She nodded.
Alistair sat down. Neither said anything for some minutes, then he leaned forward and put his elbows on his knees. "Did you know what you were doing to me when you modified me? Did the man who did it know?"
The AllMother nodded again.
"Why didn't you tell me?" Alistair's voice sounded desperate. "Why didn't you give me the option to decide if I wanted it?"
The AllMother remained quiet for a moment, and when she spoke, her voice was calm. "I've taken a lot of chances with you, Alistair. This whole endeavor has been a very large chance, and I couldn't see around the corners. I had to trust myself and you. You will never realize the lengths I went to to get to know you before I met you."
She folded her hands in her lap and continued looking out the window as she spoke.
"I understood what you'd do to get back to your wife: almost anything. I wasn't sure you would accept the power you now have, though. I thought you might deny something that great if you knew the truth." Her eyes found his. "I would have been right, wouldn't I?"
Alistair met her gaze but said nothing.
She finally looked back out the window, and the room was silent once again.
After long seconds, he said, "I should have been given a choice."
The AllMother nodded. "You should have been. As should I have been. Evil for evil. Perhaps it will cancel out everything that's happened. That is my hope, anyway."
Alistair sat there staring out the window with her, a new expanse having opened between him and the old woman. A new bond had formed between them as well. Only the two of them had this power that had been forced on her a thousand years before.
Now it had been forced on him.
Alistair stood up. "I'll never be like you," he told her.
She nodded, showing no emotion. "I hope you never have to decide, Alistair. Truthfully."
Alistair hadn't seen Ares since the yard. Servia had kept tabs on the Titan and given Alistair updates. The giants and the medbay had healed him, and the other Primus had remained at his side almost the whole time. Alistair had learned her name was Veena back on the dreadnought. From what he understood, she had said she would never fight on the Subversives’ side, but she would wait for Ares to do so, assuming he lived. Well, Alistair didn't understand everything that had happened between them, but he knew they were never going back to Earth.
At the end of the week, they were ready to leave this planet. They had no interest in staying on it any longer.
Alistair went to their ship. The woman was carrying a bag onto the small transport that would take them to a larger ship that waited.
Ares saw him coming and set his bag on the ground.
He met Alistair ten meters from the ship.
"I don't know what to say," Alistair told him.
Ares grinned. "Me either."
"I know what you told me back at the yard, but what about her?" Alistair motioned with his head at Veena.
Ares shrugged, his grin dropping as he looked at the woman. She was leaning against the transport's door, watching them. Ares turned back to Alistair. "When the curtain's pulled back, it's impossible to unsee what's behind it. I think we both saw what we'd become if we ignored it."
"Where are you going to go?"
Ares sighed and looked at the sky. "If I learned anything from all this, it's that there are a lot of worlds out there. I'll find something to do, and if you don't die during this little insurrection of yours, maybe I'll end up back on Earth."
Alistair had not asked him to join the cause, and he was sure Ares never thought about signing up. He'd done his deed, almost died for it, and now for the first time in his life, he was free to do whatever he wanted.
Ares shoved his hands in his pockets. "You'll have some time now, but I'm sure you know that. Hel didn't say a word to the Commonwealth about where we are, and she disabled the tracking devices on the ship we used. They're going to search for you, I'm sure of that, but you’ll have a chance to get your legs under you. You've got that little army of giants, too."
Alistair stuck his hand out. "I hope I see you again, Romulus."
The young man took the older man's hand and shook it, smiling. "I don't. You bring a lot of stress with you nowadays."
The last person he had to see was the hardest.
Thoreaux.
Faitrin hadn't left the man's side since they'd pulled him out of that chair. Alistair thought he knew that she was going to ask on behalf of Thoreaux sooner or later. She knew it wasn’t time yet, though. Healing had to happen, and not only the physical kind.
The medbay had done good work on him. The bones were fixed, the skin regrown, and android appendages replaced the ones he'd lost. Physically, he was in better shape now than before.
Mentally?
Alistair didn't know.
He knocked on Thoreaux's door and Faitrin answered. Something had changed since Alistair knew this room was as much hers as Thoreaux's. "Do you mind if I talk to him for a minute?"
The pilot shook her head. "Not at all, Pro. We've been expecting you."
She stepped out of the room and left the door open for him. Alistair stepped in and shut the door behind him.
Thoreaux was sitting on a couch, staring forward. There were tears in his eyes. As Alistair watched, one welled and fell onto his cheek.
"I’m sorry," Alistair said, choking up too.
Thoreaux nodded, and more tears fell from his eyes. "Thank you."
Alistair blinked. "For what?"
"Faitrin told me what you did. She told me about everything you had to go through to get here and save me. Thank you."
The Fallen Titan didn't know what to say. "I…I'm so sorry, Thoreaux. I wish I could have gotten here sooner."
The dam broke, and
