“Savage, love.” Leah walks up to us with a few other familiar faces. She’s covered in pouches of cybertech and weapons. “Let him join us if he wants to.”
Savage snarls back at her. But when his eyes find Leah, his teeth retract and the tension leaves his body. “You want to take responsibility for him?”
“If that’s what it takes.” Leah crosses her arms. “You know how I feel about second chances.”
“You would not give your brother one.”
“Because he helped cause this war and is still out there. This man didn’t do what he did.”
“He is not a man.”
Leah walks up to him and punches him in the chest. “Does that mean Cara, Amp’s mate, is not a woman?”
Savage huffs. “Of course, she is.”
“And what about Jeris? He saved Chaos’ life. He led us here. To be a rebel is to be one in here.” Leah raps a fist on his chest over his ultromotor.
Savage sways. “Technically, it’s in here.” He points to his side where his core backups are.
She slumps. “Whatever. You know what I mean. Let him join us.”
Savage shifts inside his harness.
“I’ll make it up to you later,” she simpers.
He rumbles in frustration. “That’s not fair that you hold that over my head.”
“Pretty sure you’ll get it either way, love.”
He sighs. “Fine. But put a tracker on him.”
Cara steps forward with a bracelet in her hand. “Sefina, good to see you alive. My mother spoke of yours often. I trust your judgment on this.”
Sefina waves Sythius toward us. “Cara, Sythius.”
“This is Jeris,” Cara says, encouraging the other Solcrue forward. “He has one too. It’s so the BlazeStar’s Mother and the other Titans know you are a safe Solcrue.” She lifts her wrist, displaying her band. “I don’t look at it as a shackle because I can take it off. It’s more of a badge of honor among rebels.”
Sythius takes the silver band in his hands. “Honor is not something I’ve been told I have before. But I would like to be worthy of this.”
Cara smiles like she understands. “Alliances are confusing out there in the stars, but not here with us. None of us are perfect.” She lifts up a pant leg, exposing her cybernetic foot. “But if we pool our skills, we can make our pieces into something whole.”
Sythius thanks her and puts the band around his wrist. This makes Sefina happy, so I force myself to tolerate it when she pats his back.
Cara leads the two Solcrue back to the center of the cavern, near where Coil and Thruster are carrying survivors up.
Fracture stands, looking up the long shaft at the silvery light from our ship. He chokes up. “She’s calling me.”
“Who?” Sefina asks.
“Mother,” he distantly replies.
I rest a hand to his back, savoring the slowly pinging beacon in my mind. Mother relays ship stats until she picks up each of our signals.
Mother>>Menace: SM-8301, you register. Threat scan, complete. BlazeStar welcomes you. Your Brothers await you onboard. SM-8301 Status—significant depletion detected. Please board for replenishing and resupply. Quarters are available.
The ping changes from a single tone to a three note pattern, letting me know Mother has me. If my ultromotor fails me before I arrive and her gravity beam is operational, she will reach out and collect me.
“It is a beautiful sound, isn’t it?” I ask him.
