Rust clouds were slowly being pushed back south by Exodus's glittering crystals, shining in the air like the stars beyond them. It was the first time Shou had ever seen stars. They were bullet holes in the tapestry of space that let the light in from another world. Cracks in the window of time itself. He felt that if he looked at them long enough, he'd be able to gaze past the window and the what's outside. Perhaps it was nothing. Perhaps this was all there was. Or maybe, just maybe, it held everything, and all there was were simply the room they were locked in.

He sighed and set his bag down on the cliff side at the edge of the city of Ampyre where Harvestfall 2 used to be. He pulled out a tripod, opened its legs, and set it down. Manually, he adjusted the main head horizontally against gravity so that it pointed 90 degrees up. Finally, he attached a black box to it, a wide-angled lens pointing upwards. He left the software to ping its location back to the main tower in the city and calibrate its positioning.

Arnold's voice came through on his radio. “This is Locust Zero, checking in, over.”

Another man said, “This is Locust One. I'm all set up, over.”

A female huffed, “Locust Two.” A short pause as exasperated panting was heard. “Almost... at peak. E.T.A, two minutes... over.”

The calls went through the numberings. Four of the first six were in position. “This is Locust Seven,” Shou radioed in. “Black box calibrating. Signal is weak here, so maybe one more minute, over.”

“Copy that, Locust Seven. We're expecting a zero point zero seven percent reduction in mass today. Keep that in mind, over.”

From his bag, he pulled out a rolled-up mat. Unfurling it onto the gravel ground, he lied down to look at the stars.

It was peaceful. Finally, peace. He was now helping out Project Locust, aiming to use Exodus's telekinesis to repel the encroaching cloud of Taint. Calculations have them movable for ten years, before it stalemates for another decade and the encroachment of rust begins again. That buys them 20 years to solve the crisis, or hope the metal in the south burns to its zenith. In the meantime, prototype of choppers were being built in Ampyre, slated for flight once the air clears of metal particles. Without the rust clogging up engines and war stopping advancement, they could finally begin flying people off the rock they were stuck on and begin trade with the outside world. Settlements were also starting to move further north, to clearer skies and better pastures.

The air was clean enough now that he did not even need to mask up. Rebuilding efforts had begun everywhere, and he had an interesting job, to say the least, using a world-ending Titan to save it. Everything was going well.

So why did he felt so bored?

“Shou?” Miu radioed in on their private channel.

“Yeah?”

“Just wanted to let you know that Luce and Adelle are coming up your way. So don't shoot them.”

“I don't have a gun.”

“Don't throw your leg at them, then.”

He laughed.

The faint smell of fresh rust tinged the air and he knew Adelle had arrived. He sat up and turned to the two ladies walking towards him.

Shou greeted, “Should the president really be walking around without her bodyguards?”

“Jonathan said it should be fine as long as Adelle's with me,” Luce replied.

“Yeah,” Adelle exclaimed happily. “We had a training session and I kicked everyone's ass. At the same time.” She puffed out her chest proudly.

The change in Adelle's personality had been jarring after she got together with Luce. But Shou then remembered how he used to be before meeting Miu and simply accepted the power of love, however corny it made be.

“What brings you two here?” he asked.

Luce answered, “Do you know Eccles?”

“Yeah. Flamboyant criminal information broker. What about him?”

“He was arrested last quarter.”

“I heard.”

“He turned himself in.”

“Okay...”

“To me.”

“Curiouser.” Shou leaned forward.

Luce nodded to Adelle who gave a knowing wink. The elf turned away and teleported out of sight.

The president continued, “Turns out he used to be from East Ampyre. A Roller golem had one of its legs blasted off near his home and he took care of it. They became friends until the soldiers came and killed it. He ran to Citi after that.”

Shou was now more than intrigued. “What does that have to do with his arrest?”

“He's been doing research on Titans. After his arrest, his facilities were all seized.” From her pack, she took out a folder and tossed it to him. “One of his many projects.”

He read the title aloud. “Project Android.”

The tang of rust filled the immediate air again. Adelle stepped out from the puff of oxidised metal followed by a woman. Not a human or elf, but just humanoid. She wore a silver sleeveless dress that frilled and puffed into a skirt of black and white at the knee. Her light skin had the lambertian reflection of painted plastic, and her joints balled like those of dolls. Her hair - a ponytail of artificial black - wrapped around her temple, two wings of hair glazed down her cheeks. Her eyes were glassy white, and the outline of her jaw was set with the moving parts of her mouth.

“Hello, friend Shou,” the android greeted with a tuned voice light as harps.

He slowly rose to his feet in shock. “Reggie?”

Luce replied, “Not really. We salvaged overwritten data from Marble's hard drive. We put what we could back together and had a neural network fill in the gaps. Her name's Galia.”

“I have most of the memories of Reggie, but I am decidedly not it. Some of my personality codes are missing or replaced. I am sorry, friend Shou.”

“Hah.” Shou felt warm tears run down his face as he walked towards Galia. She was definitely not Reggie. For one thing, she was speaking, and she decided on a gender. He was not sure if it was just the tone of voice she chose, but there was uncertainty in her words, a trepidation that escaped Reggie's personality. “Why are you apologising? You've done nothing wrong.”

She looked at her hand, turning them before her eyes. The faint sound of pneumatic and gears whirring could be heard. “I am unsure of what to expect. I heard that I-... that Reggie had died. We had not gone through the social procedure for excepting dea-”

He hugged her, cutting her off mid-sentence. “It's okay.”

“I... do not understand.”

“It's okay, buddy. We'll go through the rest together. Welcome to life.”