Keep your advice to yourself.

Not an hour after Nine left the lab, Sam received an emergency notification on his phone. He quickly returned to his post and waited, and a few minutes later, two drones entered carrying a coffin-like transparent pod with Zero Three's unconscious body inside. 

It was the worst condition he had seen a Valkyrie in ever since he started this job. Her almond-colored skin, previously smooth and soft, was now littered with burns. Her long brown hair was damaged, the exoskeleton she wore was broken with pieces of it still clinging to her form, and almost nothing was left of the suit she wore for combat. One look was all he needed to know that she failed to increase the output of her Force Field in time.

But those things weren't what told of how critical her condition is. The young Valkyrie was unconscious. As a walking computer, one would expect that damaging her Shell wouldn't affect the operation of her central processor, but that logic didn't apply in the case of Valkyries. For some reason, they were created with limiters that caused them to go out of commission if they were to receive a considerable amount of damage. 

With how peaceful things have been around the forty sixth base, Sam didn't have many chances to see damage of this level. He wished the robot was wide awake, at least that way he wouldn't have had to deal with nausea induced by looking at the burned body of a young girl, something that reminded him of the early days of the war.

"What happened?" He asked, turning to the door where the other two stood.

While they were in a much better condition, he realized that they had a rather tough battle just by looking at the state of their equipment and clothes. 

"We had a run-in with a B-class Calamity." Said Nine, a shadow cast over her face. "We failed to measure its true potential and…" 

"Please be at ease, Doctor." Zero Five came forward intending to reassure him. "We've managed to neutralize the threat and made sure no other Calamities were in the area."

"I see…"

Although he tried not to care, the event gave Sam an ominous feeling. Now wasn't the time to be worrying about it, however. With the Valkyries being the main weapon of the base, one of them being incapacitated reduced its defensive capabilities quite a bit. He needed to get her back in shape as soon as possible, otherwise, the other two would have to carry the burden of another attack on their own.

"You two can go clean yourselves and change." He said and waved them away. "We can fix you during the usual examination. For now, I need to deal with this."

Sam's lack of concern for their condition caused Nine to frown, though the change in her expression went unnoticed as he had his back to her. Once they left the room, he immediately got to work grabbing the tablet that was placed on his desk.

"This... doesn't look good…"

It was obvious just from looking, but when he checked the results of the rough checkup done by the drones he realized things might be even worse than he thought.

It was weak, but the sensors had detected gamma radiation on her skin. If she hadn't been put into that pod he'd have been in quite the danger right now.

"Well, her central processor -head- is safe, at least. And her heart is undamaged..." That was good news. 

Sliding his fingers on the screen, he gave the drones a list of instructions. First, they are to move to the next room where the devices used for the examination are kept. Once they're there he wouldn't have to worry about the radiation killing him. Next, they are to remove the damaged exoskeleton and combat suit and seal them in special containers. Once that's done the unconscious Zero Three would be left stark naked, but he didn't really care about that right now.

While the drones were doing their work Sam went and prepared the examination device for a more thorough reparation process.

The device is called Eir. Simply put, it was a large cylindrical container made out of transparent glass-like material. Sam instructed the drones to place Zero Three inside it. When the mechanical arms let go of her she was left floating in a standing position as if suspended in the air by an invisible force. The container was sealed soon after and several holes opened at its base where a strange green liquid began to fill the interior.

The liquid was a mixture of many components, however the most important of all were the billions of nanomachines it contained which allowed for more complex procedures than what can be done by other means.

Putting the tablet aside Sam pulled his chair and sat down at his desk. In front of him were several monitors linked to the computer controlling Eir.

"Let's start by cleaning the wounds…"

Going through the more detailed data gathered by Eir, Sam began typing on the keyboard entering a list of commands. It was impossible to tell if something was happening just by looking, but the nanomachines were already on the move removing all foreign bodies from the Valkyrie's damaged Shell and cleaning the contamination as well.

About fifteen minutes had passed and everything was going well. Sam let himself relax for a moment, and as he did, Zero Five and Nine came back after cleaning themselves and changing their clothes.

"I'm mostly done over here." He said. "It'll take some time before she's fully recovered, but there is nothing to worry about."

It perplexed him that he went through the effort of informing them of the examination results. Nevertheless, seeing the relieved looks on their faces helped improve his mood, even if a little.

They didn't seem to have any injuries on the surface. Still, the daily examination was something they couldn't neglect, especially after a Calamity encounter.

