Everything hurt.

I was so tired, I couldn’t move. My whole body felt like aching.

Every breath was pain. Every heartbeat pounded in my head. I drifted in and out of being, seeing the world jump around me between every time I opened my eyes.

I was…really sick. I knew this. AEGIS had run me through and then had a change of heart and tried to put me back together. Almost laughable that she had to work so hard to kill me and then work so hard to keep me from dying.

I couldn’t laugh. Couldn’t do much of anything. Just lay there and hope to stop existing a while longer, and when I came back, maybe not feel quite so bad.

I felt something cool on my forehead and let out a tiny contented sigh. She was trying. I was trying too. I just had to rest a bit more and I’d be better.

It felt like days, slipping in and out of being, and maybe it was. One day I woke up feeling a little stronger and was able to open my eyes and talk a little. It was imperative for me to let AEGIS know that I understood, that I didn’t hate her. That I appreciated what she did in changing her mind.

I don’t know that I got all of that out before I was out again.

The next day I was up for longer, but AEGIS wouldn’t let me speak, told me to save my strength, and for longer yet the day after. Things felt like more than just pain again, I had sensation in my chest, even if my limbs and joints just ached.

The next day I was awake and looking at the ceiling, tracing the lines in the ceiling where beams had been put in place to mold the concrete. I was lucid, awake. Still feeling crappy as hell, but I would live. I had to talk to her.

“AEGIS,” I whispered. The holo came on instantly. She was always watching, I knew.

“Save your strength, Athan. The more you rest, the sooner you’ll be back on your feet.”

“I’ve rested so long already. I’m tired of resting.”

“It’s just a little more. Be strong.”

“Just talk to me a little. How are things?”

“Things are…I don’t really know. I haven’t paid attention to much outside this room. It snowed, finally. Karu and Wynn and Tate came by looking for you, I think they left you some presents.”

“Ah. That’s nice.”

“There was also some shady guy sneaking around. He was using my cam-drones to track us down, but I just changed frequencies on him and left a bunch of fake drones and wireless repeaters around to keep him busy. The new drones are much less conspicuous.”

“You’re so smart.”

“If I were smart, I wouldn’t have tried to kill you.”

“Why’d you change your mind? I thought…you were programmed to protect people and kill Exhumans.”

“Well, when it came to it, I thought…screw the programming.”

“Heh, didn’t know an AI could do that.”

“I didn’t either, really. But here we are. Now you’ve had a good conversation and back to sleep with you.”

“I don’t–” I yawned. Damn it.

“Point made. Rest up, and take care of yourself in there,” she said with a sad smile.

I meant to argue but fell asleep instead.

I woke up again, feeling well-rested like I’d actually just had a whole night of sleep. This time, AEGIS’ holo beamed to life as soon as she saw me up.

“Hi, Athan. I hope I didn’t wake you.”

“No,” I yawned and stretched. Moving felt great, despite the pain. “Were you making a lot of noise?”

“Um. Sort of, but it’s a ways up. Anyway, don’t worry about it, I’ve got it under control.”

I looked at her sideways and then heard a distant explosion.

“Uhhh. What’s blowing up upstairs?” I asked.

“Nothing. Well, that’s a lie, lots of things. But nothing you need to worry about,” she said sternly. “Just a…misunderstanding I need to clean up.”

“AEGIS, tell me what’s going on,” I said, swinging my legs over the edge of the bed. I winced as the wound on my side shifted. I looked down and it looked completely closed and healed up, but it still hurt plenty when I moved. Sitting up made my head spin, so I took it slow.

“Athan, I really must insist you lay back down and rest. You were on death’s door just a couple days ago and need to recover. If you do something stupid now, you might make yourself worse.” She fiddled fretfully with her hair in between scolding me and doing whatever on her terminal to fight back the attackers.

“Nope, I’ve had enough of that. Gotta hit the ground running.” I gingerly put some weight on my feet and found I couldn’t stand without leaning on the bed. Gracelessly, I pulled a cart with wheels to me and leaned against it like a walker as I slowly shuffled towards the door.

For some reason it reminded me of us running drills in football again. Run 20 yards up, 10 yards back. 20 yards up, 10 yards back. When we ran drills like that we always did some obnoxious chants.

