Orion didn't know where the Clockwork was taking him, but he didn't care. He had nowhere he wanted to go anymore.

Home was unsafe. That was likely the first place they'd check. He didn't even know if his sister and dad were still safe, let alone at the apartment, seeing as Syndra was evacuating certain areas.

The farm was clearly unsafe. In fact, he was likely to get killed if he ever came back, per Rami's words. There was nowhere else in Carmsborough for him. Especially not without Rami.

He could feel tears welling up in his eyes, separate from the misting from the clouds and the rain below them. Before he knew it, he was taking a fist and hitting the Clockwork's back, no longer concerned about falling off.

"Stupid machine. I hate you. Why can't you protect everyone? Why couldn't you protect him? Why did you leave him there?"

Naturally, the machine didn't respond. Not even with a whir. It only made him more upset, but he was losing all motivation. His frustration was too widespread.

Frustrated with Syndra. The man who caused all of this in the first place. He wanted to hunt him down and kill him. He wanted to hunt all of them down and kill them.

Frustrated with the Gearmaster. Why couldn't he design this machine to help the entire country, not just some random teenager? Instead of totally ruining his life, it could have stopped Syndra right then and there in the town square.

Frustrated with Rami's parents. Backwards, uncaring, and apparently dangerous. Willing to destroy their son's life to get back at the one that they thought "turned him gay."

Frustrated with Rami. Willing to risk his own life to help get him out of there. Willing to risk everything by getting too comfortable and kissing him out in the open on the farm. He shouldn't have just said "screw it" and gone with it. They should have actively tried harder to protect what they had. What they were creating.

Frustrated with himself. Why couldn't he do what it took to protect Rami? What could he even have done to do it? Should he have left earlier? Should he have left as soon as possible, when they'd crashed down in the first place? Was he selfish in trying to stay with them? Putting them in danger? Getting Rami shot?

It was all too much. He needed to get out of the thin air near the clouds and back down to solid ground, if only to cry or sleep. The Clockwork must have recognized this, because it began to descend and slow. As far as he could tell, they were in the Industrial District, judging by the number of smog columns below, meaning they'd already flown over the entire Biomed District.

They set down outside of what seemed to be an abandoned mattress warehouse. It didn't look like the place had been touched in the last ten years, except by the weather and potential looters or squatters. Orion approached the building cautiously, with the Clockwork stomping behind him on the opposite end of the cautious spectrum.

He opened the front door, and unsurprisingly, the place was empty. There were a few mattresses left, none in very good condition, and nobody else was inside. He ran his hand across one of the mattresses and gave it a bit of a smell. There was a terrible stench of mildew and mold. He had to decide if it was better than the concrete floor.

Ultimately, he figured it wasn't and curled up on the floor. The Clockwork stood ominously over him, which only made him more mad than he was already, but it wasn't that that kept him awake.

The last scene with Rami played in his head over and over again. One final kiss before being shot. He couldn't bear to think about it, but he was given no choice. In the end, he succumbed to the exhaustion, and suffered a restless night against the concrete, his subconscious as haunted as his awake self.

-◦=[ ]=◦-

He woke up to the sound of birds fluttering inside the building. The sun was barely peeking through the broken windows, working hard to pierce the fog that had settled overnight once the rain went away.

The phrase "sleep on it" rang true for him that morning as he acclimated himself to his surroundings. In between apocalyptic nightmares, his brain was processing the events of the previous day and how best to approach it going forward.

And it wanted revenge.

He adjusted his borrowed shirt and did what he could to fix his hair. For this to work, he had to look like an average person, not one who had been on the run and hardly taking care of himself. Not one who witnessed his newfound love get shot.

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Love was a strong word to associate to it already, but if he was being honest with himself, he was in love. Nobody had quite captivated him like Rami, and he wasn't willing to let that go to waste.

His first step was to somehow get a radio from somewhere. If he wanted any chance at getting back at the general or Syndra, he had to know what was happening around Carmsborough. That also likely meant a steady source of power for it, like a plug or batteries, but that was a problem for a different moment.

He searched the building first to see if he could find a radio. There were some offices in the back, but those had been almost religiously wiped of anything valuable. The metal handles had been removed from the desks in them, spots where outlets had been were empty rectangles, and even the whiteboards had been removed from the walls, judging by the discolored rectangles where the paint was slightly more vibrant than the rest of the room.

He did, however, find an intact mirror in one of the bathrooms. His reflection looked back at him, and he hardly recognized himself. He was more scraggly, yet somehow more refined, especially in his arms and chest, where most of the hard work had come from. His eyes were sunken, likely from the awful sleep, and the stubble was growing out of control. The only thing that had stayed the same was his unkempt hair.

