I did not know how messy it was going to get.

Chiho and I worked for what seemed like hours as the combat intensified all around us. More than once, bullets or explosions ripped into the garage, and I gave myself only a moment to process the thought, huh, if I’d been standing there, I’d be dead, before forcing myself back to work.

When faced with something I didn’t like, I tended to freeze, tended to hide, tended to run. And ignoring the fact that working in here definitely qualified as hiding, just hiding was not how I wanted to die. I wanted to die with a driver in one hand and a multimeter in the other, having just cracked some obnoxious problem that’d been nettling the whole design process, with triumph on my lips.

Or, more ideally, of old age. In my souped-up Lambo, resting in the parking lot after accepting a lifetime achievement award for revolutionizing the field of engineering.

Either way, I was certainly paying a lot more attention to what kinds of tools were in my hands than usual on account of supposing them to be the last things I ever held. If I were truly vain, I probably would have changed out of yesterday’s clothes I’d been sleeping in for something more…I dunno, funeral-appropriate.

I didn’t generally give this stuff much thought. It was kind of a weird day for me.

As the minutes went on and I got into the groove of picking up my work, that part at least was familiar and comforting. More than once, I accidentally called Chiho ‘Athan’, since he was the only assistant I’d ever had before now.

For a while, we lived that great, glorious illusion of normalcy, just me and her and The Work, able to put the insanity of the outside where it belonged: outside. But as the fighting ramped up, as more and more of the walls around us blew to pieces and the definitions of ‘outside’ and ‘inside’ blurred with them coming down, as exploding pieces of glass and shrap found Chiho and myself, and I realized some things in the world couldn’t just be ignored.

I worked until I was spending more time wiping my blood out of my parts than I was building them. Until that I didn’t have the grip strength in my main-hand anymore to hold a driver, and then in my off-hand either. Until I couldn’t blow my hair out of my face because it was glued to it with blood. Until I was on my back without remembering falling.

She and I sat panting on the floor, half of the workspace gone and buried after the last blast dropped the ceiling on it. I’d finally been defeated; the bundles of cable I wanted were under the wreckage, so even if I wanted to keep up this farce, I was at an impasse. And while the temptation was strong to completely shift gears and pick up something new, I felt weak and exhausted, felt like I couldn’t do anything other than sit and breathe and bleed, and starting something new at this point…wouldn’t work.

The dream was over, I realized. It was time to wake up and face the nightmare. The house was mostly gone. The neighborhood was absolutely levelled. White flashes of laser and enemy fire roared constantly.

And we’d managed to assemble the bottom half of an exosuit prototype I’d been screwing around with and that’s about it. Normally I’d have waited for the entire thing to be fabricated and functioning in their respective pieces, but with the end looming, I thought, what the hell. It was put together as best it could be, and it worked.

I had the crazy thought of strapping Chiho into it and having her make a run for it with the augmented athleticism it’d provide, but…I wasn’t about to start anything that might get anyone else killed. I already hadn’t seen or heard from Lia in a while, and her gun had stopped firing, and I absolutely wasn’t about to go check to see what that meant.

But there was still one more thing I could do, I thought, dragging myself to my feet. Chiho, despite being in bad shape, didn’t hesitate to join me, and I walked us over to the other exosuit, the real exosuit, the damaged one I’d used during my stint as Chariot.

“I need you to help me with something,” I told her. “Can you climb into the driver compartment in here?”

She agreed while I wheeled a diagnostics unit over and plugged it in. The suit was wrecked and would never move again without serious refitting, but a few of its systems still functioned. I tapped a few buttons and the suit booted to life around her, and then with a command, it closed up, sealing her inside, minus the breaches.

“What do I do?” she asked, her voice coming out somewhat synthesized but mostly through the gaping hole in the faceplate.

“You stay safe,” I told her, listening to the satisfying hiss as the suit’s medical systems diagnosed and dispensed medical gel across her wounds. “Unless you’re very unlucky, the suit will absorb most of the attacks since they’re not trying to hit you directly.”

“Wait,” she asked. “You’re leaving me here?”

