She walked with grace, her movements lithe with the precision only a predator knew. She had been summoned, and her thoughts tried to make sense of why she would have been; as far as she knew, it was not time for her part to play yet.

The door slid aside for her, and she took it to perhaps think that maybe her answers would lie beyond it.

Upon entering, she noticed that nothing had changed; the machinery and systems built over a culmination of several years' planning were still in place as always. He did not trust anyone aside from her or other incarnations of himself in the chamber. This was far too important to the cause to risk any others being made aware of it.

When she came to a stop, she remained silent and awaited her superior's response.

"He has been located."

Her head snapped up attentively as she understood the underlying meaning behind those words. How- how long had it been? A year? More? Less? Time seemed to ebb and flow differently these days, ever since- well, since she was shown the truth.

He had been right. They never should've- she never should've fought.

The voice continued, "You know what must be done. There is no room for error, here; there are only two ways this will end."

She knew. She also did not worry; if their last conversation was anything to go by, she had faith in him and his ability to make the right choice.

He always had … and he always would.

"Track the flare before its signal fades. I leave the rest to you."

With that, she turned around and exited. She now had her mission, her direction.

She was coming home.

Silence descended upon the group as each of them stared blankly at Tobias, unsure of what to say or how to react.

Finally, Davis found his voice. "You- you can't just- you can't-"

Tobias met him with a resigned, but unyielding gaze. "Davis, do you know how much I've given for the fight? How much I've lost? My family, my mind, my body and nearly my life far too many times."

He looked down dejectedly. "Kay was the last thing I had to hold onto, and even she's gone now. Fighting or-"

He swallowed hard. "Or worse. Either way she's gone. The Militia and IMC are gone, Graves is dead, Briggs is dead, almost everyone we knew before is dead!"

He threw his arms into the air hopelessly. "What else is there to fight for?"

Davis didn't exactly have an answer for that. It wasn't until that moment that anyone had considered what he'd truly gone through; years of torture, the death of his best friend, and a life resigned to war and bringing peace to the frontier, only to have that dream shattered time and time again. In more than one way, he'd endured more than anyone else ever had. They were able to finally see that even heroes like him had their breaking point.

They saw him for what he was; a man. No more, no less.

And yet … Gates had one more card to play.

Stepping forward lightly towards the beaten down shell of her friend, she comfortingly placed her hand on his shoulder. Slowly, she closed the gap between them until it was more of a hug than a pat. He did not resist, but instead allowed her to go about whatever she was doing.

She sighed. "Do you still have that patch I gave you?"

He turned to look at her, a look of confusion on his face before he realized what she was referring to. After a few seconds, he reached into a pouch on his belt, and pulled out a weathered patch with the insignia of the 6-4 on it, kept close to him even after all the years it had been since she'd given it to him.

She held her hand out for it, and he let her take it. She raised it in the air to show it to his face, to force him to see it. "This isn't just something I gave you for the hell of it, Tobias. This is a promise. A promise that I made to you, all those years ago. It says that we're family, you and I."

She gestured to the other two occupants of the Leatherback. "All of us are. Your family isn't dead; we're still here for you, just like you were there for us and everyone else so many times. Even when you had no obligation to, you fought for us because you thought that we were worth fighting for."

She placed it back in his hand, and curled his fingers around it for him. "Now, there's a threat that we can't face alone; not without every brave soul we can muster, those who are willing to do what's right in the face of impossible odds. We're willing to die for this cause because it's worth fighting for, Tobias. Are … are we not worth fighting for anymore?"

Gradually, she saw the harshness of his expression soften as he stared down at her hand and his. Everyone waited with bated breath to see what he would do.

His face spoke volumes of the thoughts running rampant through his mind, likely about the potential loss he would suffer if he let them leave knowing that he could have helped them if they were to fail. He'd taught Kay that it was better to die trying than to give up; was it time for him to follow his own lessons?

With a heavy sigh, he tightened his grip around the patch and placed it carefully back into his pouch before looking into her eyes. She watched them glisten as he delivered his verdict.

"You always know what to say, don't you?"

She smiled, and her own eyes moistened too. "Of course. It comes with the job."

Davis and Gray watched them incredulously, realizing that Gates had done the impossible. Tobias gave her a hug to show his thanks, and then turned to the group at large. "So … this threat. What exactly are we facing here?"

Gates didn't hesitate to bring him up to speed. "Several months ago, the resistance picked up hints of something big happening, something that would come in due time. We had no idea what it was, and … well, honestly speaking, we still don't."

From within the folds of her jacket, she pulled out the black cylinder given to her on Thone. "But soon, we will."

"What is that?" he asked cautiously.

