Chapter 8 Navi

Alerts flash in my vision saying life-support has been redirected from the lab. The torch is off. "What? No!"

Rochir smirks from where he sits on the floor. "Higher clearance, Naughty Navi."

Warden Tav's technician collapses, catching Rochir's attention. Another bullet punches into the hull. Sparks shoot out of the panel. Gravity eases back to normal.

Squad members turn away from us, shouting.

Warden Tav's rifle kicks out one last shot that breaks the shield. I fire back at him until my gun in empty. The green light bursts and twinkles out.

Warden Tav straightens, unharmed, and sends one more flaming yellow bullet charging at me.

Programs run fast in my splay. I lean aside and feel the bullet's fire tail heat my shoulder in passing.

Auto Defense Mode: Initiated.

My body takes over. A soldier climbs onto the ramp, reaching for the closest woman. I leap over her, and as I come down, toward the soldier, I knee him in the chest. My momentum knocks him backward. He smacks his head. He doesn't move.

CrazeLocal: I've got the Titan. Axe on Squad One. Macabre on Two. RamBash and Tangle, on me!

A heavy, contoured body slams into my side, collecting and thrusting me off of the ramp.

Shavih! I reach for her as I'm swung around and deposited behind a metal man.

CrazeLocal: They're females! I repeat: females on the ship!

I look up at the tall Titan who shields me from weapons fire under the ramp. He lifts a gun, and fires back at Warden Tav's men like it isn't dangerous to stand in a storm of burning metal aiming for him.

The air churns with fire in flashing yellows and greens that glaze his savage muscles and ignite a startling need I didn't think was possible in my malnourished condition. He's all business as he shoots down the enemy with vicious effectiveness.

Holy shit. He's hot—

I realize what I've just thought and that he could overhear it.

Switch off!

My heart pounds in my ears and my body heats with the embarrassment and desire that smash into one another. But I don't have time to get my head straight. I need to focus. And the Titan with a magenta digibadge labeled Craze doesn't seem fazed.

Switch on. Windows of data load in my vision again.

RamBashLocal: We're locked down. Full throttle escape with who you can. We'll clear a path, come back for anyone left.

CrazePellucid: Number of females?

I stutter, realizing he's talking to me.

Shavih, you get that?

"Get what?" she wheezes in my mind.

She can't hear the Titans' communication, even through me.

How many are left?

"Twelve."

PellucidCraze: Do you copy?

CrazePellucid: Twelve, copy.

It's strange how he speaks to me in code even though we are right next to one another, but it is clearer in my mind than any spoken word would be over the blasts that tear through the air.

I try not to be upset that we have lost three more women because I need to think. But remorse grips me hard.

TangleLocal: Hoverdrone inbound.

Craze gives Tangle two clicks in reply. I do the same even though I don't know what a hoverdrone is. I want to fit in, to be part of a team, but mostly to not hinder any chance of us getting the fuck out of here.

CrazePellucid: are you damaged?

No. If he only knew.

CrazePellucid: Secure humans and retreat in three, two—

I'm not ready to charge out after him. But when he hops up into the ramp, gun kicking as he targets Solcrue firing from the cover of pallets and vehicles on the tarmac, I follow. I don't have a plan. He seems to. I'll take whatever I can get right now.

A floating platform races toward us, one I can only assume is the hoverdrone Titan Tangle mentioned.

"Come, on, hurry." I help my sisters stay low and cluster up near the edge of the ramp.

The hoverdrone's thrusters break hard. The piloting Titan fires from the drone, cutting down three Solcrue.

Craze picks up two women and sets them on the platform, then hustles back for more. "Sorry about the patty finger ladies. We're low on time."

I help Shavih climb up.

"What about Jeela?" she asks.

I scan and realize she didn't make it out with us. I'll get her.

But I don't know how I'm going to do that. And I don't want to go back onboard. But we couldn't have made it this far without her taking one for the team.

I need a gun.

Craze rips one out of a holster on his side and tosses it to me as the last few women climb onto the platform themselves. Then he pauses and smiles like it's his birthday, and I've just brought him a gift. Hello, gorgeous.

Time ekes to a crawl.

He is a flawless machine next to my sack of bones.

A shot whizzes between us, cutting through my cloak. Craze doesn't look away from me as he aims behind him and shoots our attacker. He doesn't blink when the flash goes off or the Solcrue falls. He just takes me in, grinning the whole time, like he can't think about anything else and doesn't want to.

I back away.

Proximity Alert.

Two targeting brackets pop up in my mind. The splay helps me aim the gun he just handed me and shoot. Both soldiers stumble and slip off of the ramp's edge.

Time speeds up.

I need to get Jeela, I tell him.

Craze looks over at the dead soldiers and heaves a deep breath. Then he looks at me with wide eyes and pride. Hurry back. I'll finish here.

