Chapter 35

Thirty-Five

Mira

Mira poked at the small incision on her neck. Whatever the tendril of his had emitted was impossible to get out of the hole. Byte had told her to stop touching it, that he had permanently changed her body as well as his own. If she pulled that goo out, there was no way of healing it back up. She could breathe strange for the rest of her life or she might fill her lungs with blood and drown in her own fluids.

Realistically, she wanted to avoid both of those options. But that didn’t mean she wasn’t going to poke at it and at least look.

It wasn’t a gill, that much was certain. She didn’t think that was even possible to change her so much that she grew gills. Not without surgical intervention. But still, it was a strange looking dark dot on her neck that maybe looked a little like a gill.

"What do you think I should do?" she finally asked, turning around to look at Byte.

"About what?" The little robot hadn’t had much to say for a while now. It was silent, scanning her often and then disappearing back into the box like it had a tiny lab in there with which to look over the documents of her changes.

"I... I don’t know." Mira finally left the mirror to sit down in front of Byte. "About everything."

"I don’t think you have a lot of choice in any matter as of yet."

"I could go back to Beta."

Byte snorted. "You couldn’t get back to Beta. You don’t even know where it is."

"No, but you do." The droid froze, and she knew she’d gotten it backed into a corner. "Of course you know where it is, Byte. You have the entire ocean mapped out in those memory banks of yours. You could get me to Beta, to Alpha, Gamma, even a few of the forgotten cities that have long been flooded. There are probably a thousand places you keep in that head of yours that you could tell me to hide in. So why aren’t you?"

It grumbled a few times before muttering something so quietly she couldn’t quite make it out.

"I’m not sure why you aren’t helping me more, but I think there is a good reason for it." She tapped the side of the box gently. "So why don’t you just tell me?"

Byte sighed, and a few clunks echoed from inside the box before its projector appeared. On the glass of the dome, and emitting out into the water, it showed the blonde woman it had before. "You remember her?"

"Alys Fairweather, the woman you served before she disappeared."

"This was her home."

Mira felt her jaw drop open as the droid said that with such ease. "Excuse me?"

"This was her home. It was built for her by her father, after she supposedly disappeared. My programming initiative was to tell everyone that she’d died, but we were not programmed to lie well. So I was sent into the ocean because I couldn’t keep the secret about... him." Another click and a new image appeared, floating like he was just outside the window.

A green finned undine, just like the legends always said. He wasn’t nearly as different as Arges, but perhaps he was from a different clan. He certainly looked like he wasn’t a deep sea creature. With tiger stripes of green scales that glimmered on his skin, and gills behind his long pointed ears, some along his ribs as well, he was just as massive as Arges but so much softer looking.

This new undine pressed his fingers against the glass, and the love in his eyes hurt to look at. He loved her so much. She could see it in his eyes, in the way that he lingered at the window, draping his tail over it as the image of Alys danced through the room. She reached up for him, wiggling her fingers and laughing at the way he shook his head.

They were so in love. So very in love.

The images faded, and she found her throat had closed up with emotion. Licking her lips, she asked, "So you wanted me to come here? Why?"

"I didn’t know you would end up here. In her home. But I saw the way you two looked at each other and I couldn’t let you go back home without realizing the truth."

"What truth?" she croaked.

Byte’s projector crunched back into the box. "That it was possible for your two to be together. Because I have seen it happen, and I know that it can work. Alys and her undine were together until she was very old. They lived here, and no one bothered them. He was an outcast to his people but he... he loved her. Very much. And she loved him in return."

It was possible.

They weren’t the first.

She sank down onto her knees next to the open moon pool, suddenly questioning everything that she’d been taught. All her life she was told that the undines were monsters, that she couldn’t trust them and that they were dangerous creatures who clearly wanted to harm her. They were going to destroy everything her people had ever done, and that was only because humans had forced them to share the ocean.

Humans and undines hated each other. It was only natural that they warred because they were so different they would never see eye to eye and yet...