She held it out for him to hold, and he examined it curiously. "That's the key to ending Spyglass's regime once and for all. Whatever he's planning, this is what can stop it."

"How do you know this will stop it if you don't even know what he's planning?"

"The scientists on Thone reached out to us," she explained, "told us that they'd been commissioned for the last two years to work on some secret project under penalty of death. Something that they didn't dare risk discussing outside of an in-person meeting. They revealed that they'd been steadily developing something to counteract it in secret, and that's what this is; the answer."

He looked at the small device in his hands, comprehending the full weight of what exactly he was holding; humanity's salvation.

"That's what I was doing on Thone; picking it up and trying to find out what we were up against. My contact was killed before he could tell me what its nature was, so it's our job to get back to the fleet and deliver it."

He held a hand up to stop her, his eyes narrowing in confusion. "The fleet?"

She nodded. "We're nowhere near as big as we were-"

"How many?"

She sighed. "Maybe a few thousand?"

His eyes widened in shock. "A few- a few thousand people? That's it? The war was fought with millions, Gates. And now Spyglass has more than that, and you're going to go up against him with a fraction of our former manpower? Scratch that, a fraction of a fraction of what we used to be?"

"Two things," she remarked. "One, call me Elizabeth. We've certainly known each other long enough to be on a first name basis, don't you think?"

He rolled his eyes but remained silent.

"And two, believe me; I'm fully aware of the odds. We're outmatched, outgunned, and outnumbered." She threw her hands up, similar to what he'd done earlier. "But if we don't fight for our future, then who will? I mean, there won't even be a future unless we succeed; we have no choice but to try."

He listened without interruption, and reluctantly nodded his head. "You're right … you're right. In that case, I think it's time to get you back to the fleet."

Quietly, he moved away from her and toward his Pilot gear. She watched him with an incredulity in her eyes. "Just- just like that?"

He paused. "I think … I think that I always knew I made the wrong choice. It took Kay's departure to make it clear to me, but still I ignored it." He faced her. "You're right; I can't ignore it anymore. It's time I stopped feeling sorry for myself and did something about it."

His chest puffed with pride and a new sense of purpose. It was in that moment that she finally saw him once more as who he had once been; her and the rest of the galaxy's hero.

…

The navigation system continued to track the flare of energy, its signal still echoing even now.

Through the clouds of Ceto, her ship descended. It followed a direct course to the source of the burst, where her mission would be carried out. She had so much to say, to explain. Everything would work itself out in due time.

Still, a pang of something within her disagreed. She recognized the feeling; it had been a part of her for many months, ever since her enlightenment. Even now, when she was so close to bringing them back together, a part of her cried out for her to

STOP

She shook her head. No matter. She was so close, so very close to finally helping the both of them, especially him, achieve their dream. Peace on the frontier.

How long had they been working towards that? Indeed, it was the very base of why he fought, why their relationship worked so well together. She sighed with contentment as fond memories flitted through her mind's eye. They gave her the courage she needed to continue on, and make the effort to explain to him why joining her was

WRONG

the right thing to do. The only thing they could do, really. She knew him enough to know that he wouldn't have it any other way. After so many years of wishing for an end to conflict, he wouldn't throw it away when it presented itself to him on a silver platter. He would

FIGHT

understand that there was but one path forward, only one way that they would have their happy ending.

It was with these thoughts in her mind that she finally saw her target; an island protruding from the sea with two dropships upon it. Her heart soared; this was the moment she'd been wanting more than anything for the last year. This was where she would show him the truth; that she was

BROKEN

still ready to help him do what needed to be done … even if he didn't realize it yet.

Pitching forward, she began her descent. She initiated the weapons systems, and uncapped the safety on the stick.

It was time.

…

Gathering what he could, he placed all he needed in a duffel bag that was lying in the corner; his suit and helmet first, his jump kit, and then a number of his little magnet devices. Hefting the strap over his shoulder, he looked at the three of them. "I'm ready."

She nodded, and then beckoned towards the ramp of the Leatherback. "I know you are."

Together, the four of them descended onto the grassy plateau. Rain still fell from above, drenching them in a matter of seconds.

He closed his eyes, and let himself simply enjoy the sensation. It gave him a sense of cleansing, like he was washing away this lesser version of himself that he'd become. Though the rain obscured their vision, he hadn't seen as clearly as he could now in … well, in a long time.

The wet grass matting down underneath their boots, they trudged across the short distance to Gates and the others' ship sitting stationary no more than ten meters away-

A crack split the air as a deafening boom blew them backwards. He thought it was just a close lightning strike a moment before the ship exploded into a cloud of fire and smoke.

