I felt as if my mind had been dumped into a vat of molten metal. There was only pain around me, white-hot lances piercing into my brain. The lances came from my arms and my stomach. When I felt wetness on my lower stomach, I truly felt fear. Sepsis was not a pleasant way to go but maybe I would bleed out before I died of it. What a nice thought. I knew that the gel in my armour was applying some pressure on the wounds I was sure I had, slowing the bleeding but if I wanted a chance, I would need to be in a operating theatre when my armour came off.

An eerie calm washed over me, I knew that I was as good as dead. If I didn’t die, I would be outed in the hospital and my father would know what I had been up to. When Anath had been in a situation like that, I had chosen for her and it had worked out.

I managed to force my attention away from the pain, away from the feeling of death that was creeping up on me and back to my other senses. Anath was still carrying me and we were in the forest. Galatea must have placed the waypoints for a swift get-away and the flash-bangs covered our escape. It was impressive, Anath made it look so easy, carrying me in my armour without visible effort. My mind was wandering, remembering the velvety muscles I had felt when I operated on her. Maybe dying was not too bad. Dying and never been kissed.

Reality snapped back around me when the main-entrance to my bunker opened. I had taken great care to make sure that the door looked just like the forest had looked all the years before, while the main-entrance had been covered by a landslide. But I had to open it back up in order to get some of the larger parts into the bunker and now it was used to get me into the bunker. I wondered just what was going through Anath’s mind.

“I… want… your oath…” I managed to squeeze out my words through a haze of pain. Anath would see me. That much was certain. Without working hands, I would not be able to do anything. ‘Working hands’ I felt despair wash over me. My hands and my ability were the only way I could make my dream come true.

“Don’t worry. I will not tell anyone about you, your daughter or your base.” My daughter? Had Galatea talked to her? She carried me into the med-bay and I heard the magnetic seals, that were holding my armour together, disengage.

Anath took my helmet in hand and carefully pulled it off. Galatea must have told her a working order to get my armour off. If I wasn’t in so much pain, I would have laughed at the size Anath’s eyes had when she saw who was under the armour.

“YOU?!” she asked in shock. “How can you have a daughter?” she looked as if her mind was fully and truly blown. Galatea’s small helper-robots were moving in to assist but most of it had to be done by hand. When she took of my gauntlets, she started to frown. Up close, I could see most of her facial expression despite the mask. It took me a moment to realise why she was frowning. There was no blood.

She pulled off the bracer, slowly uncovering my arm and still, no blood. When she got to the point I had been cut, there was just an angry, red line and a small amount of blood in my bodysuit. When I saw the line, I felt the pain recede, almost as if it had never been there. With a little focus, I managed to move my hand again.

Now that I had a working hand and hope, I quickly removed my other gauntlet and bracer, uncovering another thin, red line and a little blood.

In my joy, I quickly removed the rest of my armour and found quite a bit of sweat and a little blood in my bodysuit but nothing to worry about. On my stomach was a thin, red line that showed the remnants of the attack.

The joy I felt about being unharmed suddenly left me. Anath knew my identity. Part of me wondered if the first human I’d ever have to kill would be someone I genuinely liked.

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“Intriguing.” Galatea’s voice sounded over the bases sound-system. “From looking at your bio-signs before, I was sure you were gravely wounded. But now, your condition is stable again, unless one counts the elevated adrenaline-level and heart rate, both are expected. I believe that the attack was mainly a mental attack. You ‘saw’ that you were cut and felt pain and your mind supplied the rest. It was purely psychosomatic and for someone with a mind as powerful as yours, that is problematic. Your mind could literally kill your body by accident.”

I was a little miffed that Galatea sounded so interested in me almost dying but she was my daughter after all. If it wasn’t me who was in pain, I would be just as intrigued as she was.

By now, Anath had gathered her wits and I realised that my bodysuit was not really hiding anything. It was skin-tight and almost see-through so she was getting quite the show.

“I want answers. Why on earth would a princess like you play at being a villain?!” she sounded angry. Part of me wanted her to know why she died, if I decided to kill her later. I would have to be sneaky and attack from behind but it was possible.

“You call me a princess. Do you know how accurate that is? Being a princess means mainly one thing. You live in a cage. It’s a nice cage, sure, with gilded bars, golden chains and a feeding on time. But it’s a cage nonetheless. And once the princess is grown, she gets sold, just like a whore. Sure, the princess is only sold to one man but she is sold.” I told her with heat in my voice. She had no idea how much I would give for a normal life.

“I do not relish a future that has me taken from my cage, just to be sold and put in another cage as a broodmare. And the only way I can escape from my cage and flee the dogs my father would call on to bring me back is the backing of a greater power. Sadly, the only power known to me, with enough influence, is the Powered Human Cooperation Guild. I need power and I need prestige so I can join them and take cover under their umbrella. And I need to do so without my father finding out or I will never escape my cage.” For some reason, the mask she was wearing annoyed me.

“Oh, and Sophia. I know who you are, you don’t need the mask.” I told her as I concluded my rant. Her reaction surprised me a little. She sighed and pulled off her mask and I saw a blushing face below.

“So you did peek, did you?” she asked with a small smirk.

“No, but I’m not completely stupid. There are not that many people with your stature, skin-colour and eye-colour. Add in the fact that you were injured the day after I had to cut you open and it gets easy. But a dead give-away to me, were your eyes, if one sees them up close, it’s easy to compare them and see the truth.” I told her.

“It just had to be you hadn’t it? How do you want to go on?” she asked. I had no good answer to that. Just before I could blurt something out, Galatea piped up.

“Alex, before you say anything, remember why you gave me my name.”

Her words cut me short. I had named her Galatea as an reminder that she was artificial and I would have to socialise with other humans, not just with her.

“My noisy daughter believes that we should be friends. Personally, I don’t know. It’s been a while.” I told Sophia with a bit of sadness in my voice. I wanted to listen to Galatea, to place trust in Sophia. I did not want to kill her.

“Friends? We can do that. And now tell me how you can have a daughter. Your father loves to play the moral crusader. The tabloids would have had a conniption if THE Alexandria King turned up pregnant.” she asked. What motto I had chosen for myself? ‘No risk, no reward.’ Maybe risking it was the right choice.

“Galatea. My greatest creation.” when she heard the name, she blushed again. I wondered what that was about. “I am still not sure how I managed to create her. She is a self-aware artificial intelligence. My labor gave birth to her, I educated her and thus she is my daughter.”

Now, her eyes truly went wide. Well, it is not everyday that you meet someone who is the progenitor of her species.

We talked some more about Galatea, while I placed my armour onto the rack and dressed myself, channeling the nonchalance I used after PE in the locker-room. It wasn’t as if I had anything that Sophia hadn’t. After I made sure that nobody was even in the general vincinity of the exits, Sophia and I left the bunker.

“Are we friends outside our roles? Can I talk to you at school?” I asked, hating the insecurity creeping into my voice.

“Yes, we can talk at school. Don’t worry about it.” Sophia told me, before putting her mask back on and vanishing into the night.

“Galatea, keep an eye on her. I would hate to be blindsided by her again.” I told my daughter. Hopefully I would not have to do anything regrettable.