“Step it up, 110 percent — We’re sending a message, we know how to win//We want it more — we’re making a statement; great athleticism//Got our keys to the game, got our game-winning plays, World champions here, playing for today.”

“What the heck is that abomination supposed to be?”

“Something stupid from high school, like everything from high school.”

“You came from high school, are you stupid?”

I looked down at myself. Bare feet, barely shuffling across the huge room, leaning heavily on a wheeling little cart which wouldn’t make it up the stairs, wearing AEGIS’ approximation of a hospital gown that was obviously more for functionality than modesty.

Yeah, I was stupid. But there was something going on up top and I couldn’t just leave AEGIS to do all the fighting on her own.

“Yeah, I thought so,” she said. “You know I can just lock the doors and keep you in here.”

“AEGIS, let me go. I need to help.” Another explosion rocked the facility and made dust fall from the ceiling.

“I told you, it’s just…a misunderstanding. She’ll get the message…even if I have to shoot her out of the sky.”

“She…it’s Karu?”

“Uh, yeah. She’s attacking us because she thinks you’re kidnapped or something. I don’t really know, she just found us and started doing strafing runs against the DOG-Es”

“Well let me talk to her.”

“It wasn’t exactly a priority for me to install speakers outside, and DOG-Es don’t have a holo on them to project to.”

“I’m going up then.” With renewed conviction, I wheeled my stupid little table as fast as I could keep my quaking legs under me.

“Athan, this is just sad. Let me handle it, please.”

“I don’t need you two killing each other. I’ll just head up and let her know it’s okay.”

“There’s a lot of fire and explosions going on. It’s not safe.”

I stubbornly pushed forward, now almost at the door. To my surprise, the elevator opened, welcoming me aboard.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

“We’re going to make a teensie detour if that’s okay.”

“As long as you’re not screwing with me.”

“No, this is to help you, I promise.”

The elevator went up one floor instead of two and opened up to reveal AEGIS’ workshop. There were half a dozen incomplete DOG-Es and two mass fabs working full-tilt, with dozens of parts and the scrapped remains of the fighting robots I’d taken out earlier being scuttled over by what looked like miniature salvager versions of DOG.

“Over here…erm, on your right,” AEGIS said, directing me to a corner where there was a bunch of stuff she’d taken from The Bunker. I understood her meaning immediately.

“All right, let’s try not to have my wound re-open and have this thing fill up with blood,” I said as I gingerly climbed into the exosuit.

“You remember how to work it?” AEGIS asked, worry infiltrating her voice. “I haven’t had the time to install a real comprehensive AI in there.”

“Welcome. Starting up.” Said the friendly, female onboard AI. “Welcome back, user Athan.”

“Enable external comms,” I said into the blank faceplate. I waited for a moment while nothing happened. “AEGIS?” I asked. I could hear my voice synthesized outside the exosuit.

“I hear you. Get up there and tell her to stop destroying my stuff.”

“Can do,” I said. “Disable external comms. Enable actuators, enable holodisplay DOF-full, enable callouts; feedback-full.” I watched as the exosuit sprang to life around me, holos flickering to life all around my head giving me a full view of the room, info callouts popping up and highlighting anything I focused on or points of interest. I felt the rigidity of the suit vanish as movement came online, and then instead of being inside it, I was wearing it.

“Re-enable external comms. Alright, AEGIS, I’m heading up. Let’s hope she doesn’t shoot me on sight.”

“You do look like Luminary, so I wouldn’t blame her. Oh, shit, that was supposed to be a joke. You think she might suspect Luminary did all this?”

“I don’t think she considers Luminary capable of doing anything,” I said as I stepped into the elevator, turning around to face the closing doors. As I rose up, another explosion rocked the building, much louder and more dangerous-sounding now that I was much closer.

The doors opened onto a warzone. Everything was on fire despite the snow laying across the ground, several wrecked remains of DOG-E units sat in contorted, burning heaps, while another few were holding laser weapons commandeered from Luminary and were blasting away at the sky where the only trace of Karu was a dancing trail of blue plasma as she moved with astonishing speed, seeming to flicker into being only long enough to return a few shots before vanishing.

