THE EMERALD STRETCH, LUMA

"Alright, we've been cleared for landing. You sure you remember your cover?"

"My memory is literally a database, of course I remember!"

Tobias sighed as he eased up on the stick to bring them in for a gentler descent. "Sorry. You can never be too careful, especially in a place like this."

He gave her another quick scan to ensure that her clothing was in place, a small padded jacket with a hood and cargo pants to cover up as much of her as possible. He himself was wearing some of the same pants and a form-fitting sweatshirt.

He'd chosen their outfits for use, sure; he definitely wanted to be able to maneuver well if they entered combat. But camouflage was a must as well; if they were going to pull this off, they'd need to blend in and look like they belonged here, and that was going to be hard enough with Kay's body surely attracting unwanted attention if people were to see her.

"It's Luma," she scoffed, "I don't remember security being one of their priorities."

He cast a sideways glance at her. "Maybe the more intellectual parts of you are with one of the other personas, because you should know better than to assume that. And it's not just any part of Luma- it's the Emerald Stretch."

"Forgive my ignorance, but I don't understand the significance."

"It's one of the few places on Luma left that's not completely covered by cities and buildings," he explained. "As such, it's a pretty desirable location. A lot of the wealthier people who lived here wanted to keep it that way, and so they made pacts in the past with the government to allow them facilities for whatever they wanted. In exchange, any nature within a certain radius of the stretch is protected and off-limits to construction."

Kay hummed in thought. "Greenery must be a pretty well sought-after sight here on Luma, huh?"

"I'd imagine that staring at nothing but buildings all the time would take its toll on someone, yeah. But higher security is a side effect here. They may not necessarily be in league with New Humanity, but it doesn't hurt to be careful."

They passed the next few seconds in silence until the muffled thump of the landing gear making contact with the ground caused them to look at each other.

"Alright," he breathed with a tinge of nervousness in his voice, "showtime. Grab the gear, and follow my lead."

A few moments later, the two of them stood on the ramp as it lowered to allow them to disembark. He walked down first, moving to greet the officer presiding over the landing pad. The woman scrutinized a data pad in her hand to confirm his identity.

"Are you Ignacio Ardor?"

He nodded. "Yes, that's me."

At the sound of metallic footsteps, her gaze wandered over to the ramp where her eyes found Kay and then opened widely in surprise. "Uh, and what-?"

"This is Ava de Ferrers, Simulacrum. She's with me."

'Ava' waved one of her hands at the officer while the other continued to hold the storage crate in her arms. "Pleasure to meet you."

The woman analyzed her up and down. "Never seen a Simulacrum like that before."

"I've got friends in high places," she answered vaguely.

She looked back at the data pad, an expression of surprise beginning to bloom across her face. "I've never heard of you, yet your ID has security clearance for the Emerald Stretch?" She raised an eyebrow at Tobias inquisitively. "Mind filling me in on that particular … anomaly?"

He reached a pouch and pulled out a small glass cube with what appeared to be a coin suspended inside. Letting her see it clearly, he simply answered lowly, "I've got friends in high places too."

Her eyes widened at what she saw before she quickly nodded and waved them forward. "You're cleared, Mr. Ardor. Just … try not to cause too much trouble, yeah?"

He gave her his signature two-finger salute, and Kay couldn't help but give a small chuckle. It was something that he'd done since she'd first met him, it was just so … Tobias. Seeing him do something so simple and innocent like that reminded her of the old days, when it was just the two of them against the world- perhaps more literally than other people would usually think.

Sure, there had always been some world-ending crisis to stop, but they'd always had each other. Even after Spyglass had taken over, they'd traveled from world to world together until the leader of New Humanity's false declaration of death had put that to an end and forced them into hiding.

Right now … this mission was the first time they were working together again since she'd been captured by the sadistic AI. And knowing how close they'd been once- or at least how close they'd been to being close- all she wanted was to have that bond between them restored once more.

"That was close," she murmured, moving up to keep pace with Tobias as he walked out of the port and into the city. "I thought she wouldn't let us through."

"Oh, she was going to let us through the whole time," he assured her confidently.

If she'd had eyebrows, she would have raised them. "How do you know?"

