《Exhuman》216a. 2252, Present Day. New Eden. Athan.
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True to Soran's word, Rito appeared after a couple of minutes, apparently confused and completely unaware why there was a big hole in the wall, but was happy to drop us off anywhere we wanted. It was at this point that I realized we had a huge opportunity.
"If we can use Rito, we can get pretty much anywhere," I said. "I'm willing to bet that acting as the logistician for the resistance, she'd been pretty much everywhere they could get her in New Eden, so she can put us pretty much anywhere in New Eden."
"Um, that's correct. They deliberately had me tag along on some missions just for that reason," Rito confirmed.
"Nice, Chariot. How'd you know that?" Tower asked.
I blinked at him. "Uh. I think I knew that from before. But this is good for us, we can drop out of nowhere, circumvent the fortress armors...we can head straight for Blackett and Targa and take them out and stop this at its root without any more XPCA or Exhumans dying."
"Even in trying to ruin us, he helps us unwittingly?" said Jack, who'd been holding his leg ever since Soran dropped him on it. "Amusing. If...not overly convenient."
"If it is overly convenient, it may be by design," Karu said. "If we utilize his servant's powers to stop the XPCA, we are doing him a service. It may very well be that was his plan in bringing us here."
"Even if we are helping him, if it stops Blackett, I'm happy to oblige," I said, grinding my teeth.
"You're going to mess up your jaw if you keep doing that," AEGIS warned me. I stopped.
"Wait," I said, looking at Moon. "Is...does anyone else have a really weird feeling of deja vu?"
The others looked at me with a mixture of mild concern and surprise, but not a single hint of recognition.
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"Moon?" I asked. Everyone looked at her, and she turned red even as she said and did nothing.
"Then if our course of action is decided," Karu cut in. "What of the implementation? Namely, where is whom to be delivered?"
"You mean...which of us goes after which of them?"
"Correct."
"I'm going after…" I said, and then hesitated.
"I'm going after Targa," AEGIS finished even as I paused. I looked at her and blinked. Somewhere in the sea of memories just dumped into my brain, this scene seemed utterly familiar. It was hard to seperate them, being so similar and all of them jumbled in my mind with no sense of which memories led where, or even any timeline...it felt like everything which happened in all of the memories happened all at once.
And more confusing, I'd separated from Moon, and with it, her memories. I only had memories of her memories now, and felt like I was missing a lot of very important details, somehow. This nagging feeling of deja vu was only getting worse.
"Targa's the one who's hacking me, or knows who did," AEGIS explained, somewhat unnecessarily.
"Then that is decided," Karu said, dusting off her hands with a flourish. "I shall accompany Ashton and we go after Director Blackett."
"Me too!" said Tem.
I had to do something to change things or it would end exactly as it had in the memory. I didn't remember how it had gone or ended, but none of them had ended well. "Actually," I said, turning back to AEGIS. "We should stick together, right?"
She chewed her lip and made a play at stroking her hair, but it wasn't there from where I'd cut it off. Shit, I'd done that forever ago it felt, like an asshole.
"Right," she said. "But...I don't…it's been...months...and...maybe now..."
Jack explained how he wasn't fit for combat, and Steffie volunteered to look after him and Lia.
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Outside, with the fight. I had almost forgotten about that. "I think we need a lot of our big guns focused on the fight outside," I said. "Tower and Tem might be able to hold up against those fortress armors, Tem on offense, Tower covers for her. We need to stop the Exhumans from getting wiped out or all of this is for nothing.
"Hey, I know I caught a speeding bullet before, but honestly, that was all luck. And who knows what else those crazy things can do."
"I can help," Moon said, rising from her silent reverie and immediately blanching as everyone turned to face her. "Chariot forced his mind on me enough recently that I have an idea of their arsenal. And two sets of your power are better than one."
"And you're my partner," Tower said.
"Sure."
I hoped that was enough. I remembered the Exhumans outside getting destroyed, so surely with Tower, Moon, and Tem, we could swing that fight around. Still, it didn't feel like enough.
I walked to Tower and put my hands on his arms and he looked at me with concern.
"Bro...watch the two girls, okay? Whatever happens out there, stay safe, stay together. Promise me, okay?"
He gave me a reassuring hug that made my bones creak, and then let me go.
"Don't even have to ask, man," he said. "But you're lookin' at me like I'm gonna die," he laughed a little empty laugh. Something tugged my sleeve, and I turned, expecting Tem but finding Moon.
"Don't worry about them, I will keep them safe," she said.
"Thank you." It was stupid of me to turn to Tower first, when Moon and I were the only ones here with...whatever this was going on. Even if I was having trouble putting my head together around all this, I thought she was smarter than me by far...if anything could be done with this mind-crap, she'd do it.
"Are...we decided then?" Rito asked, seeming a little worried about how we were discussing dying.
"Any chance you could tell us where you sent Soran?" I asked, only now remembering Rito was in the room and was...like...a person.
"None at all. Besides, I move a lot of things on a schedule without really worrying about who or what it was. Awfully hard to keep track, actually," she said, looking a little flustered.
"He was keeping an eye on his watch," AEGIS said. "Having to keep to a timeline might have been what saved Moon's life."
"Yeah I don't think so," I said. "But speaking of time, let's not waste any more of it. Every second we're here...the weirder things get. Rito...if you please."
"My pleasure," she said. "Viva la resistance!"
I just sighed. AEGIS grinned as she rolled her eyes at me as if to point out that hey, I was dating a smart cutie and Rito was an airhead I shouldn't pay attention to.
I had to wonder if she would still keep doing that if she knew how many times I'd watched her die in the last few minutes.
And then realized, yes. Yes she would. She was standing beside me, her body half-destroyed, skin hanging off her torso like a slashed garment, and she was smiling and rolling her eyes and being a little jealous anyway.
As we turned away from Rito to let her use her powers, I pulled AEGIS in and gave her a kiss, just a swift, solid smooch. Even if she was beat to hell, she was still the woman I loved, and her surprised smile in that moment made all the misery of the last couple days seem just a little lighter for just a little while.
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