I stood to my feet, sand tumbling out of my vents. My chest cavity was now sitting half full with the grainy and coarse material.

It made my insides itchy.

I turned to look at Kassidy, the cause of my predicament.

“I hate you so much.”

“I can’t believe it worked!” The woman cried back, a goofy grin on her face.

I shook myself in an attempt to remove more sand. It didn’t work very well.

I turned my head, looking back at the seized-up behemoth, the machine half buried in the sands. That was going to be a pain to clean, I thought.

“Hey Kassidy?” I asked in curiosity.

“Yeah?” She replied.

“How long does that lock up last?” I continued.

Her smile faltered a bit, her eyes going distant as she checked something in her UI.

“You should get in the car.”

Not waiting to ask questions, I moved quickly and pushed Noah into the back seat, taking his spot in the passenger seat.

Before I had shut the door, Kassidy slammed on the gas and started to speed away.

Our shiny purple car shooting off into the night.

----------------------------------------

I sat on the roof of the SUV, the vehicle shut off and parked close to a rock outcropping. We were waiting for the search party to die down before we moved off again. While our escape had gone well, it wasn’t without hiccups.

There were so many ways the whole event could have gone awry, our half-cooked plan not increasing our chances any. But us not accounting for the possibility of a behemoth at the gate was probably our biggest mistake.

It gave me chills just thinking about it.

Kassidy pulled herself onto the roof next to me, the kids having decided on catching some sleep inside.

“What’re you thinking about?” The woman asked, looking out into the sands with me.

“I’m just relieved honestly. It seems I’ve come almost full circle. I would have never imagined going back to that old bunker.” I said as I watched wind whip the sands across the plane.

It was true, I never wanted to see that place again. The building just seemed to hold too many bad omens. Now though? It seemed oddly comforting.

I thought that was strange.

“We should be able to head out soon,” Kassidy said absently, “Is there anything there I should know about your home town?”

I let out a sigh, “It’s not in the best shape... it’s in terrible shape actually.”

“I think I could fix up the entrance enough for our needs though.” I added.

The woman nodded her head, “Why are you so hesitant to go back then?” She asked.

I shrugged my head, “A lot of people died there, and there are more like me... but... hollow.” I said, having trouble finding the words.

Kassidy just nodded her head in contemplation.

She turned to me, “Well, I know I am not the most communicable person... but if you ever need, I’m here to help. Mr. Microwave.”

I chuckled lamely, earning a smile from the woman.

“We should be good to move now I think.” I said offhandedly.

“Yeah, about time, the early morning sun should give us a little cover to hide in.” She replied.

The woman hopped off the top of the car’s roof and popped the driver's door open, entering the vehicle.

The horizon glowed a soft pink, the sun slowly rising into the sky. The desert’s normal dry tan turned into a shimmering blue.

I breathed in deep, sucking air into my vents.

It was a good day.

…

…

…

My vision flicked and sparked as I pulled myself out of the rock face, my body mangled and torn.

I couldn’t even process what had happened before I was incapacitated, my body barely responding as I tried to will it to move.

Screams of terror erupted from the SUV, Kassidy and the kids sitting inside, their faces full of fear and shock. A few tears leaking from the children’s eyes.

A shadow came down over top of me, a white titan blocking out the morning light.

“W-hat’s ha-ppeni-ng?” I spoke out, my voice breaking and glitching.

“Recompense.” The machine said, its cold white eyes boring into me.

I turned my head, two more machine’s making themselves known. One stood guard over the SUV while the other paced to the other behemoth before me.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

The titan that had hit me lowered itself to the ground, the suit’s face panel opening to show a dead man.

“My name is Martyn Serrano, you shot me. Remember that?” the man said.

He tilted his head to show off a metal plate attached to his skull.

“Th-e t-own. Y-ou're a mur-derer...” I said.

I remembered killing him, his face one of the first I ever saw.

“NO! The only murder here is you!” He spat out.

With a flick of his wrist the machine grasped my right arm and pulled me into the air, crushing down on the metal framing as it did.

“Those people you killed in that backwater were my friends! My family! You had no right to do what you did. It’s time for you to pay back what you took from us.” The man said coldly.

Looking closely now, I could see his face in full detail, the sunken eyes, the sallow complexion, the gaunt cheeks.

The man was dying, and he knew it. This was his final play; he would die to kill me. He had nothing left to lose.

“Wha-t do-o you w-ant?” I stuttered out.

I had to buy time, any time, I needed to fix this.

“Like I said, I want you to give back what you stole from me... From us.” He replied, gesturing to the other two titans.

“But you can’t bring the dead back... Can you.” He continued, his face dropping into a hard vacant glare.

The man jabbed his finger into my chest, my metal torso denting inwards like putty.

I cried out in pain, my core blaring out new warnings, the hit had damaged something important.

“Oh, it feels!”, The man said in mock surprise, “This will make what comes next so much better.”

Turning towards the SUV the man hoisted me up high and made me face the car.

“Since you can’t give back what you stole, I’m gonna have to steal something from you.” He whispered close to me, his words grating against my mind.

My lenses flared open in understanding, my body struggling and sputtering as I tried to break free from the man’s grip.

“Oh ho! We hit a nerve!” The man laughed, a wicked grin adorning his face.

“D-on’t touch the-m!” I shouted at the man, the vents on my side immediately starting to glow a bright orange.

The man glared at me and place his hand around my lower half.

He squeezed.

“AHHHHH!”

My abdomen collapsed completely, the vents crushing in on themselves. Whatever engine that had accompanied the vents glow was crushed, the glow rapidly fading away. The world started to swirl in my vision.

