“What happened?” Ethan asked, jumping to his feet, reaching out to Crescent and the stoats, and looking around in confusion, when they couldn’t find any danger.
“Sorry, sorry.” Davis said, sitting up and rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. “I couldn’t sleep any longer, so I thought I’d get to work. But… I didn’t wanna wake you guys up, so I only used a flashlight and…”
“It’s ok kid,” Nine said with a sigh, resting the butt of her spear on the ground. “That was thoughtful of you. But try to be more careful, ok? Once we leave and you’re on your own, any mishaps like that could be fatal.” Nodding his agreement, Ethan got to his feet.
“What time is it anyway?” He asked, still feeling tired, but refreshed enough to think at least a good chunk of the night had passed.
“Eight o’clock, by Luna’s ship time.” Davis said, still rubbing the back of his head, as he climbed to his feet. “I woke up about an hour ago, didn’t want to wake you… but I got antsy so I thought I’d climb up and work where I wouldn’t bother you.”
“No worries,” Ethan said, rolling up his sleeping bag. “We should get a move on while it’s still early… not that there is really a day or night on this asteroid… unless you count whenever a chunk of debris drifts between us and this system’s sun anyway.”
“Just be happy we’re facing the sun more often than not,” Nine said with a snort, moving to roll up her own bag. “We could be stuck in eternal darkness, only a bit of light on the horizon at any given time.”
“Well, isn’t that a cheerful thought.” Ethan said, somehow feeling better.
“Again, I'm sorry you guys.” Davis said, looking embarrassed. “I just, saw how… comfortable you guys looked together, and I didn’t want to wake you up.”
“What?” Nine asked, looking at the kid with confusion for a moment, before understanding crossed her face and her cheeks heated. “No, it’s… we just… ah forget it. Come on big guy, hurry up and eat. I wanna get started.” Finished rolling up her bag, Nine climbed up the ladder, likely to check on the meat strips they’d put in the oven to jerk overnight.
Ethan exchanged a look with Davis, the kid giving him the look any young man would when seeing another guy scoring with a girl. With a shake of his head, Ethan just shrugged it off. There wasn’t anything going on between himself and Nine. Even if there were, he really didn’t have any interest in talking to Davis, a guy more than fifteen years his junior, about it.
“You got everything you need?” Davis asked, after handing over the thirteen taser rounds to Nine, and asking Ethan if he had enough rations in his pack. The worry on the kid’s face made Ethan smile, and he nodded, clapping him on the shoulder.
“We got everything we need, thanks man.” He said, trying to inject comfort into his words. “I don’t know how long it will take us to walk all the way around the crater, but don’t worry about us for three days. If we don’t come back after that, you can go back to Luna. She’ll be able to tell if I’m dead or not. Be careful though, she’ll likely try to make you her Dungeon boss of I am.” They shared a laugh at the joke, even though neither of them found it funny.
“Boys,” Nine said with a shake of her head. “If you’re done, let’s get out of here already.” Without waiting for a response, she climbed the ladder that led to the makeshift door, eased it open, and peeked outside. Ethan waited, axe in hand, until the tension left her shoulders and Nine opened the door the rest of the way. “Clear,” she said, climbing outside.
“Take care man,” Ethan said, then followed her up. Looking back, he watched as Davis closed and locked the door behind them. Leaving the kid didn’t feel right to Ethan, but Nine had made several good points the day before while they’d been alone. The ensign wasn’t prepared for the situation they found themselves in. If he froze up again in combat, he could get himself, or either of them, killed. No, it was far better to leave him here to do something that really did need doing, while the two of them explored alone. The sooner they made it to the center of the crater, the sooner they could get off this rock.
“Let’s do this.” Ethan said, dropping the round shield from his shoulder to grip the handle in his left hand. Readjusting the grip on his hobgoblin’s axe, he nodded to Nine to lead the way. With a snort at his actions, Nine only readjusted the strap of the taser rifle on her shoulder, before moving up towards the lip of the crater.
