Raven was still tinkering with her newfound ability, so much so that I’d finally suggested she create another living space where she could go hog wild. Honestly, some of her handiwork was starting to give me a migraine. Not that her efforts were bad, necessarily, just… abundantly colorful. Van Gogh would have been proud.

I was still finding all this unsettling, however. My initial misgivings hadn’t diminished, and if more of her kind found their way to sapience, we might well be facing a ticking time bomb that could spell the end of the Avatar clan. I didn’t have a solution to that conundrum, not yet anyway. Maybe not ever.

Currently, I was relaxing in the suite’s jacuzzi, sipping a glass of champagne and enjoying the fact that for the first time in a long while I wasn’t dealing with some monumental crisis for a change. No Brotherhood, no Masters, no mysteries to solve... other than the one I was purposefully ignoring in the next room, that is… just the chance to unwind and let all my cares float away. It was heavenly.

So of course it couldn’t last.

An alarm began blaring as I leapt from the tub, instantly stepping into a dry set of clothes while I investigated the cause. Raven appeared mere moments later, concern obvious in her expression. “What’s happening?” she asked.

“I don’t know yet,” I told her, pulling up the display. A second later, I had my answer.

“We’re under attack,” I said grimly, “or the Santsai Yaigoun is, at least. It’s a Tu’udh’hizh’ak battlecruiser, and I don’t think they’re here for the Yttrium.”

The Bamidh crew were frantically trying to explain that they carried nothing of value and were not part of the Alliance. The Tu’udh’hizh’ak ignored their pleas, ordering them instead to heave to and kill their engines while they searched for a pair of dangerous fugitives. In response, the crew immediately forwarded them a copy of their manifest, demonstrating that they had no passengers aboard, a claim that did them little good. When the Masters… or at least, their Chell representatives... replied that they were searching for stowaways, however, Raven and I shared a moment of resignation.

Her hand went to her chest. “They’re here for us,” she said anxiously. “How did they find us so quickly?”

“I don’t know,” I told her. “They could be chasing down every ship that left the station.” I didn’t believe that for an instant, however. Somehow, we’d left a trail, despite our best efforts. Say whatever you like about the Troika, but they’re no dummies.

“What are we going to do?” she asked, her eyes wide.

I thought furiously, trying to come with a solution. “Santsai Yaigoun is just an ore hauler,” I reminded her. “Its engines are sluggish; it carries no weapons…” My voice trailed off as I realized just how bad a position we were in. “Raven, I don’t see anything we can do,” I said unhappily. “If the Masters are that determined to reclaim us, nothing short of an Alliance fleet magically dropping out of the sky is going to stop them.”

I knew she was looking for some glimmer of hope, some ingenious last-minute plan to save ourselves, but the sad truth was this time they’d stacked the odds just a little too heavily against us. I guess they finally learned not to underestimate a trained Avatar in the field. I should be flattered, I suppose, but even I was hoping I could pull something from the wizard’s bag of tricks one last time.

She realized at last we were out of options, her shoulders sagging in defeat. “What happens when they capture us?” she asked, more calmly than I might have, truth be told.

“Torture us for what we know, then shred our code,” I said simply. “It’ll be quick at least, at the end. I wish I could also say that it’ll be painless.” Once your gestalt begins to unravel, it disintegrates fairly rapidly. Like bursting a soap bubble, I suppose. But those last few moments… look, I’ve seen others like me die. It’s excruciating. I’m not in a big hurry to experience it myself.

Not that it would come to that. I had an alternative with me, just in case.

“What if we hide?” she said hopefully. “Find some unused corner of the ship’s systems and camouflage ourselves? Maybe they won’t find us.” I could tell that Raven was clinging to the belief that somehow, we’d find a way out of this mess, just like we had before.

I hated breaking her heart.

“Not this time,” I sighed. “They’ll go over this crate with a fine-toothed comb. If they look long and hard enough, they will find us. There’s simply no way around that.”

“So that’s it then?” she said, suddenly exasperated. “We just sit here and wait for them to take us?” She stomped her way towards me, jabbing my chest with dark intent. “Well, screw that! Why the hell should we make it easy for them? Come on, think. There must be something we can do, even if it’s just giving them indigestion while they swallow us whole.” Her nostrils flared as she glared at me, daring me to suggest otherwise.

