THE DOCTOR

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Will looked around at the dimly lit kitchen. Cluttered pots and pans littered the sink, and the island had a fine layer of dust on it. Frowning, Will gestured with his hands, and Remy took point while Becca fell in behind him. They silently crept out of the kitchen and spotted the flickering lights coming from the left.

The living room door was slightly ajar, and the television was on, playing a program on mute. In front of the monitor was a large armchair with a shadowy figure seated on it. Will let out a breath and gestured again. They had to take him by surprise. Remy nodded, and Will prepared the countdown. On three, they would secure the room and take the doctor down before he could resist.

Will held out three fingers and began to lower them. Just when he reached one, he heard a rustle behind him, and something cold and hard poked against his back.

"Don't move," said a gruff voice.

Becca gasped, and Remy turned around.

"I said don't move!" the voice growled, and Will felt the gun digging into his spine.

"Doctor—" he began but was cut off.

"Quiet!" the doctor snapped. "You two, step into the room."

Will's heart pounded in his chest as he watched Remy and Becca back away slowly into the living room.

The doctor poked the gun into Will's back roughly, and he was forced to follow them.

"Did you think that I would go down without a fight?" the doctor raged. "They should have sent more than three."

"Doctor, let's not do anything foolish," said Will.

"You should worry about yourself. I'm the one with the gun," the doctor retorted.

"Bullets can be deflected with a field," said Will.

"Not at this distance, you can't," the doctor poked the gun into his back.

"You have two more to deal with after me," said Will. "You are not fast enough to take on them both."

"Enough with your empty threats," said the doctor. "Stand down before I make you."

Sweat drenched Will's brow. His breathing was labored, and his heart raced a million miles a minute. He reached for his shard, and the connection snapped into place. The world vibrated, and time stopped. Will waited to be drowned in the sensations, but nothing came.

Time resumed, and reality snapped back. Nothing happened in the premonition. He was never shot.

Will coughed violently as he felt his reserves drain.

"What's wrong? Why did your field just shift?" asked the doctor, grabbing Will's free wrist and pressing a thumb against his radial artery.

"Erratic pulse, elevated body temperature, feverish, excessive perspiration," the doctor muttered. "Allergic reaction? Micro perturbations in the... What's this? What is wrong with your field?"

"Doctor—" Becca stepped forward.

"Stay where you are!" the doctor demanded. He let go of Will's wrist and then touched his neck, proceeding to poke him up and down his body. When he reached his right leg, he paused. "This... This signature. How? Why do you have it?" he whispered.

Will broke into a cold sweat, and his mouth went dry.

He felt the gun press hard against his back.

"Just what is in your leg?"

"I... don't know what you are talking about," said Will breathlessly.

"Don't play games with me, boy!" the doctor snapped. "I have worked with it for years. I know its signature inside and out. Why do you have it?"

The trio remained silent.

"Not talking, eh? Then I suppose I will have to hand you over to the authorities."

Becca gave a sharp intake of breath, while Remy glared daggers at the doctor. "You are hiding in your own house with the lights turned off. I don't think you would want the police involved either."

Will tried to ignore the gun at his back and spoke. "Who are you hiding from, doctor? Maybe we can help."

The doctor laughed. "You break into my house and say you are here to help. You have some gall. How did you come into possession of that shard?"

Will grimaced but kept his mouth shut.

The doctor sighed when he didn't respond. Will flinched as the doctor grabbed hold of his wrist again.

"Tell me, kid. Did you come into my home with nefarious intentions?"

"No," Will grunted as he felt the doctor's thumb dig into his inner wrist.

"Are you here to do me harm?"

"No," said Will.

"Are you here to harm my family?"

"No!" Will snapped, not liking the implications of the question.

The doctor let go of his hand, and Will rubbed his sore wrist. The doctor had pressed his thumb right on his artery. Was he taking his pulse or reading his field?

Will's musings were interrupted when the doctor addressed him again. "If you are not here to do me harm, then why are you here?"

Will exchanged glances with Remy and Becca, but none of them opted to speak.

The doctor clicked his tongue and pushed Will forward. He stumbled into Remy and Becca, and they caught him looking stunned.

"Why don't the three of you have a seat," said the doctor. With a groan, he sat on his armchair and nodded towards the couch behind them.

Remy and Becca hesitated for a second before sitting. Will glanced at the doctor, who was seated in his armchair with the gun resting on his lap. He was a middle-aged man with a thin face and neatly trimmed mustache and beard. Bright eyes flared from beneath thick square-rimmed glasses, which were fixed on him.