The pair had discussed their travel plans at length the night before, deciding in the end to walk along the lip of the crater. They would stay just inside the domain, where there was air, but close enough so they could see down into the crater, as well as out into the area surrounding it. It was a risk, because up on the lip of the bowl like that, they could be seen from anyone looking up, likely even better than they could see down into the forest. Still, if they didn’t stay clear of the forest, they wouldn’t be able to see anything but the trees directly surrounding them.
They walked in silence for close to an hour. The going was slow, considering they were on the edge of a literal impact crater, and the ground was made up entirely of broken stones in all sizes. Still, without having to walk through the forest, and without being attacked, they covered about a third of the crater’s circumference. A circumference that was a little over three miles, if Ethan was remembering his math right. He wasn’t confident about that, and there was no way he was asking Nine. So, he just went with it.
“What’s that?” Nine asked suddenly, stopping in her tracks and pointing down into the forest. Ethan, whose mind had begun to wander after so long without seeing anything at all, had to follow her finger to see what she was pointing at.
“It looks like the tower, only laying flat instead of sticking straight up in the air.” Ethan said after a long moment where his eyes adjusted, and he filtered the trees out of his mental view.
“Right?” Nine asked with a smile. “Only, this section looks even bigger than the tower. I think it came from the same ship. Maybe even the same section of ship. I think we should go check it out.”
“I… don’t know.” Ethan said at last, judging the distance to the crashed section of ship by how far from the lip and how close to the back half of the Luna it was. “It looks like it’s will inside the crater. Definitely passed the outer ring. Luna said the closer we get to the center, the stronger the enemies will get… are we really ready to go in that far?”
“We’ll have to do it eventually,” Nine said with a shrug. “I’ve got a full rifle, and two more loads here if we run into trouble. Not to mention how strong you are getting to be. Coupled with your ability to heal… short of instant death, I think you’ll be fine down there.” Ethan only nodded after a while, not mentioning how it wasn’t him he was worried about.
“Fine, let’s go check it out.” He said after a while, “but if it gets too dangerous, we’re pulling out. We have our helmets and oxygen scrubbers. We’ll run outside the domain and make our way back to the Luna if it gets too crazy down there.”
“Sure,” Nine said nodding in agreement. Though Ethan had serious reservations at just how honest she was being when he looked at the expression on her face.
“Fine,” he said again, feeling defeated. “Let’s go.” Taking their bearings, the pair readied their weapons and set off. Heading directly towards the crash site.
Once they entered the tree line, navigation became significantly harder. Reinforcing in Ethan’s mind their decision to walk outside the forest. Still, they managed to keep more or less on the right path. Helped partially by Nine, who stopped every few trees to carve a small X into their trunks. Each time she did this, Ethan went into high alert mode. Scanning the surroundings and hoping they wouldn’t be attacked while her gun hands were busy. After a few hundred yards, the tension grew in him, to the point where he saw movement in every shadow. The paranoia got so bad, that when he actually did see movement, he almost missed it completely.
“Incoming,” he whispered harshly, as the large form burst into motion only thirty feet away from them. The form was joined a moment later by two more, and Ethan had to fight the urge to turn right around and run when he realized what he was looking at. They were wild boars. Only, unlike before, these pigs were five feet long, and covered in bone plates.
“Oh shit,” Nine muttered. The rifle was already at her shoulder, and her artificial eye pressed tight to the sights. She let out three quick shots, but again unlike before, none of the opponents went down. The rounds being harmlessly deflected away by the thick bone plates that covered their course brown hides. With a curse, Nine continued pulling the trigger. The taser rifle held ten rounds, and she’d emptied it in a matter of seconds. Yet only one of the three forms had gone down, screaming loud enough to wake the entire forest. The other two were only five feet away by then, and Nine dropped the magazine from the rifle and reached for a second, as if she wasn’t moments away from being run down.
