Chapter 13 Navi

We lose two more women on the ride to the new campsite. Every time, Craze and Tangle say the same prayer, cover them with rocks, and Craze eagerly becomes my backrest again. Of the twenty-one of us who began the escape plan, we are down to myself, Jeela, Shavih, Aeri, whose bones have been filled with Soiridium—a highly dense metal—and Eliana who has an ultromotor instead of a human heart.

They died free. You gave that to them. Craze won't let me forget it, and he won't let go of me unless he has to.

"I think you will like this spot," Tangle says as we glide into the cavern. "It has more privacy. I believe humans appreciate this. Is that correct?"

This one is smaller than the last and filled with little rooms and pillars of rock that merge the ceiling to the floor.

Aeri rests a hand on his shoulder as we stop. "Yes, thank you, Tangle."

Tangle's face deepens to a darker gold. I'm certain it's his version of blushing. He gets down and reaches up to help her down. Aeri sits on the edge and lets him ease her down.

Macabre, Axe, and RamBash arrive just behind us. I can tell by the way they move that something has changed. There's a determination in the way they walk and glance at one another that tells me they're having a private conversation.

NaviLocal: What's going on?

Macabre looks at me. Muscles flex in his jaw. Bad news.

After losing over half of our group, I am determined to confront whatever we have to. Give it to us straight. Verbally please, so everyone knows. I don't want to lose any more of our team.

Macabre slaps a bloody blade back into its sheath across his chest and motions us into the back. "We need to rest up and eat. In a few hours, we must leave, again. Solcrue found our last entrance. We are going to have to break topside in a new location, try to stay under their radar. They expect us to hide. We should not, or we may get boxed in. That means new trails and tunnels."

Axe and RamBash pass me to take a scanner from Tangle.

"We will punch through by morning," Axe says. In the headlights of the hoverdrone, his body gleams like a hundred blades melted together.

Craze stops them with a hand. "We need the fastest route, so they don't figure out what we're doing. Give them too much time to detect the pulses, and they'll find us. We need to wait, do it while they sleep. Punch through while we have enough time to find cover and run proximal scans."

"Look at you thinking things through," RamBash teases.

Craze points to the wall. "You know which materials will cave to your fists and which won't, do you not?"

"Avoid harder metals, stick with soil if I can."

Craze nods. "I still have to think in the moment. But I can run hypotheticals if they're presented. I may not know what the plan is for the days ahead—" He glances at Macabre. "But I know what I can do now."

Macabre checks something in a large box on their Tacticat then closes the lid. "They have three warships on approach. Emissary LightBlades are back in orbit. We pulled the recordings. They're descending together, tomorrow with plans to scour the surface for us."

"So where do we go?" Shavih asks.

"Where would they least expect us to be?" I ask.

"In the tower," Craze says. "But that's dangerous."

"Exactly." I help Jeela down from the platform and give her a questioning look.

"I agree." Jeela lets out a deep breath. "As much as the idea of going back goes against my instincts, my kind believe you are not that dumb ."

"Some of us are very dumb ," Craze says with a goofy grin. "Idiotic at times. But that's why we're still here."

Shavih squints at him. "I'm missing something."

"Let's just say that we'll do anything to survive," Craze replies. "If you think that means not running through a room filled with Solcrue with nothing on but a weapons harness and slinging grenades left and right, you're mistaken."

"No armor?" I ask in doubt.

"Disintegrated it on a cargo deck of that battledagger. Stole the harness from a dead Solcrue. Apologies, Jeela. But I had to knock his teeth through his head. Hurt my family and pay. That was my thirtieth team. And they were gone in one freak blast from some combination of an EMP blaster, bounty hunter Grimgun, and a gravpunch."

Craze shrugs and digs a bag out of a crevice in the wall. "Ripped the entire deck from the ship. Killed Solcrue, too. But I wasn't about to be knocked out into space by the worm that fired that weapon, and I still had a mission to complete."

Shavih raises her brows like she can't believe it either.

Macabre motions us into the cavern. "I'm sure you would all like a shower. Why don't you go clean up while we prep some food? After a short rest, we'll punch topside and make our way to the plant."

"Then what?" Tangle asks.

Macabre shares a glance with Craze, then looks to me.

MacabreCraze, Navi: What would you do? You've been interacting with them most recently.

"Normally, I'd just blast my way onto a ship," Craze offers. "But I think Navi's right. We need to mess with their heads. Distractions help when we're outnumbered. But as far as getting on board a ship, I'm not sure."

Tangle leads my friends around a pillar to a place with a pipe coming out of the wall. He turns on a machine that turns a soft red, and then flips on the water. It steams and makes my friends cry and rush in for their first semi-civilized shower in years.

The Titans quietly spread out the rations.

"Did you not get baths on the Ravenger?" Craze asks.

"Once every week or so they'd throw us in the wash pit," I reply. "Cold water via a hose the guard sprayed at us."

He rests a warm hand against my back. "For what it's worth, I am sorry."

"Just know I can survive a lot of shit."

Tangle passes me and encourages the other Titans to set up further from my friends. He's the most timid of them by far.

"You're not joining them?" Tangle asks me.

