Ellia took a deep breath. She was sitting alone in her room, taking a breather after a long day. She sat at her desk, looking at herself in the mirror. She took a moment to brush her stringy hair; it was frayed and split-- little tendrils poking out of it like tiny twigs. Her muscles were sore and ached when she used them. Even thought Hilargi made us lighter guns, they still hurt my muscles like no tomorrow when I have to carry them for too long.

Her face was furrowed in anger as she combed. She sped up her pace, dragging her comb through her hair aggressively. It hurt because her hair was so rough and rugged and unkempt. To save water, she didn’t shower every day and her hair suffered for it, the blazing sun didn’t help the health of her hair, either. It seemed to dye it blonder every day and dry it out more and more each day.

She ignored her throbbing muscles as she tore a clump of hair out. Her day had already been wretchedly exhausting, and she was about to end it by having a heated conversation with the Last Man about how he had jeopardized humanity just to save the artificial life of a robot.

I don’t know what I’m going to say to him, but it needs to be appropriately hateful to get his attention. I have to put together the perfect pattern of malicious words to scare him into being less stupid with his life. Ellia put her brush down for a moment and then rubbed her temples, her eyes squeezed close in frustration. Still… we do owe him a lot. He was right about the attack… Ellia frowned. If he was right, then she wondered if the Zironists had, indeed, been informing the Lionesses about when to attack the Nymphs, or whether there was a spy within her fortress. It was another nest of headaches that she didn’t know how to handle.

And the possibility of the Zironists informing on her in and of itself was disheartening enough. Why would they come by and give me that pep talk, only to have my enemies attack me the next day? The thought brought tears to her eyes. Is Nikodemus right? Is all of this some kind of a trap?

Ellia stopped brushing her hair, looking herself in her glassy eyes. She wiped a tears away and then swallowed. After that, she wore a look of determination on her face. No time to get sappy—no time to be doubting. I have to stay confident in my faith and in myself. And Nikodemus is the one who needs to be chastised. Ellia stood up and left her room, heading to Nikodemus’ room with an angry stride. She brushed past the other women bustling through the hallways with a determined march.

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The women recognized when she was angry and steered clear of her as she went. When she arrived at Nikodemus’ room, she threw his door open. Nikodemus woke up from his deep sleep at her arrival, shooting upright and then shrieking at seeing her. He threw his blanket over his head to hide. “Please don’t kill me.”

Ellia, who was prepared to figuratively rip his head off, but caught off guard by his melodramatic reaction and nearly started laughing. It took everything in her to stay mad at the Last Man. She stomped over to the side of his bed and threw the blanket off him. “You can’t hide from me!” she yelled.

Nikodemus chuckled when she found him, rolling over and trying to get away from her, but being too weak to do so. Again, Ellia found herself barely able to resist getting playful with him. However, she couldn’t hide a brief smile, which she was sure the insipid Last Man picked up on. When he rolled away from her, she rolled him back, when she was about to yell at him, she was briefly stayed by his worn face.

Normally, he looked bright and youthful, full of energy despite his age. Now, he looked old and tired—like his life’s energy had been sucked out of him. He looked like ghost, his skin was so translucent. For a moment, her face was twisted in concern. She smoothed his hair back, feeling his temperature, and being the devil that he was, he took the opportunity to place his hand on top of hers. She grimaced at how badly she wanted to crawl into bed with him and wrap her arms around him to keep him warm.

In a moment, she remembered her anger. “What were you thinking?” she hissed under her breath. “Trying to sacrifice yourself for a goddamned robot!”

Nikodemus looked at her blankly. He swallowed. “I don’t know. In some ways, I think that robot is worthier of life than us humans are. Perhaps this is god’s plan; perhaps he wants to wipe the earth of us and replace us with these simpler, but purer creatures.”

“Listen to yourself!” Ellia’s fists were clenched. “Do you really want mankind to go quietly into the dark? Is that what your precious God preaches? Then I want nothing to do with Him!”

“I don’t know what He wants! I just know that mankind has been on the brink of extinction for the past twenty years and there’s no other explanation to this XY problem other than that God wants us to die!” Nikodemus shouted. He looked down afterward, inhaling a deep breath, his face scrunching up into a hideous sob.