“Shit,” Ethan said, echoing her words from a moment ago as he reached out and yanked her to the side, gun falling from her hands as the pair of angry pigs thundered passed them. “Forget it, their armors too thick. Just kill the one you already hit.” He shouted into her face, shoving her away as he spun to fully face the giant armored boar as they swung around in a wide turn.
“Damn it, Ethan.” Nine said, as she staggered away, hands grasping at him but only finding purchase on his belt for a brief moment. “Don’t you dare get yourself killed doing…” Ethan tuned her words out after that. Too busy focusing on the charging pigs to pay her words any more mind.
They were fast, moving so quickly Ethan didn’t know how they managed it on their stubby legs. Still, he could tell from the turn they’d made they shared a weakness with the war dogs. Shaking the shield off his arm, Ethan tossed it to the ground. These pigs were five feet long and had to weigh at least five hundred pounds. Shield or no shield, if he got hit by that much mass moving that quickly he’d end up dead or crippled. So, he figured he might as well make the best use of his hands to go on the attack.
Crouching, Ethan readied himself. The timing had to be perfect. The pigs seemed to know what he had in mind or were just naturally inclined to attack like they were. Weaving from side to side as they ran. Widening and then narrowing the gap between themselves as they charged. With a curse, Ethan realized he wasn’t going to be able to time his attack perfectly and decided to just wing it. He waited for the last second, letting the boars come within his axes reach before he acted. Throwing himself to the side and swinging his axe at the nearest boar’s leg.
The axe connected with the joint, sending the creature tumbling head over heels, but also ripping the axe from his hands. Not only that, but his shoulder impacted with a nearby tree as he tried to tumble away and he found himself knocked to the ground, unable to breathe as the wind had left his lungs in a whoosh.
The screaming behind him doubled, as a second pig added its injured cries to the firsts. Then, the noise level reduced suddenly and Ethan assumed Nine finished off the boar, she’d originally tased. Ethan would have let out a sigh of relief, but his lungs still refused to obey. Despite that, he forced himself to roll over, watching as the third, and only uninjured pig, came back around for another charge.
Scrabbling to get to his feet, Ethan noted the absence of sound as the second boar’s squeals were cut off. Nine must have gotten that one too, he thought as he finally staggered to his feet. Only to jump to the side instantly, when he looked up to see the pig was already on him again. This time, it was both he and the pig who smashed into trees. In Ethan’s case, the tree won the impact challenge and he hit the ground again, lungs once again empty, and shoulder hurting from the impact.
The pig, however, smashed into its tree with all the force of a wrecking ball. Snapping the young pine off at the base, and sending the whole thing crashing down onto Ethan, who hadn't managed to get to his feet again. Letting out a groan, Ethan pushed at the tree, trying to get it off of himself and clear his vision at the same time. He knew how fast the pigs could run, and if he didn’t move now, he might just find himself run over or gored to death in a matter of seconds.
A bang rang out, a loud booming note that filled the air and made Ethan’s ears ring. It was followed by a second, then a third bang, and was accompanied by the squeals of the final pig. Confused, Ethan tried again to get the pine tree off his back. It was suddenly ripped away, just in time for him to watch Nine fire the 1911 she must have snagged from his belt again. The round smashed directly into the pig’s temple as it rushed passed him. The broken pine tree snagged on one of its tusks.
The beast was dead, though it didn’t know it right away. It continued to run for twenty feet or so, before falling to the ground, blood flowing from several holes Ethan could now see covering its head and neck.
“You ok?” Nine asked, her voice sounding muffled and indistinct through the ringing in Ethan’s ears. Shaking his head to clear the confusion caused by the successive impacts, and the loud noise the gun had made, Ethan finally nodded his head as Nine yanked him to his feet. He didn’t have time to be surprised at the strength she displayed, as she shoved him towards his axe. “Get your gear, we need to move, and now.” She yelled, stooping down to grab the taser rifle she’d dropped when Ethan had pulled her from the pig’s charge.
