VALKYRIE SMASH

"Zero Three!!!"

The young Valkyrie was taken aback when a strange woman suddenly approached her with tearful eyes. She had an inkling of who the woman was, but the absurdness of the situation made it a bit difficult to recall right away.

"Ah! Melissa, right?" She said. "The president of that fan club thing from back when…"

Three didn't have much to work with since their interactions were quite brief. Valkyries weren't allowed to be around humans until only recently so the only instances they got to talk were that time the Doctor invited her to eat with him and the party that took place a while later.

"Can I hug you?"

Seeing the red haired woman reach toward her with shaky hands Three turned to the one who summoned her giving him a worried look. Sam could only shrug, smiling wryly as if telling her it was her choice to make. After a moment of thought the young Valkyrie turned her sight to the human female and plastered a polite smile on her face.

"Um… sure, why no-"

As soon as the words left her mouth Melissa practically jumped at her startling Zero Three even more. She had to actively stop herself from reacting to the sudden physical contact, but when the initial discomfort faded away she found herself in a tight embrace of who someone genuinely cared about her, something she only felt from her beloved Doctor and other Valkyries.

"I'm sorry…" Melissa said, continuously bowling her eyes. "It must've been difficult, right? It must've been scary, right? I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! If only we weren't such frail creatures, you wouldn't have had to fight on our behalf! Sorry for being so useless!"

The situation confused not only Three but the other Valkyries she brought along with her as well. Seeing that it wasn't about to end any time soon she turned her gaze to Sam once more, but all he did was move his hands in a peculiar motion, though she only realized what it meant a few seconds later.

"There there. It's alright. Everything is fine now."

The young Valkyrie returned the hug and whispered softly as she patted the human woman's back. Melissa kept apologizing again and again, cursing her own weakness and her inability to do anything to help with the war. Considering that even Valkyries used to have difficulties when dealing with Calamities, no one blamed the much weaker humans for not being able to contribute in battle directly. Knowing that did little to stop the guilt that came crashing on Melissa as she listened to Sam's story of how he discovered that Freyja's Children were humans as well.

She couldn't accept the fact that she sat around doing nothing of note while an innocent girl was out there fighting horrors beyond human understanding. The very thought filled her heart with unbearable pain and she refused to listen to anything else Sam said until he allowed her to meet the young Valkyrie so she could properly apologize.

'I can't tell if she's being sincere or if she's just taking advantage of the situation…'

Whatever the case, this strange situation was a fundamental step in Sam's plan of getting Freyja's Children recognized as humans.

Even after the war ended Sam made the choice of keeping the world in the dark when it came to the truth about both Valkyries and Nephilim. The question came up many times before, but since he never gave a concrete answer the humans of his world still believe the story about the girls being humanoid weapons with highly advanced AI.

Shattering that belief was bound to cause unpredictable chaos and disorder, bringing out the darkest sides of humanity. Just like how the possibility of an AI apocalypse kept humans wary of their saviors, knowing that they were soulless machines brought comfort to their hearts as well. A weapon can only be as dangerous as the person controlling it is, but if said weapon was to have a mind of its own, if it had the free will to decide how its power is used, that weapon would become a potential danger that is out of human control.

Nino's Needle showed that for a long while humans would refuse the idea of the Valkyries the same as them, instead choosing to believe a conspiracy theory that says the robots have gained sentient and that the government is covering it up. As expected the distrust leads to massive civil unrest and if not addressed very early on it could trickle down to a much larger conflict once the Awakened receive their powers. Because of that Sam has to do everything in his power to bridge the gap between humans and Valkyries, getting them to treat each other as equals before the fanatics on either get a chance to ruin their future.

"Alright, Lieutenant Ranford. Time to get back to work."

Ten minutes was the most they could afford to waste, and even though she had already stopped crying, the female soldier refused to let go of the young Valkyrie.

"If you don't finish your job in time you won't get to hang out with her afterwards."

Hearing his words, Melissa gave Zero Three a tight squeeze then slowly moved away, turning to Sam with hopeful eyes.

"Really?"

"There are no rules stopping you anymore so…" Sam heaved a long sigh. "You can do what you want as long as it doesn't cause any trouble. Of course work comes first."

Melissa's sorrowful expression instantly brightened and she quickly turned to Zero Three.

"I'm sorry, Three. Big Sis has work to do right now. Can we meet again at a later time?"

"B-big sis…?"

The young Valkyrie could only turn to Sam once more, but all she got was an apologetic look that told her to play along.

"... Sure. Let's meet again when you're done…"

Melissa had a content smile, waving at Zero Three as she left the office. Not a second after the door closed behind her the red haired woman turned to the Doctor with a serious expression, her character taking a dramatic shift as she returned to her normal self.

"What do you need me to do?"

Her eyes were ablaze with determination and that put a smile on Sam's face.

"From here on out you'll be the head of our Public Relations department. Your job will be to spread the truth about the Valkyries and Nephilim as well as improve their image in the eyes of humans." Pausing for a moment, Sam turned his eyes to the other side of the room where the Valkyries who arrived with Zero Three stood silently waiting for his instructions. "Your first task has already been decided. You'll be working with those three to make a short video explaining what happened in the Nephilim world and informing the public of the change that will take place three days from now."