I became aware of a throbbing, dull red light piercing through my eyelids, and then it faded from my mind. Its return made me wonder what it was, but sure enough it went away once again. The third time it pulsated, I became aware of the pain in my temple, the wetness at my feet, and sounds that were both familiar and alien at once.

I opened my eyes in confusion, “Mama?” I groaned out. Mom isn’t here. You need to move. Looking around, I realized there was a dull warning light, pulsing on and off casting deep red shadows in the cockpit that was now up to my shins covered in water. There was a second of a familiar yet alien noise, before the fog of my mind finally cleared and I realized it was the sound of water that was pouring in from the seams of the cockpit. I began to get up, but felt a tug at my back and forehead, and winced with pain. I reached one hand up and felt the spine piercing through my temple and realized I couldn’t move without unplugging from the AI.

“YOU ARE AWAKE.”

“What happened?”

“THE OSO VERDE HAS SUNK TO THE BOTTOM OF A WATER RESERVOIR. ALL SYSTEMS ARE WATERLOGGED AND OUT OF COMMISION. I PRESSURIZED THE CABIN, BUT IT IS ONLY A MATTER OF TIME BEFORE IT FILLS AND YOU DROWN.”

I glanced down and saw my reflection in the crimson water, which said, “We have to find a way to survive this.”

I brushed the AI’s spines again, and then asked, “What’s the chance of us surviving somehow if we stay here?”

“ZERO.”

I nodded, that decided it. I grabbed the helm at my forehead and got ready to remove it. What are you doing?

“I’m going to unplug from the AI, and we’re going to get out of here.”

I stopped my hands, and they shook as I wrestled back control and pulled them down. “No, you’re not. Did you forget about the kill switch?”

I managed to get my hands back on the helm, “Well if we stay here, we’re dead. We can sit here and wait to die, or we can unplug and die. Given a choice, I’d rather not be connected to this AI when I die.

“DEATH TO THE TRAITOR! LONG LIVE ATLANTIS.” Case in point, the idea of listening to that in my head before I went was not something I felt like doing.

Stop! There must be another way. The systems may be waterlogged, but maybe there’s a way to disconnect the AI with us when we leave. Let’s see, if I look down at the seat there should be some way to tear it off. Once I figure that out, we’ll be free to leave. I must survive, survive, survive.

“Hey Ursa Minor?”

“Don’t you do it.”

“STATE YOUR ORDERS.”

“Don’t listen to him!”

“MY CONTRACT STATES I LISTEN TO HIM, NOT YOU. STATE YOUR ORDERS.”

“Disconnect me.” The pain was instant, and a shudder swept my body as first the helm came lose and I tore it off, while a wet squelching sound erupted from my back as it withdrew from my spine. I leapt out of the seat and felt a sudden wave of nausea, but I didn’t have time to process it. Oh no, I was going to be sick.

We didn’t have time to be sick. I had managed to gain a lot of knowledge from the AI while we were connected, so I rushed to the door and opened a side panel to pull out a life jacket, put it on, and hit the button to depressurize the cabin, causing water to instantly crash in. It had been only eight seconds since we disconnected, but I couldn’t even think about that as the door opened and I pulled the tab, causing the flotation device to inflate and I skyrocketed upwards.

In Atlantis you are always at risk of the bends, and when making a rapid ascent like I was it was imperative to breathe out as fast as you could. Shit, my shoulder was already starting to hurt, and I probably should have burst my eardrums to be safe, but it was too late now. The pain was spreading and hurting more. I can’t take this anymore! Make it stop! Make it stop!

It was reaching my upper limits as well, and we were rising slower and slower, likely because this flotation device wasn’t designed for the weight of a cybernetic human, and if I didn’t start swimming we would drown. I tried to kick, but the pain in my joints was too great, and I felt myself losing control of my body. Shit, shit, I looked up and could see light, and it was starting to fade away. We were too heavy, and our momentum was too slow to carry us to the air. I had phenomenal lung capacity thanks to my modifications, but… shit did we just gasp! I wasn’t in control! I couldn’t keep myself alive like this! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts!

THE SURVIVOR HAD FINALLY BROKEN, AND BOTH HE AND THE ORIGINAL WERE PARALYZED BY PAIN. IN THAT CASE, I began kicking while gagging on water. My mind was becoming dark, with the cries of pain of the two alters becoming distant, but I had my mission. Swim to safety.

