Saturday evening, Athena slipped on her jacket and prepared to go outside.

“TINA, are you sure it’s okay to go out?”

“Yes. I’m monitoring mech and drone patrols in the immediate area and monitoring communication traffic. There is nothing to indicate that our trail was found.”

“Thank the gods for that. I need to get out of here for a bit.”

Emmett glanced up from the kitchen table. “Don’t forget about me.”

Athena chuckled as she slipped out the window. “I’ll bring you back something nice.”

TINA monitored Athena’s position via her earpiece. It had become second nature to track all three of them this way, but she’d never been satisfied with such a limited view. Early on in their exile, TINA had experimented with a small layer of nanites on their face and clothes. It not only allowed her to see their movements and read their facial expressions, but also to better mark allies in Mod and Arsenal’s Heads Up Display.

TINA followed Athena as she slipped down the fire escape and strolled through a nearby ally. She fed directions into Athena’s earpiece, helping her avoid a nearby biomech patrol and directed her toward a still-abandoned laundromat three blocks away.

At the same time, TINA monitored Emmett and Clara while they practiced. Emmett was creating and controlling additional clouds of nanites, and Clara was meditating while controlling her power. TINA recorded notes about their vitals, breathing, body position, muscle activation, and, of course, the movement of nanites and the heat in Clara’s body.

Data was always valuable, and TINA always wanted more of it. Most of the time.

As soon as Athena left and the fire escape window shut, both Emmett and Clara’s heart rates spiked. Neither moved, except to glance in each other’s direction. Clara wasn’t wearing her helmet, and Mod didn’t have his HUD engaged in the apartment, but at that moment, it was like they could see through walls.

A second later they both got up and half-walked, half-jogged toward each other, falling into each other’s arms in the middle of the hallway.

TINA pulled back her attention, focusing on the perimeter of the apartment, and limiting herself to passive monitoring. It was a compromise between respecting their privacy and keeping them safe. She’d gotten steadily quicker at the process, especially since the pair took almost every opportunity to be intimate when Athena was out.

The first time Athena slipped out of the apartment, the pair had caught TINA off guard. She was sure that Emmett and Clara had forgotten about her. If they had known how much TINA inadvertently saw that first time, they’d be mortified.

TINA didn’t plan on telling them. She’d simply scrubbed the details from memory.

She turned her attention outward, following Athena as she slipped through alleys. In a way, it felt like TINA was walking beside her. She didn’t have Athena’s senses or even cameras, but she didn’t need them.

TINA followed along on a map. She tracked Athena’s sightline, knew which stores were open and which ones still had sounds of construction. It was 85 degrees outside already, and sunny without a cloud in sight. The wind was blowing north. They were too far inland for the smell of the bay to reach Athena. The donut shop nearby wasn’t open either, but the gas station was. She was a block away, but the wind would carry the fumes to her.

Crowds were forming a block away, hoping to get into a supermarket before it closed. TINAcould just barely hear voices in Athena’s earpiece, but if she wanted, she could count their cellphone signals. A small biomech patrol stopped to regard the crowd before continuing on their route.

Stolen story; please report.

TINA ignored them and continued alongside Athena.

Limiting herself this way still felt odd. TINA’s entire existence was rooted in expansion. Seeing the world this way was… humbling. It made her feel small and made the world feel so much bigger.

How strange it was to live in one body and see through one set of eyes. It felt like standing on the tip of a point—only touching one small part of the world.

Athena paused at the corner of the street, peering out toward the crowds. She waited for a drone to pass overhead before crossing and ducking back into another alley. She paused once more before crossing another street. This time, her gaze turned toward Eastside. Athena sighed and thumbed at the hem of her jacket.

TINA was about to ask if she was worried about Lucy. Almost said that there hadn’t been any communications between the Summit and the Brotherhood about a vampire…

But Athena hurried on, and TINA stayed silent, both leaving the moment behind.

TINA was never quite sure how much she was supposed to see. Venture had tried explaining these social dynamics before, but it had taken a long time before TINA felt like she had a basic understanding. So many variables, so many nuances… Even now, with her mostly self-imposed limitations, it felt like she saw too much.

Athena slipped inside the laundromat through an unlocked door. She waited and listened. Finally, she asked, “TINA, are you there?”

“I’m always with you.”

Athena smiled. “Any signals in here?”

“No one besides you.”

Athena got to work disconnecting a washing machine. While TINA watched over Athena, and closed her senses to Emmett and Clara, her mind wandered.

She’d been thinking a lot lately about the necessity of having friends and allies… having people that they could trust. All four of them were sorely lacking in that department. A lot of that was out of their control—Emmett and Clara had cut ties with their friends and family in order to protect them from the Brotherhood.

But there would come a time when they needed allies.

TINA was sure that she could expand. With each server, her processing power increased and she was that much closer to her former self. She would gain enough power that she could cloak each new ally that they brought into the fold. They could bring back McGuire, Cherry, Krystal, and Larian… Athena could bring back Luna and Borealis… but they would need more allies than just their old groups.

TINA wasn’t sure even all of them combined would be enough to take back the lab—

And taking back the lab was just the first part of TINA’s plans.

They needed powerful allies.

~

Athena brought back the washing machine, and all three of them worked until late in the night. Clara was the first to fall asleep. Athena second. Emmett needed less and less sleep now. Most nights he slept around 4 hours.

When Emmett finally fell asleep, TINA worked on her own project.

She was following a lead.

During her downsizing, TINA had been forced to compress a wealth of her memories. Some threads had been overridden and omitted by Venture. She remembered some threads only in summarized terms—one of which being Dr. Venture’s involvement with the biotech and bioweapons corporation, Gnosis.

Buried in her memories was a single thread of communications between Dr. Venture and a member of Gnosis. All that was left was a name—

Ichabod.

It had only taken a few searches to track Ichabod down. He was one of the vice presidents of Gnosis. Specifically, the division located in Belport.

The fact that Venture had gone to such lengths to erase his involvement with Gnosis from her memory was curious enough… but he’d left this thread. Everything was redacted but Ichabod’s name and the timeline. Half the conversation had taken place roughly a week before the battle at the mutagen manufacturing warehouse. The second half took place two days after Emmett killed Lock.

With each passing day, TINA was more certain that Dr. Venture left this in her memory for a reason.

So, in her spare time in the middle of the night, TINA brainstormed ways to hack into Gnosis.

~ ~ ~