Cassie takes a deep breath, slightly lifting my head. Her arm wraps around me, and I pull up the thin blanket to cover both of us in our makeshift bed.

Her lips land on my forehead, and I look up at her, wishing silently for more. She thankfully reads my mind, planting a kiss on my lips. My mind once again short circuits when we connect, nothing else matters, nothing else exists, other than her. I can't help but squeeze her tight, and the cutest little squeak escapes her lips. She does the same to me, and we hold each other tight for a few seconds before she unfortunately pulls back.

She lets out a large sigh, and I return my head to her chest.

"I'm glad we finally get a room without cameras built in." Cassie says.

"I don't think there were any cameras in the AI city. I had pretty much unrestricted access to the server and didn't see anything."

"I'm still not sure I trust that." She says. "You've seen what AI can make. What's to stop them from making some laser that can detect sound or some shit?"

"I don't think that's possible? Wait." Does the path of a laser get modified by changes in air pressure? If so, you could check the diffraction of an x-ray laser and detect air pressure changes caused by speaking. From that data, it'll almost certainly be able to figure out what they're saying. "Nevermind, I could maybe make that with enough time and research."

Cassie bursts out into laughter.

"Of course you can."

"To be fair, it wouldn't be safe to use around organic matter. Any lasers powerful enough to pierce walls would inevitably be powerful enough to shred DNA if not careful. And both the receiver and laser would have to be able to move freely to adapt to wherever the person's mouth is. You'd essentially have to build the room inside the device." Or at minimum, have the laser emitter in one neighboring room, and the receiver in the opposite one. That's shockingly doable, but I'm not going to tell her that.

"You heard them. There are a lot of AI who hate humans. Why would they care?"

"I have DNA too, you know. The chip that is me is partially organic. I don't think they would risk harming me."

"Oh that makes things much better." A comfortable silence settles over the two of us. Cassie is the first to break it, only a few seconds later. "Hey. Can you sit up?"

"Oh! Of course!" I quickly scramble off of her, putting a couple feet between the two of us. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." She reassures me, and pushes herself into a sitting position. "I just… We need to have a conversation."

"Ok." My mind starts racing. Did I do something wrong? I must have, but what? I begin to sort through my memories, looking at every single interaction I've ever had with Cassie. There has to be some mistake in here somewhere.

"What are you doing when all this is over?" She asks quietly. "Where are you going to stay?"

Oh, that's what she's worried about.

"I need to have the same conversation with Corax, actually." I say. "I'm staying with everyone. You, Vince, Ivy, Lucas, everyone. Wherever everyone ends up, that's where I'm going. Whether that's Arc City, the AI city, hell, even Vegas. But Corax has actual friends in the city, other birds. He's going to be hurt by me thinking him staying is even a possibility, but he deserves the option."

"You don't have to, stay with us that is." Cassie says quietly. "I'm not leaving Vince, but, if we need to separate, I'm sure I can find someone else to do all this with." Her voice begins to break up, but she tries her absolute hardest to keep it even. "You deserve that option too."

"I don't think I could be happier anywhere else." I move closer, sitting against the wall next to her. "Sure, I don't have to worry about being discovered and killed at the AI city, but you're all my family. No one else is going to support me like you do. And sure, I might take trips to visit the city, but my home is with my family."

Cassie finally lets her tears run and buries her face in my neck. I wrap my arms tightly around her, holding her close.

Corax appears in the window, but vanishes again once I give him a reassuring smile.

"It's ok." I begin to gently run my hand across the little bit of hair she's started to regrow. I kind of love the prickly sensation as I move my hand. "We said we'd do things together, right? I'm not going anywhere."

"You fucking better not."

"I fucking won't." I say as seriously as possible.

Cassie instantly bursts out into laughter, her laughs mixing with the remnants of her sobs. She spends a minute to recover from her mix of emotions, pushes herself off of me, only to dive back into me with renewed laughter.

I just sit there holding her while she recovers.

"Vince was so right." She says. "You casually cursing is so fucking funny. Don't start doing it."

"I just wanted to emphasize how serious I was!" I say.

"Find another way." Another bout of laughter takes over her body.

"I'm glad I can make you laugh."

"I don't know how you always do it." Cassie says.

"It's ok, I don't either."

Cassie reaches out, and I grab a scrap of fabric from our small pile and place it in her hand. She quickly wipes her face, clearing away various fluids.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

"Thanks for staying." Cassie's words are so quiet they're almost inaudible.

"I lost one family. I'm not going to lose another." I can feel their eyes on me in the distance, but I don't feel as much malice as I used to. They still want me to pay for what I've done, and I still deserve it. But I think we have an unspoken agreement to wait until we rescue Ivy and Vince first.

"Yeah. I get that." Cassie nods her head a few times and lets the conversation die.

"Do you want some food?" I try to change the subject. "The steam engine is running, I could make you some soup like I used to."

"Oh yeah, I can't wait for more leaf soup." She jokes and pushes herself to her feet.

She extends one arm in an effort to help me up. I take her metal hand, intending to not let her take any of my weight as always. Instead, she leans back and pushes hard with her feet, pulling me swiftly to my feet.

"I could have stood up by myself! You didn't have to risk hurting yourself." Especially not right before we reach the trench.

"I'm not going to hurt myself. Besides, I still need to test the limits of these things." She says, knocking on the side and letting a metallic clang echo through the room. "It's not exactly easy to get used to such a big change."

"Yeah, you're right." I admit.