I just smiled at her and sat down against the wall of the garage. Standing had been too ambitious after all. My head felt light and my eyelids felt heavy. I’d never bled this much in my life before, I used to think that stabbing myself with something was a serious cut, but here I was sitting with a dozen wounds ten times that bad, and I still somehow wasn’t dead yet. Human bodies were crazy resilient things. But I was starting to feel its limits.

“Whitney, come on,” she urged me. “There’s still…we can still…I don’t know. There’s science stuff over there near the wreckage. Let’s go work on that. Or…or…maybe we can dig an escape tunnel. You can…you can salvage this suit into a giant drill or something.”

“I’m tired, Chiho,” I smiled at her, feeling my chin falling on my chest. “I can’t…can’t think too well anymore. I’ll make whatever you want…after I wake up.”

The half of her face I could see through the broken faceplate was pale and frustrated. Its eyes were glassy with fear, but its brows were still angled downward as she began to yell at me.

“Whitney come on! Don’t you dare give up. What about…what about we put you in here instead? If you’re falling asleep, you need the medical gel more than me. Come on!”

“Nah,” I told her, closing my eyes and slumping over sideways. “It’s fine. Just gimmie…a few minutes…to rest.”

With my eyes closed her words sounded so much further away. She barked and yelped at me, issued nonsensical commands to the nonfunctional exosuit, pleaded and begged for me to stay with her, for me to stay awake.

Honestly, I expected to die there. Which was kinda…well it was what it was. I’d run myself as far as I could and then some. I had bullets and things in me, stuff I never expected to face ever, just a short year ago. I’d never thought it’d be like this. Before, I never really thought about death too much, it was just kinda a thing looming in the distance I knew I’d reach someday. And then I met Athan, and it was more like, well…okay, I might blow up suddenly one day.

Never expected it to be a thing by inches. Just working and bleeding and working until I had nothing left. It hurt. It sucked. But it was what it was.

And then I dunno, cuz I drifted off, even with all the explosions and fire and pain and everything. Just kinda dropped into the darkest, most non-existential sleep of my life.

I was surprised when I came to, and it took me a minute to realize, I still hurt all over, so I was either alive or in hell. Depressing how hard it was to discern.

It was totally dark in here now, the lights in the garage had failed at some point, and looking around in the flickers of gun and laser-fire, I could see that the likely cause was even more of the room collapsing. Ceiling-mounted lights required a ceiling by necessity.

Also my head was pounding, and when I tried to sit up, the rest of my body ached like a mother as well. Dried blood on my skin cracked off as I stirred, and there was so much of it, I was kinda glad I couldn’t see too well.

Something was shuffling in the dark though, and I knew at once that was what had woken me. Someone stepping through the wreckage, probably some XPCA agent sneaking up on where our two Exhumans were still shooting lasers, after all this time.

I wanted to yell a warning but my mouth was dry and throat felt unresponsive. Just blinking took a lot more coordination than I thought possible. But as though he was reacting to my thoughts, the shadow turned from the house and advanced towards me instead, just a dark shape in the darker gloom. I could hear his footsteps, heavy and shuffling through the wreckage of the garage…my garage, pausing to investigate my things in the dark.

On the holo readout nearby, I could see Chiho was still alive inside the exosuit. Strong vitals, and not awake. As the shape drew closer to her, my heart pounded hotter and louder until I thought my ears would burst.

The lights flashed for a moment and I made out that there were two of them. Mostly, I saw his hand, reaching out for the exosuit, reaching out for Chiho.

Somehow, impossibly, I was on my feet. My body moved faster than I could, much faster than should have been possible. But if now wasn’t the time for heroics…well, I’d already kind of come to terms with the fact I wouldn’t be here tomorrow.

I tripped in the dark and staggered, but I stumbled into him anyways, toppling him off balance with me landing on top of him. I fumbled and drew out Sparker from my hip, and jammed it into him.

His eyes narrowed at me as the prod discharged. I’d never actually…tested Sparker on anyone, except myself — that was only once — and I expected a lot more…thrashing and yelling. But he just glared at me. I guess I shouldn’t have expected silly civilian self-defense arms to do a thing to a legit XPCA soldier.