Ethan didn’t argue, too rattled and winded to bother. Instead, he did as he was told, grabbing up the axe and shield, before turning to Nine. To see the absolute torrent of kill energy that flowed through her body like a raging river. Each heart-like beat pumping more energy into her weak body than an entire goblin kill had managed before. Realizing she had at least two if not three armored boar kills impacting her at once, Ethan was still shocked at the amount of energy he could see. Stopping to gape at her, until the flat of her hand caught him in a light cuff to the side of his head.
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“Stare at me later,” she snapped, shoving him and pointing over his shoulder. “Now, we have to run. The lip of the crater is that way.” Then, run they did. They ran for all they were worth. Ethan, to his shock, found himself lagging behind the shorter woman, as she sprinted through the undergrowth like a deer. Ethan was far less agile, and he carried far more of their gear on his back, slowing him down even further. Still, he managed to keep pace. Right up until they crashed through a break in the trees to come upon the downed section of spaceship they’d been looking for. Except, they’d been trying to get out of the forest.
“Shit,” Nine said, and snapped the pistol up. With a groan, Ethan followed her line of aim, to see the pair of riders now bearing down on them. Both riders where well armored hobgoblins, mounted on equally armored war dogs.
“Take em out,” he urged fingers turning white on the heft of his axe. Looking at the riders, he observed one carried a short spear, while the other held an axe very much like his own.
“Only three rounds left.” Nine said as she pulled the trigger. Once, twice, three times. Ethan couldn’t hear the slide lock back over the ringing in his ears, but he knew the weapon was empty when she dropped it to the ground and readied her spear. One of the dogs, the one carrying the axe wielder, stumbled and fell to the ground. Sending the hobgoblin tumbling. The other mount and rider looked to have weathered the fire unharmed and they continued to charge.
“You take that one,” Nine yelled, pointing with her spear at the downed hobgoblin. As the remaining foe threw the short spear. It whipped through the air, only missing Ethan’s head by inches. With a curse, Ethan charged forward, as the hobgoblin pulled another short spear, a javelin, Ethan realized, from a quiver mounted on the war dog’s flank.
He worried about Nine, but his charge had already carried him passed the javelin thrower, and he was swiftly approaching the axe wielder. He was already on his feet, shaking his head to clear away the tumble. Axe gripped firmly in his gauntleted hands. Not waiting for the hob to make the first move, Ethan swung his axe with all his might. Only to be blocked and deflected by a slight twist of the goblin’s wrist. Ethan didn’t miss the wince of pain at the collision, the smaller hob not able to completely nullify his strength advantage.
The hob followed up with a swing of his own, but the axe rebounded off Ethan’s armor. He still felt the impact and staggered back a pace. Fighting the momentum of his first swing to bring the axe back around for another blow. Ethan was shocked when he watched the hobgoblin swing his axe in a sort of loop, maintaining his momentum after his strike and landing a second blow on Ethan before he’d wrestled his axe around.
Again, the blow didn’t penetrate the new armor Nine and Davis had made. Still, the impact was enough to bruise his ribs. A few more blows like that, and he’d be winded enough for the hob to get in a critical blow. Just like before, the hob swung his axe in a tight loop, bringing it back around using the momentum from its swing, but Ethan’s axe was finally back on target, and he swung the weapon like a baseball bat with all the force he could muster.
Just like the first time, the hob deflected the blow, but the force was too great to cancel out. The armored hob stumbled back, desperately trying to regain his footing. It would have been the perfect time to finish it off, but Ethan was off balance from the roundhouse swing and couldn’t follow up. Allowing the green skinned foe to steady itself and lash out with a controlled swing.
This time, Ethan’s armor wasn’t up to the task. The tip of the axe found a small gap between the carbon fiber reinforced plates and dug a short furrow into his ribs. It wasn’t a lethal blow, but it still hurt like hell.
