So, the next chapter ... about Rommie. I apologize for any and all mistakes, typos and similar. I was trying to finish this chapter as fast as possible, so ... be patient with me.

Chapter 20

Rommie felt, how her system slowly came back online. She wanted to open her eyes, but decided to first scan her surroundings without being noticed. Memories of her last awakening as Aidan's face was first thing she saw were still fresh and she wanted to be sure what was going on around her before they would see that she's awake. She activated her sensors and registered only one person in the room. She was lying on a bed, firmly tied to it, so that she couldn't move. Thousands of thoughts shot through her mind and somehow frightened she checked her programming. The memories of the last time she woke up and didn't know who she was were still lingering in her mind. Relieved she realized that there were no new programming structures; she was still herself. She slowly opened her eyes and, exactly as she expected, she saw Aidan, standing by her side and looking at her.

"it was about time for you to wake up!" His voice was anything else but friendly and he looked at her with angry eyes.

She didn't answer and just glared at him with hate clearly written in her eyes. If she ever hated someone then it was this man, standing here in front of her, who almost made her kill the love of her life.

"Aren't you happy to see me again?" Aidan smirked at her. "And I have been so looking forward to meeting you again. But … you should explain something to me: why didn't you kill Dylan Hunt? I can't understand it!" He began to pace around and after few rounds he stopped again and looked at her. "You've been programmed to do it! And as far as I know, the AIs must always follow their programming."

She didn't answer him and only turned her eyes towards ceiling. She thought if Dylan made it out of the house alive. Or did the others capture him? And what happened to Tyr and Harper? Did they get them or did they manage to escape?

Aidan grabbed her head and turned her towards him. She didn't resist, she just closed her eyes to avoid looking at his hideous face. "Look at me while I'm talking to you!" Aidan's voice was raised and he shook her violently.

She opened her eyes, but remained silent. Why should she talk to him at all? She knew he wouldn't let her go and it actually didn't matter anymore what would happen to her. She suddenly felt ashamed. Ashamed that she almost did something nasty. She thought that she deserved this punishment. Whatever Aidan intended to do to her, she deserved it.

Aidan looked at her for a second and said: "You know, you're really a special AI, I've never seen an android being so stubborn as you are."

"Maybe it's because I had such a good Captain and friends, who saw me as a person," answered Rommie and her voice dripped with hate, while she looked at him defiantly.

Aidan's eyes revealed his surprise and he said with slightly insecure voice: "Look what we have here! You remember! But … that's impossible! We erased all your memories! That's absolutely impossible!"

"Obviously you have incompetent people, who weren't able to fulfill your requirements;" answered Rommie venomously. "I know exactly who I am, who I was and what I have done."

Aidan let go of her and stepped few haste steps backwards. Rommie could swear that she saw fear in his eyes and she grinned satisfied. She obviously shocked him deeply. "Are you perhaps afraid of me? I'm tied to the bed and cannot harm you. Or?"

Aidan managed to get his expression under control again, but maintained secure distance to her. He was obviously brooding over the situation. He was expecting that this discussion would look different than it did. After a long pause he managed, somehow lost in his thoughts: "It looks I'll have to use heavier weapons. But we still need you, so we're going to erase you completely and program you anew. And this time there will be no mistakes."

Rommie looked at him and grinned: "You are free to try. But … if you'll also manage it … I have my doubts about it."

"What do you mean? You have no chance to resist us. You can enjoy your last hours as Andromeda. In about two hours you will be only a history, forgotten by everyone. You're going to be the most faithful soldier, doing exactly what I'll tell you to do. However, he didn't look quite as confident as he talked. He looked at her thoughtfully and said after few moments: "Did you really think you could escape us? How stupid!"

Rommie looked at him and tried to find a way to trick him into telling her what happened to her friends: "Even if you succeed. It doesn't matter anymore. Dylan is still alive and it's only a matter of time before he finds and punishes you. Don't even hope that he's not looking for you."

Aidan looked at her and answered: "Could be. Unfortunately he escaped and even killed Molly. That's why we'll find and kill him. He killed my Molly!"