What a stupid way to die, I thought.

But instead of shooting me, he spoke. “You know,” he said, in a voice that made my heart leap “you’re not supposed to be on top of someone when you use those things on them. You’ll shock yourself by contact.”

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

I squealed. Legit, full-on hamster squeal, and threw my arms around Athan.

“Hiya Whitney,” he said from under me. “Um, happy to see you too. Could you turn off the shock prod though?”

“Oh, right.” I pulled the prod out of his stomach and sat back, feeling stupid already for my outburst. Sparker crackled with irritation and I shushed her until she calmed down. I looked up to find Athan laughing at me. Chuckling, at least.

I gave him a face and then looked down as I holstered Sparker again, and in doing so realized Athan had no leg.

“Holy heck, Athan,” I muttered, my voice getting lost in gunfire. In fact, as I calmed down and saw more clearly, I saw he was covered in wounds of all kinds, looking worse than me by far. “Athan aren’t you…doesn’t that…”

He shook his head and reached up like a child, and the other figure stepped forward. AEGIS pulled him upright, looking like a mess herself. She was intact, mostly, but I could tell by her movements and knowing her that she had internal system damage. Her natural grace, her ballerina-like movements were stilted and jarring, and she trembled on uneven footing.

“Do you…want me to take a look?” I asked her. I realized it wasn’t a very good question after it came out, but she shook her head.

“No time,” she answered.

“Yeah. Sorry, do you know where Lia is?” Athan asked.

“She was in the living room last I saw,” I apologized. “She was out there shooting and then just…stopped at some point.”

The two shared an uneasy glance. “She’s not there now,” Athan said. “Nor in her room, or any of the bedrooms. Or the bath. This was the last place in the house. Who’s in there?”

“That’s Chiho.”

“Damn. Well. Good, I guess. But damn, where is that girl.” He took a step on a leg that wasn’t and stumbled, only barely caught by AEGIS’ dulled movements. I winced painfully watching him nearly go down, but he seemed more annoyed than hurt.

“Wait…right there,” I said, having an idea. He started to argue, but I was already moving. “It’ll only take a second, and it’ll help you go faster.”

The fact that moving was a really stupid idea only caught up to me after I already started. It hit me from behind like a truck, my head suddenly spinning and I thought I might black out. I had to work very hard at blinking, and it seemed like every time I did, the world moved outside my eyelids independently of me.

But I was right there. The work was in my hands. For once in this whole stupid battle, in this whole stupid running-away, I wasn’t useless. I was determined not to blackout. I’d be useful, just this once. I pushed my body forward. Just this once.

I came to with Athan slapping my cheeks painfully, the two of them lurking over my face like they wanted an interview. I didn’t know what happened, but once I figured it out, it seriously irked me.

“Fine,” I told him, and more specifically, her. “At that station, I have a light exosuit frame I’ve been working on for Athan. It’s only a functioning prototype at this stage, and there’s no auto-gyro yet, but the neural tap is set and,” I looked at him significantly “and I double-checked all the range-of-motion calibrations. It’s juiced and ready to go.”

“Why?” he asked. “What do I need that for?”

I looked him up…and down. “To stand on. It’s a pair of legs, and you’ve only got one.”

That seemed to annoy him, but AEGIS was already picking it up and strapping parts of the frame to his body. I sat up to help but even that made me woozy, so I laid down before I fell down again and directed her capable hands.

It was an idea I’d had after the barrier Exhuman we’d fought in New York. They’d fought. I was useless. Her exosuit, if you could even call it that, was barely more than a frame. Just a set of mounts for her to put barrier projectors on, the lightest possible thing to bear the strongest possible armor.

I wasn’t a barrier Exhuman, and I wasn’t about to try to fight the XPCA for her tech. It was a well-known fact that technopath technology was neigh-unworkable by anyone other than the creator anyway. But the idea of a superlight frame…Athan wasn’t one who needed armor, generally, just mobility. So if you took the motor systems of a standard exosuit and dropped three tons of armor and systems…

Well, my design philosophy was more with less. You couldn’t get much more less than the copper-red frame hanging off Athan’s waist and legs. It read his motions, tried to anticipate them through a neural uplink at the base of the spine, and amplified them to give massively increased strength in running, jumping, striding. Absorbing shock, increasing mobility.

