With a feeling not unlike being sprayed with cold water, she rejoined the land of the living.
Where was she? She couldn't move, she was frozen. All that she saw were fields of lush grass and open plains. How did she-?
"Kay?"
She recognized that voice, her only security in the uncertainty. Cautiously, she relaxed. "Tobias?"
He sounded relieved beyond all reason, on the verge of tears. As she watched, the view began to rotate and move, though not through her own doing. "I can't believe … it worked, you were right!"
She quickly scanned through her memories, and received a large shock when she finally was able to recollect exactly what had transpired.
The array, her death … and her plan to survive.
Then the void-scape … and Tobias coming to bring her back.
As far as she could tell, the copy of herself she'd made had indeed acted as a tether for her soul; she'd just needed to be pulled pack from the lost realm that the Tempest had scattered her into.
"KT?"
That was another voice she recognized … Gates. The perspective changed once more, and she found herself looking at the Captain's face. "How is this- how is that even possible?"
Tobias just laughed. "Seems we're both partial to self-sacrifice; it's just that she's smart enough to figure out a loophole!"
Exploring the regions of her current location, she realized that she was currently inside Tobias' helmet, merging with the UI and HUD systems within it.
"It would seem that I'm closer to you now than I ever was before," she joked, just happy to be back.
"We'll have to find a new data core to transfer you into," Tobias said thoughtfully, "Then, we can plant that in a chassis and you won't have to spend all your time in a cramped helmet."
She giggled, most unlike herself. Maybe she was embracing this new idea of being more human than she'd thought she was. "I don't know, I could get used to hanging around with you all day."
The three of them enjoyed a moment together, friends reunited after seemingly impossible odds.
She still didn't know how anything between her and Tobias was going to work out; but she had faith in his promise to her.
No matter what came between them, they'd find a way.
HELIX CITY, THONE, 4 YEARS LATER
"Do you have it?"
The woman spoke in whispered tones to her companion who shuffled his feet nervously, and glanced anxiously over his shoulder.
Instead of meeting at the agreed upon spot, complications had moved them ahead of schedule. Thus, they'd ended up here in the middle of a back alley street. This was more friendly to her route, but at the cost of a higher risk of being caught.
It was dark and rainy, and the overall likelihood of being identified was slim, but the fear remained. If they were caught … she didn't want to think about it.
"This is far too open, we need to-"
She cut him off before he could back out. "There's isn't enough time, I need to reach the port and get off-world now. This is our only chance to get it out of here, lanes won't be opened again for another month!"
Taking a deep breath to calm himself, he handed her a slim black cylinder, perfectly smooth save for a small seam that allowed the top to be removed. "Here. This should work; but you'll need to use it on the source for it to work properly!"
Her eyes widened. "You mean we'll have to … to him?"
The man nodded, and darted his gaze behind him again. "Yes! The process is like a stream, it can only go down river. Injecting it into the source will allow it to spread!"
She sighed. "Well, it's still better than nothing. Do you have any spares?"
He shook his head. "No, that's the only copy. In order to keep from being found out, we've had to erase all the data we've accumulated. Years of research, trial and error …"
He pointed his finger at the cylinder. "That's all that's left of it."
She tightened her grip around it, knowing now the full weight of what she was carrying. "Thank you. I'll get it back to the others-"
Beams of light suddenly shone out of the darkness, and illuminated them in the downpour.
"Target confirmed. Apprehend on sight."
Immediately, the man pushed her away and towards the open road. "Go! It's up to you now!"
Drawing an RE-45 from his belt, he unloaded a magazine into the source of the lights. It didn't seem to have much effect, and he paid the price for it a moment later when red streams of energy shot back at him and melted a hole through his chest. Clutching at his abdomen, he fell down into the puddle of water at his feet and did not move.
Meanwhile, she'd already begun to book it away from the scene and towards the end of the road. Instead of following it to the left as it turned, she continued towards a fence that separated this alley from the one over and vaulted it easily.
A few streaks of those same red bolts missed her by several feet, the Stalkers' aim decreasing as the distance between them grew.
She had to get to the port and on a shuttle before they all departed and stranded her here on Thone for the next month. Once she was on one of those, she'd be able to join with the checkpoint-station in orbit and join up with her group from there.
