"We'll be back with Vince in a minute, Ivy." Cassie crouches down and promises her. "And Mara's head on a pike."

Ivy only gives a small thumbs up in response.

"Are you ok?" I ask. "Can you talk?"

Ivy gives a sad shake of her head.

"Is it my fault?" The words come out at barely a whisper.

Ivy shakes her head once again, but it does little to drive away my worry.

"Alright, ready?" Cassie pushes herself to her feet and quickly reloads her pistols.

"I guess." I do the same with my guns.

Cassie steps back out onto the streets, and I stay just behind her. Corax takes off to scout around us, and Robin covers our back. Clover walks in the middle of us. She's beginning to stumble a little bit, but can still keep her rifle up. I'll do my best to make sure she doesn't have to stay conscious for much longer.

The world is mostly quiet, with just the occasional shot from a turret in the distance. We make our way quickly down the street, towards a massive steel door that has already slid open.

"So you saw Vince?" Cassie's voice fills the oppressive silence.

"It was my mom, actually."

"Doesn't she only fuck with you?"

"Yeah. It was the first time she's helped me since I killed her."

"Didn't kill her." Corax emphasizes from above us.

"Right." I have to let myself believe him. If Cassie or Corax took the same actions I did, I wouldn't say they killed everyone. It's just hard to hold myself to that same standard.

We stop before we step through the bunker doors. A long hallway stretches out in front of us, sloping downwards further into the earth.

"Move!" Clover yells, and sprints for the edge of the opening.

Only a moment later the turrets begin to swivel towards us. We don't hesitate to follow Clover. Cassie grabs my arm and drags me behind her to ensure I get out of the line of fire as quickly as possible.

A moment after we all get out of sight, a hail of bullets rains down where we just were.

"You never were one to think things through, Cassandra." Mara's voice echoes out of the hallway. It's staticky and messy, not the normal, cruel voice I've heard once before. "I look forward to breaking you."

She must be struggling with Kismet and Nimda, but I don't know how long that will last. If she still has enough spare processing power to taunt us, it might not be that much longer.

"Fuck you!" Cassie yells back.

Mara's laughter echoes from the tunnel.

"I'm glad the future I saw where you died wasn't the true one." Clover says. "Kismet tells me we were unable to gain control of anything inside her bunker."

"Fucking great. Blue, please tell me you can disable those things."

"I should be able to."

I creep back towards the edge of the door. I set the puck to flood data into every turret, and every single one begins to fire. Bullets and shrapnel harmlessly fly out of the hallway. I wait until the shooting stops and poke my head out. All the turrets are flailing wildly, but are no longer a danger. A small weak point exists in their armor, and a single carefully placed bullet in each causes them to go limp and quiet.

"It's safe to go in." I say.

"Let's move quick then. I don't want to leave Ivy to worry." Cassie steps forward, peeking around the corner. "Thanks." She whispers to me before stepping out bravely.

I follow behind her, ready to shoot at any turrets that dare to reactivate. I'm not going to let her get hurt, it doesn't matter what it takes.

The five of us descend deep into the earth before reaching the end. The hallway levels out into a small flat section with another thick metal blast door blocking the way.

"I doubt I have enough explosives to get through that." Robin says.

"I guess it falls on Corax and I then?" I step up to the wall. A small square of metal is sticking out of the wall, a covering hiding something. "I'm guessing there's a control panel behind here. Cassie, if you could give us access we'll get it open." Don't think about how dangerous it is. Don't think about how it's going to be similar to the first time I plugged myself into Zero's network. I'm going to be fine.

"Mara's going to kill you. Find another way." Cassie insists.

"What other way?" I ask. "I know it's yet another bullet, but there are no other options."

Cassie steps forward, drives her knife into a small crack around the panel, and uses it as a lever to pull back a small section of it. She wedges her metal fingers in the crack and wrenches the entire panel off the wall. The small section of metal clatters to the floor, revealing a small collection of wires and circuit breakers.

"Get it open without connecting yourself."

