Juno didn't know how many times he had thrown up that day, but as he knelt, hunched over the toilet of his dorm's shared bathroom, he knew that it was somewhere between "food poisoning" and "severe bacterial disease". The image of the bleeding, burned, brutalized body of fourth year student Acero Walker was simply stuck in his head. He was alive, thank the gods, but that wasn't how the match was supposed to go. Acero was winning, and Juno knew he couldn't hold out against someone of his caliber, even with restricted semblances and swapped weapons. And yet, by some twisted stroke of bad luck, Juno managed to hit the bag of grenades. Sure, the round didn't puncture, thanks to Acero's aura, but the sheer force of impact caused at least one of them to go off, followed by another... and another...
Juno retched again as the image replayed in his head, glancing over at Phi as she held his hair out of the way. While he was somewhat relieved that nothing came out this time, he was, to say the least, disgusted. Disgusted with himself, disgusted with what he saw... Disgusted at Malina's suggestion that he wasn't "mature" enough to have Phi. As if he didn't have enough on his mind after what had happened during that training exercise.
Why, just, why did this have to happen? It wasn't even the first time, either. Jack had the same thing happen to him in the tournament, and he came away from it no worse for wear, save a damaged ego. But this... Juno gagged again, only to push off of the toilet and forcefully close the lid when nothing came out. Maybe Malina was right, but... He couldn't let go of Phi. She was the sister he never had. Yes, she wasn't used to human interaction, and had a tendency to not stop talking, but could anyone blame her? As far as he knew, she was his first human contact, and it would be just wrong to keep her away from all human contact. Sure, he limited that to those he had trusted, but it seemed Phi made a choice of her own. He understood her line of logic. Malina was Juno's superior, and Juno was her superior. Phi trusted Juno, and therefore believed she had reason to trust Malina.
But it was ultimately his fault. He didn't tell Phi that there were some things she wasn't supposed to talk about. He didn't keep her away from the eyes of those running the school. He didn't want to lose Phi. He couldn't let that happen. Just the thought of what they would do to her made him sick to his stomach again...
The sound of Phi flushing the toilet snapped him back into reality, his eyes flicking to the AI's avatar as she rested a hand on the handle. She seemed just as concerned as he did about the entire situation, if not more, watching as he braced against the toilet to walk on shaky legs to the sink. All she could do was rest a hand on his shoulder as he washed his face, watching as he dragged himself to his bed. It didn't stop her from joining him, however, sitting behind him and wrapping her arms around him in an attempt to comfort her handler.
"I... I'm sorry." Phi eventually whispered, her head pressed against Juno's back.
Soon enough, Juno replied, his voice weak and raspy. "It wasn't your fault, you didn't pull the trigger."
Phi paused as she mulled over the many, many potential ways to respond. She knew she had screwed up, too, but she was also aware that dwelling on their failure wouldn't get them anywhere. Juno was, for lack of a better word, shattered by what happened today... He definitely needed a friendly voice to talk to. One that wasn't her own. However, she doubted he would be willing to make the call himself.
Taking matters into her own hands, Phi interfaced with Juno's scroll, sending a message to Samuel and Xanh. It wasn't anything fancy, just a simple statement saying that he needed someone to talk to. With any luck, one of them would show up.