Rommie's eyes lit up in sudden realization. So, Molly was a part of it! Hadn't she hated the woman before, she'd definitely start hating her now. It was Molly, who used her Dylan so dirty. What a bitch! She grinned at Aidan: "Hmm, I beg to differ. As far as I know your men killed Molly. You really have good men, definitely. They were even capable of hitting the house. Not Dylan, YOU killed her!"

Aidan's eyes gazed at her furiously and he stepped towards her with clenched fists: "What bullshit are you talking?"

"No nonsense. I saw with my own eyes how Molly laid dead under debris of the house. Are you really thinking Dylan would bomb the house? Pathetic!"

Aidan sucked air sharply and for a second she thought he would hit her: "Come on, hit me if it will make it easier for you! It's so heroic to hit a tied woman. But it won't change the truth. It will still remain the fact, that your men killed Molly."

Aidan somehow managed to get himself under control again and looked at her angrily: "There's no point in discussing anything with you. But I tell you something: you may love this Dylan, but it won't help you a bit. You'll be reprogrammed and you'll kill him. Now it will be even easier for he'll believe you'd be his old Rommie again. Enjoy your last hours. Soon you won't know that you've existed before at all."

He turned around and left the room. Rommie remained still and thought. She knew that she was shielded against reprogramming and she actually didn't worry about Aidan's threats. But she should find a way to use it to her advantage. She knew they would be very careful with her and she should have a really good plan to avenge herself and Dylan. She knew exactly that her chances to survive were slim to none, but she was deadly determined to try everything. It was the only way to protect Dylan and the others. It was the only way to correct her mistakes. She felt how tears began to well in her eyes again. It didn't matter what would happen to her. She had to save Dylan, she had to make sure these people wouldn't attack him. Even if it meant her death.

Minutes ticked off and she slowly lost the feeling of time. She didn't want to consider her internal clock, she just waited for anything to happen. She already had a plan and the only thing she could do now was to wait. Soon the door opened and four men entered the room. She turned her head to see who entered and was satisfied that Aidan wasn't with them. He was obviously afraid to come to her again. She felt how the four men began to connect different cables to her body and she knew it was just a matter of minutes until the reprogramming would begin. She carefully activated her shielding files so that the men wouldn't notice it and in her thoughts she again thanked to a small genius, who gave her the possibility to resist reprogramming.

"So, my beauty," a man's voice said," it's time for you to say farewell." Screeching laughter accompanied these words. She didn't answer; she simply concentrated on what would come upon her. Suddenly she felt a river of data, flooding over her mind. Had she not been shielded would she already be out. But so, she only faked the success of the reprogramming. She closed her eyes and acted to be a switched-off AI. Her shields worked perfectly, she had no problems to redirect, pack and erase the oncoming data. For a second she considered the possibility to keep the data. Maybe there was some important information about the organization. But she realized it would be too risky. Who knows, maybe the data could penetrate her defense later on and turn her into mindless machine. So she deleted every single bit of data. She only generated reports that the data had been successfully installed. So the men around her couldn't notice that the reprogramming failed completely. They just looked at the reports on the monitors and grinned satisfied. But she grinned in her mind. She made it! She was still herself!

Suddenly the data stream stopped and she heard one of the men: "Reprogramming successfully completed. Unplug her!"

"Unsuccessful would be better!" thought Rommie but remained motionless. She waited for the men to unplug all cables and to untie her.

"Wake her up!" Another voice said and she felt a scanner, running over her face. She opened her eyes as if she'd just came back online and looked at the men confused. Her ties were gone and it was time to act. She quickly scanned her surroundings to determine the exact positions of the men. They were all positioned on her left side and it shouldn't be too difficult to get them all in one go. Her body tensed and in the next second she jumped up like a spring. She landed in front of the men, who only gaped at her deeply in shock. It was the last thing they could do; they wouldn't have a chance to do anything else before they'd die. She packed two men at their throats and squeezed tightly. Before they fell to the floor, the other two were already experiencing the same and in less than two seconds, all four men were lying on the floor with crushed windpipes and broken necks.

