I could sense Tally's gaze on me. She was undoubtedly smirking at how pathetic, how unspecial I appeared now. I refused to admit that this tricky sixteen year old had defeated me. Worse, I was helping her.

I lifted my gaze to hers with a sneer.

Tally stared at me, astonished, gasping for breath. She gasped, "What are you…?"

"Rescuing you," I responded with a grimace. I could scarcely believe this was happening either. However, this was the only way.

Tally obviously didn't believe me, she seemed certain that an alarm would go off at any moment. She glanced at the door.

I shook my head. "I built this place, Tally. I know its tricks." I was exhausted. Now that I wasn't Special, I had the energy of an old woman. "No one's coming. Let me rest a moment." I collapsed wearily onto the floor, the spilled operating solution soaking into my clothes. I sighed. "I'm too old for this."

Tally stared down at me, her eyes still untrusting. I didn't blame her. I certainly hadn't given her any reason to have faith in me. Another emotion entered Tally's sharp, Special eyes. Pity. Now that I had been despecialized, my appearance was that of a harmless crumbly. But I still remembered how to read faces quite easily. Tally had let her defences down for a split second. However, she then turned her gaze to the three unconscious doctors on the floor.

She glared at me, uncertain of my motives again. "You still have special reflexes?"

I shook my head. "I'm not special at all, Tally. I'm pathetic." I shrugged. "But I'm still dangerous." I still recalled a few tricks from my Special days. Well, that and the doctors weren't expecting anything like this. I had had the element of surprise to my advantage.

"Oh." Tally wiped more operating solution from her eyes. "Took you long enough, though."

A wave of anger washed over me for a moment. The stupid girl still thought she was superior. She should be grateful. I smiled dryly. "Yes, that was clever Tally, taking out the breathing tube first." Even being a Special couldn't give Tally Youngblood some common sense.

Tally blinked, getting the rest of the operating solution from her eyes. "Sure, great plan, leaving me in there until they almost… Um, why are you doing this again?"

I smiled. "I'll tell you, Tally, if you answer me a question first." I focused my gaze on her intently. "What did you do to me?"

Tally smiled, like a littlie who knew a secret. "I cured you."

"I know that, you little fool." Did she think I hadn't noticed the way my mind had gradually become less focused, the way I had begun to perceive myself as comparable to common citizens? "But how?"

"Remember when you snatched my transmitter?" Tally asked. "It wasn't a transmitter at all – it was an injector. Maddy's made a cure for Specials."

Of course it wasn't a transmitter. How foolish I had been, so eager to capture Tally that I had forgotten how tricky she was for a moment. She'd made me the fool, and all the while I had thought I'd won. However reluctant I was to admit it, I had to give her some credit for her ploy, even with the assistance she had had from outside associates.

Maddy just couldn't leave the world alone. I also ought to have realised that Maddy would eventually find a cure for Specials, just like she had for pretties. "That miserable woman again." I lowered my gaze to the soaking ground once more. "The Council's re-opened the city's borders. Her pills are everywhere."

Tally nodded. "I can tell."

I glared at Tally, frustrated by her nonchalance. "Everything's going to pieces," I hissed. Tally had supported Maddy and her half-baked cures, and it wouldn't be long before civilization fell to pieces again, pretties acting like Rusties. "It won't be long before they start chewing up the wild, you know."

"Yeah, I know. Just like in Diego." Tally sighed, a contemplative expression settling onto her face. "Freedom has a way of destroying things, I guess."

I blinked. Could it be possible that Tally may actually empathise with me, even in the slightest? I shook the thought off. Tally was encouraging the crack-pot's pills.

"And you call this a cure, Tally? It's letting loose a cancer on the world." That was the best analogy I could think of, to describe how the world would slowly deteriorate, until we were in the same position as the Rusties, so many centuries ago. The damage had begun with Diego, which was like a tumour on the face of the earth, practically benign. But then it would slowly spread throughout other cities, blackening the world with the disease of mankind. Slowly and painfully, the efficiency would be lost, the functions ceasing to work as they once did. Finally, Earth would take its last breath, humanity destroying nature at last.

Slowly, Tally shook her head, her eyes never leaving mine. "So that's why you're here, Dr. Cable? To blame me for everything?"

The girl didn't deserve this from me. She had caused nothing but trouble for us since she was fifteen years old, and yet here I was, saving her. "No. I'm here to let you go."

Tally looked at me, disbelief clear in her eyes. But she had no choice but to trust me, and I was certain the thought of escaping was a chance she couldn't afford not to take.

Tally spoke, choosing her words carefully. "But didn't I, you know, destroy your world?"

It was a cruel twist of fate indeed that Tally was the last Special, the one who hadn't been cured. Of all the Cutters, recreating Tally as a Special had been as much out of necessity as for her usefulness to us. Of all of the new Specials, Tally would have been the last I would have expected to avoid a cure, which was all she ever wanted when she was a pretty. But I couldn't let my work for many decades become extinct, even if the person who benefited from it most was an annoying teenager who couldn't keep her opinion to herself. I answered her question as honestly as I could. "Yes. But," I went on, "you're the last one. I've watched Shay and the others on the Diego propaganda feeds – they aren't right anymore. Maddy's cure, I suppose." I sighed, still irritated at the way this body reacted to my demands. "They're no more right than I am. The Council has despecialized almost all of us." It was a terrible shame; such wonderful minds had been lost forever. For a brief moment I thought wistfully back to the days where I was in charge of the Cutters with their sharp, focused minds and swift reflexes. I was brought back to reality when Tally spoke.

"But why me?"

Why Tally, why Tally? It was a question I had been asking myself repeatedly for hours, but I was looking for a different answer than the one she sought. "You're the only real Cutter left. The last of my Specials designed to live in the wild, to exist outside the cities." I had so much faith in the Cutters, the work they could do that other Specials could not. Their bodies differed from a regular Special's; they were designed for more arduous experiences. I knew this would be useful for Tally. "You can escape this, can disappear forever. I don't want my work to become extinct, Tally. Please…" I considered the irony of this bitterly. I was begging Tally to understand, pleading like some defenceless ugly. I rushed on, willing this conversation to be over. "Just get out, Tally. Take any elevator to the roof." I had arranged her breakout flawlessly. "The building's almost empty, and I've shut down most of the cameras. And frankly, no one can stop you. Leave, and for my sake, keep yourself Special. The world may need you, one day."

Tally still wasn't entirely convinced. "What about a hoverboard?"

"It's waiting for you one the roof, of course." I snorted. "What is it about you miscreants and those things?"

She was coming around now. Tally looked at the unconscious doctors on the floor, concerned. She looked up at me questionably.

"They'll be fine," I assured her indifferently. "I am a doctor, you know." I scoffed.

"Sure you are," Tally muttered, bending over to carefully retrieve scrubs from one of the orderlies. It was somewhat sticky and wet, but she would probably find it better than hoverboarding naked.

She took a step toward the door, hesitated, and then turned around to look at me. "Aren't you worried I'll get myself cured? Then there won't be any of us left."

I laughed humourlessly. "My faith in you has always been rewarded, Tally Youngblood. Why should I start worrying now?" I watched as Tally walked away from me for the final time.