Or, in this case, with one of the empty frames where Athan’s leg was supposed to be, standing. Walking. Not face-planting.

He gave it a few experimental strides, the frame whispering silently with his movements, but he was on two feet again, in a way, at least. I gave him a wry smirk and AEGIS applauded her excitement.

And then he bounded forward as fast as he could go. Or at least, I assumed so, because to my eyes, he just set and then vanished. And then there was a crashing noise from somewhere in the backyard.

AEGIS hurried after him, her engines flaring, although not all of them I noticed. By her glow, I saw him reeling halfway in our neighbor’s yard, some dozen feet away. I really hoped he hadn’t taken that in a single stride, and hoped further that he hadn’t stopped as quickly as he started, but I knew the kid too well to believe otherwise.

Once he was back inside, a few XPCA put down by white and purple blasts from the living room to cover his reentry, AEGIS scolded him properly about doing idiot things with new toys.

He cut her off to ask me “You have no idea where Lia went? None at all?”

“I got the cam-drones online and talking, but then handed them over to Kaori.”

“Ooh, you did?” AEGIS asked. “I thought they’d be knocked out by the jamming.”

I pointed at the relay I’d cobbled together. “ULF, in the twelve-hundred band. It’s a huge band to have any throughput, you’ll find it easily if you look for it. Using ground conduction transmission to get past the jamming.”

“Oh my God, that’s so smart,” she said, swiping in the air and tapping away for a few moments. “There they are. Well. Some of them. I had a lot more of these when I left,” she frowned. “I guess I blame Tem. Not that I really can, there’s probably be none left if it weren’t for her.”

I pulled myself upright and waited for the nausea and weakness to fade, and when it didn’t, reached for AEGIS, who was now free to help me limp around with Athan on his feet. “Grab…yeah…over there,” I steered us, and had her clear some rubble and pull a cable for me. “Sorry. You know…what I mean.”

“I have some drugs here–” AEGIS suggested. “I don’t recommend them but…if you can’t even stand.”

“No, after this, I’m…useless to you guys. I’ll just…lie down with Chiho, and leave…leave it up to you.”

She gave me a reassuring smile and then picked me up bodily, stepping deliberately through the wreckage on only the most sure of footing.

“You didn’t carry me,” Athan complained from behind as we entered the living room, where the two Tems were blasting away.

“You weigh twice as much as she does. Have you been skipping meals again Whitney?”

“Is it the right time to ask?” I replied.

“When we get out of this, I’ll start cooking for you. I’m serious.”

“Let’s get out of this first,” Athan said. “Moon, can we borrow the headset for a minute?”

“Do you wish for us all to die?” she replied. Again, I couldn’t tell if she was kidding.

“We don’t need to,” I said. “If you plug in to the second port there, AEGIS…yeah. You should be able to dump the cache.”

AEGIS got herself hooked up to the girl spinning around shooting lasers everywhere without interfering too much, but when she plugged herself in, she just froze up entirely, hands locked in the air on the cables.

A long moment passed. And then another. I realized I was holding my breath.

“What’s wrong?” Athan asked, finally. I pulled the connection out.

“Gah,” AEGIS said, snapping back to life. “I’m sorry, I’m too damaged.”

The house rattled around us as an explosion went off just overhead. I could feel the heat of it even here.

“Is this truly essential?” Moon complained. I assume. “Ever since you have normalized Temperance, her destructive output has been halved, and the approach of the XPCA–” She spun on the spot and there was a firearm in her hands. She fired twice into the backyard and nailed an XPCA who was sprinting forward, staggering him long enough for a beam to erase him. “–has become proportionally more successful.”

“Yes,” Athan answered before any of us could. “It’s the most important thing of all. If it’s getting that bad, I can help.” He lit up with a couple dozen floating blades and stepped towards the backyard, his shield lighting up almost the instant he crossed the windows. “Whitney, AEGIS, see what you can do with the camera feeds. If you need me, just…shoot a laser straight up and I’ll come running, okay?”

