The two killers faced each other across Jin’s bed, and he could feel the world holding its breath. The air was thick with competing feelings—Shūi’s frozen anger against Eve’s happy craziness.
"You know," Eve said thoughtfully, looking at Shūi with those scary eyes, "we’re not so different. We both want Jin. We both would kill for him. We both were changed to be perfect for him."
"I am nothing like you," Shūi spat.
"But we are!" Eve insisted. "We’re both super strong, both love Jin, both would get rid of anyone who tries to take him! We should be friends!"
"Friends?" Shūi laughed coldly. "I would never be friends with a monster like you."
"Monster is such a an word," Eve said. "I like ’genetically improved’. We’re both science projects made for special reasons."
"My purpose is to protect Jin-sama," Shūi said. "Not to have babies with him like so animal."
"But protecting and having babies are both important!" Eve said logically. "We could split the work! You protect him, I have his babies! It’s the smart way to do things!"
"Never," Shūi said. "I will never let you near Jin-sama."
"Never is a strong word," Eve said. "Most people say no at first but change their mind if you keep asking and show them how good you match up."
"There is no match-up!" Shūi snapped. "You’re a monster!"
"And you’re a cold-hearted killer," Eve said cheerfully. "We have so much in common! We should be best friends!"
The knife flew with perfect aim, right at Eve’s throat. But Eve wasn’t there anymore. She moved with that impossible speed, appearing behind Shūi with her arms wrapped around the other girl in what looked like a hug but was probably a death grip.
"See? We’re already getting along!" Eve said happily while Shūi tried to get free. "This is nice! We should do each other’s hair and talk about killing people!"
"Get off !" Shūi’s voice had lost its cool, raw anger replacing cold control.
"Only if you promise not to bother my trying to get Jin!" Eve said. "Sharing is caring!"
"I will never share Jin-sama!" Shūi snarled.
"But sharing makes better babies!" Eve insisted. "With both of us helping, the babies would be super strong and healthy!"
"There will be no babies!" Shūi yelled.
"Not with that attitude," Eve said cheerfully. "Being positive makes babies more likely by twenty-three percent!"
---
The noise brought people running. Scarlett arrived first, took one look at the situation, and imdiately turned around. "Nope. Not dealing with this at four in the morning."
Elena appeared next, watching the fight with professional interest. "Eve’s fighting style is interesting. She’s not trying to win, just trying to figure out who’s boss."
"Should we stop them?" Clara asked from the doorway, her tablet recording everything because of course it was.
"Do you want to get between these two crazy girls fighting over who gets to have Jin’s babies?" Rosa asked.
"...No."
"Then.. just look away."
The fight, if you could call it that, ended when Eve suddenly went limp, playing dead so well that Shūi actually stopped attacking.
"Are you giving up?" Shūi asked suspiciously.
"No, I’m showing you’re the boss by pretending to be dead!" Eve said from the floor. "It’s working! You stopped trying to kill ! We’re becoming friends!"
"We are NOT becoming friends!"
"We totally are! This is so exciting! My first girl friend!" Eve jumped up and hugged Shūi again, this ti with enough force to break bones in a normal person. "We’re going to be the best killing friends ever!"
Shūi made a sound that was part scream, part growl, and part total breakdown.
Jin, still on the floor, put his head in his hands. The Entity’s sync went up another point just from the pure chaos.
**[ENTITY SYNCHRONIZATION: 66% → 67%]**
"This is my life now," he muttered. "This is actually my life."
"Don’t worry!" Eve called out cheerfully while still hugging a struggling Shūi. "Once we figure out who’s boss, everything will be much easier! You’ll have two girlfriends, lots of babies, and you’ll rule the world!"
"That’s not making feel better!" Jin said.
"No?!"
The vault’s recycled air carried the mixed slls of violence, weird feelings, confusion, and that ever-present wrongness that was Eve. Sowhere far away, an alarm was going off, but no one moved to check it. After all, what could be more alarming than what was already happening?
Elena stepped into the room, totally unfazed by the chaos. "Eve, I’ve been thinking about your fighting skills. Would you want to help make living weapons?"
Eve’s eyes lit up like Christmas had co early. "Oh my god, yes! Can we make them grow inside targets? Weapons that make more weapons are my favorite!"
"I was thinking more like poison that makes brains stop working," Elena said, "but your idea has good points. Weapons that make more weapons would work really well for controlling areas."
"Exactly!" Eve said, finally letting go of Shūi and running over to Elena. "And we could make them only hurt crawlers, not people!"
"That’s a great improvent," Elena said, already pulling out her own tablet. "We could use your special slls to spread the poison."
"And make it float in the air!" Eve added excitedly. "Invisible, no sll, but deadly to crawlers!"
"The perfect weapon," Elena said, a rare smile touching her lips. "We should start working on it right now."
And just like that, Eve and Elena walked off together, talking excitedly about weapon stuff, leaving everyone else in shocked silence.
"Did Elena just... make a friend?" Clara asked in disbelief.
"I think she did," Rosa confird.
"A crazy, genetically-engineered, baby-obsessed friend," Sera added.
"Still counts," Scarlett said, finally entering the room. "Jin, you okay?"
Jin looked up from his spot on the floor. His door was destroyed. His bed was covered in ice. Two girls had just fought over having his babies in his room. The Entity was getting stronger every hour. And now their weapon maker was best friends with a happy psycho.
"No," he said honestly. "I’m really not okay."
"Fair enough," Scarlett said. "Want to sleep in the control room tonight?"
"Please."
As Jin grabbed what he could from his destroyed room, he could hear Eve’s voice echoing down the hall:
"So if we mix crawler poison with my special slls, we could make enemies fall in love with their weapons! Isn’t that romantic?"
"It’s certainly efficient," Elena replied.
The Entity laughed in Jin’s mind, dark and amused. *The monsters are becoming friends. This should be fun.*
*This is going to end badly,* Jin thought.
*Oh, definitely. But what a fun way to end.*
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