I woke up and opened my eyes to a dazzling light.

Well that wouldn't do. Closed my eyes again and rolled over, looking for another couple minutes of sleep. I'd had such a dream, but the memories of it were slipping through my fingers. AEGIS was my wife and left for the office, while I was stay-at-home dad for our pet cat. Lia couldn't afford a place to stay so she was working for us as a live-in maid. Frilly black-and-white uniform and all.

As I lay there grasping at imaginings, my mind slowly whirred to awakeness and I remembered the events of last night, arguably even crazier than my dreams.

I cracked open my eyes again and squinted against the light. Was it my lightning? Working autonomously all night? I tried to move it, and nothing happened.

Good, that would have been a real fire hazard.

I sat up and rubbed my eyes and felt grass under my fingers. I took a look around, I was outside, a good ten feet outside the mining compound walls in the shade of a tree. The sun had just peeked around the edge of it and caught me in the face, which must have been what woke me up.

Laying next to me on either side were Lia and Saga, resting peacefully from the looks of them. I stared very intently at each of them in turn and confirmed that yes, each was still breathing.

Well that was good. I laid back down. No idea how we all got out here, but I'd kind of accepted that memories didn't often make a lot of sense where Saga was involved. Best to let them sleep for now and get the whole story when she woke.

['Sup.] I heard her voice and looked over. She was still lying peacefully on her back, but this time I caught her narrow brown eyes. She gave me a small smile.

"Hey," I said, shifting an inch closer to her to get my eyes out of the sun.

"Hey," she said back. "I'm talking. This is weird."

It was a little weird. She definitely had to put a little conscious effort into talking, which gave her words a weird little echo because I could hear her thinking her words as she said them. While the voice from her mind was strong and commanding, the words from her thin white lips were barely a whisper.

"I got you out, apparently."

"Looks like you did. And I'm alive and everything. I guess...I owe you an apology."

"Normally my overdeveloped martyr complex doesn't let me cash apologies, but you did just legally kill me in there."

"Yeah." She didn't say anything more, just shifted uncomfortably and stared into the branches of the tree. "It's so bright."

"That's why I moved to the shade."

"I mean, outside in general. I've been in a mine for a hundred years, and the only lights I saw were the ones you and the two brought in. It's weird that there's so much light in the world." She squinted as she looked at the sun through the tree, but didn't shield her eyes.

"I'm surprised you're not like, jumping and running. You're free! Or has that not sunk in yet?"

"Yeah. It hasn't. Do you mind if I go back to talking mentally? I don't have the voice for this."

"Honestly, I can't really hear you normally. Most of what I'm getting is mental."

[Damn. Well, I'll need to practice, I guess.]

It was, if possible, even weirder hearing her talk to me while seeing her lips were fixed in a smile.

[I don't really do jumping and hollering, but you can if you'd like. I'm more of a thinker. You really...came through though, despite me. I am sorry.]

"Yeah, you really made that a lot harder than it had to be. Please consider listening to me in the future maybe?"

[I will. I have to now, don't I?]

"As nice as that sounds, I don't follow."

She rolled over and propped up her head on an elbow, her small eyes glittering as she continued giving me that small close-lipped smile. [We had a deal. Or a promise, as you put it. You spring me, and I spend the rest of your life helping your silly human campaign.]

"Oh. Yeah. I had almost forgotten about that. But I promise, I wasn't thinking about that at all when I was trying to get you out and ignoring everything you were saying."

[I know. I was in your head the whole time, remember?]

"Like I could forget."

She frowned a little and reached an arm towards me. She was so thin compared to me, it was like she didn't have any more fat or muscle on her body than was absolutely necessary. She wasn't emaciated or skeletal looking...just...a little alien. Her finger touched my forehead and I felt my mind go rigid for a moment, crystallizing like solidifying glass. As if that makes any sense. Then the sensation was gone.

"What...did you do?" I asked, feeling nothing different.

[Just a little apology present. I just dulled the trauma I (and that Exhuman girl) inflicted on you a little. Nothing major, just...pushed it out of the forefront of your mind.]

And so it was. When she mentioned the girl, I didn't see images of her broken face flashing in front of my eyes, just tacit comprehension that it happened, it was horrible, but I could move on.

"Thanks...I think. I'm not sure I like the idea of being able to just forget people I kill, though."

[Well, I won't make a habit of it. You probably won't make a habit of killing women, so it's a moot point. I just wanted to say thanks.]

"You're most welcome. I still can't believe it's over. All I needed this whole time was--know what, let's not dwell on that."

[No, you can. Get your I-told-you-so in. I won't put up with them later.]

"I don't need to. You already know, and if you really want an I-told-you-so, you can fish around in my brain for one. There's plenty in there."

[Yeah.] She sighed. [Sigh. I'm going to have a lot to think about, and relative to my normal timescale, not a lot of time to do it in.]

"Re-evaluating the worth of all human lives, I hope?"