Oh, and yet. Someone had done this before. Someone had fallen in love with an undine just as she had fallen in love with Arges and it wasn’t fair that she hadn’t known. She hadn’t seen. No one had told her that it was possible!

Tears dripped from her eyes into the water below. Salty tears joining the salty water that had kept her away from him for such a long time.

"So you think I should stay," she whispered.

"I think he loves you very much, and I can see that you love him. Leaving would only send you back to the city, where you already said you weren’t very happy. Why not take a risk on an adventure while you’re here?"

"I suppose you’re right," she muttered before turning to look at Byte. "But why do I have to give up my people to be with him?"

A small drive opened up from the middle of Byte’s body, the same drive that housed the language chips. "What makes you think he isn’t giving up everything to stay with you? Now take this, you’re going to need it."

"Why?"

"Because it seems like the undines have already made their choice in the matter, and I don’t think the undine beside you is all that friendly. At least, not yet."

She didn’t think, she reacted. Mira grabbed the language chip and turned in the same motion. There was indeed an undine in the water right beside her, one of the yellow ones that she recognized. With a lunging movement, she threw herself at it.

Clearly the undine wasn’t expecting her to do so. It hardly even had time to flinch before she had slapped the translation chip behind his ear. The instant pain startled him, and he hit her so hard in the chest she went skidding back across the floor. She hit the stairs with a harsh wheeze, and struggled to pull air back into her lungs while the creature writhed in the water.

She saw the flash of rage in his eyes. The glint of his claws as he launched himself out of the moon pool toward her but she sucked in a lungful of air at the same time and shouted, "Stop! Stop wait!"

And that did it.

He froze, his claws still outstretched but this time he stared at her like she’d turned bright blue and told him she was actually just a fruit.

"What?" he breathed. "Did you just talk?"

"All of us can talk, I just made it so you could understand me." She held out her own hands, trying to show she wasn’t a threat. "The device is a little painful, I’m sorry for that. But now you can understand my language. We can talk."

His yellow edged gills fluttered, and his dark hands slowly lowered. "I have never wanted to talk to an achromo."

"Really?" She licked her lips, trying to get this under control was going to be harder if that was true. "I’ve always wanted to talk to an undine. Your people have fascinated me since I was little. So when I got the chance to talk with Arges, it was like I had been given the best gift. I could ask all the questions I wanted. See the world through his eyes. You live in a beautiful place."

"One that your people have destroyed."

"I can’t argue that." Nor did she want to. "But I was not actively trying to destroy your home. So many of us were born in the cities, I didn’t even know there was another option."

Mira slowly scooted upright, leaning her back against the stairs as he slid back into the water. They stared at each other, neither trusting the other, but she knew she had to make this leap. She had to do something or this undine would kill her.

"Where is Arges?" she asked.

"Not coming back."

Her stomach flipped and sudden nausea pressed against the back of her throat. "Is he..."

"He’s alive." The undine shook his head. "He chose me to come after you. Our council wants you dead. I was supposed to get it over with already. I shouldn’t have stopped even when I heard you speak. I should have cut your throat and left you for the sharks. That’s what... That’s what I’m supposed to do."

There it was.

A spark of guilt that flashed in his eyes before he squeezed them shut. She was so much better at reading undine expressions now that she’d been around Arges. She could see from the flat gills on the sides of his head that he didn’t want to do this. He didn’t want to hurt her.

"But you’re not going to kill me, are you?" she breathed. "You don’t agree with killing me. With killing someone you can clearly see is a person, not just your enemy."

"You don’t have to rub it in," he grumbled. Something dark flashed in his gaze before he jerked his head toward the back of the room. "Gather what you need. You’re not staying here."

"Where are we going?"

"Home."

"Home?" She launched to her feet, racing for her wetsuit and rebreather. It had been a little clunky lately, but it would have to work. The wetsuit had seen better days as well. It wasn’t going to keep her warm for much longer. The rip in the back had only gotten bigger, and she didn’t have her gloves or fins anymore. The head piece was nearly coming off, but it would work. "Are we going to where your home is?"

