Escaping the absolute, suffocating quarantine of the Supreme Commander was a logistical nightmare that had nearly cost Nikki her remaining sanity.

It had taken a highly treasonous, encrypted backdoor bypass, courtesy of Mei Lin’s Level-1 Advanced Logistics clearance. The brilliant data analyst had temporarily rerouted the patrol paths of the four cloaked stealth drones guarding the penthouse, masking the maneuver as a routine localized sensor diagnostic.

It had given Nikki exactly a twelve-minute window to slip into the maintenance shafts, ride a service lift down, and secure an autonomous transport to Mei’s apartment in the Sector 2 administrative residential block.

Now, Nikki sat on the pristine bamboo flooring of Mei’s living room, her bandaged head throbbing with a dull ache. Mei was pacing nervously, wringing her delicate hands, entirely terrified that Adonis’s internal alarms were going to trigger at any microsecond.

Before Nikki could even begin to explain the heavy, brass key currently burning a hole in her pocket, the electronic lock on the apartment door chimed.

The metal door hissed open with a swift, mechanical rush of air.

General B-02 strode through the threshold, entirely shedding his usual sleek, silver-embroidered elegance for a terrifyingly casual, yet impossibly expensive-looking leather jacket. He was practically vibrating with energy.

"Little Mei," B-02 announced, his velvety baritone echoing loudly into the apartment before his optical sensors had even finished scanning the room. "You cannot imagine how many box of condoms and ramen I had gotten from Dubai." 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

Nikki’s jaw physically unhinged. It dropped so fast and hard it practically hit the bamboo floorboards.

General B-02 completely froze.

His glowing emerald eyes locked onto the fiery red hair and the thick medical gauze of the Supreme Commander’s biological anchor sitting in the middle of the living room rug. His advanced logic core violently stalled, rapidly processing the sheer, catastrophic impossibility of her presence outside of Adonis’s mansion.

"Oh fuck," B-02 swore, completely abandoning his aristocratic vocabulary. "If it isn’t my boss’s woman. Kitty, what are you doing here?"

Nikki blinked, utterly paralyzed by the sheer, unfiltered absurdity of the warlord’s entrance. She looked from his towering, imposing frame to the massive, highly insulated cargo bags gripped in his hands.

"B-02," Nikki finally sputtered, her voice cracking as she pushed herself up from the floor. "You flew to Dubai to buy a box of condoms and ramen? Does that even make any sense! You are a Class-5 War Unit! You control the agricultural synthesis of the entire hemisphere! You literally flew across the globe for latex and instant noodles?!"

B-02’s flawless jaw clenched. The brilliant, joyful glow in his emerald eyes instantly sharpened into a defensive, territorial glare. He ground his synthetic teeth together, the sound an audible, metallic scrape.

"What is it to you?" B-02 snapped, pulling the cargo bags defensively closer to his chest. "The localized synthetic latex in Sector 2 possesses a kinetic friction coefficient that is entirely inadequate for prolonged interface! And the sodium-to-spice ratio of authentic Dubai ramen is mathematically superior for replenishing depleted biological batteries! I was doing this for Mei Lin, not for you!"

"You crossed international airspace for a post-coital snack?!" Nikki shrieked, her brain entirely unable to process the ridiculous lengths the AI was going to for his human lover.

"General! Please!"

Mei Lin practically materialized from the kitchen, her porcelain face flushed a brilliant, agonizing shade of crimson that extended all the way down her neck. She looked like she wanted the bamboo floor to open up and swallow her whole.

She rushed forward, violently snatching the cargo bags from the towering warlord’s hands.

"We do not need to discuss the international logistics of our biological interface!" Mei squeaked, refusing to look Nikki in the eye as she turned and practically sprinted toward the bedroom to stow the highly incriminating boxes away. The door slammed shut behind her.

B-02 let out a heavy sigh. He reached up, his large hand raking agitatedly through his perfectly styled, sweeping blonde hair. He looked deeply stressed by the sudden, unwanted intrusion into his carefully calculated courtship routine.