And he decided, in that moment, that the hair had to go, too. He grabbed a sharp piece of broken glass from one of the other mirrors and carefully took it to his hair. It was a jagged and uneven cut, but once he'd gotten through most of it, he could almost pass for any other person in the Industrial District doing basic physical work.

The Clockwork was standing there when he exited the bathroom. If it had any comments about his new haircut, it kept them to itself.

"You need to stay here," he said, coldly. "My plan will not work if you are following me around. Don't come anywhere near me. Not even if you think I might be in trouble."

It simply watched him, its head tracking his movement all the way out the front door. To his surprise, a large group of people were heading down the street, past the mattress warehouse and towards a different open area. He followed behind by just a bit, trying to seem like he wasn't directly following them, but headed in that general direction. They all stopped in front of a scrapyard and stood in line.

He knew it was going to be completely awkward if he stood in line with them, especially since they likely knew he wasn't supposed to be there, but he didn't care anymore. He had to get his hand on a radio somehow. The scrapyard seemed like the perfect place to do that.

A good chunk of them watched as he fell in at the end of the line, right behind a girl with some sort of steambot cat. She didn't seem to notice him, but if she did, she didn't seem to care.

That was, until the boss came out and started going down the line, addressing each person.

"He won't let you in, you know," she said, not even looking up at him. "He's very cheap."

"I don't need money."

Now she glanced at him, eyebrows raised. "Look at you. You need money."

"Good morning, Luna," the man said, approaching her.

"Oh, we've already decided it's going to be good?" she asked.

"That's always the goal. You know the drill. Ten hours. Keep your cat out of trouble today, please."

"We've had a delightful conversation about what happened yesterday. Made a lot of progress."

"I'll see it when I believe it."

She walked away slowly as the man approached me. "And who are you?"

"Rami," Orion said. "I, uh..."

"Well, Rami," the man said, "I am not accepting any new positions right now. Turn around and leave."

"He's with me," the girl said, reappearing in the doorway.

"This kid is with you?"

"Yeah. Said he needed a day's worth of money. I told him he'd have to work for it. He can have my day's pay today."

The man looked back at Luna, calculating something in his head.

"So you're telling me three for the price of one?"

"Just for today. Don't get too excited."

"You know, I've always liked you for some reason, Luna. Keep him out of trouble too, or it's your head."

"You got it, boss."

He motioned for Orion to join Luna and her cat inside the scrapyard. He did as told, falling in behind her as they approached a massive bin that needed sorting through.

"Name?" she asked.

"Rami."

"Well, Rami, I'm Luna. This is Freckles, and you're going to tell me why you're here right now."

"What do you mean?"

"You said you don't need money, so you have to have some other reason for just appearing here. If I'm sticking my neck out for you, I need to know why, and I need to have a stake in it."

"Have a stake?"

"Yes. Are you even from here? Look, I can't afford to help anybody, especially not like this. I have my own goals, and if I lose this job, I'm back to begging on the street. You know, homeless, just like the rest of us. Does that make sense?"

"Yeah."

"So, why are you here?"

"I need a radio."

"That's it? A radio?"

"Yeah."

"And you came to a scrapyard."

"Look, I didn't exactly think this all the way through. I thought there was a chance that—"

"That there'd be a working radio in the middle of a scrapyard. Yeah, you really didn't plan this out. That sort of thing doesn't make it to a scrapyard, and if it does, there's about ten other people here that will immediately hunt you down like sharks if they find out you have something like that."

Orion sighed. "Thanks for the help, anyway."

"Although, I'll bet I can get one for you. There are conditions, though."

"Conditions?"

"I need something from you. For starters, I told the big guy that you were getting today's wages. Complete lie. Those are mine."

"That's fine."

"Good. Second, you're doing the bulk of the work today. I told the big guy three for the price of one. Complete lie. One for the price of one, except for when he's watching."

"Okay?"

"Okay. Third, you find anything valuable, you go straight to me or Freckles."

"Or Freckles?"

"Yeah. The cat. Already went over this."

"Meow." The cat looked up at her.

"I am being nice, Freckles. Last, I need you, Rami."

She walked closer to him and poked him in the chest. He squirmed a little. "I, uh... I'm sorry, I'm not... I'm actually—"

"No, not like that. You're going to be the one to convince my guy that you need a radio."

"Who's your guy?"

"You'll meet him later. Better get working before the boss notices."