When I climb the ramp, I find Rochir still sitting against the wall, glaring at me. The magazine of his gun is dark. He's out of ammo. All he has is the knife by his foot.

Pellucid Command: Internal ramp sealscreen, disengage.

I fire at him. A green body shield lights up around him.

Rochir lets out a pitiful choking-on-his-own-blood kind of laugh. He shifts like his entire body aches, and he can't find a comfortable position.

"It was worth a shot," I say, kicking the knife away from him. Then I march down the hall and find Jeela still on the floor.

She's barely conscious. A bruise has darkened the side of her head.

"Come on girl. We're not leaving you." I help her up, and together we stumble out of the room.

AxeLocal: Three squads incoming! Two emissary vessels touching down! Get your asses moving!

I glance down the ramp, searching for the other Titans and the Solcrue they speak of.

Craze gets the last two women loaded, notices a Solcrue climbing the ramp and kicks him off. Three more fire up at Craze, but he doesn't stand down when he takes hits. He laughs. He fucking laughs like they're tickling him.

CrazeTangle: Go! These mother fuckers need a goddamned lesson. Get the innocents out of here! We'll circle under to the starboard side.

When Craze looks up to where I descend, his smile—lit up by the muzzle flashes of his rifle—exposes a deep lust I struggle to believe.

CrazePellucid: You found her! Nice work, Gorgeous. Belly-rub evac! On me!

"What?" I don't know what a belly-rub evac is, but I follow him anyway.

Rochir squints at me as I limp Jeela past him. "You're talking with them, aren't you?"

I snatch up his wristband and help Jeela over the edge of the ramp.

"It's in your eyes!" Rochir calls out. "I can see the light!"

Craze shoots in rapid succession at the squads that approach as he backs up to me. He's going to see the light real soon.

He takes the wristband from me and initiates Ravenger III's self-destruct, something beyond my clearance. Red lights flash. "Eat dust, fuckhead."

Then Craze picks me up and jumps over the ramp's edge, shielding me from gunfire. His sides smoke. Holes riddle his clothes.

When we're under the cover of the large ramp, I wriggle free and reach for Jeela.

CrazePellucid: She's Solcrue?

PellucidCraze: 1/3 - Solcrue, human, cybernetics. She's on our side. There is nothing else to know.

He shrugs, picks Jeela up, who's collapsed, and carts her under the Ravenger's belly to the hoverdrone Tangle slows on the opposite side of the ship. As we bump into the hot underside of Ravenger's hull, I make sense of their evac name.

A red frame surrounds my vision, like it did the day I heard Poppy's communications and moments before with the soldiers climbing the ramp.

PellucidCraze: Incoming!

Craze deposits Jeela on the platform, whips around and charges behind me. He steadies his gun with two hands and fires faster than I've ever seen. An explosion throws him back and toward me.

Shit! My body tenses.

He catches me with one arm as a hot flash tears past us. I close my eyes as we smash into the hoverdrone, sending it tipping and launching away from Ravenger III. Craze's body cushions mine.

The rocket blast blends with Ravenger's self-destruct, creating a ball of fire and flaming fragments that litter the ground as we speed away from the landing zone.

Women screech is disorientation and fear. Tangle uses the momentum of the explosions to guide us into a long banked turn that heads for the hills.

TangleLocal: we'll see you below! Heading for the catacombs.

AxeLocal: click, click.

RamBashLocal: click, click.

MorbidLocal: click, click.

CrazeLocal: click, click.

I don't know what else to do but join in because I can.

PellucidLocal: click, click.

It feels nice to talk with others, to know I'm not stuck with only Sevrin's voice in my memories.

Craze smiles down at me, where we lay on the hoverdrone among the other survivors.

Tangle glances back at us all. He's a smaller unit with yellow eyes and a digibadge to match. "Can everyone make it a few more minutes? Or do we have any critically injured?"

Shavih pushes herself up. Blood runs down her arms. She says what's on my mind. "We're all injured. But we're free. We would rather die free than risk stopping and anyone getting captured."

"Yes, ma'am." Tangle increases our speed, and we haul ass across grassy plains into rocky hills that quickly jut up into a snow-capped mountain range.

CrazePellucid: Permission to check on your humans.

Not knowing what else to do, I nod. He likely has more energy than me if the last few moments are any indication. But calling them mine? I have felt responsible for them since we made our plan months ago.

As he pushes up from me, something hard grazes my thigh. I prop myself up on an elbow and see him covertly adjust himself. Then he sits up and scans the women lying haphazardly on the drone's platform. Curious need stirs in my belly as I watch him work.

Then he crawls to each of my sisters and realigns several broken augmentations, wraps injuries with scraps of fabric from a bag beside Tangle, and asks them their names. He cares for them like Titans always did—with respect, humility, and prompt solutions.

I guess they don't hate us all for the actions of the few. CSP members will forever be on my shit list for turning on the best of us.