Realizing he wasn’t going to best the hob with axe skills, Ethan decided it was time to leverage his greater size and strength advantage. Letting go of the axe, Ethan tackled the surprised hobgoblin to the ground. It was considerably smaller than he was, about Nine’s size and built with whipcord thin muscles meant for speed and agility. None of that mattered at all once Ethan pinned him and got his hands around the hob’s throat. Two minutes, and a fierce struggle later and the hob lay still.
“Took you long enough,” Nine said from behind Ethan’s back. The snide words tinted with exhaustion. Frowning down at the strangled hob, blood dripping from his skinsuit, Ethan had just about enough and turned to snap at the annoying woman.
“Damn it, Nine. I’m…” his retort died unspoken, when he saw Nine. Slumped against a tree with a javelin imbedded in her chest.
“Nine,” he said, voice raised in panic as he staggered over to her. “What happened?” He asked, taking in the rest of her form and seeing the bite marks that marred her neck. Thankfully, he could see the kill energy pulsing through her body, already going to work healing the wounds. Without waiting for her to reply, Ethan placed one hand over the point of impact and pulled the javelin away with the other.
“Ahh, damn it. Give a girl a warning next time.” Nine protested weakly, hands scrabbling at the wound. Ethan paid no mind, shoving her hands away as he pressed down firmly on the puncture wound just below her right breast. Forcing his mana into her. It mixed with the mana already pumping through her body in the form of kill energy, and Ethan was able to gain control over it. Not consciously understanding what he was doing, he seized control over the wild mana and forced it, along with his own, into the wound.
A wave of dizziness washed through him as his mana bottomed out, but he didn’t stop. Reaching out to the ambient mana in the area, and forcing it into himself, then pushing it into her. Ethan couldn’t explain what he was doing, but he was so focused that it didn’t matter. He continued to push mana into Nine’s body until there was nothing left to fix, and darkness claimed him.
* * *
Ethan regained consciousness in fits and starts, with long periods of blackness mixed in. The first time he opened his eyes, he found himself leaning against a tree. A strange woman with shoulder length blonde hair stood over him, spear in hand, as she fought off a small swarm of goblins. He couldn’t keep his eyes open for long though and the vision slipped away.
The next time his eyes opened, he was staring at a grey surface from inches away while a green blur moved around him. His face smacked into something red and sticky. Ethan’s addled mind managed to piece the seen together, and realized Nine must be carrying him over her shoulder. The green blur was the forest moving by, and the sticky substance must be her blood from where the javelin had exited her back. No sooner did that realization hit him, his world went black once more.
The third time his eyes opened, it was accompanied by pain. It felt as if he’d fallen some distance and slammed into something hard. Blinking his eyes and looking around, Ethan found himself inside an LED lit steel box. With the strange blonde woman, who looked to be wearing Nine’s armor, looking down through a hole in the roof. Ethan desperately tried to put the pieces together, wondering what had happened to Nine. Then his consciousness failed him again.
The next time Ethan’s eyes opened; he knew right away he’d be able to stay awake this time. The dizziness in his head had cleared, but it had been replaced by pain. His entire body was awash with it. He hurt everywhere. The pain doing more to wake him up than being plunged into ice cold water.
“Gahhh,” he ground out through clenched teeth, looking down at himself in confusion. His armored skinsuit was ripped and torn in a dozen places, and there was even an arrow sticking out of his right leg. It looked like someone had wrapped the shaft in dirty cloth, but it had long since bled through. What the hell happened?
“Ethan, Ethan, can you hear me?” Blinking rapidly to clear the pain that had narrowed his vision, Ethan looked up to see who was talking to him. It was the blonde-haired woman. Only now, her hair had been hacked off into a rough pixie cut. Her armor, Nine’s armor, was just as battered and bloody as his own. It didn’t look like she was currently injured despite that though. “…han, I need you to focus. Can you do that for me?” The woman had been talking, but Ethan hadn’t heard most of what she’d said. Odd, she had a prosthetic eye too, just like Nine.
“Who…” he managed to croak out around a tongue that felt like sandpaper. “Where’s… Nine?”