While the Titans heat up a small stove, I lean against the wall and keep watch on my friends while I think about what method might work to get us onto a ship when there will likely be hundreds of soldiers on the surface, searching for us.

"We have to make them think the threat is somewhere else. Distractions help," I say. "But we need an intricate setup that convinces them more than for a moment. We have to make them curious."

"A mine field could work," Macabre offers as he tears open a packet of Solcrue rations. "But how do we get them there?"

Tangle lifts a device from the hovercart. "They found my relay at the last site. I could rig one up with a stronger signal."

Craze has an idea. "Record Jeela talking to them. If there's something I've learned recently—"

He clears his throat, glances at me, and quiets. But the way the other Titans turn to look at me, makes me think Craze really does like me.

"That's nutty, man. But it might just work. I bet they're starving for attention ." Tangle motions to me. "Think Jeela would do it?"

I walk a few steps closer to where my friends bathe. "Hey, Jeela. Want to lure some soldiers to their deaths?"

She straightens from washing her clunky metal legs. "Fuck yes."

"Yeah, she'll do it." I turn back to the Titans. "So say we get back to the compound, and we've diverted some of these bastards, how do we make our way through the others. I wasn't expecting to be greeted by Tav's teams. I mean, we were a group of broken women. What threat were we to them?"

"Clearly, they had procedures or they knew something you didn't," Axe offers. "But there will be teams on patrol. We have noticed cargo leaving the plant. They always move it to the loading docks then take it aboard with the Tacticats. I think they're still salvaging what we sorted in the plant."

"Have any of you been inside the plant since it was rebuilt?" I ask. "I only had the power I did because I knew my lab so well."

Tangle squirms, his body folding in on itself and switching him from facing us to facing the tunnel we arrived from. "I stole my tech from there. Thought it wouldn't be an issue because I can basically fit through any gap. Smaller ones just take more time. That's how Sevrin found out about me. Craze got me out."

"Did you see the way he sliced up my arm with that grinder?" Craze laughs and chews on a strip of jerky he pulls from his pocket. "He was so pissed I shot sparks instead of losing my hand. I mean, come on, jackass. I'm a walking nanobooster."

The Titans chuckle, but I'm not sure its as funny as they think.

I pop off of the wall and walk toward him. "Is that unique to Titans?"

"Yeah. I can make nanobooster serum. It was how I survived bashing my way through ships." Craze's eyes fill with concern. "Why?"

"And Sevrin knows?"

He exchanges a nervous glance with the other Titans. "I don't know. Sevrin found us shortly after that, but we assumed it was because he had a stick up his ass about not capturing Tangle."

RamBash stirs a pot of something that smells like sweet and smoky baked beans my father loved. "It did seem like he was more interested in you."

"I am the most likely to survive an ambush," Craze offers, taking a stack of dented metal cups and setting them on the floor in a row for RamBash. "It could just be because I stood in the way."

Shavih and Eliana return first, looking eager for something to eat besides meat.

"We can discuss the plan after we do some scouting, tomorrow." Macabre hands a filled cup to Shavih and another to Eliana. Then he gets up and backs into the tunnel, his body blending with the shadows, leaving only his red eyes gleaming in the dark. "I will keep first watch. Tangle, you get the second shift."

"Is there any hot water left for her?" Craze teases as Jeela and Aeri sit down.

Aeri points toward the shower, confused.

"I'm kidding. I know it does." Craze motions for them to sit by the stove and hands them each a cup of beans. Then he tilts his head toward the shower. "It's all yours, Navillera . We will eat and bathe when you are done."

After one wary glance at all of them, I walk alone into the back cavern. A pale blue light hovers over the shower. Beside the heater is the lever to open the pipe. I flip it over and run my fingers through the hot water, tearfully grateful for something I thought I hated as a child.

I reluctantly slip out of my cloak and set it aside. Then I step into the water and wash the grime from my clothes. When they're as clean as I can get them, I remove them and rinse them out with ceremonial slowness.

That life is behind me now.

A shadow passes through the light of the cook stove, glazing the walls in magenta light.

Craze stays close. He's the self-sacrificing type, respectful, kind, like the other Titans. But I'm still not sure I completely trust them because I don't know them.

Time and trials always expose the best and worst sides of us.

I think back to Sevrin promising to give me my vision back. He never said anything about the torture I'd endure to have it.

But I was just a dumb kid.

This universe is even more dangerous than my parents ever mentioned. My trust has to be earned. And only time can prove Craze's trustworthiness not a front.

I lay my clothes over the heater to dry and scrub the dirt from my skin until I feel like myself again. Standing under the hot water, enjoying the way it soothes my scalp, I figure out how we can get in.

CrazeNavi: Are you okay? You've been back there a while. Aren't you hungry?

NaviCraze: Showers were my thinking spot on Herebus because I had to disconnect in the water. Anyway, Jeela is our answer. She can take us in. We can be her prisoners. We just have to get her a uniform and some shackles for the rest of us.

A warm scrap of fabric brushes over my back. Startled, I turn and see Craze's magenta digibadge glowing in the dark. I'm certain he's heard me. But by the smoldering look in his eyes as he scans my scarred skin, I know he's no longer worried about the days ahead. I just don't know what kind of mission he might be on in this moment, with me.