Craze shares a concerned look with Tangle. I can't hear what they say as dusk grips the moon. The silence is comforting until Craze shakes his head and cradles a woman.

Dread weighs down my body. Rain sprinkles us from clouds that thicken overhead. Tasha blinks and clumsily reaches toward the sky.

CrazePellucid: Severely damaged human. Death imminent. Please address.

I crawl toward them.

"Tasha?" I call to her.

"Navi." She looks at me. Her head bobbles. By the blood staining her chest, Craze is right. She's not going to live. "I'm so cold."

Craze glances at me then supports her from behind. "Pretty big middle finger to the enemy to take a bullet to the heart and keep going. Guess you really wear your heart on your sleeve."

I scowl at him.

"It's okay, Navi." Tasha coughs weakly. "Sweet. True."

CrazePellucid: Permission to keep her warm until she departs.

His gesture makes my eyes tear up. In this moment, I am glad I don't have to use my voice. My throat aches as I watch the last breaths of one of the nicest and quietest members of our group.

PellucidCraze: Granted.

He draws her into his lap and folds himself around her. Craze's voice is a low, soft rumble that is both comforting and menacing. "I think you'll like our den. We have a big fire pit and lots of blankets. Tangle has rigged up a water pipe through the rocks so you can have a shower. And we have plenty of food."

She isn't going to make it to the den. But I guess even false hope can look pretty in the end.

I don't want her to die in the darkness. I've come close too many times. Watching a Titan hold my friend with such tenderness and disappointment isn't easy. Yeah I can't tear my gaze away. He smiles at her, but in his magenta eyes is a mixture of something darker.

"You just rest. I've got you. You're safe with us," Craze quietly adds.

The relief in Tasha's eyes is something I haven't seen in a long time. Her gaze drifts from Craze up toward the clouds that begin to dump on us.

Tasha stills, and I know she is gone.

Craze studies her like he isn't ready. The quirk in his brows and slight sway of his body convey his frustration.

I close her eyes with a hand and encourage him to lay her back.

PellucidCraze: We started with twenty-one of us. I knew we would not all survive. But they wanted to die trying.

I wish all had made it. Every life lost feels like my fault.

CrazePellucid: The only kind of death I accept is that of natural causes. And that hasn't been the way of things in decades.

The cold shadows of a tunnel close around us. Craze's eyes and digibadge gleam hot pink, giving those of us on the platform something to focus on as he sets Tasha down and folds her arms over her chest.

The other women hold each other, some crying, others moaning in pain. A few stare at me.

We are free of Solcrue for now, but this isn't what I wanted for them or what they hoped for. I wonder if they blame me.

Infrared vision switches on, glazing my sisters in green hues. It's something new I haven't experienced before.

Craze checks on Siom who lies beside Tasha. "What happened to all of you?"

Siom tries to reply, but can't get the words out.

"Ever heard of Sevrin?" Shavih asks.

Tangle swears. "You don't have to explain. He's been here, found us once."

"He took our augments," Shavih says, clumsily rubbing her face with a rudimentary hand. "For Killstar."

TangleLocal: Killstar, like the Solcrue's cyborg weapon?

PellucidLocal: They didn't tell us, but I listened to Ravenger's communications. Sevrin took the parts to use with her. She's a dangerous unit being kept in isolation apart from other projects. Sevrin wants to control her with his mind, then have her control an army.

CrazeLocal: We need to destroy that tech. If he can get a hold of anything like our network, we may all turn on humans, or worse, side with Solcrue.

Tangle's body shimmers brighter until he looks like a nugget of raw gold. "Dropping in five."

Craze gently urges my sisters into the middle of the platform. "Hang onto each other. We will wobble a little as we drop."

I offer a hand to Jeela, then wrap an arm around Shavih, whose grip is weak at best.

She rests her head on my shoulder. "Another cage in the dark. This isn't fair."

"We'll be okay," I tell her.

"You trust them after what CSP did to them? The Titans could be like Killstar now."

"We're talking." I waggle my head. "They're not."

She squints at me. "Is that why your eyes are so bright?"

Only then do I see the reflection of my pale blue irises in hers.

"You look like one," she says. "But I don't envy what you had to go through for that."

The memory of lying on the operating table on Erebus, groggy from tranquilizer and lack of sleep comes back to me before I can block it completely. Ghosts of the fiery pain that lanced through my skull prickles my scalp even now.

"I saw him cut into you when he switched out your mech for the splay." Shavih shakes her head. "I'm so sorry, Navi."

She folds into me and sniffles as we drop into the guts of the moon. The other women cry out and gasp and cling to each other. I feel their fear of what's to come. We do not trust easily after the devil's duo made us all dance for them.

Now, we're headed into another type of cell, one we can't easily climb out of. I hope we haven't found ourselves in a worse situation.