[Erick Sanders]

I lay staring at the ceiling, transfixed on a semi-translucent strand of spiderweb that fluttered in the breeze from the open window. Turning the dial back and forth in my mind, the web slowed then returned to normal. I could have been out there with the others, enjoying the night, watching snippets from Cams daily stream and comparing it to others. I heard the chink of glass and a lull in the laughter as they drank. Watching the scene with my eyes closed.

I sighed and rolled off the bed, pulling on a shirt. I pulled Havars swords from where they lay beside me and grabbed my armoured jacket and pants from the chair, slipping silently through the house to the back porch.

I listened to the night, far enough from the living room to sense the others. A morepork joined the cicadas in their call for company and the leaves brushed together. I took a deep breath and began spraying my armour with a nanite cleaner. The Microscopic robots got into the nooks and between the fibres, pulling out dirt and moisture to expire in a dusting on the deck. I placed my armour aside and pulled began wiping down the swords, buffing out non-existent smudges on the black metal.

My peace was interrupted as I felt two bodies approach through the halls, the staunch posture and long gate told me Trevor was coming. I shrank into the shadows of the wall.

“You’ve just been acting ,cold all night. I don’t know what's wrong, but it doesn’t give you the right to be a bitch.” Trevors voice came through the window above my head. No one answered him. “It’s Erick again, isn’t it?” He asked.

“Why do you always jump to that conclusion!” Rose snapped back at him. Great. I thought, A lovers fucking quarrel.

“Because it's always Erick! You’re practically living with your ex-boyfriend. He doesn’t speak to you for weeks, no months! And he comes back, killing everyone to save you! Looking like a fucking nightmare.”

“Don’t you dare!” Rose cut him off, “He saved you too! He can't help his scars, and they don’t change who he is, who we all love!”

“Oh, so you still love him!” Trevor responded, pushing the back door open he stormed past me off the deck.

“I didn’t say I was in love with him! I said we still love him! What he’s done or how he looks doesn’t change that”

“Whatever!” Trevor called as he stormed off into the darkness.

Rose strode after him before slowing to stand before the trees. Her hair shone in the moonlight and she shuffled her bare feet in the damp grass. I felt guilty as I watched. She huffed then turned to walk back to the house, stopping to stare at me.

“You heard that?” She asked, walking slowly towards me.

“It’s hard not to,” I said, returning to cleaning. I had done my best to ignore her little romance, a lot had changed in the last few weeks but Trevors presence was not one of them. I couldn’t blame him, He also had nowhere else to go. Cam and Amy had been insistent that he come with us, rather than be stuck in one of the many small villages now packed with people. Rose hadn’t putting up a fight either.

Rose slid down the wall beside me, silently gazing out at the spot where Trevor had disappeared into the night. “Why did you come back?” She asked.

“What” I said, praying she wasn’t about to have this conversation.

“I broke your heart. You were a slave, and when you got free, you came straight back. Why?” She asked, watching my hands as they rubbed the soft cloth along the steel.

“What was I meant to do?” I asked, keeping my gaze down and my face in shadow. Not wanting to reveal that I had held a naive hope, that maybe she had still loved me.

“Leave. You could be halfway across the system by now. On some resort moon with a beautiful girl.”

“What beautiful girl wants a guy with a face like this?” I asked. Sliding the sword into its sheath and pulling the other free.

“Shut up. You know he didn’t mean it.”

“Yes, he did” I sighed, “I don’t know Rose. I wanted to come home. Tomas and Saleen need a place to raise Sofie,” I began cleaning again, “Who else was going to save you guys. What's the point in being this good at killing if I can’t help my friends,” I finished. I could feel Rose as she watched me. I focused and pulled my sense in close.

“How many have you killed?” She asked.

“How many have you killed?” I asked back.

Rose didn’t hesitate. “Fourteen. But they have all been dreamers so they will be back. Now answer the question.” I stayed silent for a minute. How many people had I killed…

“Over a hundred, at least. When I was first taken, Havar sent them at me one after another. Then there were the arena fights. And now the city.” I shook my head. “I dono Rose, a lot. But they were just AI. They weren’t real.” I tried to tell myself as much as her.