The two went to their own containers and waited for the process to start. Soon enough they were submerged in a green liquid themselves, but compared to the one Zero Three was in, theirs were clearer and much less viscous.

"Alright then." Checking if there was anything he had overlooked, Sam sat back and let the machines do their work.

~◇~

A few hours later Zero Three opened her eyes. Noticing the green filter from which she saw the world gave her enough clues of her whereabouts. She let out a sigh then looked down at her body to see if the restoration process was already done.

The sight wasn't a pleasant one. Not in the least. The new skin was pure white and lacked the tan she'd gained over time. Because of that, she looked like some really bad patchwork and one could easily tell where the monstrosity managed to injure her.

[I see you're awake.]

As she cursed the mess her body was in a voice reached her ears, although weakened by the green liquid.

[The process is done and you're back to normal.] She recognized it as that of the Doctor. [I guess it's alright if you come out now.]

The green liquid slowly drained from the container. One would expect it to cling to the skin because of its viciousness, however when it was gone not a single drop was left on the young Valkyrie. She still felt a bit sticky though, but that was nothing a bath couldn't fix.

Her biggest concern was the mess that had befallen her body. She'd need a long sunbath to get it back to how it was, but with the warning she received about the outdoor pool, she was sure that guy wouldn't stop the nagging till she'd lose her mind.

Leaving the examination room, she found the Doctor standing by the door with a big towel in his hands. Though it wasn't the first time, something about being seen naked by him caused her quite a bit of discomfort so she snatched the towel and quickly covered herself.

Sam was a bit taken aback by her reaction, though he understood what caused it very well. The concept of shame wasn't something a walking computer could grasp, of course, however her programming dictated that she must act a certain way in certain situations. She was made to act the same way a young girl in her position would act, and though most people would find it adorable, Sam couldn't help but think it was completely unnecessary.

"How are you feeling?" He asked, doing his best to keep his eyes off her.

"What do you think?" Zero Three replied, sounding a bit annoyed.

Turning around, Sam walked over to his desk and threw himself onto the chair.

"You got hit pretty bad. It's actually surprising that you managed to survive."

"Hah! Of course I would!" Putting a hand on her chest she proudly sang her own praises. "I'm a Valkyrie, the greatest weapon ever to grace your miserable pathetic world! Unlike you weak and useless humans, a single Calamity will never be enough to take me down!"

"Ah, yeah yeah, just make sure to keep the damage you sustain to a minimum." Sam's disinterested tone seemed to trigger Zero Three a little, not that he was about to start caring now. He was way too tired for that. "Remember that we only have the three of you in this base. We can't afford to have you out of it for nine hours every time you get hurt."

"Wha-"

Hearing how much she had spent in the container, the young Valkyrie finally understood the extent of the damage she had sustained. It was enough to force her central processor to shut down, that should've been enough for her to know.

"Well, I was just taken by surprise this time." She said, attempting to shrug the topic off. "I doubt this will happen again."

"Oh, it will," Sam replied. "If you continue to disregard the warnings and keep being so reckless. This isn't some game you play, there are lives on the line here."

The more he thought about it, the more confused Sam became. The characters the Valkyries play are nothing but a program designed to make them seem more human; it shouldn't have an effect on their fighting capabilities and decision-making during combat. Zero Three being the rebellious little brat shouldn't impact her performance on the battlefield. Even so, she still got herself damaged to that extent.

Even if he were to consider the strength of the Calamity the girls faced, they should've been able to compose a better course of action, one that didn't end with one of them that badly hurt.

As he pondered over the questions, Sam failed to notice as the girl's petite body trembled in front of him.

"Then why don't you go fight them yourself?"

The moment his brain processed those words, a shiver ran through his whole body.

"All you humans do is complain. You nag and nag and nag all while hiding at the back where it's safe. How about you go out and fight those things for a change?"

"Zero Three… you…"

"Ah! But you can't!" Looking at him with eyes so cold he could feel the temperature dropping, the young Valkyrie smiled a sadistic smile as she reminded him of the reality of their world. "You're all weak pathetic bags of flesh. Especially you, old man. Though in your case it's nothing but bones."

Turning to the door, Zero Three stumped the floor as she went to take her leave.

"Keep your advice to yourself next time. I don't need you to tell me how I should fight."

As the grey alloy door closed behind her, Sam was left frozen in his seat.