“Don’t need any of that, hot enough out here as it is.” The man said, blowing on me gently.

He turned to look at the SUV.

“Hey Percy, make them get out of the car.” The man ordered, his gaze shifting to the far titan.

I tried to protest, to fight back, I could not. I could only watch as my loved ones were forced from the vehicle and lined up. Paris shaking as the sand blasted against her skin.

“Now, I want you to choose who gets to die first.”

I locked up.

He wanted me to ‘choose’?

My mind stuttered and looped.

The man slowly pointed down towards Kassidy, “This one?”

I looked off into the distance.

He slid his hand over, now pointing to Leo, “How ‘bout him?”

Why is home so far?

He shifted to point at Zia, “Her maybe?”

My lenses zoomed out.

The man took a step to the right, looking down at Noah, “This little guy looks like he bites... Let’s wait on him.”

Everything was kinda fuzzy.

The man pointed down low, his finger levied at Ant, “Now this kid is small, what about him?”

The sky isn’t very blue.

“This kid?” The man asked, gesturing to Tom.

The boy looked so different without long hair.

The man took another step right and kneeled down low.

“What about this little lady? She doesn’t seem to be in the best spirits.”

I looked down, at the little girl, the same little girl who had approached me so long ago. She looked as small as the day I met her, her tear-streaked face the same as it was then.

Martyn took note of my interest.

“Ah... someone special?” He lowered his hand, forcing Paris into his palm.

I flung myself into a rabid frenzy.

“LE-T HER G-O! P-UT HE-R DOWN!”

The man shook me up side to side, my arm threatening to tear out of socket.

“Chill out man, I just wanna chat a minute.” He said coolly.

He turned his head to Paris.

“So... What’s your name sweetie?” He asked her.

The little girl sat in his palm shaking, her nose runny.

“ANSWER ME!” Martyn roared out, his face suddenly shifting into fury.

Paris recoiled hard, raising her arms in defense, “p-p-paris...”

“That’s a very pretty name Paris, my name is Martyn.” He replied to her, a broad grin on his face as his mood rapidly shifted.

“Sh-e did-n't do an-ythi-” I was cut off by a harsh glare from the man.

He turned back to Paris.

“Now, Paris, I’m sorry to do this to you, but your friend over there did some very bad things. Unfortunately, you are going to have to pay for it.” The man said with a mock frown.

The titan slowly started to close his fist around her, locking the struggling girl in place.

“Now, mister murderer, I want you to watch as I destroy someone you love. Learn what it’s like, yeah?”

Paris cried out as the fist continued to tighten itself around her, her eyes filling with tears as her face contorted in pain.

“PAR-IS! NO-O!”

The girl’s eyes flicked to look at me.

She gazed into my eyes, her eyes conveying all the pain and suffering she had been forced to go through, all the childhood that had been robbed from her. Her chance at normalcy.

Her hopes.

Her dreams.

Her friends.

Her promises.

My promises.

I felt something deep within me snap, an unknown and sleeping entity awakening in my being.

My head turned to face Martyn, my eyes and face melting away into a living liquid metal.

His eyes opened wide in confusion, “What the hell...”

I lunged towards him, my body dissolving and following behind me. The living liquid splattered across the man’s face.

I tore into him.

Manifesting tiny razors out of the metal mixture, I bored a hole through his skull and into his brain.

I whipped and churned, blending his brain into a grey and bloody slurry.

My body was formless and free, my mind lacked the ability to comprehend my new state of matter.

I was confused and shapeless.

But still.

I acted.

The two remaining titans stood still in shock, the unexpected event freezing them in place. I used that opportunity to leap onto Paris.

I forced the dead titan’s seized fingers away from the girl and lowered her to the ground. I did this in an instant, my body shifting and sliding between the gaps in the dead behemoth's fingers to dissolve them away...

The first titan to move was the one by the SUV, it charged towards me, planning to crush the kids in the process.

I refused to let that happen.

Willing myself forward, I shot towards the titan like a bullet, slamming into it before it could take another step. I melted between the armor plates and into the machines core, slicing my way past a metal seal and into the mech’s cockpit.

My body formed into collective shards before returning to liquid to produce a terrifying and formless maw. The occupant only had time to watch and scream as I tore into him, shredding his lower half apart in seconds, killing him.

I burst out of the side of the mech, leaping in the direction of the final titan.

The behemoth backpedaled slowly, having just watched it’s two immortal allies be killed in seconds.

Racing along the sands my body produced talons and claws, scraping itself forwards across the loose ground.

Reaching the titan’s leg, I could feel myself start to grow nauseous, the formlessness starting to taint my mind. My vison warped and wobbled as I viewed the world, memories superseding themselves as if they were reality.

I watched my father's car explode as I burnt a hole into the titan’s hull.

My sister’s tears fell like molten beads when I tore into the behemoth’s cockpit.

A wicked orange blossomed from the woman’s insides as I recalled the man who had made me who I was now.

The titan shifted and fell to its knees before collapsing face forward into the sand.

I rolled myself out of the bloody steel corpse and looked up at the sky, the night stars shining brighter than ever in the light of the day.

My body relaxed and I felt myself start to still and stiffen, my grey mass returning to a solid form.

I flexed my fingers and toes, the appendages responding to my command, control of my body restored.

I sat up.

A little girl with messy auburn brown hair looked back at me, her face dirty and wet with tears.

“Cee?” She asked me.

“Yes?”

“I thought we were going to die.”

“Why? I made a promise, didn’t I?”