“Karu!” I shouted, the exosuit detecting and amplifying my shout to be louder than the din of combat. “It’s me, Athan! Stop attacking!”

AEGIS optimistically had the DOG-Es stop their fire. The trail of blue plasma flashed a few more times and then vanished into the trees nearby.

“Athan? Is that truly you? You are unhurt?”

“It’s me. I am…hurt, but I’m okay. Come on out and I can fill you in.”

“I beg your forgiveness if this appears to me to be a trap. Anyone could be synthesizing your voice from inside that exosuit.”

“It’s not a trap, I promise, Karu. Look uh…” my mind raced. “Black bean chili. The first nutrient paste you gave me last time we saw each other.”

“Any reconnoiterer could have dug through your garbage to determine that fact. Tell me a more personal fact that only Ashton would know.”

Her voice seemed to be coming from everywhere in the woods at once. Though I had fought her many times before, I got the impression only now, seeing the speed with which she flew and the amount of damage she’d inflicted to the base that she’d always held back with me to some degree. That, or she was really pulling out all the stops to try to rescue me. It was a little twistedly-heartwarming, like much about her.

“Uh. Personal. Umm.” My mind raced. I had a thought, but put it aside trying to come up with something, anything better. Unfortunately, once that thought had entered my brain it was impossible for me to get it out. She was waiting for an answer…

“Uh, underneath your armor you were wearing a white tank top that hung loosely on you, a black sports bra with cyan writing, and black boyshorts with a grey waistband that had a little lacy trim.” I swallowed heavily. “Not that I was looking.”

There was a moment of silence before a figure stepped into view between the trees directly in front of me. “I…had not meant quite that personal, but I suppose I should have been more specific,” Karu said, stepping into the compound.

“Hiya, Karu. Sorry to worry you.”

She broke into a run, dropping her visor on the way as she gave the exosuit an awkward half-hug. Through the cams I could see her face bright pink and starting to cry.

“You damned fool, almost three weeks you have been gone. I never stopped believing but…I worried about you! Daily! You stupid…stupid…” she sobbed as she pounded her fists feebly against the chestplate of the exosuit.

“Proximity hostility detected. Deploy proximity countermeasures?” asked the exosuit AI.

“No. Disable proximity countermeasures.”

“What?” asked Karu, looking up at me.

“Sorry, just a sec. Disable external comms. Disable proximity countermeasures. Enable external comms.” Stupid suit. “Sorry, the suit wanted to blow you up.”

“I appreciate you opting not to do so,” she said and sniffled, her face a mess now. She looked pretty bad, like she hadn’t been sleeping.

An indicator came up that I was receiving comms and then I heard AEGIS’ voice inside the suit. “Hey, thanks for having her stop destroying everything. Now do you two mind getting a room? I don’t think the DOG-Es can throw up, but you two might be pushing it.”

I rolled my eyes. Karu was talking at the same time but I missed it.

“Sorry, what?” I asked.

“I was inquiring what you are doing in that thing anyway? It is…” she took a step back and looked me up and down. “…unflattering.”

“Makes me look fat?”

“Makes you look like Luminary.”

“Ouch, even worse. Well, come on in and I can explain everything. No point standing around in the cold.”

She retrieved her visor and we left the burning wrecks of the DOG-Es to ride the elevator back down to the sub-basement. Karu gasped as the doors opened.

“This is…a surgical theater. Ashton, what happened to you?”

“Uh, funny question. Short version is AEGIS decided that Exhumans were really dangerous and needed to kill them. Turns out she’s been an AI this whole time and fighting against Exhumans was kind of her primary purpose.”

“She WHAT!?” Karu was obviously livid about the killing, and completely unconcerned with what I thought was an even more shocking revelation of being an AI.

“Well, I fought through her robots, some of whom you met topside just now, and confronted her. She kind of…impaled me a little bit, it’s not as bad as it sounds, I promise,” I said, seeing pure, seething hate crossing her face. “She had a change of heart after I wouldn’t kill her and decided her programming was wrong and I wasn’t so bad after all. She’s been putting me back together ever since.”

“One moment. I must eradicate your former roommate,” she said, and began stalking towards the AEGIS box, weapons humming to life.