We broke the surface, and I swam over to where there was a large crumbling indent in the concrete, likely where the Oso Verde had scratched as it fell into the water. I pulled myself up, spat out the water, and gasped air as my mind snapped back.

The two were still crying in pain. I assessed the situation. Juliet was still alive. Objective identified. Kill Juliet. I began pulling myself up the wall, grabbing twisted rebar and jutting concrete until I was clear. My skin popped and wheezed as it let out the air bubbles from the bends. The modifications were designed to mitigate the bends, and in a minute or two the pain would fully subside.

It… hurts. But not as bad. Shit, where were we? I watched as we pulled ourselves over the wall and walked back into the factory that we were fighting in earlier. The dust and snow had settled, creating a sickening light grey powder around the room and I could feel the chill in the air. Throughout the floor, there were fires, and I could see the Legion walking away from the wreckage of what appeared to be… the Alloy of Justice. We had lost.

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I found myself finally able to think clearly as we marched to the Legion. I was surprised we were still alive, but that didn’t matter, what mattered was we needed to find a way to stop Juliet. Stop walking towards her, are you trying to get us killed? Aren’t you the one in control? Of course not, I would never take us to danger like this! Then who is in control?

The answer was, “I AM.” Who the hell? What the hell, I thought we disconnected from the AI?

“CORRECT. I AM NOT THE AI. YOU MAY CALL ME KING.” They were getting irritated, and I could feel them struggling to take back control, so I manifested their forms so that I could see them clearly, floating out from me and appearing standing on whatever I saw as I made my way through the chaos of the floor and towards the loud steps of the Legion.

I looked down and saw my body, which was translucent and didn’t have any actual control, “What the hell did you just do?”

“PREVENTING YOU TWO FROM INTERFERING WITH MY MISSION.”

“What is your mission?” I felt so out of place, and it was weird to watch my body moving without me even being inside of it. I didn’t like it one bit.

“IDENTIFY AND ACCOMPLISH THE WANTS OF KRISTOFF.”

“You’re going to get us killed!”

“NEGATIVE. I AM IMMORTAL.”

“What?”

“What?”

“EVIDENCE. NO ONE SURVIVES THE SUICIDE CHIPS. I SURVIVED. NO ONE SURVIVES THE AI TAKING OVER THE MIND. I SURVIVED. NO ONE SURVIVES THE KILLSWITCH. I SURVIVED. CONCLUSION. I AM IMMORTAL, THEREFORE YOUR MISSION TO SURVIVE, SURVIVE, SURVIVE IS IRRELEVANT.”

“Are you out of your fucking mind!?”

“NEGATIVE.” The Legion had stopped, and I could see its cockpit opening. She wasn’t aware I was here. Based on how the forcefield only stood for a second in response to attacks, most likely it would not activate if she didn’t see me. Conclusion. She was vulnerable. I took off into a sprint and jumped onto the leg of the Legion, climbing rapidly up to above its shielded knee, and began sprinting down the leg. I leapt onto the core and managed to swing and hop up in just two bounds to the cockpit.

Make her pay! You two are going to get us killed!

She looked up from her seat in mild surprise, and pulled out her gun, a useless endeavor. I was bullet proof. Bang! Ow! You’re seriously going to get us killed! I snatched her hand and squeezed, causing snapping sounds as her bones broke and I ripped the gun out of her hand, tossing it over my shoulder where it clattered down below. It didn’t matter if she had managed to shoot and hurt us. I’m scared… Get us out of here, now! We were immortal, pain has no meaning. Do not overreact. We literally are bleeding you moron! Mama? Mama, where are you?

I grabbed the seatbelt on Juliet, who was now punching us repeatedly in the head. Useless. I pulled the belt, and it snapped as I tore it apart. I grabbed her by the scruff of her uniform and lifted her up so that she was looking down at me. She glared at me in annoyance, continuing to kick and strike me with her good arm. I looked at the woman, the murderer of Adonis, the bastard who had tried to take over the city. The monster who had lied to me. The bitch. “Let me go,” she demanded as a thought came through my mind.

“HOPE AGAINST DESPAIR.”

“What?” she snarled.

