Katsi silently clicked the bracer into place, tapping on the green gem a few times before asking, “You cozy in there, Chief?” The light flashed in morse code and she snapped, “Hey! That’s not appropriate! I’m trying my best!” The light continued to blink in code to her, clearly amusing itself with her reaction. “Yeah, well hopefully you won’t be in there very long, Sai.”

Gavin checked the fit and nodded, “Thank you for this.”

Katsi nodded, “Yeah, just tell your girlfriend to be careful. The package should protect the charges in her gullet, but if it gets punctured there is no promise the charges won’t go off right then and there.” He nodded before she handed him Vittivici’s Bane. “Oh, and have her throw this in there too.”

Gavin looked it over before noticing the device attached the back of the pendant. He asked, “What’s this?”

“Well I had time to analyze the data that Tak got from the scan and I was remembering what Dean taught me about these things as a power source. So I looked into this pendant.” Gavin nodded at her, as if inviting more information. “Well, I may have looked a bit deeper into its legend and… I figured out how it works. There is a vein of darkness in it. Of death.”

Gavin sighed, “So it kills people because of a fault in it. A corruption.”

Katsi laughed uproariously. Gavin was completely baffled and she eventually collected herself enough to explain. “No. No. It was intentional. A failsafe that Vittivici pressed into the gem with his own will. A principle he lived by that shifted the resonance of the stone and left a mark in it. So I put a device that should soften it some and help Pine to have a similar effect given some time.”

Gavin looked it over and asked, “Are you sure it will work?”

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

Katsi shrugged and stated, “I don’t think we have a choice but to test it in the field.”

Gavin sighed with annoyance, “I’ve had to build things on the fly before but I’ve never heard anyone speak with such certainty and yet admit they know nothing.”

Katsi glared at him, “Hey, just because I know what I’m talking about doesn’t mean that I got it right the first time.” She grumbled, “Forget you. Reijaa is right. You think too much.”

He was about to retort when Sai spoke from his battle bot body, “Kat, you harvested a Crossflow. I’m a little annoyed about that still, but you managed to get that together with spare parts pretty quick. I may not understand why you have done these things or where it came from, but I’m hesitantly trusting.”

Katsi shouted, “You know I built my own Battle Van back home, Shawn!” She paused and doubled back as Sai tilted his head at her. “Sorry. Still working on the whole name thing. You just remind me of him a lot.”

Sai nodded, “Yeah, and that probably isn’t going to stop. I’ve been getting used to it myself. So I’m not to torn up about it yet.” She laughed awkwardly as she wasn’t certain of his expression yet. He patted her shoulder.

Katsi turned to Gavin, still unsure of what to say to help and Gavin smiled a dark smile, “It’s ok. We will make it out just fine.”

He was lying and she knew it. He knew it too. This was most likely the last time they would see each other. Another friend marching to their death. Katsi felt it burning her up. Grabbing him by his collar with enough force to cause his hat to fall off. He refused to make eye contact with her so she growled under her breath, “You are goddamned right you will. Am I understood?” Sai pulled them apart gently. He looked at her with his robotic eyes. She wasn’t certain but she could swear he was trying to reassure her.