Chapter 17 Roxi
Every life I have lived, in each new body, I have tried to do what is right, to treat every life equally, to be morally just, to have integrity, and not play the victim or become greedy.
It has been a struggle to remain steadfast in my mission and my purpose when circumstances try to force my hands on a new problem outside of my expertise.
But now, there is no one else. And not every life deserves to be treated equally.
My ex tried to question me again, but I don’t care what he does to me. Too many Titans have suffered and died because of failures in my systems. I needed more redundancies. I needed to design backups that were impenetrable. I needed a better system to root out internal rot.
CSP gave away the knowledge they had, like dumbasses. My ex’s father is about the only one who kept his mouth shut.
I sit on the bench and wonder how much time I have left to breathe, to feel the things around me, to think about Fracture and the other Titans before CSP decides I’m not worth keeping around.
They’ll call it food and water conservation and eliminate me because I’m too much of a drain without any reward.
A quiet peep beside the door makes me look up. The screen displays a shimmering black substance that’s unidentifiable. I squint at it, unsure of what I’m looking at.
“Hurry,” it rumbles like thunder, like an angry cloud of black Iridithatium against a hull.
The door hisses open.
“Is this a trick?”
“No. Hurry.”
That seems like the very thing someone would say if this were a trap. But it’s a chance to be free, so I take it.
I step out and cautiously look around. A passageway opens up at the end. I move as quickly as my cold body will let me and slip through the door. Another opens down the hallway. Two Solcrue enter the other end. I dart inside and take every turn as fast as I can.
When I round the corner into the hangars, a black Titan drops from the ceiling, in front of me. Blasts light up the room as he fires at CSP soldiers charging in from another doorway.
“Come on!” Obsidian guides me in front of him with a hand. As he does, it shatters. A bullet cuts through him and plants in the far wall. His arm reforms, and he fires back, taking out the soldier.
I know what atomorph skill sets are supposed to be. But it is spectacular to witness firsthand.
He frees a case from his back with an emergency starsuit and shoves me into another hangar. A sealscreen ignites behind us. It’s then that I see the tablet half-buried in his fragmented chest with security programs open.
A flash of movement to my left draws my eyes. My ex lifts a coilgun, pointing it at Obsidian from another entrance.
I break off course. It’s just instinct to protect Titans. It’s my job, but it’s also one I chose.
Throwing my bodyweight into him, I knock the coilgun away from Obsidian and tumble to the ground with the man I hate most in the entire universe. My fury numbs the pain in my side. I rear a fist back and swing hard at his face.
He snarls as his nose gushes blood. He whips the gun around and points it at me.
This is bad.
Hypersensitivity floods my stomach. I’m all too aware of the danger of the coilgun pointed at my middle.
I really wish they didn’t take my armor.
The grimace on his face and the way he tenses makes me throw myself away from him.
I feel the thump and pressure first. Then the shuddering electric jolts bite into my flesh, crawling outward. The barb punches into concrete behind me.
But I’m still breathing.
He pulled the trigger between my heartbeats. It’s the only reason the coilgun didn’t take out my heart.
I cry out as agony surges through me. The electrified cable protrudes just below my ribs. My body shivers from the overload of signals. I know my yell sounds horrendous because even my ex drops the gun and scrambles back like he can’t believe what’s happened.
Obsidian grabs him, throws him away from me, and kneels at my side. Another Solcrue enters the far end. Obsidian shoots them down then addresses me. “Roxi. Let me look.”
He gently peels my trembling hands back from where they stabilize the cable. Obsidian finds the barb behind me and cuts it free. I hear it plink as he tosses it away.
“Deep breath.” Obsidian waits until I draw in what I can through the involuntary tremors. Then he withdraws the cable.
The miserable sensation makes me arch and grit my teeth. A grating moan leaves me.
He rips open a medical kit he peels from his thigh and presses a quick clot patch to my back. My ex looks on from where he leans against the wall. I’m not sure I will recover from this.
“Roxi.” Obsidian lifts my head. “I don’t have any boosters for you. But you are Augmented, yes?”
I nod as tears blur my vision.
“Then I will give you some of my nanosolution. It can…stitch.”
He glances at my ex. “Stay put, or I will finish shattering you, Joey.”
My ex swallows and slides a little further away but stops when Obsidian rests his hand on a gun.
Then Obsidian closes his eyes and fuses into a solid Titan. He slices his arm open with a glass finger and drips luminescent fluid the color of moonlight into my puncture. My wound heats and instantly feels better. The solution spreads through my body and begins healing me.
Closing up his arm appears to be something Obsidian commands mentally. I wish I could say I knew every Titan’s skills, but I was only ever involved in securing their telenet, ships, and weapons.
Obsidian bandages the puncture in my stomach and wraps my core with tape. Then he opens the case and gently lays me inside the emergency starsuit.
My ex still hasn’t moved, and I begin to wonder why.
Obsidian crouches low and slides his arms under me. He stands and looks down at my ex. “Joey is a bit fractured.”
I glance down and find dark crags in Joey’s neck, radiating out from a spot on his shoulder. He’s barely breathing as Obsidian carries me away.
“It wasn’t supposed to end this way!” Joey calls out. The click and hiss of an injector is audible as we leave.
Obsidian passes through another hangar and looks up. “Ready?”
“For what?”
He closes up my helmet as a hangar door opens.
“Roxi!” Joey’s voice roars behind us as a Skysprinter rumbles inside the ship. The pilot sees what’s going on, drags his eyes from us to Joey, and turns the Skysprinter on my ex.
“Lenarro?” I wheeze.
My com crackles. “Get out of here. Joey is mine!”
The guns on the Skysprinter warm. Joey runs for the closest docked Skysprinter.
It takes a barrage of hits from Lenarro’s ship as Obsidian fragments and carries me into space on a cloud of black prisms. We drift over Sickle and into a gap in a LightBlade’s ramp.
After he sets me in the copilot’s chair and the ramp has sealed up, he ignites the thrusters and launches us off of Sickle, into space.
Two Skysprinters race out of Sickle, one chasing the other.
“Where are we going?” I wheeze.
“Aegis so that you can get proper medical care.”
I curl forward and brace myself on the dash. “Can we…follow them? I want to know where they’re going.”
Obsidian doesn’t like my idea by the way he frowns, then lifts his emotional mask program that makes his expression apathetic. “If that is what you request, I will follow your orders.”
“We can keep our distance. I just want to know their destination. If it is what I think it is, we might find some useful information on CSP’s plans.”
He peels the tablet out of his chest. “Planet Gibarin. There is a meeting of CSP and Solcrue officials tonight.”
I don’t consider my health for long. “We need to go. It’s an opportunity we can’t waste.”
Obsidian doesn’t respond.
“You didn’t share this because you knew I’d want to go.”
“You need medical care, Creator.”
“No one else is privy to this information, are they?” I rhetorically ask.
He sighs. “No, ma’am.”
“Then we need to go, for the rebellion.”
He looks down, away, then back at his screens. “Understood. Setting a stealth course for Gibarin.”