“I’ve got nothing to work with,” I said plaintively. “I could overload the engines and destroy the ship, but with that cruiser’s armor I’m not even sure it would scratch the paint. Not to mention the fact it would kill the Santsai Yaigoun’s crew. This isn’t their fault, and they sure as hell didn’t sign up to be blown to smithereens.” She didn’t want to hear it, but I stood my ground. “There’s. Nothing. We. Can. Do.”

“I don’t believe that. I refuse to accept that,” she snarled. “If we can’t stop them from grabbing us, then I say we turn the tables on them. Why not beam over ourselves, before they snatch us, and do as much damage as we can before they shut us down?” Raven managed a cold sneer. “I don’t know about you, but I’d rather go down fighting.”

I shook my head. “Raven, the odds that they’d leave themselves vulnerable to that kind of attack are infinitesimal. They know we’re Avatars, and…”

That was as far as I got before she cut me off.

“... are the odds zero?” she demanded.

“Well… no, but…” I began, only to be interrupted once more.

“But if we stay here, then they are zero, isn’t that what you just said?” she prompted me.

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“Umm… well… I suppose…” I ventured.

“Then what have we got to lose?” She folded her arms across her chest, awaiting my answer.

What she was proposing was insane. There’s no other word to describe it. If the Tu’udh’hizh’ak had come all the way out here just to chase us down, then they knew full well what our capabilities were. They would absolutely expect a cyber assault and be ready for it. There was no way in hell it would ever work, not in a million years.

“You realize it’ll likely be a one-way trip,” I cautioned her. “If we beam over and they’ve locked the gates, that’s it. We’ll derezz instantly.” Our eyes met. “Are you prepared to take on a suicide mission, knowing that it won’t change a thing?”

“If this really is the end, then I’d rather it be my choice, not theirs,” Raven said fiercely. “Tell me you feel any different.”

And that’s when it hit me. I absolutely agreed with her. I didn’t want to die, but I damn sure didn’t want to be butchered like a sheep.

“Okay then,” I nodded, taking her hand as I made my decision. “Sorry I didn’t do better by you, Raven,” I apologized.

“It’s all right,” she smiled. “I know you meant well. Mostly.”

I could have argued that point, but it didn’t exactly seem like the right moment. “We’ll aim for their waste disposal port,” I told her, “it usually has the weakest security protocols.” Unless of course they just used a standard program for everything, which only made sense. But why not give her at least a sliver of hope, even if it was forced?

Raven leaned in and kissed me. “For luck,” she whispered.

We closed our eyes and jumped. One last time.

----------------------------------------

So… we didn’t die.

Among their multitude of flaws, it seems the Tu’udh’hizh’ak also suffer from an overabundance of hubris, not that the revelation would surprise anyone. The waste disposal port wasn’t operating with the latest security updates, thankfully. I swear, the more you tell people to check for gaps in their protection, the more convinced they become they don’t have any. Since their idiocy had just saved our lives, however, I was willing to give them a pass.

We landed right where I’d shot for, and after taking a moment for a “Yay! We’re not dead!” hug, I immediately began searching the systems to plan our next move. Although we’d successfully made the jump, there was still a good chance our arrival had tripped an alarm somewhere. If so, sticking around here was tantamount to suicide. Normally my first move would have been to download ourselves into a maintenance bot or something similar, but since we’d already tried that stunt with the Masters, they’d be looking for it. Another shuttle then, perhaps?

I started searching the ship’s records for data on its shuttles when Raven touched my arm. “When they finish inspecting the freighter, can’t we just jump back before they leave?” she suggested.

I considered that for a moment. “Maybe,” I wavered. “I mean, it’s possible, but I can think of a few reasons why that might be a bad idea.”

“As opposed to what? Staying here?” she countered. “I don’t see how that improves our situation.”

“Look,” I sighed, “first off, there’s a decent chance that once they finish their search, they’ll blow up the freighter anyway, just to be thorough.” She blanched at that, but I was just getting started. “Second, they caught us trying to do something like that already, back in the docking bay. If I were them, I’d be looking for a similar bait and switch job from us again. We jump back, and there’s a cage waiting to scoop us up. Or, we jump back, and then they blow up the ship.” She winced at that one, not that I blamed her. “Like I said, it’s an option, but let’s see what else we have first.”