“Ethan. Damn it Ethan, Focus.” The woman shouted, grabbing the front of his torn armor and shaking him. The motion sending spikes of agony through is body. “I need you to heal yourself, do you hear me? Heal yourself right now you moon damned fool.” The woman, who Ethan finally recognized as Nine, was getting hysterical.
“…heal,” he repeated, nodding. At last understanding what she was trying to say, and also that healing himself would take care of the pain. Doing his best to focus, Ethan reached for his mana pool. It felt wrong somehow, in a way he couldn’t explain. Like a sponge that had been twisted and wrung out so thoroughly that it couldn’t go back to its intended shape. Still, there was mana in there, and he pulled on it. Forcing it to move into his body, and the wounds that covered it.
The agony subsided slowly as the wounds knit themselves back together. His head slowly cleared, and his vision came into sharper focus, at least, it did until Nine pulled out the arrow in his knee.
“Gaahhh damn…” He screamed, trying to push more mana into that leg. A leg he now saw was red and inflamed, with pus leaking from the wound now that the arrow shaft had been removed. Nine didn’t wait to check on him at all, before reaching around to his back and pulling another arrow from where it had been lodged in his shoulder blade, causing another shriek of pain. Ethan marveled at just how messed up he must be, not having even noticed the second arrow.
Ethan focused only on healing himself for the next several seconds. Worried as he watched his mana rapidly bleeding from his warped mana pool. Thankfully, there was no mana loss when healing himself, and by the time his mana was gone, Ethan had healed enough to at least stabilize himself and turn his attention to the worried Nine, still straddling his torso.
“What happened?” He asked, his tongue not feeling quite as swollen but still dry.
“Here,” Nine said, tilting his head back and forcing a canteen to his lips. Ethan wanted to protest, but he was too weak. In the end, he could only sip at the water as she drizzled it into his mouth.
“What… happened?” He tried again, around a mouthful of water. Desperate to know what was going on.
“Don’t worry about that for now,” Nine said. Tilting more water into his mouth.
“But…” Ethan said, pushing feebly against her hand. “…I”
This time Nine cut his words off by pressing her mouth into his, hard. She kissed him deeply, pressing her body tightly against his. The kiss brought more pain and confusion to Ethan than anything, and before he could think how to respond, she’d already pulled away.
“Don’t talk,” she whispered into his ear, voice thick with unshed tears. “Just rest. I’ll feed you a ration pack, something soft. Recover, and heal yourself again. We’ll talk when you’re better.” Nothing he said after that got a response. In the end, he just did as he was told. She spoon-fed him what he thought was supposed to be mashed potatoes, followed by more water. It took longer for his mana pool to recover than normal, a lot longer, and even when it was filled, the capacity seemed to be less than it was before. Still, after three or four hours he was able to heal himself completely back to full health.
“Ok, Nine, I’m fully healed.” Ethan said, gently pushing her away and climbing to his feet. “Now, tell me what’s going on and where we are.” Looking around, he assumed they were in a spaceship. Probably the crashed one they’d ran into before the ambush. Still, apart from the small hole in the ceiling, a hole that had been patched with emergency panels sometime while he was out, it looked completely intact. Not that there was much to see, they were in a ten-by-ten corridor, with two blank walls and blast doors on either side.
“Nope,” Nine said shaking her head. The short blonde hair swishing around at the motion. Her appearance was another mystery to him. She almost looked like a completely different person. With hair instead of a bald head, and her face and frame fully fleshed out. She looked like a woman now, instead of a malnourished child with arms and legs too big for their body. “Shower first. Then we talk.”
Without waiting for a response, she grabbed the front of his armor and pulled. Passing through one of the blast doors, which opened automatically, they entered another ten-by-ten section of corridor. Only this one had three doors instead of two. Heading for the door on the left, Nine opened it up and pulled Ethan inside.
Looking around at the well-lit room, Ethan found it was a bathroom. A public bathroom, with three toilet stalls on one wall and three, stand-up shower stalls on the other. The room looked to be entirely made from stainless steel to prevent rust, with the only color coming from the green shower curtains.
