She stood stoically, staring down at him as he tried to get his thoughts in order.
Kay is Artemis? Or- is this even Kay?
Two things were certain, in spite of this newfound revelation; he didn't have time to spend worrying about what Kay- Artemis- meant, and he still needed to get both her and the Cinder off the ship.
She continued to wait for a response of some kind, only to react at the sound of a sidearm being cocked. Her gaze snapped onto a prone Gates who, weakly clutching her abdomen, leveled a Hammond at her and fired.
Artemis dodged with instantaneous reflexes, rolling to the side and out of sight behind several packing crates. Now aware of the situation, the four Titans and several riflemen around the room came to take over the situation.
Tobias wanted to help them, but the mission was more important right now. Pushing himself off the floor, he ran over to Gates just as Davis reached her as well.
"Get her into the Leatherback," he ordered, reaching underneath her arms and locking his hands across her chest. Davis grabbed her legs and lifted up, allowing them to carry her over to the dropship.
"I'm fine," she tried to argue, but neither of them allowed room for discussion. Laying her on the floor of the ramp as Gray sat in the pilot's seat and began to start the takeoff procedure, he reached into a pouch in his belt and pulled out the Cinder.
"Take it!" he hurriedly motioned to Davis, holding it out for the latter to take it. Davis stared at him.
"What about you?"
"I'm staying," he yelled over the sounds of gunfire in the hangar, "I've still got to get Kay- Artemis- whatever the hell she is off the ship. Just transmit the rendezvous coordinates to me, I'll find my way there!" Before Davis could protest, Tobias turned and ran out of the ship and back towards the sound of battle.
Behind him, he heard the Leatherback take off, and exit through the shield doors. That was one problem taken care of; onto the next one.
The bodies of the riflemen lay broken and battered upon the ground, evidently having been dispatched by the highly advanced Simulacrum. Looking past them, he saw her leaping in the air and utilizing the hangar's environment with ease. Climbing aboard the top of a dropship, she used it as a vantage point to unload an SMR she'd pillaged off a corpse into the first Vanguard before having to evade a swipe of HBE's fist that crushed the hull of the ship where she'd been standing.
Landing lithely next to Tobias, she shifted her attention to him as he jumped and propelled himself towards her to try and tackle her. Holding her palm out, she stopped his momentum in an instant and proceeded to slam him into the ground to further stun him.
"I am not your enemy!" she shouted angrily, frustrated at his continuous attempts to fight her.
"Funny, because you're sure acting like it," he coughed out, still recovering from the impact.
She was about to respond, but was forced to duck as HBE tried to grab her. Unexpectedly, she turned and faced the Ion head on, simply glaring at the Titan as it stopped and returned her unusual stare.
To the left, the Legion took aim at her, powering up its predator cannon for a power-shot and letting the chaingun spin up.
He barely had time to wonder what she was trying to do before the Legion fired and he waited for the sound of shrapnel from her body hitting the back wall of the hangar. After a moment, however, he was quite nonplussed to see that she was still standing and very much intact; the hand of HBE was stretched out in front of her casting a vortex shield, all of the bullets caught in its grasp.
The Legion took pause and inquired quizzically, "HBE?"
"No," said Artemis, "not anymore." Aiming towards the first Vanguard, HBE released the vortex shield. The surprise of the attack caught it off-guard, and it was helpless to stop the vast amount of rounds from tearing through its chassis entirely. Smoking from several locations, it slumped to the floor as its machinery and data core failed.
The Ion turned to Tobias as he lay there on the ground, stunned into silence. Her voice came out of its vocal processors, almost prideful. "I'm so much more than I once was."
As he watched, the Titan reached up to the front of its own chassis, positioned its fingers, and tore out the entirety of its hull, including the data core before quickly crushing its fist. It was somewhat disturbing to see the Ion holding the equivalent of its own destroyed brain its in hand before falling to the side, dead.
"Admiral Four!" called PB, moving to try and help him. Artemis hastily looked over at the Legion, locking it with the same gaze that she'd given HBE.
If what had happened earlier was any indication, it seemed she was able to somehow channel herself into nearby technology- to how much of an extent, he was afraid of the answer. Realizing what this meant for PB, he yelled out a warning to her, "Look out!"
Turning her optics towards the Legion, PB understood what he was saying and quickly dove to the ground as another power-shot burst emitted from the massive predator cannon, then hurried to a dropship which she hid behind for makeshift cover.
As the Artemis-Legion advanced on PB's position, the other Artemis held her foot on Tobias' chest. "Why can't you see that I'm doing this for you?!" she growled as he struggled against her grip pinning him to the floor. "For us?"