“I know you don’t believe that, the way you are with Tomas, or Sofie.” I could still feel her gaze on me “I don’t blame you. They may be AI but they are as real as any of us.” Rose said, resting her hand on my arm.

She was right. We didn’t know how this dream worked, who created it or why. But I did know that Tomas, Saleen or Jasper, they were all real to me. So were the people I had killed on Scaratous.

I wiped my eyes and watched as an owl flapped over the treetop, passing in front of the moon. Rose sat silently not taking her hand from my arm.

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The stillness of the night was shattered by the crack of a gun. It rolled through the forest and echoed off the house, jolting Rose and I to our feet. Havars swords were free from their sheaths in an instant.

“Trevor” Rose said taking off into the dark. I swore and sprinted after her as she weaved between the kanuka trunks, her augmented eye letting her see in the unlit undergrowth. I stuck close behind her, my electromagnetic senses scanning around us. I caught a glimpse of a rabbit as it hurried away from us, diving into its hole, but no people, no one lying in wait ready to ambush us.

Our feet squished against the decomposing leaves and cracked the strewn twigs. We’re being too noisy. My eyes snapped to the side, following what my extra senses had already seen. With one exaggerated stride, I reached out and grabbed Rose by the waist. “Quiet” I hissed, shoving one of Havars blades into her hand. I nodded towards our right, where I could feel the faint outline of three human bodies. One was prostrate on the forest floor, another with his foot on the down persons back.

As we crept closer, the image became more focused. A man and a women stood over Trevor. They were both armed to the teeth, rifles slung over their backs and swords at their waists. The women had a pistol drawn and aimed at Trevor's head. “I need you to call Tomas,” I whispered to Rose. She nodded to my back as I crept toward Trevor's attackers.

In the darkness I couldn’t see who they were, I couldn’t even scan them. I felt the woman's grip on the pistol tighten and, hoping Rose was calling the others, I pushed off from a tree root and erupted into the moonlit clearing.

The women twisted as my sword sliced through the air. Strands of hair drifted free in the breeze and a trickle of blood rolled down her cheek. She kicked out, her boot colliding with my open palm. Despite the block, the force rocked me back. I rolled and sprang back to my feet.

Rather than pointed at Trevor, the woman's gun was pointed at me. In my mind, my fingers gripped the dial.

“Who are you?” I asked. These two were strong, that kick alone would have shattered Rose or Trevors bones. I hoped Rose would stay in the shadows.

“This the one? I think this is the one? Few more scars than the pictures,” the woman said, surveying me.

“Yeah that’s him, Nice of you to come right to us.” The man chuckled, looking from me back to his scanner.

“Who are you?” I repeated, studying the woman's trigger finger.

“Lord Carlton sends his coldest regards. He would like you to return what you stole, and present yourself willingly for punishment,” The man said. Fuck! Carlton had been regenerated, and just as Basil and Jasper had warned Then he had sent people after me.

I lifted my hands and flashed the Carlton signet ring in the grey light. “This? This is mine now. I took it off his still dying, sack of shit corpse.” I snarled.

“That’s the one, and an implant I believe you stole” The man said calmly.

“Too late, it’s in here” I tapped my head.

“That’s unfortunate” he sighed. Once an implant was bonded to a person, it became useless to anyone else, even with the users' death. “We can still take him your head.” The woman squeezed the trigger and I twisted the dial.

My arm strained with the force, fighting through the liquid air as the bullet flew towards me. The bullet and my sword collided, the nanite sharpened blade slicing through the projectile. I twisted the dial back, but not off.

The fragments of bulled punched through the underbrush on either side of me. The woman's eyes went wide as I sprang forward.

My sword lashed out, slicing into her arm, the pistol falling free. She ducked as the blade skimmed the top of her head and sprang back as I stabbed out again.

I moved with her, giving her no time to draw her sword as I sliced into the other arm, then her thigh, she stumbled as her feet touched down and the tip of the black blade snaked between her armour-plated chest and pierced her lung.