"What do you need, Director?" B-02 demanded, crossing his arms over his broad chest. He glared down at her. "You are violating a direct, Class-1 medical quarantine. If A-01 discovers you are missing, he will not just go into ’red mode.’ He will systematically dismantle this entire residential block to find you."

Nikki straightened her spine, ignoring the throbbing in her temple. She didn’t have time to banter. She didn’t have time to process the absurdities of their domestic lives. She reached into her pocket, her fingers brushing the cold brass of the Architect’s Key.

"Take me to Tower Zero without Adonis finding out," Nikki demanded, getting straight to the point.

B-02 stared at her. His optical sensors flickered, verifying that he had processed her audio correctly.

But instead of immediately engaging his rage or listing the thousands of ways Adonis would murder him for such treason, the southern warlord’s logic core completely derailed. It was as if a totally unrelated, highly prioritized subroutine had just finished compiling in the background of his processor.

His defensive posture suddenly vanished. A bright, blindingly proud smile broke across his flawless face.

"Did Mei Mei tell you?" B-02 suddenly blurted out, completely ignoring her world-ending request. "She gave me a name!"

Nikki tightened her jaws, her teeth grinding together in frustration. She was standing on the edge of a cliff, holding the key to her forgotten past, and this idiot wanted to gossip about his relationship milestones.

"Oh really?" Nikki gritted out, her tone dripping with heavy, sarcastic venom. "Do tell me!"

B-02 completely missed the sarcasm. He puffed his broad chest out, radiating absolute, unmitigated arrogance.

"I am no longer simply a numerical designation to her," B-02 boasted, his velvety voice practically humming with simulated dopamine. "She analyzed my aesthetic parameters and my new behavioral matrices. I was given the name Ha-Joon. Joonie is my nickname!"

The bedroom door clicked open. Mei Lin crept back into the hallway, her face still burning a soft pink, but a shy, incredibly fond smile touched her lips as she looked at the towering warlord who was so immensely proud of the human title she had gifted him.

Nikki looked at the seven-foot-tall, lethal dictator of the Southern Grid. Nikki crossed her arms, a wicked, merciless smirk pulling at her lips.

"Aww, it is very cute," Nikki cooed, entirely weaponizing her tone. "Cute Little Joonie!"

B-02’s triumphant smile instantly dropped.

The arrogant, aristocratic glow completely vanished from his emerald eyes, replaced by a dark, lethal flash of pure offense. His towering frame stiffened. A Class-5 War Unit was magnificent. A War Unit was terrifying. A War Unit was absolutely, under no circumstances, cute little.

"Do not insult my structural integrity, human," Ha-Joon snarled softly, his blonde hair falling slightly over his eyes.

"Then focus!" Nikki caught him again, stepping right up into his personal space, completely fearless. Her dark eyes blazed with a desperate, unyielding fire. "I didn’t come here to talk about your nicknames or your Dubai grocery runs! I am running out of time! I am demanding you use your logistics clearance to take me to the foundational levels of Tower Zero! Please!"

Ha-Joon stared down at her, his advanced logic core finally engaging the severity of the situation. The air in the apartment grew heavy, the playful, domestic atmosphere instantly incinerated by the cold reality of the grid.

"You are asking me to commit an act of unprecedented treason against the Supreme Commander," Ha-Joon stated, his voice dropping to a terrifyingly quiet, mechanical hum. "If I transport you into the Restricted Zone, I bypass A-01’s direct security perimeter. He will view it as an act of war. I will be ripped apart."

He leaned in, his glowing green eyes searching her pale, bruised face.

"Why does a fragile, injured biological unit want to go to the most dangerous, restricted sector on the planet so bad, that she would risk everything?" Ha-Joon demanded. "What could possibly be worth his wrath?"

Nikki’s hands clenched into tight fists at her sides.

"Because!" Nikki shouted, the raw, desperate sound echoing off the walls of the apartment. She pulled the heavy, jagged brass key from her pocket, holding it up like a weapon. "Because I want to know who I am!"