need to end the war, and even less need for us in particular to do it. But I’m selfish, and it was for those selfish reasons that I dragged everyone in.”

They walked in silence for a little while, just listening to the sounds of birds chirping and the trees rustling. It was kind of funny how nature didn’t care what the humans did. Even when the entire town got leveled in just a single night, the birds still sang their usual songs.

Perhaps it would be better if we disappeared altogether, One-six thought to himself.

“One-six?” Two-six mumbled, looking down at the ground.

“Yes?”

“If I end up crippled in the upcoming battle, will you take care of me?”

One-six was taken a little off-guard by her question. European soldiers are taught to care for no one, not even their own teammates. While they are free from the chains of their city, that ideology still remained drilled into their brains. “Of course I would.” One-six answered, putting a line through everything he’d been taught before.

Two-six smiled. She didn’t quite know why she did it, but she knew that it made her feel good when she smiled. Maybe normal people smiled when something good like this happens, she thought to herself, I should do it more often.

She didn’t want to think about what might happen if one of them died in the mission. In truth, she doesn’t really care about the outcome, as long as her teammates, and One-six in particular stay safe. In a way she feels guilty for causing this whole thing, but more importantly she didn’t quite know what she would do if One-six died.

Whenever she was with him she felt that everything would be alright, even in the most dire of situations. Without him, she wasn’t sure what she would do with her life afterwards.

“If you get crippled, I’d take care of you too.” She mumbled. But when she looked up, she realized that One-six had already left her behind.

“What did you say?” He asked.

“I…” Two-six stuttered. “Nothing…”

They walked in silence all the way back to the camp, and continued to work on their planes until dark.

It was the last night before the mission. They aimed to get everything done tonight, and ended up working overtime. Lenn and One-six ordered their teammates to go get some rest, while they finished up on the work.

“Lenn,” One-six spoke up. “I want to tell you something.”

“Yes?” Lenn looked up at him.

“About the plan, there was one bit that I didn’t tell anyone.”

Lenn finished tightening down his last screw, and tossed the wrench into a tool box. “Yeah? And you’re going to tell me?”

“Yes.”

“Let’s hear it then.” He said, sitting down on the grass next to One-six.

“For the terminal guidance phase, I’m going to be at the controls.”

Lenn went quiet for a moment. “Didn’t you say all of you would eject and let the computer guide it?”

“The computer can’t respond to damage the plane might sustain, we didn’t have time to put that into the code. Plus, even with ideal conditions, the chances of a hit is only around one in two. So the chances of a hit are much higher with a pilot controlling it.”

“But how will you escape…”

“I won’t” One-six declared, staring into Lenn’s eyes. “I’ve manually disconnected the wires connected to the ejection motor on my seat. When the ejection handle is pulled, my seat will remain. I’ll be at the controls until the very end.”

Lenn held his gaze for a moment, before looking down at the ground and chuckling. He shook his head and held his own face in his hands.

“Are you going to stop me?”

“No…” Lenn sighed, “I was just thinking about how you can say that with such ease.”

“I just see it as my responsibility… Well… also because even if I do survive, I don’t think I’d ever truly become human. And even if I did become human, I don’t think I’d be able to carry the guilt of basically committing genocide.”

“Well, why did you decide to tell me and not your own teammates?”

“I just felt that someone should know, and it can’t be my teammates, since they’d disable their ejection seats too if they found out.”

Lenn laughed. “But aren’t the Europeans supposed to be heartless weapons of war?” He asked, more to himself than to One-six.

“Apparently not.”

“Well then…” Lenn sighed and shook his head again. “Want to give me your dog tag?”

“What’s that?”

Lenn looked at One-six in confusion. “Don’t you guys have dog tags? You know, piece of metal with your name and stuff on it, used to identify casualties.”

Then he realized. Right, these guys aren’t even “people”, they probably don’t need dog tags at all.

Plus, even if they did have dog tags, they’d probably just have numbers stamped onto them anyways.

“We don’t have those.” One-six replied. “Even if we did, why do you want me to give it to you?”

“It’s tradition back where I’m from to give your dog tag to someone when you’re going on a suicide mission. Spares the effort needed to recover it when you inevitably go down in battle.” Lenn explained. “But in this case, I guess it’s just a little thing to remember you by.”

“You want to remember me?”

“I’d rather forget everything and live in bliss, but that’s not possible.” Lenn joked.

One-six nodded. Someone had said the same thing to him too. That ignorance is bliss, and that knowing the truth can be painful. But he chose the latter, and so he is facing the consequences that come with it.

“Would you like me to trim off the bit of skin on my neck with my serial number?” One-six asked.

Though One-six didn’t fully mean it, this must have been the first time Lenn heard the Europeans tell something resembling a joke. “Hahaha! You guys learn pretty fast, huh? No that would be unnecessary. Anything to remember you by should be fine.”

One-six thought for a moment. “I’ve really got nothing.”

“Fine then. You have until the attack to think of something.” Lenn told him with a smile as he got up to put the toolbox away.

“Sure, I will…” He mumbled. “Also, one more thing.”

Lenn halted his steps and turned to look at One-six “Yeah?”

“I’m sorry for bringing all of you into this. I’m sorry for being selfish.”

He wasn’t just being selfish for bringing others into this, he had been selfish from the very beginning. The other clones never wanted him to do something like this. They never suffered until they were told that they were suffering. The reason One-six wanted to destroy Europa, was because he wanted to prevent the unethical use of cloning to spread.

Yet to achieve that goal, he was willing to sacrifice the life of all of his former comrades, and probably many many more innocent lives.

“Why are you apologizing?”

“What…I…” One-six had expected Lenn to be angry, while he did get angry, it was for a different reason than he had expected.