Seeing no way out of the situation, Will slowly lowered himself to the seat and sat between Remy and Becca.

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A crack came from the couch, and Will flinched. He shifted in his seat and brought out a broken toy mech from underneath him. Its right hand had snapped off when he sat on it.

Will glanced at the doctor, who grimaced. "It's fine. It's my fault; I should have cleared the couch by now."

The doctor regarded the three of them. Will and Remy still had their face masks on, while Becca had a kerchief tied around her face.

"I can tell that the three of you came seeking answers," he said. "How about this: for every question you answer, I'll answer one in return. Deal?"

The three exchanged glances and reached an agreement. Becca turned towards the doctor. "What is this thing?" she pointed at Will's right leg.

Dr. Leibowitz snorted. "It's a Heterostructural, multilayer CVD."

"You are talking about multiplanar printing," Becca responded.

The doctor raised an eyebrow. "You've read my paper. Yes, it is about multiplanar printing, but custom-built for the interface etherite. The goal is to create a buffer layer between the crystal and the user, which makes skill calling faster."

Becca leaned forward in her seat. "I suspect there is more to it than that."

"Yes," Dr. Leibowitz sounded enthusiastic. "It was first built as a purely analytical tool. We wanted to use it to decode the crystal, but we discovered that the buffer layer made calling on the shard's channels a lot easier. Fascinating stuff, really."

"And the first thing that you tried to do was create a weapon," Remy muttered.

Dr. Leibowitz looked pained. He gave Remy a glance before fixing his gaze on Will. "Now, tell me how you got hold of that shard."

"We found it when one of the ships crashed during the bombings."

The doctor raised an eyebrow. "So you decided to embed an unknown etherite the moment you found it?"

"No," said Will. He then continued to give the doctor an abridged version of events that happened that day. Becca took over the story after a bit and filled in the rest. In her cliff notes, she had discarded many of the things they did that had questionable legality and gave a highly edited rendition. Will felt Remy shift in his seat, and through the corner of his eye, he saw him poised to make a dash for the doctor.

A sharp click came from the gun as Dr. Leibowitz locked on to Remy. "I suggest you sit back down. We had a gentlemen's agreement to sit down and talk like civilized folks. Don't be so quick to break your word."

Will put a hand on Remy's shoulder and spoke. "It's a bit hard to talk about trust when we suspect you've had a hand in the airship bombings."

Dr. Leibowitz looked shocked, then angry. "That is one hell of an accusation."

"It is not just you that we suspect. It is the entire military," said Will. "The embargo, bombings, and the riots. You don't mean to tell me all of these are just mere coincidences."

Dr. Leibowitz scowled. "You three are working under some false assumptions."

"What about the fact that most defense contractors related to this," Will tapped his right knee, "belong to the Displacer faction?"

Dr. Leibowitz shook his head. "You have the facts yet arrived at the wrong conclusion."

"Then what am I missing, doctor?" Will clutched the toy mech in his hands.

Dr. Leibowitz tapped his armrest. "The Displacer faction does preside over the majority of the defense contractors, but it is out of grim necessity. How familiar are you with Tower politics?"

"I know enough to know who not to vote for," said Will.

Dr. Leibowitz chuckled. "The current political divide can be summed up as the clash between the new and old powers. The Tower factions had established their legitimacy by demonizing the past regime. It was because of their inaction that nuclear war occurred. The arrival of Displacers shattered that very narrative.

"The two were like oil and water from the start. While Towerites consider Displacers barbarians who resorted to nukes, the Displacers see the Tower as a parasite feasting on their great nation's corpse."

"But ideology aside, there can never be two tigers on a mountain. Regardless of what they believed in, the clash was inevitable. The Displacers, unable to make headway up the Tower, solidified their base outside it. They made connections and expanded the outer territory. Now they are capable of standing toe to toe with the Tower; they just need one thing."

Will leaned forward in his seat. "What was it?"

"A trump card. A strategic class weapon," said Dr. Leibowitz. "They were looking to make a Titan class mech. Currently, the Tower has six, and the Displacers have five. The new one would bring them dead even."

"The current factional alliances are complicated. The Reformers are made up by the Displacers. Homestead, despite being a Tower faction, has declared support for them. The zones support the Tower. The isolationists are on the fence, while the Virtualists are firmly against the military."

"Doctor, none of this rules out the military as a suspect for the bombings."

"It does if you consider this simple fact," said the doctor. "The military is incapable of making a Titan on their own."

"What?" exclaimed Becca.