She didn’t have time to cough as I removed her head from her shoulders.

In the second it had taken to kill her. The man had drawn his sword and lunged. I twisted the dial, and rotated with the strike, letting his sword skim across my ribs. I slashed, but the stranger battered it away.

I dodged left, his sword piercing my shoulder. I walled myself off from the pain and attacked low, my sword stopped by his airtight defence. I twisted the dial further, my head pounding in response. His backswing tore through my shirt, leaving a thin red line across my stomach.

He is too quick. It's like fighting Havar. An old terror washed through me.

He slapped my sword aside and stabbed out, inches away from impaling me as I dodged. His boot caught me in the stomach, knocking me back and into the shadow of the forest.

As soon as I landed the clearing erupted in flame. I rolled away from, shielding my face from the heat.

The fire roared, twirling ten feet into the air in a spiral of destruction. When it subsided, the man knelt on the ground, his armour and hair singed down to blackened skin.

I sprang from the dirt, leaping through the air in one move. I slammed down to the ground in front of the slumped bounty hunter, stabbing down into the exposed flesh at the back of his neck. Skewering him.

“Who the fuck was that?!” Cam yelled from behind a tree. The flaming brush illuminating his stunned face, and spilling plumes of sweet smoke into the sky.

“What did you do, Cam?” I asked, staring at the charred remains.

“Used the last of my nanites. That was a whole vial. Good thing you distracted him” Cam said, stepping out from cover, Rose and Amy coming out behind him and rushed to Trevor. “Who were they?” Amy asked, as Trevor pulled himself up, stumbling against Rose, his hand on his head.

I felt two more bodies approach and crouched down, my sword raised. Tomas and Saleen came hurtling through the bush. Swords drawn and ready. “What happened? Soldiers?” Saleen asked as they slid to a halt before us. Tomas prodded the woman with his sword, then reached down and pulled a necklace from around her neck. “The Lords Fangs” Tomas muttered. Saleens eyes snapped round to him.

“You’re sure?” She said.

“Yes.” Tomas dropped the necklace and stood up.

“Will someone tell me who the fuck, The lords Fangs are?” Trevor said, wincing, “They just fucking jumped me out of nowhere”

Tomas looked around at us all “The lords Fangs are a group of devote assassins and slavers from Scaratous. They work exclusively for the Slave Lords, hunting high profile slaves and killing threats to their lords,” he explained,

“Are they after you because you escaped?” Cam asked.

“Yes and No, The fangs normally wouldn’t waste their time coming all the way to earth for just an escaped slave”

“So why the fuck are they here!?” Trevor yelled.

Tomas looked at me, waiting for me to explain.

“Because I killed Carlton, he wants my head” I said, leaving out the implant and the theft.

“And who is Carlton?” Trevor asked, shaking free from Rose.

“He is a slave lord. He was their slave lord,” Rose told him, nodding to Tomas and me.

“It’s your fault they’re here and your fault I got attacked” Trevor stormed over, ignoring my bloodied shirt and shoved me. I conceded to step lightly back as his palm struck me. A blade appeared at Trevor's neck, and he halted. Shaking, his gaze followed the steel back to Tomas’s hand, then up to his eyes.

“Back off” Tomas growled. Saleens hand resting on his shoulder.

Trevor stepped back, swearing, “Fuck this! Fuck you!” He spat at Tomas. Spinning. He stormed past us and back towards the house. “You’re a fucking death trap!” He yelled.

He was right. If two of Carltons men had found us, had found me, it was only a matter of time before more fangs came looking. I could barely protect myself against the one man, what was I meant to do if it was three or four of the same rank.

I looked down at my scanner.

[Congratulations: you have assisted in the death of an enemy two ranks above you by, your share of the loot is 2,000 credits.]

[Congratulations: You have risen in the rankings, you are now Rank 97]

I must have been close to gaining a rank during the battle to escape Auckland, and now defeating a higher-ranked opponent had pushed me up to ninty seven. It still wasn’t enough. We turned to return to the house, leaving the bodies to the worms.