“Athan it’s suicide out there,” AEGIS pleaded.

“And Lia might be in the middle of it.” He didn’t stop to argue, just shoved off on his new legs, bounding the fence in a stride again, but this time without a crash at the end of it. AEGIS had her fingers knotted in both of her strands of hair as much as she could manage as she stared into the flickering lights in the dark.

“He’s not going to make it,” she said. “He just tore himself half to death going through the light constructs and he didn’t even feel it. He’ll tear himself the other half on the way back in. I shouldn’t have given him that drug.”

“He’s cleverer than he looks. He’ll be fine,” I assured her. “He doesn’t have the decency to die and straighten out my life anyway.” She glared knives at me, and I realized perhaps it wasn’t a good topic to joke around. “The sooner we get what he wants the sooner we can call him back. Come on.”

“We need…more processing power,” AEGIS said. “Let’s get back to the workshop.”

She moved slowly, still carrying me delicately, still placing her feet carefully, as though any misstep might make her tumble. But worse by far than the physical burden was seeing her desperate glances in the direction Athan had darted off, the flashing of his blades and shield already gone.

It was…painful to look at. It reminded me too much of myself, when my family died. I didn’t want to think of those times again, so I didn’t look at her anymore. I focused on what we needed to do.

And yet somehow she became even more devastated as we picked through the debris. As she did, while I sat and watched. Again and again, she pulled server cores from the collapsed roof and held them in her hands like dead children, her breathing ragged and tears spilling as she set them gently aside. She dug deeper and more frantically, throwing concrete and wood and tile with abandon, clawing at the ground, only to pull up another core. Only to look carefully at it. Only to cry again.

I understood. My machines were my family. Her past and alternate lives were hers. I also knew how fragile cores were, and how susceptible their data could be to physical trauma. I remembered how distraught and angry she’d been at me for almost setting the workshop on fire. That was an ‘almost’. And now this.

I didn’t know what to say, what to do, anything. My everything hurt, but I knew my pain was nothing compared to her. Her pain dragged me back against my will — of all the things people told me when my family passed, how pointless their words had all been. How their good intentions just hurt. Empty promises and lies and stupid. Stupid people who didn’t get it. Stupid people who would be gone the next day. Stupid, meaningless words. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

My head burned the deeper into my memories I went, and after a moment my thoughts seemed to jump away from me on their own accord. I couldn’t focus, even on the thing I was trying to avoid focusing on. It felt like a knife in my head, or a hammer. Or a hammer hitting a knife.

So I just…watched. Watched AEGIS as she dug frantically, bare fingers clawing at rock, how she screamed as she flung chunks of concrete as heavy as her body. How every inch of her servers she reclaimed was another inch she lost.

And I saw as despair crept into her heart further and further. A loss no human could understand. Thousands, millions of her siblings maybe, wiped out in an instant. Created specifically to protect her from what she now suffered. Iterations which represented dreams and potential, the immortal legacy beating in the desire of every creator, wiped clean and left painfully, utterly gone.

She cried, and I cried with her, though my body didn’t have the strength for tears. She curled into a ball on her knees, huddled and shuddered, feeling, mourning.

And then, all at once, she stood up. She faced me and wiped her eyes, and spoke evenly, no trace of the emotion that tore her apart left in her.

“I’ve determined a viable source for the resources we need.”

I sniffled. “Oh…kay.”

She ripped down the remainder of the server racks like they were just garbage in her way and cleared a path on the ground. From the furthest corner, straining with exertion, she pulled a wheeled table from under a pile of parts with a clatter.

I blinked at the unfamiliar form. It looked vaguely humanoid, but…not human at all. It was in repose, and had arms and legs, but it was alien in proportion, and instead of skin, instead of a face, instead of fingers, it was smooth black metal.

“I require your help to reactivate the shell. Please follow my directions carefully.”

“What…is it?” I asked, feeling lightheaded as I peered at the curving black thing.

“This is Úaine. It possesses all of the processing power I require.”