"They don't have the technical know-how or the resources," said Dr. Leibowitz. "They need the Tower more than ever."

"You're kidding me," said Remy.

"There is another reason," said the doctor. "Despite how much they disdain each other, both factions know that they have a greater enemy."

"The Hive," Will muttered.

"Yes," said the doctor. "Even with the combined might of the military and the Tower, I'm not sure if it is possible to fight the Hive. Their threat is too great to upset the balance between the factions."

"So, you don't think the deaths of the people working on the project is the military's work?"

"No," the doctor stated calmly. "They need the project to succeed, and they are going to need the Tower's help to do it. Me being assigned as lead researcher was a compromise by both sides."

"My work wasn't focused on building a Titan. It was to analyze the etherite shard while necessary infrastructure for the Titan was built."

"Doctor, while your arguments are sound, there are still a few unexplainable factors," said Will. "A rogue faction from either side could be responsible for the attack. Such a large-scale attack can be done only by someone internally."

"Be careful of absolutes, son," said Dr. Leibowitz. "You will find that they are often untrue."

"Alright," Will nodded. "If it is not the military or the Tower, then why are you here alone in this apartment?"

The doctor grimaced as he regarded Will.

Will pressed on. "Why were you let go as lead researcher?"

The doctor looked like he was weighing his options. He looked at the three of them before answering.

"The Hive is back," the doctor revealed.

Will, Remy, and Becca went still at the revelation.

"And by back, I don't mean just their outposts," the doctor continued. "They are coming out of the gate in full force... and we don't have much time."

Becca gasped.

"How much time do we have?" asked Remy.

"Five to ten years," said Dr. Leibowitz. "The time dilation is quite steep given how deep they had gone. But it won't be long now before we see their war machines."

Dr. Leibowitz shook his head. "The admiralty is in panic. They need Titans to face the Hive again, but it takes years to build one, and we are running out of time. The Reformist party pushed for a faster timeline on the project, but the Tower, still suspicious of the military, delayed the request. In retaliation, the military enacted the embargo, cutting off supplies from the Tower."

"They said it was done by separatist forces," muttered Becca.

Dr. Leibowitz waved his hand. "None of this would have happened if the military didn't look the other way."

"They also fired you," said Will, "because compromises were no longer necessary. They needed the Titans now."

The doctor gritted his teeth. "I burnt a lot of bridges when I went over to the military, and now without their protection..."

He sighed. "What I'm afraid of is someone doing something stupid in their panic... something irreversible. If only we had a bit more time. We were nearing a breakthrough. If we had cracked this shard..."

"What's so special about this shard?" Remy muttered.

Will felt sweat pool on his brow. His skin burned, and the shakes were getting worse. He was so absorbed in the conversation that it was only now that he had noticed that his shard was acting up.

Will gasped and clutched his leg.

"Will, what's wrong?!" asked Becca.

He felt someone take hold of his wrist again and saw the doctor crouched next to him.

"This is a lot worse than I thought," he muttered. "You need your leg looked at."

Will pushed the doctor back. "No."

"This isn't a joke, son," Dr. Leibowitz said angrily. "Your life could be in danger."

Will's eyes flicked to the gun that the doctor had left back at the armchair, and then he stared back at the doctor. "You were let go by the military..."

Dr. Leibowitz looked confused. "Yes?"

"You could have your life back if you turned me in. Why should I ever trust you?"

The doctor pulled back with a sigh. "I understand."

He stared at the toy mech on the couch for a long while before speaking. "I had considered the moral dilemma in bringing another weapon into the world but comforted myself by saying that my work was not related to it. The good that will come from a complete analysis of a Titan class crystal would only bring good to the world. We could finally solve signature sickness."

He shook his head. "Weapons are necessary, but I strongly believe that if we unlock the full potential of this shard, it would be worth a lot more than just a few Titans."

Remy leaned forward. "Doctor, just what is this shard exactly?"

Dr. Leibowitz ignored Remy and stared at Will. "Having one or more Titans cannot change the war with the Hive, but if you manage to fully control this crystal, it would change everything."

The doctor met Will's gaze without flinching. "So, William... Do I have your permission to act as your doctor?"

Will looked down at the saint of the Tower, the man who survived sickness, familial tragedy, and societal ridicule when he joined the military. Never had he wavered in his quest he had since childhood.

The hands of fate were slowly turning. Right at this moment, Will didn't need the shard that had given him the gift of foresight to show him the way. For better or for worse, he wouldn't get a better ally than the doctor.

Will stared back at Dr. Leibowitz and nodded. "Yes."