“How does this have power?” Ethan asked, as Nine left him alone to start the water in the nearest shower unit.
“The entire section of ship is a lot like the tower. It looks like it was designed to connect or disconnect to a ship modularly, kind of like a child’s building blocks. Apart from that hole in the roof we came in through, the entire thing is intact. There are even several solar panels on the outside hull… now shut up and get in the shower.” She moved into the next stall after that, turning on the water and disappearing behind the green curtain.
Curious, but feeling the bloody grime covering his tired body, Ethan gave in and moved into the stall. His flesh was healed but he was still exhausted, wrung out, and his mana pool ached. It was a strange sensation, considering the mana pool had existed only in his mind’s eye up until recently. Now it felt like a physical organ. Like a sort of core inside his body that had been injured due to overuse.
Stripped naked, Ethan walked under the hot water. Shuddering with pleasure at the first shower he’d had in over a week, and the first shower he’d had being able to stand under his own power in years. It felt amazing, and for a long time, he just stood there with his eyes closed, letting the water hit the top of his head and run over his face and body.
“You haven’t cleaned up yet?” Nine’s voice behind him made Ethan jump.
“What the heck are you doing?” He asked, whirling around to find an equally wet, and naked, Nine standing inside the stall with him. Her newly grown blonde hair slicked back away from her face and her full lipped mouth crooked in a knowing smile.
“I have a question for you, Ethan.” She said, smile growing as she took a step closer to him and spreading her arms to the sides. “I want you to tell me what you see.” She said, the words an exact echo of the ones she’d used the first night after he’d woken her from the pod, and she’d stood naked before him. Blinking at the memory that flashed through his mind. Ethan compared that image to what he saw now.
Before, her head had been bald and covered with scars. Her face had been sunken in with heavy bags under her eyes, both living and artificial. There hadn’t been an extra ounce of flesh anywhere on her body, no breasts to speak of, and he could count her individual ribs and see her hip bones protruding from beneath the skin. She looked like a dried old corpse with oversized prosthetic limbs. That was then, however. Now was a different story entirely.
Her head was no longer bald. Straight, blonde hair now covered it, hiding any scarring that had been there before, it was currently slicked back behind her small, shapely ears. Her face was full, and the bags were gone from under her eyes. She still only had one natural eye, now shining a healthy, vibrant blue but the artificial right eye no longer looked oversized. Her cheek bones were still visible, but were surrounded by healthy, pale cheeks, which held a light blush.
Feeling a little self-conscious, Ethan lowered his eyes to her body. The polymer prosthetics were still there, but like her eye they didn’t look too big for her anymore. That just left her torso. Her skin was pale, and although she was still covered in scars, they had faded considerably. Looking like they’d happened many decades ago, rather than within the last year. Her stomach was flat, the faint outline of her abdominal muscles showing below the skin, and he could only catch the faintest outline of her ribs. Her breasts were small, but well rounded. Looking perky and well formed, a far cry from before where there hadn’t been enough flesh on her body for breasts at all. That only left the lowest reaches of her torso, newly grown hair covered that area, just like her head. Obscuring it from view, and helping establish her as a grown woman. Where before there had only been the scrawny, malnourished body of a child.
“Well,” she said. “What do you see when you look at me, Ethan Fairchild?” Again, the words were an exact echo from that first night, only the tone of her voice had changed from ashamed anger to playful curiosity.
“I…” Ethan began, losing his train of thought as he stared. “I see…” again, his voice trailed off. Not that it mattered, Nine was already moving toward him, a predatory smile on her face.
“Never mind, big guy.” She said, wrapping her arms around his neck. “Little Ethan has already answered the question better than any clumsy words you could come up with.”
“I…” Ethan started, face flushing as he realized where her eyes were looking and that he’d come to attention without even realizing it. She cut him off with a kiss. This time, however, Ethan didn’t have to think about how to respond.