“It’s only natural for humans to be selfish.”

“…”

“Get some rest.” Lenn told him, like a father to his son, before walking away.

******

Kang sat besides Ying, watching over her sleeping form. She had still yet to gain consciousness since the battle, but the doctor was optimistic that she would recover.

He looked at all the IV lines hooked up to Ying’s arm, and it made his heart ache. Ying had always been a strong person, and right now she was in ruins. They didn’t have a heart rate monitor, so Kang would just hold Ying’s hand with his, and feel the rhythm of her pulse.

“The nerve damage she suffered to her brain was not extensive, and it is likely she will retain most, if not all of her brain function.” The doctor had told him. “However, she will likely not be able to use her left leg. At least, not like before. The wounds to that leg has seriously damaged the nerves there.”

He was sort of happy that she was still in a coma, so that she can be forced to not take part in a dangerous, almost suicidal mission.

“Hopefully you recover before we fly, so that at least you can say good luck to us.” Then he thought about it. “Actually, never mind that, you’d never let us go on a mission like that without you. Or even worse, please do not wake up while we are gone, because that would really suck.”

He grimaced at the thought of Ying’s silent rage if she found out that they had gone on such a dangerous mission by themselves. Or worse, if they didn’t make it back, it would really really suck.

“No no no!” He violently shook his head. “That’s bad fortune, don’t think about that stuff!”

But then again, he was just being realistic.

“Please don’t be mad if we don’t make it back, okay?” He whispered. “Just keep going forwards with your own life.”

He sat there for a moment longer, before slowly getting to his feet and walking out of the tent. It was just about midnight, and the moon shone brightly in the cloudless night sky.

In the distance he could see One-six and Lenn packing up the work on their aircraft, and heading towards their resting area.

They had picked an unoccupied spot near one edge of the overhang as their temporary home. It was just some rags and fabric laid out on the ground for them to sleep on. It really wasn’t comfortable, but at least it was better than nothing.

When Kang got there, the others were there already, just lying down and getting rest. Except for Two-six, who was nowhere to be seen.

“Where’s Two-six?” Kang asked the others.

Lenn shrugged. “Last time I saw her she was helping at the kitchen.”

“Huh… ok…”

Kang walked over to his own cot and got ready to lie down too, but was interrupted by rapidly approaching footsteps. He looked up and saw Takeshi running towards them.

“It has begun.” Takeshi shouted between heaving breaths.

“What has?”

“The attack.”

*****

They raced towards their fighters, kicking up sprays of mud behind them. In the night, they could just barely make out the silver outline of their planes against the dark sky.

“Two-six!” One-six shouted when he saw that she was already at the plane. “Get in! The attack has begun.”

Two-six looked at him in confusion for a moment, but quickly sprang into action.

Then he turned to Lenn. “Remember the plan?”

Lenn looked at his team, who nodded to him in confirmation. “We got it.”

“Good… Best of luck with the mission.”

It threw off Lenn a little to hear a European pilot sincerely wishing him good luck. He chuckled and shook his head. “Come on guys."

Lenn and his team leapt into their plane too, and were ready for flight within minutes.

“Good luck.” Takeshi shouted to them above the roaring of their engines.

Lenn and his team saluted back. “Please explain everything to Ying once she wakes up!”

“Sure will!”

Then Lenn looked towards the Europeans. The Europeans looked over too, and they locked eyes for a moment.

In the brief exchange of glances, Lenn was sure he saw a lot more than just emotionless clones in their eyes. There was a little bit of sadness lingering within him, as if he was saying goodbye to an old friend.

He raised his hand to his head, and saluted.

One-six and his team did so too, albeit a little differently.

It was an act of respect between soldiers, not quite an act of friendship. They were far too different to be considered friends. Maybe in many more years, they may reconcile and get on good terms. But right now, they were just soldiers, strangers, working towards the same goal.

It was a final goodbye, in the likely case that anything would go wrong.

“See you in a few hours.” Lenn whispered. “If not… see you in another life…”

He looked forwards out of the cockpit, a little off-put by the fact that Ying’s silhouette wasn’t in its usual position.

“We didn’t even have time to say goodbye to Ying…” Kang sighed.

“I’m sure you can make up for it by proposing to her after we come back victorious.” Rei joked.

“Yeah yeah.”

And One-six hasn’t given me anything to remember him by yet, Lenn thought to himself. He was still at a loss at what to do with the knowledge that One-six was planning to sacrifice himself.

“Lenn, do you copy?” A crackly voice came through his headset. Two-five had managed to link their two radios, and they had decided that codenames were unnecessary. It felt strange hearing his name get called over the radio, but strangely comforting.

“Copy…” Lenn reported back. “Let’s fly.”

And so their engines spooled up, blasting dust and leaves in all directions, slowly lifting their plane into the air.

Two lonely fighters, intercepting Europa’s armada of planes. It looked like suicide, and it may very well be.

But for the pilots of those two planes, it was just their mission, their purpose. It was something they all wished for, and something they truly believed in. The possibility of death didn’t cause them to waver, they’ve stared death in the face far too many times for that. But the possibility that they might fail did scare them.

Nevertheless, it was pointless to worry about the future. It was pointless to do anything but focus on the mission at hand. Because at that moment, a lot more than just their own selves rested on their shoulders.

“Let’s not be so tense, shall we?” Lenn asked his teammates jokingly.

“Haha… sure…” Kang laughed awkwardly. “Why the sudden pep talk?”

“I wasn’t giving a pep talk.”

“You were about to."

“…Okay fine, I guess.”

“Keep going with it… I wanna hear.”

“Well… I don’t really have much to say. I just wanted to say something…” Lenn smiled. “Because, right now, you know. It’s just the seven of us, racing into the night.”