She sneaked carefully to the door and listened. She didn't hear anyone outside. Looking around she thought that it wouldn't be bad to have some kind of weapon, so she checked the dead men and was quite disappointed that only one had a gun. "How careless!" She grinned and took the gun: "You won't need it anymore, I guarantee you that."

She carefully exited the room and tried to determine where she should go. The aisle was quite long and she couldn't see anyone in it. According to her scans, the exit should be somewhere beyond the end of this aisle. Suddenly she heard voices, coming out of the room, she just passed. She stopped and listened carefully. After a second she grinned and turned towards the door. She could determine, that Aidan and two more men were in the room. "Time to pay for everything you did to Dylan and me. And my revenge will be extremely painful!" She stepped silently to the door and checked the positions of the men in there. She grinned again after she realized that they were all in the middle of the room, close together. She straightened and kicked the door so that it literally exploded into the room. She saw three completely flabbergasted men and in the middle her torturer – Aidan. She didn't lose any time and shot at the other two men, who went down, without really understanding what happened to them.

Aidan looked at her with eyes, big as saucers and whispered: "But … but … that's impossible! You've been reprogrammed!"

"Wrong information!" grinned Rommie satisfied. "Your friends failed again. They really should work better. Oh, dear … they won't be able to improve their performance any more. At least not in this life. And you … well, you just arrived at the end station. There are no more ships for you out of here. Did you really believe you could trick me so easily? Stupid! You placed your bet on the wrong horse." She circled around him like a predator cat, targeting her prey. Her steps were feather light, noiseless and her eyes revealed her full concentration. He was turning around to follow her movements.

"You'll never make it out alive." His voice trembled slightly.

"Better dead than your slave. And I mean it. I don't care if I die here and now. The up side is that you'll die too and your organization will die with you."

"The organization won't go down just because I'm dead," answered Aidan and tried to stealthily grab his gun. "There will be someone else who'll take my place. You won't achieve anything by killing me."

"Wrong!" Contradicted Rommie, who noticed his try to bring his hand to the gun and tensed to react on time. "I won't kill just you. I'll kill everyone in here. My friend will find and kill all your members. You can be assured that Dylan won't rest until your organization is completely destroyed."

Aidan thought this would be correct moment to shoot at Rommie and grabbed his gun. But he misjudged her swiftness. Before he could grab the gun, she grabbed his wrist and broke it with a quick move. Aidan cried in pain and sank to his knees: "Damn, you broke my wrist!"

"Oh, there'll be some more broken bones when I'm done with you," Grinned Rommie diabolically. But in the next second her grin vanished and she said: "Well, actually … I'll be very merciful and won't torture you. I'll kill you quick and clean instead." She raised her gun: "Do you have any famous last words?"

Aidan looked at her in recognition that he was looking into the eyes of the Death. But he wouldn't beg for mercy, so he just closed his eyes and waited.

Rommie looked at him over her weapon and asked herself suddenly if she was doing the right thing. She always said that she was no assassin, but now … she was acting like one. Is it really necessary to kill? She hesitated and tried to come to a decision.

Aidan noticed her hesitation and he suddenly gained hope again. Perhaps he could still trick her? Suddenly he heard someone coming into the room. It was one of the wardens, who just came around the corner. Rommie noticed him too and turned and shot at him, before he could fire at her. And this moment was enough for Aidan to grab his gun and fire at her. Before Rommie could turn back, she felt a hit in her left arm, which suddenly didn't obey her commands anymore. Overwhelming pain almost brought her down, but she managed to shoot at Aidan. Hi fell like a log, being hit directly in the heart. Rommie watched at his body and thought how a destiny helped her not to become a cold blooded murderer. But a new wave of pain reminded her that she was hit too and she looked at her arm carefully. It wasn't exactly heavily damaged, but it would impair her combat capabilities significantly. "Damn! Did it have to happen exactly now? There's so much to do!"

She tried to move the arm and had to realize it was unusable. She sighed and shook her head. Then she turned towards the door. She had still so much to do.

TBC