"I don't know how anything is connected. I can't just short two wires and magically have it open, I'm more likely to fry something than open the door. The only way I can guarantee I get it open is by connecting with it."

"Clover? Robin? Please tell me you have something." Cassie practically begs.

"Like I said, I don't have enough explosives to get through that." Robin says.

Clover only shakes her head.

"Fuck! I swear to god, if you die I'm not going to be the one to tell Vince and Ivy."

"I won't die, I promise." I pull her tightly into me. I can't guarantee that though, and we both know that. There's something I need to say, just in case. "But if I don't, I lo-"

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"No, fuck you, don't finish that." She pushes me away firmly, but not hard, holding me at an arm's length. "If you say that you're going to die. Tell me later so I can properly run away."

"Alright, I will." If I feel brave enough later. "I'll see you in a minute."

"You fucking better." Cassie grips the hacking knife in her hand and stabs it into one of the exposed circuit boards.

My mind is assaulted by data. Even with nobody paying attention to Corax or I, the sheer pressure of the three people in this network is enough to push my mind to its limits.

A towering obelisk sits in the center of an empty void, covered with cameras, seeing everything. It's so tall, the tip is impossible to see from our position on the ground. Sheer, unfiltered anger radiates off it in waves, infesting my mind and sharing her anger. Endless bodies fall out of the tower like a waterfall, each of them a perfect copy of the Mara Ivy shot. They're heavily armored, each armed with Vince's rifle.

Walls of fire, nearly as tall as the obelisk itself, surround it, surround us. The endless flood of bodies fire wildly, rushing directly into the walls and disintegrating on impact. The fire wavers beneath the force of them, but holds strong for the moment.

Above the obelisk sits a great tear in reality. Green tendrils snake out, trying to slam against the obelisk and the endless flood of bodies. Behind the tear, glimpses of Kismet's true form can be seen. So large it dwarfs even the obelisk, but incapable of squeezing through the comparatively miniscule crack. The tendrils are torn apart by a hail of bullets before they can connect, but they hold Mara's attention.

One of the endless Maras turns towards us, and my mind threatens to crack beneath the pressure.

"Get the door open, please." I beg to Corax as I begin to throw as much ice between her and us as possible.

Bullets effortlessly rip away chunks of the ice wall. I don't have the mental capacity to make sure Corax actually heard me, it's all I can do to weather the overwhelming onslaught from a miniscule fragment of Mara's consciousness.

Existence ceases to matter. I'm just a machine that exists to keep Corax safe. Heat begins to build up in my mind and it doesn't matter. I'm not letting Corax get hurt, even if it means I'll have to break my promise to Cassie. If I don't give it everything I have, we all die anyway. If I die saving everyone, so be it.

A second Mara turns towards us, noticing the disturbance. A third. The wall disintegrates, and yet, I still push my mind to make more. It's all I can do. I'll stop the bullets with my body and mind if I need to.

My conscious mind shatters under the pressure.

I find myself on the floor, being dragged backwards. I quickly remove all unneeded senses. Touch isn't needed right now, and visual resolution is only needed as far as to recognize what's around me. That lessons the pressure on my mind instantly. Sound and sight both only need to be through one orifice.

A large black blob sits on my chest, and it looks like I'm being dragged through a set of open doors. My hands are above my head, one organic and one metallic hand grabbing them.

"Cassie? Sorry." I mumble.

"Are you about to die on me?" She asks.

"No. I've been through worse." Or maybe I'm just getting better at dealing with my mind being fried. I'm not sure which is better.

"Then don't say sorry."

An explosion rips through my mind, threatening to loosen my grasp on consciousness.

A faint, blurry form is leading the way, aiming and firing at indistinct blobs built into the walls. I can only imagine that's more turrets.

"Can you wait for a second?" I ask.

Cassie pulls me over to a nearby wall and quickly maneuvers me until I'm sitting against it.

I pull back the skin plates on my arm one at a time. I don't have the space to move that much at once without stressing my mind.

"Corax? Can you plug in and walk for me?"