[Something like that. Re-evaluating at least some humans. You're right, I could exist in the same world as your sister, or Karu. Others, not so much.]

"Others, I'm not sure I want to live in the same world as, so don't take it Exhuman-personal."

[Things are just much simpler when you can paint them black and white. But the world isn't that simple, I get it. I just wanted it to be, and thought I had the power to ignore all the minutiae and treat it that way. I probably still do...but don't worry! I promised I'd follow your silly rules.]

"Yeah. That's the kind of thinking that got that Exhuman woman killed. Once you think the rules don't apply to you because you're strong enough that you're above them...well, I guess you better be damn sure you can fight the whole world at that point."

[I could take the whole world.]

"Yeah, no. The whole world is a big place. Even if by some miracle, nobody could ever stop you, I'm pretty sure we breed faster than you could kill us."

[Eh. Probably. Never thought of that actually. I guess I'll have to go after all the sexy ones first so that nobody wants to make babies anymore.] Her happy smile became a playful smirk. [So I have to start with you!]

"Sexy? Me? Madam, I happen to be a puberty-stricken awkward teenage boy who doesn't own deodorant."

[Just how I like 'em. Nom, nom, nom.]

"Weirdo. Go find someone your own age."

[I could be chasing your great-grandfather, and I'd still be robbing the cradle. Besides, I'm like, what, physically and mentally twenty or so? I'd do you.]

"Can we not have this conversation over my sleeping sister's body?"

I was saved from further weird advances by the approach of a figure. It was Wynn, hobbling over slowly.

"Are you okay?" I asked, getting up to help him over.

"I'm fine, just an old man being old," he said, refusing my help. "Happy to see you up and about, I was concerned Saga might have done something to your mind, as she often threatens us she'll do.

[Only when I'm bored. So yeah, often, I guess.]

Wynn laughed, and I had to wonder just how he got by living with her. She was smiling too, though, so I suppose death threats and constant danger of mental erasure were just their way of bantering.

"Nice to see you in person," he said. "I was wondering if, after all this time, you'd just be a brain in a jar."

[Planning to keep me on your mantle? You would be so lucky.]

"I wouldn't dream of it, mistress," he said, with a sarcastic bow, despite his infirmity.

"So what happened to you?" I asked.

"She did. But not how you expect, I imagine," he said with a wink. "Last night, Tate and I were bedded up and we awoke to some manner of psychic carnage going on. Worse ever than we'd experienced while she slept. I took a peek, and found those two--" he gestured to the tree and I noticed that the two DOG-Es which had accompanied us to the mines were still on high alert just beyond the tree "--guarding the entrance. That was when I knew something was amiss."

"Yeah, Lia and I went to visit Saga, and things got a little ugly."

"Lover's quarrel?" he asked with a wink.

[Yes.]

"No."

"Well, not sure what to expect, I walked in. They didn't make a move to stop me, but were still on guard anxiously. I brought the boy, not wanting to have him awake alone, and we worked our way down to the prison. When we got there, I found your sister unconscious near the exposed wiring on the left side, doors closed, no sign of you."

I glanced at Lia, still asleep. She looked so peaceful, but I was afraid of what kind of mental backlash she'd taken while Saga had unloaded on me.

[I just put her under when it was clear you weren't leaving.]

"Thanks for that."

[I know what you're thinking, but blackmailing you with her isn't in my nature. If I wanted you to do something against your will, I could just make you do it. It seems that changing your mind is the only hard part.]

"A lover's quarrel with blackmail, hmm?" Wynn said, stroking his beard.

[No. One without blackmail. Continue talking, old man, or I'll scatter your brains across this tree.]

"Lovely as always. Well, Tate was sure you were in there somewhere, so we double-checked the mines looking for you, but with Lia unconscious at the door valve there--"

[Time out. How does everyone know about that valve?]

"You aren't as good at keeping secrets as you think, Saga," I said.

"...the only real explanation was that Athan had gone inside. We came back, I shined my light through the windows and caught a glimpse of him. It took all of Tate's strength but he held the door while I went in, and lo and behold, Athan was there unconscious, and Saga as well. Her little prison had been turned on, and administered a compound that put her into a coma until the counter-serum was injected."

[How...do you know all this?]

"Well, it wasn't easy, I tell you that," he laughed. "Darn machine was near as old as I am."

"That machine was over a hundred years old."

"Ehh? What's that whippersnapper? Collywobbles in your ears? Never heard an old man make a joke before?"

I sighed. Saga giggled, a cute effeminate little giggle, soft and reserved, like the tinkling of wind chimes. Her mental laugh was always so domineering and confident, any part of her being quiet and reserved, it caught me off guard a little

"The machine wouldn't let me open the prison...cell? Casket?"

"I've been calling it a coffin."

[Coffins are for dead people.]

"You've died. More than most people, even."

[Fair point. Coffin it is.]

