Fight them back! They must not get through to the hydrazine tanks! I open my dead eyes and sit up slow. I look to my body, it's dark green. I try to stand, but I fall. I crawl towards a dead soldier. I grab the man's headset and slide it on, tears fall. I try to call out, but I just start sobbing. Markus shouts, *Who is this? Soldier!?* I stammer, "He, tortured me." *Lasal!? Holy shit! I thought you died!* I shout at the top of my lungs, "He tortured me!" The tears don't stop, the shakes remain, the fear. *They're trying to push towards the helm. We need you to get to the reactor!* I moan, "I can't." *Why not?* "I can't save anyone. I'm nothing." *Hey, hey! You need to pick yourself up! We are all counting on you!*

"Why me?!" *You are the only one who can absorb radiation, you survived! You are the most resilient person I ever saw-heard of!* I tear off the headset, wipe my tears, then hug my legs.

I'll just lay here for a moment. Hopefully forever.

I feel a gentle kick at my side, an Irish accent shouts, "Oy, wake up you small sheep." I groan, "Just let me be." He grabs my ear and I follow his hand to avoid the pain. He laughs and hugs me, "Finally a live one!" He squeezes me, he lets go, "Not a hugger?" He moves to look me in the eye, but I turn, "What 'appened to you? Ptsd or some shite?" I let my head hang, he grabs my shoulder and shakes it, "Someone did put you through the wringer!" I move his hand off and shout, "I fucking know!" He shakes his hands to me, "Oh, sorry your problems are bigger than us dyin!" I frown, "Then go solve the problem." He snarls, "The problem is, mister sad, I'm a seventy year old engineer that can't fix his child alone." He pulls out a gun and waves it around, "You gonna help or are you too, all in your feelings like a little girl?" I cock back my fist and pause, my fingers are locked in place, under all of the numbness, a weird sensation, something foreign, working with what's left of me. It feels hallow in my chest. He laughs, "That's the spirit, just save that for those things!" He hacks and waddles off. He turns around and waves with a smile, "Come on you lousy bastard!"

I limp ahead, my body's trashed, weak. "How long ya gonna take?!" Sharp pains suddenly hit me and I grip my beating heart through the thin patch of green skin. He rushes to me as I fall, "Fuckin' hell." I groan, "Drag me to that thing." He looks at what's left of that monster. "Hell no." "Do it!" He grabs his face, "Fuck me!" He grabs my legs and drags me to it. I reach out and touch it. Come on! Work!

"What are you doin? Expectin a magic spell?" I hear it, the distant screams!

The monster's fibrous material latches to my arm, the old man jumps back, "What in the hell?!" It coils around it and the cavities in my chest fill up. The more it fills up, the monster grows smaller. I stand up and stretch. "Your face, it's not green anymore." I close my eyes, Oh my god. I can still remember, every cut, that psychotic expression.

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I shake my head, "Lead the way."

"Finally got over your crying." A monster appears, a small one. It runs at the Irishman. I blink and that demon, his face. I freeze as the Irishman shoots at the thing. "Do something you idiot!" I run up and shut my eyes tight, a throw of my fist, the demon I remember, the punch lands, it doesn't do shit. My arm falls off. And then- I hyperventilate, then the Irishman laughs, "I'm glad you're on our side!" I open my eyes, I'm okay? He elbows me, "Keep punchin' like that and O' Malley'll buy you a pint!" My hand cracks and I shout at the pain. Underneath the green, it's bone. My hand shakes as my hand's bones move with the thin layer of the stuff. Malley turns my head to him, "Hey! C'mon now! Get your head in the game." "I can't." He rolls his eyes, "Why not princess!?" "I was-" He looks down at my hand, "Holy fuck, is that bone?" I tell him what happened, his face slowly turns to pity. "I'm sorry kid." I close my hand, "Whenever I close my eyes, I see what he did to me." He digs into my shoulder, "You have to stop him." "How?" He shakes me and I look into his eyes, "He made you feel powerless, take back yourself!" "What?" He tears himself away and points at the monster I killed, "You build yourself up, like you did before!"

"That wasn't enough." "Then find what is or he'll do that to you again, to me, my kids, everyone!" He hacks, leans over and pukes. On his way back up, he dozes off and comes back, "Ah, fuck me!" His body, distant shouting against two sides, "What's wrong with you?" He waves, "Nothin, just old age." "Your body's fighting itself. Cancer?" He squints, "How did you-" He's dying. "Let's get you to the reactor."

He leads the way, "We aren't far." "You have kids?" He shakes his head, "I have Lady Liberty." "No- Real kids?" Malley waddles to a monitor, hacks, then spits, "This old girl had so many renovations, hydrazine goes for holiday, she gets turbines and a nuclear heart, she needed extra sectors, we add more turbines-coal engines, gas, she's got everything, small walking planet, this one. Ahh Christ." The doors open, he chuckles and looks into my eyes. He pouts, "No family, not anymore." I reach a hand to him and he steps inside the control room, then marches up to the controls, "1945, Allies win the war for Ferron. The Galactic Union needs engineers, I leave my wife and kids, go build Liberty. 1950- I promise them to come home. Liberty dies, I built her a new heart." I frown, "When did you see them last?" "1950." I sigh as he turns it on. "That's horrible." Reactor Online! - Who's down there!? She's too hot! Turn her off! The reactor dies down with a lever pull. "You're going to have trouble of your own. I need to go in and fix her up." "But the radiation-" He shakes his head, "No, you'll suit me up. This child- Liberty, she protects my children, hopefully my children's children." He smiles at the thought. Reactor has been locked down.