Maintaining her grip on the surrounding dome section, Rhea punched through the foam plug. The closest drones—both the repair and police types—were sucked out before they could compensate for the explosive force of decompression. Fighting against that force, which was like a powerful, gusting wind, she pulled herself through. She took plasma hits from the police octocopters that had moved off to a safe distance inside.
She shoved herself downward, toward the palace; the impetus she imparted with that shove, along with the weight of her heavier body, allowed her to overcome the decompressive force. She landed on the spire and begin vaulting down it, taking big, bounding leaps.
Overhead, the drones plugged the hole with expanding foam once again.
Enemy units swooped in, and she was shot at from all sides. Plasmas bolts came in from the ground below, too. She dodged what she could, and bashed aside any drones that got too close, and quickly made her way back to the bottom of the spire.
She leaped down the final four stories to the ground, and then scrambled into the breach that remained in the palace wall, courtesy of Khrusos’ earlier hasty exit.
In the hallway beyond, she batted away the enemy infantry robots and walkers that attempted to waylay her. Ahead, at the gaping hole Khrusos had left in the throne room, she saw infantry robots lined up, their weapons aimed inside, no doubt pinning Will or whoever else remained within.
Some of them turned toward her as she approached, but she battered them with her fists, crushing and mangling them and knocking them aside. Then she crawled inside.
Within, she stood up once more, and surveyed the room. Will emerged from the far entrance, beyond which he had been taking cover, and waved. She waved back.
“My, my, you’ve certainly grown,” Will transmitted. “I remember when you used to be a wee little girl.”
Her gaze alighted on Miles, who yet lay crumpled near the far wall. The blood stain on the wall reminded her of what he had done for her.
“Watch my back, Will,” she sent, not quite in the mood for jokes.
She went straight to Miles and set down the brain tank.
She sloughed off most of the nano machines she had taken from Khrusos, letting them die. As she shrunk, they formed a thick pile all around her. When it was done, that heap buried her.
She emerged from the mound of dead nano machines, feeling so small now, but also more… normal. She wasn’t quite her usual size, however, as she’d left enough inside of her to offer something to Miles. Something she wasn’t sure he’d accept. Assuming he was still alive.
She approached him. His body was battered. Blood had trickled from his every orifice: ears, nostrils, mouth, even the edges of his eyes.
Miles opened his eyes when she knelt beside him. It took a few moments before they focused on her. His gaze drifted to the pile behind her, and the brain of Khrusos, which remained where she’d set it down.
"Nice fish tank," Miles commented weakly. “Is that what I think it is?”
“Most likely,” she said, holding his hand.
He smiled. A fresh drop of blood trickled from his lips. “I’m dying. But before I go, I just want you to know, I’m sorry for what I did. I’m sorry for betraying you. I made a mistake. The biggest of my life. I assumed something that I shouldn’t have. Let my preconceived notions about you and your kind, drive me to a false conclusion. I betrayed not just you, but all my friends. People who had grown closer to me than family.” He started weeping. “I betrayed you! The beautiful woman who saved my entire city. Oh, I’m glad I’m dying. So glad. I don’t deserve to live.”
“Shh,” Rhea said. “It doesn’t matter. You redeemed yourself in the end.”
“Did I?” he said. “Then why do I feel so bad?”
“Look,” she said. “I forgive you. But let me tell you something. You don’t have to die. I can create a cyborg body for your brain, right here, right now. Eventually, you could look identical to what you do now.”
She wasn’t actually certain she could create an entire cyborg body with her spare nano machines, but she felt confident that at the very least she’d be able to create a mind-machine tank, like the one Khrusos had. She had a blueprint for that, there, in her memories, likely received when she first absorbed the nano machines in the Emerald Highlands. Once she created a tank, they could find Miles a body after.
“But only if you want,” she added. “I can’t force this on you. And there’s no guarantee it will work.”
Miles smiled weakly. “It’s tempting. But I don’t think I could live with myself after what I’ve done. Besides, I’ve loathed machines my entire life. If I become one, I’ll only loath myself, even more than I do now, if that’s possible. But I thank you for the offer.”
“Please Miles, let me try,” she said. “You have to try. You can’t give up.”
“Actually, no,” he told her. “I can. I’m allowed. Let me die. Let me go. Please, my Warden.”
She grinned, tearing up herself now. “You called me Warden again.”
He returned her smile. “Yes. You were always my Warden. I was a fool to think you would ever betray humanity. You didn’t have it in you. You were a warrior of Ganymede, yet you were also a warrior of Earth. I thank you, for saving us all. For saving me.”
“But I didn’t save you,” she said, squeezing his hand.
“You did,” he said. “I’m free.”
With that he closed his eyes forevermore.
She stared at his lifeless form for several moments, then released him and wiped away the tears.
It’s over. Somehow, I survived. Somehow, I won.
She thought of all she had done to get to this moment. All she