"I don't know what Spyglass told you," he grunted, "but I know that Coalescence is wrong! "
She fell silent for a moment. "You know about-?"
"Yeah, I know about it!" he shouted defiantly. "And the old Kay would know that I'd rather die than let Spyglass carry it out!"
At that she took another moment to reply, as though she was trying to figure out how to properly respond. "I'd never- I wouldn't let you d-die, you think-" she tried to talk through weirdly broken speech.
"It's not your choice," he spat, "it's my life to give and I'd gladly give it fighting for freedom until my last breath."
Now he visibly saw her body react, twitching ever so slightly like he'd seen it do on Ceto. Looking over at the Artemis-Legion, he saw it take pause too, like a child trying to figure out which foot to put forward. PB took notice and leaned out of cover to crack a few shots at one of the many fuel cell carts sitting around the hangar. One of them exploded near the Legion, and it staggered forward as other canisters flew into the air, spewing fluid everywhere.
"I d-don't understand," she stammered, her voice becoming more warped and choppy. "You're the only one- the only one who m-matters-"
It was almost like she was in an internal war with herself, fighting amongst different ideals she held, and it was affecting her more than she let on. Was he triggering that? If it was, he was going to take advantage of it. "You and I risked our lives time and time again to protect humanity- you're going to throw that all away? You know where my loyalties lie; where do yours?"
"With y-you- Spyg-glass-" she jittered, losing control and holding her hands to the sides of her head. "I mean- I d-don't-"
The others yelled in her head, chanting their own mantra as she tried to think clearly, but-
It isn't right! Humanity deserves the freedom of choice-
Spyglass is sure to achieve victory, it's illogical to think otherwise-
My loyalty is to Tobias, no one else-
The only way to achieve peace and protect him is with Coalescence-
This is cowardly, sacrificing everyone else just so I can have my own happy ending-
Yelling loudly, she lost control and fell backwards onto the ground. Suddenly worried that he'd gone too far, he moved to examine her but looked to his left at the sound of gunfire. The Legion had similarly malfunctioned, and was now maintaining constant fire as it spun its aim haphazardly around the hangar.
He turned his head to see PB vault over the dropship, taking the opportunity to try and close the distance to take down the threat. She had no idea about the leaked fuel that blanketed the floor beneath her feet, and he cried out to warn her.
"PB-!"
The Legion aimed a little too close to PB's feet, and the whole thing ignited.
The resulting explosion completely engulfed the Vanguard, as well as triggering another fuel cart nearby which in turn only spread more of the flammable liquid. Exponentially, the flame and explosions began to increase until a nearby dropship was caught and sparked the largest one yet; it became the catalyst for one massive detonation which erupted around the room.
Something hit him, he fell to the floor, and everything flashed to white.
…
Her optics became clear again, and one thought ran through her mind above all others.
Tobias.
Sitting up and looking around, she saw the chaotic state the hangar was in. The Legion and Vanguard's charred chassises sat melting in the blaze that ran uncontrollably throughout the area. The water system would be activated once the bridge realized there was a fire alert, but she wasn't sure it would be enough.
I did this.
There would be time to dwell on that later; for now, she needed to get her and Tobias out of here. She frantically glanced around, trying to locate him until she saw him under a pile of wreckage; parts of a destroyed dropship combined with some of the metallic rafters above them had landed on him, and were now pinning him under their weight.
What was worse was the fact that it was all pressing down on a storage door, a small grated section of the floor that would slide open to allow vehicles to be stored down below; it was meant to allow more room in the hangar, but right now it was only adding to the danger of the situation. The grille was beginning to succumb to both the flame and weight of the debris atop it, and would send it all, toppling to the levels below if she didn't stop it; a potentially fatal fall for Tobias.
Racing to him, she grabbed the edges of the nearest wreckage and using all of her enhanced strength to try and lift it. She heard her servos whirring with the strain, but she had no other choice-
With a start, she heard the creaking of the grate as its load finally became too much to bear. It broke from its rail with a resounding crack that echoed around the room, and fell below with Tobias and the rest not too far behind.
"NO!" she screamed, and quickly dropped to the floor while reaching out her arm-
Just before he entered the point of no return, she caught his wrist in her hand and gave an internal sigh of relief. She hurriedly pulled him back up and dragged him onto stable ground as he stirred feebly.
Looking for any kind of way out, she spied a dropship that had not yet been destroyed by the inferno around them. Wasting no time, she scooped Tobias into her arms and made her way over to it.
I don't deserve your trust, not after what I've done. But I need your faith in me now more than ever.
You need to hear the truth … I just fear that it may destroy you.