The port was up ahead, a massive facility which funneled all passengers through checking before allowing them on shuttles. If she could just make it there before-
Less than a hundred yards from the entrance, more lights found her, and she spun around in the pouring rain to see a multitude of Stalkers and Spectres surrounding her. There was even a Reaper, a testament to how badly they wanted her.
"Elizabeth Gates; you are a primary suspect in several acts of terrorism, and are hereby charged with conspiracy to commit treason. This is your only opportunity to surrender."
Just like that, all of her hopes came to an end. It didn't matter what she did, she knew what would quickly follow. She dropped her hand to her sides, unwilling to drag it out.
The Stalker leveling an L-STAR at her waited several seconds before proclaiming, "Suspect is resisting arrest. Lethal action is authorized."
It didn't matter if she actually fought back or not, they were going to kill her anyway. They needed to be sure that there was no way she told anyone of what she'd just done, and corpses didn't speak. She scrunched up her eyes waiting for it to-
A wet slap of something hit the ground in front of the Stalker, and its attention was momentarily diverted to whatever had landed before it. She opened her eyes, and looked as well to see that it was some kind of tightly wrapped bag in the shape of a block. Sand or something with a similar consistency could be seen inside-
A tiny spark emitted from it, and immediately the entire package exploded with light. She was blinded momentarily, and stumbled to the ground in shock as she blinked rapidly to regain her sight.
She couldn't see any of the units surrounding her, but judging from the aimless sounds of gunfire that missed her by quite large margins, their targeting systems had been short-circuited by the intense light. For the moment, they were just as blind as she was.
Suddenly, she picked up a new sound; footsteps. Boots splashed in the puddles of rain as she heard whoever it was run in a circle around her. One by one, each droid's gunfire came to a stop until nothing but silence remained.
She shook her head, trying to regain any sense of sight to see what scene awaited her. She could hear the scrape of boots against shale, and was relieved to find the white flash slowly fading from her vision.
Turning towards the noise, she barely managed to look up and catch a glimpse of someone scrambling over the ledge of the building's roof and out of sight.
Gazing at the circle of robotic forces around her, she was surprised to find them all inactive. Sparks flew from each one, and she noticed tiny circular magnets that had been stuck onto their frame.
She checked the time. Less than five minutes before launch.
Hurriedly, she moved to one and began to pry the magnet off. After a moment or two of hard tugging, it pulled away from the metal and came to a rest in her hand. She'd have to examine it further when she met up with the rest of them.
After the magnet was in her grasp, she made a note of which section of the street grid she was on. If the traffic cameras had been recording, she was going to have a look at what exactly had gone down here.
Other forces would be here soon, and likely with heavier units considering that these ones hadn't been enough to do the job. With that fear nagging in the back of her mind, Gates ran towards the port and through its entrance.
The lines were nonexistent, everyone had already come and boarded at this point. One of the attendants flagged her down, a scrutinizing expression on his face.
She grabbed the edge of the counter he stood behind. "I need a boarding pass, now."
"Ma'am, the shuttles are about to launch! You can't be boarding this late-"
"I'm running from them," she whispered urgently.
His eyes widened at the realization of what she meant. Fortunately, it seemed that her gamble of him being a sympathizer had paid off. "Here, take this. You didn't get it from me."
He handed her a pass with 'authorized' stenciled across it. She nodded gratefully. "Thank you!"
Without waiting to hear a response, she sprinted towards the air field.
The next few minutes were a blur; the pilot of the shuttle wasn't too happy about delaying launch on her account, but he didn't put up too much of a fight after she gave him the pass. Finding an empty seat near the rear of the shuttle, she strapped herself in and tried to remain as inconspicuous as she could what with prolonging everyone's launch.
Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out the black cylinder and inspected it. Such a little thing that could cause such massive reactions.
After all, it was the key to mankind's salvation.
Pocketing it once more, she leaned her head against the hard metal side of the shuttle wall. In the darkness, when she closed her eyes, all she could think of was that mysterious stranger who had helped her escape.
Was it friend? Foe? She was more inclined to believe the former, considering that she wouldn't be alive if it weren't for them. But then why didn't they reveal themselves? Were they too in hiding? A fellow rebel?
One thing was for sure; once she was off-world, she intended to solve that mystery.