"Not my home." He said nothing else until she got close to the edge of the moon pool, tugging her wet suit so it fit better and fixing the rebreather to her mouth. "I’m bringing you home, achromo."

Bringing her home? To Beta?

"Byte," she said, turning for the box.

But she didn’t get a chance to grab the droid, who had said absolutely nothing thus far, before the undine grabbed her around the waist. She let out a little shriek of fear before she hit the water hard. Apparently him understanding that she didn’t deserve to die didn’t mean he was going to be gentle with her.

He grabbed her by the arm, yanking a little too hard as he dragged her through the water. Her shoulder screamed in protest, and she shouted a few times for him to slow down.

He either couldn’t hear her, or didn’t care to. The undine plunged into the darkness of the sea and the only thing she could do was hope he didn’t rip her arm off on the way.

She didn’t know how long they traveled, only that eventually she reached with her free hand to grab onto his wrist. Instead of giving her any reprieve, he wrapped his hand around both of her wrists.

The journey was long and painful. Everything in her ached, from her head to her toes. She didn’t think all of it was entirely physical, though. Part of the pain came from knowing that in saving her own life, she was giving up so much more.

Arges had to know where they were taking her. Maybe he would come for her, and maybe he wouldn’t. She had no idea what his own people would do to him for the abomination of their romance. Byte would remain alone in that tomb for the rest of time, now. No human was going to find him in that dome, because no one ever ventured out of the safety of their own homes. She had doomed him. Completely and utterly doomed the little creature who didn’t deserve to be alone again.

Tears burned in her eyes, but she couldn’t open them. So the tears just streamed out of her squeezed lids, until she found herself in some kind of strange trance. She stayed drifting in the water, her body limp and her muscles finally easing.

She let the current carry her and the undine who dragged her. She let the ocean know that she forgave it. She was angry, so angry, but there was no more fight left in her. She had fought for a very long time.

And now, she wanted to just rest. With the soul of her father and mother, the people who had raised her to never give up. Maybe they would be disappointed in her right now. But she liked to think they would understand.

The undine dragged her closer to him, and she felt a strong arm band around her waist. Then she finally opened her eyes and saw Beta in front of her. The glowing lights. The neverending expanse of the city that stretched so far and looked so out of place in the sea now that she had seen so much more of it.

"Your home," the undine said. "Get inside."

"I don’t know how to get inside," she said. "There is no easy way to get into Beta from the outside."

He shoved her toward it. "That’s your problem, achromo. I got you here. Now get yourself inside."

Was this a trick? Did he want to see how she got back into the city? Because she’d already used the service elevator once, and the damn thing had barely gotten her into the city the first time. Maybe if she found another one, she’d get lucky. But she really didn’t think there were any exciting new ways to get into her old home.

Her rebreather kicked against her face.

Every fiber of her being froze in horror. It had never done that before. Not once. And then the air she was breathing got real thin, a little like it had in the tunnels when Arges had cut off their air supply.

She pointed to the rebreather on her face. "My air. I think it’s broken."

He swam a little farther away from her, lifting his hands and looking like he was incapable of helping. "I’m sorry, there’s nothing I can do. I said I would get you home. This is as close as I can get to the city without your people attacking me."

"But I can’t–” She pressed a hand to her chest, trying to still the anxiety. "I can’t breathe."

"The sea is no place for your kind, achromo. This is proof of that."

And then he was gone. He spun around, flicked that tail, and left her all alone where she was clearly going to drown.

Fuck.

"Fucking hell," she repeated out loud before swimming as fast as she could toward the nearest window.

There was nothing she could do now except stay alive. Maybe, if she was lucky, her own people could get her inside. So she swam, harder than she ever had before, with numb fingers and toes that she was afraid she would lose. And then she attached herself to the glass, holding on for dear life as she pounded on it. Again and again. Hitting the glass with all her rage, fear, and sadness that life would never be the same again.

Not without him.