"Whatever you call it, I couldn't open it without all sorts of crazy passwords and doohickey. So I stood scratching my head a bit and even pulled off some of the casing around the coffin trying to see if there was a lever or something I could put a hand on. Nothing of the sort, but I did find the core running the whole thing was exposed by a service panel."

"And what, you just ripped out the core?"

"You don't know the first thing about security, do you? No, I borrowed your sister's wrist holo and jacked in. This might surprise you young 'uns, but back in the day I was a quantum core developer. Must have been fifty years ago, right before the bombs fell."

"Before the Sino war?"

"Yep. I was caught in a blast outside of Philadelphia and almost died. Spent the next few years putting my life back together and getting a new perspective on things. Actually when I decided to become a crazy old mountain man."

"You're kidding." Somehow, seeing him sitting in a white button-down shirt in an office all day was the most impossible part of this story.

"Nope. Harris Wynn, senior core dev and quantum architect at your service. Retired, though."

Well, that was unexpected, but I guess every crazy mountain man grew up somewhere.

"Breaking an OS a hundred-years old was as easy as looking up the major security patches released in the last hundred years, so I was through in a jiffy. Disabled the security, administered the counter-serum, and carried her out to the surface. I would have taken one of you two, but she looked a lot lighter." He laughed. "Don't tell your sister I said that."

"I'm sure she'd understand. You hurt yourself carrying her?"

"Well, less hurt myself and more the natural outcome of a foolish old man trying to push himself past his limits. Fortunately, those guard robots were plenty smart, and when they saw me hauling bodies, they fell right in line and carried the rest of you out for me. Tate had the hardest job, holding the door while we paraded people and robots and bodies in and out."

[I'll have to thank him. It sounds like I owe the two of you my life as well.]

"That's unexpectedly decent of you to say, Miss Saga. You owe us nothing, we're just happy to see you alive and in the sun at last."

[You're right. I do owe you nothing. I've saved your lives every day I didn't squish you like vermin.]

"There's the girl we know and love." Wynn elbowed me. I really didn't understand these two, but who was I to judge? Seemed like all of my friends had tried to kill me now.

"Well, I do owe you. Thank you so much, sir. Lia and I are grateful beyond measure. If there's ever anything we can do--"

He just laughed and waved me off. "I'm an old man. Looking after young 'uns is my job. Perhaps next time, just try to fall unconscious in a more convenient location. Perhaps an air-conditioned building with handcarts."

"I'll see what I can do," I grinned.

Lia groaned and stirred and blinked at me.

"mmfmsdfmf?" she said.

"It's a little before noon," I answered.

[I couldn't understand that and I can literally read her mind.]

"I happen to speak fluent Liaeese. I was enrolled in an eighteen-year full-immersion course."

She sat up and rubbed her eyes.

"Where are we? Why's everyone here?"

"I'll tell you later," I said with a smile.

"You...you...I'm not awake enough to think of an animal."

"Bear?"

"Not funny. Tell me."

[Just a sec.] Saga leaned across me and tapped Lia on the forehead. [There.]

"Woah," Lia said, her eyes dilating as she sat enraptured.

"Can you stop with the mind-fuckery? What did you do?"

[Just gave her the memories of the last few minutes from my perspective. She's reliving them right now. Should only take a few seconds, thoughts are a lot faster than conversation.]

"As much as I'm glad that your powers can be used for something other than evil, can you not unless it's...I don't know, a crisis or something? I feel like every time you tamper with someone's mind you're going to break it."

[Ouch, what do you think I am, an ameteur? Minds are my thing.]

"Woah, that was trippy," Lia said, holding her head as she leaned forward, breathing a little heavier. "I am not awake enough for this...crab."

[I can fix that too.]

"Please don't," I pleaded. "Save it for crises, please?"

[Fine. Waste of my talents, but I said I'd be good. Do feel free to die of old age anytime you want so I can use my powers in frivolous ways again.]

"Anyway, all caught up, Lia?"

"Yeah. Wow." She looked at me, and her mouth began twitching and eyes glittered with tears.

"No. No crying girls. Why are you crying?"

[I thought it would save more time if I covered what happened last night too while she was out. Looks like, uh, that was not the best idea.]

"Well...she was going to hear about it at some point…"

Lia inched closer to me and wrapped herself around my arm.

"You died! But you were so brave. But how could you be so stupid!" She seemed unsure if she wanted to hug me or hit me, and apparently settled on both.

"Ow. Ow. Ow. Lia, I'm okay. Everyone's okay. We did it, it's fine now."

"But I slept through it all," she pouted.

"Yeah well, you didn't have any say in that. Saga put you asleep."

"Whatever. Next time you have a bizarre crazy adventure, I'm coming, though."

"Lia, this isn't just a game…"

But she was having none of it, even when I explained that now that Saga was out, we didn't need to have any bizarre crazy adventures, we'd done it.

I couldn't blame her. I didn't believe me either.