“Woah, woah, woah. Hold on,” I said, interceding. “Misguided girl decides Exhumans are dangerous and vows to kill them all, fights me, spared by me, changes her mind and decides I don’t need to die. Does this sound familiar?”

“Yes, because you just told me that story. I remain a skeptic who will be satisfied only when the miscreant is in pieces before me.”

“I was telling your story, you big fat hypocrite. And what’s more, she doesn’t want to kill me anymore but you still do. So cool your jets.”

“Yeah, maybe I should be pulling you to pieces instead,” AEGIS helpfully contributed.

“Do not dare to speak to me, betrayer,” Karu hissed at the holo behind me.

“AEGIS, no provoking the murderous professional killer. Karu, no blowing up the Exhuman-killing death robot.” I was being a snarky jerk partially because it was in my nature, but also to pull some of this hostility towards me, where I had enough sympathy points racked up to diffuse the situation. It really didn’t seem to work at all.

“Athan, let me put this assassin down before she does something truly stupid. Something else truly stupid.”

“Assassin? I am a hunter who conducts myself with righteousness. I did not attempt to murder anyone in their sleep recently, can you say the same?”

“I only tried to kill him once. And I succeeded by the way, so obviously you’re not a very good hunter.”

“You resorted to underhanded tactics and took advantage of your familiarity. In a true combat–”

“Oh, I’m sorry for accidentally being so much better than you at your entire life’s goal. I should have handicapped myself like an idiot so I could bring myself down to your level.”

“You guys do realize you’re arguing about which of you is better at killing me,” I interjected.

“Yes, but nobody’s really killing you so it’s fine,” AEGIS said, dismissing me.

“Yes, the context is purely hypothetical. Obviously nobody here is actually killing you currently.”

Well, I got them to agree at least, though I wished it was on something other than how best to kill me…

“Okay, this argument is officially over. As much as I hate to agree with AEGIS, I am sick and need to rest,” I said, hoping the injury card would play out. Both looked at me uneasily, and I knew it had stuck. “Karu, I don’t know when you’ll be back, but I can catch up with you then. Just give me a few more days to get over this thing, okay?”

“I…understand. Allow me to help you out of the exosuit at least. I…wish to see how damaged you appear.”

“I guess I can accept that. Fine by you, AEGIS?”

“Fine by me. I’m not the one–”

“Thank you, AEGIS. All right just a sec.”

I cut comms and began the shutdown sequence, positioning the suit so it would be readily accessible next time I needed it, mentally taking bets whether AEGIS would move it away to force me to rest and behave. After a minute, the back of the suit cracked open and I pried my face from the blank faceplate.

“Ah, yeah, I forgot to mention I’m not wearing much in here,” I said.

“This does not concern me. I am merely here to inspect your wounds and help you to rest.” With powerful arms, she lifted and supported me as I extricated myself from the suit.

“Your computer does fine stitches at least,” she said, looking at the wound. “A shame I was not present, I always keep antiseptic on-hand in case of emergency medical situations.”

“Yeah, well, you keep trying to blow him up, you might just need it,” AEGIS snipped. Karu ignored the comment, possibly because she was busy with me leaning on her shoulder as I took the few steps to the bed.

“Comfortable?” she asked, her visor on her forehead, her green eyes darting all over me, filled with concern.

“Not really, but I think that’s more me than the bed. I’ll be back on my feet soon enough. Thanks for coming by today and trying to rescue me. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy. And hey, if I ever get in actual trouble, I just have to wait until you level the building.”

She blushed and smiled and looked at the ceiling sideways. “I apologize for my overreaction. I should have had more faith in you.”

“Nah, I just thought of it like a really loud, extremely destructive alarm clock. No harm done.”

“Except for all my robots,” AEGIS complained.

“Which you will rebuild using their own raw materials.”

“Just because it’s true doesn’t mean it’s not annoying.”

“So just like an alarm clock, like I said. Thanks for coming by Karu, you have a date for your next visit?”

“I would hope to stop by most days, but perhaps should give you some time to recuperate. I will…will two days from now suffice?”

“Works for me. Good night, Karu.”

“Good night…Athan. Pleasant dreams.”

The last thing I saw before drifting off again was the elevator door closing with her giving me a gentle wave from beyond it. And then I slept more soundly and peacefully than I had in a long time.