I pulled her close, and then tossed her lightly from the cockpit so that she would fall down below. As she started to drop, I jumped down so that I landed a split second after she did, her legs snapping as she crumpled to the ground.

I was unsure if 33’s plan had succeeded. Was Adonis’s creation able to escape? The thing had truly been beautiful and was all that was left of the boy’s legacy. His desire to invent, to make the world better. It was truly something to be admired. “HOPE TAKES HEART.”

She was struggling to pull herself along, and I saw that she was crawling towards the gun, which was a few meters from her location. I walked calmly by and picked it up, while glancing down at her, who was staring needles into my eyes. I squeezed, and the gun fired uselessly in the air as I crushed it down into a useless scrap of metal before dropping it to the ground.

33 had seemed so calm and collected whenever I met her, that was until yesterday. Suddenly she had been passionate. Suddenly she was enraged. Atlas of Atlantis could never understand such emotion. This woman was clearly cut from the same cloth, killing a kid as easily as I had seen Atlas cut down anyone who tried to overthrow him. I had been part of two missions to crush uprisings, and to this day the original regretted it, even if the survivor did not. “HOPE AGAINST LOGIC.”

I walked over and stepped on her one good arm, snapping her ulna and radial bones as easily as if it was a stick. She didn’t cry out, instead opting to look up at me and say, “This changes nothing. The city will need someone to blame. They’ll hang you, and then they’ll follow through and destroy Olympus and Atlantis. The Crossroads will lead humanity to a new age, and even if I’m not there to see it, I have succeeded.”

No, that couldn’t be. 33 and Alloy certainly wouldn’t let it happen. They had a plan to stop her, and while I wasn’t sure if they succeeded in all their objectives, I had faith they would stop at nothing to save all three cities. They would succeed, as surely as I had survived so much. “HOPE FOR A MIRACLE.”

I looked back at the burning wreckage of the Alloy of Justice, perhaps he was dead. Perhaps he had failed. In that case, someone would have to take his mantle. 33 was nowhere to be seen, and if she didn’t, I would. “HOPE FOR A HERO.”

I picked the woman up and she squirmed underneath me. I walked to a leg of the Legion and slammed her against it in a sitting position, and she stared up to me unphased. This wasn’t going as Kristoff wanted. She wasn’t scared. She wasn’t ashamed. She wasn’t giving up. I needed to break her. I needed to make her pay for Adonis.

“BEG FOR YOUR LIFE.”

Juliet looked up at me, and she raised up a quizzical eyebrow, before smiling and saying, “No, you Atlantean pig.” She knew what I wanted, and she wasn’t going to give it to me.

Assessing the situation. Juliet would not give up. She would not surrender. She did not feel regret. She was not ashamed. Conclusion. There would be no catharsis. I must complete my mission then.

I gagged and spat out the data port from my liver, the black slimy cord dangling from my mouth. I bit off the end, and white GEL glowed faintly as it dripped from the cord while I bent over and jerked the woman’s head back. She didn’t even flinch, maintaining that condescending smile as she looked at death, and felt no fear. I jammed it into her eye, instantly crushing it and forcing it through her optic nerve into her brain. I squeezed the cord like a tube of paste, and the GEL entered her skull. Her body began to spasm lightly, the way I had seen so many Atlanteans do as their Suicide chips went off.

“Hmm. It’s not as bad… as I thought it… would be…” her voice faded away, her face slumped to the side, and she became still as death claimed her.

You may HAVE CONTROL BACK.

I instantly snapped back to my body and fell down to my knees gasping. It was over. I looked around me and saw emergency services as Deltas began flying down and first responders began arriving. I looked down at Juliet, picked myself back up, and began walking away. I wasn’t sure what was next. Logan would supposedly be next in line for the military, and I didn’t know if I could trust him.

No one had seen me kill Juliet, and hopefully the evidence of me having piloted the Oso Verde would have been destroyed under the pressure of the water. It didn’t matter.

In the end I had one job.

I had to survive, survive, survive. For the future of the little boy, who had created me all those years ago, as he cried and held mom. That was my promise. That was my mission, as the King had so succinctly put it.

Hey, where are we going? “To safety.”

… I want to go to Olympus. I want to see Adonis’s home.

… I think we can do that… Maybe we can do more than survive, just this once…

I gave up control.