He hops onto my exposed arm, takes the cord out from where I've stashed it inside, and connects us together. My arm closes up on its own, cradles Corax, and stands up. It draws one pistol and holds it out in front of us.

"Thanks." I pass him all the information on shooting I have, which he accepts. His grip shifts and his aim corrects itself.

"Are you good to go?" Cassie asks.

Corax nods and takes a step forward.

This is surprisingly fine. It barely feels like he's using my body, more like he's just carrying me.

I let my mind rest while everyone else clears the hallway. I can trust Corax and Cassie to keep me safe. I've done my part, I can trust them to do theirs. I even pull out of a few of my processors and hand them over to Corax. He can use them more than I can right now.

Doors begin to dot either side of the hallway, and Cassie stops to investigate. They're just flat metal doors with no obvious way of opening them, and Cassie eventually stops checking to see if they're open.

That's fine, I'm sure one of them knows where we're going. If we needed to be in there, Lance could just use his explosives.

Several of the doors slide open all at once. Metallic bodies hit the floor, disabled by our devices. We put a few bullets in the limp bodies, ensuring nobody can come after us.

"Cassie, did you bring your gas mask?" Clover asks.

"Yeah."

"Put it on. She might be releasing poisonous gas now."

Cassie doesn't hesitate to reach into her backpack and grab it. She has to remove her helmet temporarily to put it on, and Corax steps closer to her to cover her with our body.

"Wait, Corax, can you close my air intakes?" I ask.

"Done."

"Thank you."

We continue down the hallways. More traps get triggered by our device accidentally activating them far in advance. Explosions go off, bullets fire out of the walls, electric surges sweep through the hallway. We're always too far away for anything to hit us, and we pick our way through what remains afterwards.

Our walk ends in another thick set of doors.

"Let me try these ones." Lance says.

"Is this the right way?" Cassie asks.

"Yeah. I've been tracking the magnetic fields caused by the wires running through this place. She's behind this door." He grabs a large package from a pouch on his back and attaches it to the center of the door.

All of us take a few steps back before another explosion blasts into my mind. By the time I've recovered, we're already inside. This room is large, with server racks taking up every possible square foot. Each of them are filled to the brim with humming electronics.

Cassie aims her pistol at the endless computers.

"Wait." Corax sets my hand atop her pistol and slowly lowers it.

"Why the fuck should I wait?" Cassie yells.

"Nimda and Kismet are still fighting in there, we need to extract them. Plus, I'm sure she has many dead man switches we need to lock down." Robin takes a small device from his pocket and plugs it into an open port. "Clover? Did it work?"

Clover waits a moment, her eyes unfocused on reality and staring into the distance. Her eyes snap onto a small black box in the corner, and she steps over to rip out the wires. She cradles the box in her arms and plugs herself in.

"You're good to kill her." She says.

Cassie doesn't hesitate to begin firing. She squeezes her trigger until her pistol clicks empty a few times, each bullet tearing away chunks of metal. She lets her pistol drop from her hand and grabs my spare one out of the holster, adding those bullets to Mara's body. Vince's rifle is emptied into the chaos next.

"Corax? Can you give me my hand back?" I message to him.

Our hand becomes entirely my own, and I set my mind to squeezing the trigger. I tell Corax where to aim, and put a bullet into any undamaged hard drive banks I can see.

The server goes quiet, the fans slowing down as no more heat is made from the processors.

"Nimda and we are unable to reconnect." Clover says. "We'll need to be more thorough later, but she's off."

"Finally." Cassie lets my gun drop from her hand once again, and leans against my body.

"Corax is in charge of my body." I remind her.

"Fuck, right. Thanks." She pushes herself off us.

"You four should go recover your people. I'll stay behind and ensure not a single byte is recoverable." Robin says.

"Save some for us. Vince and Ivy are going to want their chance."

"Alright, I'll collect some drives for you and bring them out."

"I'd rather not see Vince right now, not when I don't know who he expects me to be." Clover says. "I'll stay here and help."

"Alright, we'll meet you back with Nimda."

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