“I tried to kill Cerszl. You know him as Creator Quris. I see by his augments, I just messed him up, which is nice to think about but not good if he needs to be stopped from hurting more people and Titans.” Injecting Menace with his first booster as I finish his abdominal repairs, I watch him visibly relax. “I just wanted to be sure it worked this time. I didn’t realize he had an ultromotor, but Sythius knew. So I’m glad he found me again. It’s just odd for a Creator to have one. I always thought they were human.”
“And the grenade?” Fracture asks.
“It was either all of us leave or none of us,” I reply. “I had no intention of letting Quris get a hold of me or anyone else again.”
“Ruthless,” Sythius remarks. “You could’ve let me in on that plan.”
“Didn’t trust you yet.”
“I am sorry to learn of Mintaka,” Fracture says, taking a blanket out of a pack and wrapping it around his bare waist.
“She was our first and only female stealth model,” Menace groans, holding his head. “Creator Quris used her against us and us against her. We told her to sacrifice us if that’s what it took for her to live.”
The idea touches my heart. Titans are all so inherently protective of women that it’s evident even in the most ruthless of their species.
“So few females ever made it to certification. They were always and only ever CyberPilots. But Quris was an evil Creator.” Menace sighs. “I often wonder what she would’ve been like if she’d made it to the battlefield. But at least the other Creators discovered what he was doing and blocked him from Titan.”
“I’m sorry,” I say quietly. “Not all humans are good.”
“Not your fault.” Menace steadies my hands as I place the last bandage over his stomach. “Sefi—”
I crawl up to him, see the weariness framing his eyes, and give him two more boosters. I’ll have to wait to administer the last until his nanotoner has had enough time to convert the current volume of new solution.
He catches my hand and draws it to his chest. “Why did you kiss me?”
“Do I have to be able to explain it?” I ask. “There are a lot of reasons.”
“You don’t want me,” Menace tells me. And yet, he doesn’t let go of my hands. He doesn’t really want me to walk away. He just feels like he doesn’t deserve love.
“There’s a little left,” I pull the bag of Quris’ nanosolution from my pack and prop Menace up in my lap. I help him finish drinking the last of it, then pull out a blanket from the pack and drape it over Menace’s body because he’s in the worst shape of all of us.
“How did you end up with Quris?” I ask Fracture as I clean the slice on Menace’s forehead and place a nano patch over it. The medicine quickly melts into his synthskin and seals the cut.
Menace quietly watches me as I sweep his dark bangs aside and inspect the repair. His hair is much softer than I expected. Meeting his gaze, I give him a hesitant smile, feeling suddenly more vulnerable than I ever did in the hands of a horny hunter or a gluttonous junker. And I think it’s because life is finally starting to feel like it means something to me on a personal level.
Fracture shifts in the loose dirt and rock, making scraping noises as he repositions to lean back against the wall. “I was fighting on a Sunflare’s hull when the sound of a Brother in pain made its way into my coms through another Brother. I went to find him and was then captured.
“Quris kept me in the cold because of how much it slowed me. I couldn’t run or fight that way. He only had to catch one critical piece in his electromagnetic force field, and I couldn’t escape without decommissioning myself. After three years under his rule, I’m starting to think I should have.”
“Don’t say that. You’re here with us now because you didn’t give up,” I say, still gently playing with Menace’s bangs. It’s such a contradiction to feel something so soft and delicate on a metal man who just endured torture, one who can kill a pack of mutant wolves with a simple blade.
I look up at Fracture. “You went after your Brother because that’s what Brothers do. That’s what family does, even when we know the risk might end up destroying us.
“If we don’t make it, we just try to be a pain in the enemy’s ass for as long as possible because that takes their attention away from everyone else whocanbuild the resistance and give them a chance to break free.”
Fracture’s pale blue irises brighten. His body begins to seal up like Menace’s. I think the nanoboosters are working. “I see why you like her.”
Menace rumbles a sigh.
I look down at him and see him drumming a finger on his chest.
“Don’t blame him,” Fracture remarks. “Rogues are more perceptive of emotion, but all Titans can sense what others feel if their coms are unlocked.”
“I may just switch off forever since none of you will leave me alone,” Menace snarls.
Sythius rests back against a boulder. I think he’s a bit overwhelmed and maybe frustrated with his behavior toward Titans the way he hugs himself and hides in a shadow.
“Are you okay?” I ask him.