The four of them were knocked onto their backs by the shockwave, and upon seeing what had happened he acted quickly. "Get back! Get away!"

They heeded his advice as shrapnel and debris began to fall from above, wreckage having been thrown high into the sky before coming back down to slam into the ground. Fortunately, they seemed to have avoided the worst of it.

"What the hell was that?!" Davis shouted, his voice hoarse with adrenaline from nearly being killed.

"We're under attack!" Gray relayed, facing the sky and preparing for whatever enemy was coming for them.

But Tobias shook his head, his eyes narrowing. "I don't think so. I think that was a warning to stay where we are- otherwise they could have killed us outright."

They waited to see what became of his analysis, and their patience was rewarded. Through the rain and fog, a ship appeared. It descended onto the plateau and began to lower in altitude. It wasn't anything special, just another dropship amongst hundreds he'd seen before.

Yet … something called to him, something about it was … familiar.

And wrong.

"Get to the Leatherback," he whispered once he was sure that the ship was in a stage of landing and not in a position to fire. She looked at him with concern in her eyes.

"Are you sure? We don't know what-"

"They're here for me," he replied, "my energy signal is the only thing they could be using to find this place. I should have suppressed it sooner, but what's done is done. Get ready to leave while I deal with whatever this is."

He handed off the duffel bag to Gray, and the three of them began to back away from him before turning and running back into the Leatherback. He stood his ground, prepared to meet with whoever it was that was seeking him.

The back of the dropship opened and allowed a single individual to exit from its bay. He focused his attention through the rain, trying to decipher any details he could pick out. When he realized what it was, his breathing slowed and a knot formed in his chest.

It was some sort of advanced Simulacrum. It was much more human in appearance, following an anatomically correct shape much closer than past iterations ever had, like Vale. It was feminine in nature, the curvature of its hips as well as the hourglass shape of its body only helping to allude to that conclusion. At its side, its hands remained unconnected to its wrists; instead, they hovered in place an inch or so away, bound by magnetic or gravitational generators within its arms.

Its body separated at the midsection, held together by a structural spine surrounded by wires and cords. They pulsed with white light and energy, their casings semi-translucent in nature. The majority of its form was a silvery white in color, and it held an almost unnaturally elegant nature to its appearance. An ornate visor or screen of blue glowed through the fog, connected on either side by two curved plates that protected the rest of the head.

If it hadn't just blown up a ship simply to make a point, he would have been inclined to call it beautiful.

He knew, of course, what it was; this was the lead he'd been tracking in Helix City when he ran into Gates. This was what he'd been looking for information on for the last few months, when he'd first caught wind of some kind of weapon being developed much like Gates and her crew had. Some kind of advanced android or similar that Spyglass had been working on.

Apparently, it had decided to come looking for him instead.

As much as he'd told Gates that he'd been trying to stay out of the fight, it didn't mean that he spent all his time here on Ceto. And if there was going to be a new weapon for Spyglass to employ, he wanted to know how to counteract it before it became widespread. He'd assumed that it was a new kind of unit that the AI wanted to instate throughout his ranks, like a new version of the Stalkers and Spectres; but this was beyond anything he'd ever expected. It didn't seem so much like a simple machine as it appeared to be alive.

It walked the way a human would, every movement it made personified to be as human as possible. Its stride was so graceful that he almost forgot the dangerous circumstances surrounding its meeting with him. Narrowing his eyes, he waited until it stopped ten feet from him before trying to speak to it.

"What is it that you seek?" he asked neutrally. He didn't know how advanced the AI was in this thing, and he wanted to test out its mental capacities before thinking of a way to beat it-

It tilted its head in an almost endearing fashion, and said but one word.

"You."

Time stopped.

He'd recognize that voice anywhere; it had been his constant companion for years, the one bright spot in his life after everything had been taken from him time and time again. On certain days, he'd wake up just so he could hear it once more and know that she was there, hoping that she would always be there.

He continued to stand there in a daze, the dizzying feeling he was experiencing threatening to overwhelm him as she stood there so casually, almost as if she'd never left.

"I've missed you, Tobias."

It was KT.

A/N: uh oh spahgettio

Before anything else, I want to say that I actually did some artwork finally! There's a (very poorly) colorized image of Tobias from Thone, and a much better sketched out profile of KT's new form that was described here, so that you can have a better idea of what she looks like. Again, to see them you have to search up my profile "Matteoarts" on Deviantart.

At last, we're reaching chapter lengths that I can be proud of. Hopefully this makes up for the last few shorter-than-expected chapters that you guys have patiently waited through.

If you can't wait to see how this unfolds, you're not alone; I can't wait to see how you guys react to this. Be sure to leave a review down below!

Until the next time,

- Matteoarts