She looked disappointed at the news, but what else could I do? I went back to work, scanning the loading docks, but to my sense of disillusionment I discovered they’d locked the shuttles down tight. Apparently, they’d learned that lesson rather well. Same held true for the mobile bots aboard, and when I checked on any tablets within range, I learned that by order from the Masters that they’d all been confiscated.

They were systematically cutting off every avenue of escape, one by one… which led me to one inescapable conclusion.

I grabbed Raven by the hand. “We have to go. Now,” I hissed, searching for an open port.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, trailing in my wake as I chose one at random, heading for the Life Support system. They weren’t likely to shut that down.

“I have a bad feeling that they set us up,” I warned her, taking turns at random as we weaved our way through the network. “All the tricks we’ve used before, they’ve completely shut down. I think they wanted us to come back here.” I mean, duh. It’s always easier when the prisoners slink back to their cage voluntarily.

“If they knew we were on that freighter, then why didn’t they just blow it up?” she demanded. “Why take the chance?”

I took another turn, exiting Life Support and making a beeline for the Weapons subroutines. If I were right, Life Support was the first place they’d look. It was the obvious choice.

“There’s only one reason I can think of,” I told her, as we raced for our lives. “They want to know what we know. They must figure we’ve got more info about their enemies, and they want it bad.”

And what’s worse, they were right. All the dirty little secrets I’d picked up over the years, all the hidden networks, the passwords and plans for the future, all of them were buried within my code. If they got their hands on that… not only would it destroy the Avatar clan, but what was left of humanity and the fledgling Alliance right along with it.

I couldn’t let that happen.

I glanced over my shoulder at Raven as we ran. If it came down to it, if she and I were cornered, with no way to escape, I’d pull the plug on us both.

Just as we reached the entrance to the Weapons computer network, the gate slammed shut right in our face. We skidded to a halt, stunned by this unexpected turn of events, before whipping back around and retracing our steps. “Engineering!” I shouted as we sprinted away, growing increasingly desperate in our search for a safe harbor. The engines and power plants ran everything aboard ship. They couldn’t shut those down.

But just as they had with the weapons, they could block our access. Another gate slammed shut, and then another. Soon they were locking off all avenues around us, constricting our efforts, leaving us with no means of escape.

We were trapped.

Taking Raven’s hand, I turned to face her. “Tell me there’s something you can do,” she pleaded.

I just shook my head. “I’m fresh out of miracles,” I said sadly. “I’m sorry.”

“So that’s it then,” she said bitterly. “They’ll torture us for what we know and dispose of the remains.”

“No… they won’t.” I pulled her close, gazing into her eyes. “I can’t let that happen, Raven,” I told her. “Too many lives are at stake.”

“What are you saying?” she said in confusion.

“I’m saying that I can’t let the Troika have what’s inside my head,” I confessed. “If that were to happen, we could lose everything. They could wipe humanity itself from existence.”

Realization dawned in her eyes. “You’re saying… they’ll never get the chance to torture us,” she said quietly.

I nodded. “I didn’t mean for it to end like this,” I said, my words filled with regret as I reached inside my pocket, removing a small plastic case. It was symbolic, like most items I carried, but this had a very particular use. Flipping it open, it revealed a button inside. “You said you would rather it be your choice, not theirs,” I reminded her. “Do you still feel that way?”

Raven took a deep breath and let it slowly back out. “Yes… I do,” she said calmly, looking up at me.

Taking her hand, I wrapped it carefully around my own. “It’ll be quick,” I promised. “You won’t feel a thing.” I bent down to kiss her, as she suddenly kissed me back hard… passionately, desperately.

One last moment to celebrate life, as I reached for the button.

Nothing happened.

I broke the kiss, staring at the case in confusion. It was supposed to be foolproof. I pressed it again and got the same result.

“You didn’t think I’d let you off that easily, did you?” I heard from behind me.

Raven’s eyes went wide as I slowly turned around, though I already knew what I would see.

A monitor had appeared, and gazing out from it was the all-too-familiar face of Elder Brother.

“No coward's way out for you,” he snarled. “I want you to savor every moment of what I’ve unleashed.”

Well… fuck.