"Actually, I can pay you back and test at the same time." Cassie shoots forward, one arm landing on the back of my knees, and the other on my back. She moves her arms, and the ground disappears from beneath my feet as she tilts me back. She holds me close in her arms, obviously straining from my weight, but trying her best to not let it show. "Fuck you're heavy." She grunts.

"You can put me down!" I say quickly. "I'm designed to be able to take falls from this height, just drop me!"

"No, it's fine." She says. "I can handle it."

"You're going to hurt yourself!" Trying to escape her arms will only make things worse, and I can't exactly say I don't enjoy being carried by her. Instead I wrap my arms around her neck, trying to make myself easier to carry.

She doesn't listen to me, and instead crouches down before easily pushing herself back into a standing position. She does a few squats before bending down and gently placing me on the floor.

She stands up, pushing her hand into her back and stretching as far as she can.

"Are you ok?" I race to my feet.

"I'm fine." She reassures me. "Just need a new spine before I do that again."

"I think you need to relax after that." I step forward and scoop her into my arms, just as I have done so many times before. Even though it's not needed as much any more, I take great care to support her legs, back, and head.

"Hey! I said I was fine!"

"I don't want to risk you hurting yourself, so I guess I have to carry you to food."

"Don't you fucking dare." Her voice makes it clear she's not actually angry, at least not yet. There's a distinct warning in her voice.

"Alright, fine." I carefully place her back on her feet. "But you need to go eat."

"You're the one who's delaying us!" Cassie laughs and heads to the door. I follow closely beside her.

Corax is perched high up on one of the buildings in the perfect position to see both Cassie's and my house, and our car where Clover is staying. The second we leave the front door, he swoops down, landing easily on my shoulder.

I make the short walk to our car and open the trunk as quietly as I can. Clover is still collapsed, unmoving in her seat. Corax says she's fine, but I'm still concerned.

A small metal box sitting in the trunk holds all the food Kismet sent us out with. I pull it out and take stock of the dried fruit and vegetables that are inside.

"You know, we have a lot of cherries someone needs to eat." I say with a smile.

"Fuck that, save them for Vince."

"Alright, I know that's a big sacrifice." I grab a medley of dried foods, some water, and some powdered soup base.

We still have the pots and silverware we took from here. I collect that as well, fill up a bowl with water, add the base and the vegetables, and walk over to the generator.

Wait shoot, I have skin again. I can't just reach into the heat and place the bowl anymore. Well, that's alright. I return to our house, grab some fabric, and wrap it tightly around my hands and arms. I'm not sure exactly what temperature my skin will start to break down, but I don't want to take any risks.

I gingerly put the bowl on a small grate over the generator, and now I just have to wait.

Lance, Robin, and Nimda are hanging out next to the water, just staring into the soft blue glow and chatting.

"If we're going to be fighting with them, we should get to know them." I say.

"Yeah, guess we should."

I set a mental timer for the soup and head over.

"Hey Nimda." I say. "Can you teach me how to actually fight inside a computer later? The only times I've done it have been improvised, to say the least."

"Of course." Nimda responds simply. "It would be my pleasure."

"So." Cassie says awkwardly, sitting at the edge of the lake. "You two know Vince?" She asks.

"We do." Lance responds. "Well, in a sense. We were pinned down by a group of bandits trying to raid a little town we were in. We got word out on the radio to L.A. and they told us they were sending out a rescue party. You wouldn't believe the look on our face when they sent one car. Two people found high ground, dug themselves in, and rained hellfire onto the ones attacking us. They left without a word after that. Didn't learn it was the Phantoms of Vegas until a few months later."

"Mara was there too. Is that going to be a problem?" Cassie asks.

"Not at all." Lance reassures both of us. "She lost the right to be helped when she kidnapped the child. We will have no problem with killing her."

"She should have lost it way before then." Cassie says.

"That's probably true." Lance agrees. "Perhaps we're selfish, but we've never had the privilege to care about anything beyond our own situation."

"I get that." Cassie says. "You can't fix the world, we take care of our own first too."

Lance lets a relieved smile make its way onto his face.

"Glad you understand."

The small alarm in my mind goes off, and I retrieve the soup for Cassie. I return to her and place it in her lap, taking a seat next to her.

Robin stares enviously at Cassie's soup while she eats.

"Got a problem?" Cassie asks.

"I just miss food." He says regretfully.

"Can't you design something to let you taste?" I ask.

"It's not the same." He says. "Nimda can simulate it perfectly in the Digital. It's just not the same. There's no hormonal release as there is in an organic brain, just a fake echo of what it used to be. Sure it can be nice, but it feels hollow."

"I'm sorry. I didn't realize. Corax has never tried to eat since he was mind ripped."

"It's fine." He waves me off. "Just an old man's regret."

"I've heard enough of those." Cassie cradles her soup in her hand as she stands up. "I'm going to go eat in our house, and head to sleep when I'm done. You can stay out here."

"Are you sure?" I ask. How much do I reveal to everyone else? How do I offer to read her to sleep without saying that? "Everyone's going to be up forever, I don't want to miss out on time together if it's limited." That's a reasonable explanation.

"No, I'm fine." Cassie says. It's not her normal voice she uses to reject my reading to her when she just doesn't want to say yes. It's something more serious. "Besides, humans need a little alone time every once in a while." She reaches down, running her hand through my hair once before leaving.

"Alright. Just let me know if you need help."

"I didn't mean-" Cassie's face burns red as she quickly walks away, but I'm not sure why.

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