"Maybe a few years ago, when everyone thought Spyglass might actually do some good. But now, with humanity in the state it's in?" He shook his head. "People just don't care any more. The only way she would have stopped us is if she felt we were a threat to the Emerald Stretch or its citizens, and we're not; my token of good faith showed her that."

He pulled it out again, and held it up for Kay to see. The coin inside the glass had an emblem of a cracked planet with a sword sticking through it vertically, and the words 'Primus Inter Pares' emblazoned in a crescent over it. She recognized it from a quick net search.

"The mark of the Advocate?" she asked in a hushed tone.

He nodded. "A few months ago, I was here on Luma gathering more food and supplies to take back to Ceto. But when I got back to the landing pad, it was completely clear of security and several people were waiting for me outside the Leatherback. I thought I was going to have to fight my way out until they assured me that they knew who I was, and were there to help."

He pocketed the cube. "They gave me a data pad and this thing- whether to remind me that someone was looking out for me, or simply that I owed them, I'm not sure which. But the pad had all the records needed for a new identity- this 'Ardor' one- and several leads which I became very keen on investigating."

"What were they?" she asked.

"Not even the Advocate knew for certain- but it said that there was a high likelihood of 'something I was personally invested in' either being located in Helix City on Thone, or the Emerald Stretch on Luma. I assumed he meant information on your whereabouts, so I prepared for a trip and went looking. Then I had to save Gates in the middle of my investigation, and was forced to get off-planet in a hurry before getting tangled up in the mess we're in now."

"So the Advocate is the one who tipped you off about this place," she concluded, finally putting the pieces together.

"Right. If Al'cor is being held anywhere, it's either here or on Regis itself." He gestured to the open air. "But I've got a feeling she's here instead- what better place to hide something than in plain sight? Not to mention that he'd never put all of his eggs in one basket- he had info on you and development of the nanites on Thone, his base of operations and physical work on you was on Regis … makes sense that he'd keep research on Al'cor somewhere distant and noisy to keep anyone from being the wiser."

He then turned around behind them to point at the receding port in the distance. "I did a bit of research myself, and I think I've pretty much narrowed down the Advocate's main operations to being centralized here on Luma. They might not be here themselves, but they've definitely got heavy influence. And I'm pretty sure that, if asked to choose one, the people in charge here would answer to the Advocate rather than Spyglass."

She was impressed. "It's amazing that someone still has any semblance of power on the frontier, what with New Humanity's takeover and all."

"The Advocate has been an pulling the strings as an information broker for almost two decades, their power isn't going away anytime soon."

After that, they walked in silence down the street as a light rain began to fall in accordance with the common weather here on Luma. Kay contented herself to stealing glances at Tobias out of her peripheral vision whenever she could, happy to simply know he was next to her.

It was so odd; at times, she forgot about her new form and imagined herself back in an Ion, or Tone, or Vanguard chassis. Each one felt different, unique; sizes varied, as well as the very profile itself of each form. But when she remembered where she was now, she couldn't recall any of her bodies having ever felt so … right. She felt comfortable like this, as though she'd been wearing the wrong skin all her life.

As a Titan, she'd towered over others in a shell made for nothing other than war and destruction. But now, she didn't have to look down at Tobias to see him. She stood at his level, saw the world as he and other humans did … everything seemed so much more vast, and it only made her that much more excited about discovering the world around her …

"I wish I could see the world as you do."

"What?"

"Humans have long since stated how insignificant they are in the universe, how small and minute they are compared to the vastness of it all. Yet you create civilizations, colonize worlds, expand constantly … you have history stretching back thousands of years, art that still maintains importance today, and an ever changing paradigm of the way life and the universe functions.

"You fight to protect these things because even if they aren't worth anything to the universe as a whole, they mean something to you. You fight to protect them, risking your own lives in the process. You may feel small, but to me you look like giants."

That conversation on Erebus had remained as one of her favorite memories for years. It was when he'd promised to her that they'd journey across the stars together and see all the sights and wonders that the galaxy had to offer. In fact, the more she thought about, that was the pretty much the starting point of their-

She mentally paused, and tried to consider what she'd been about to say; relationship. True, their feelings had probably begun at that point and whatever they had between them had continued to bud and grow over the course of their work together. They'd had intimate moments together, like in the shared void-scape experience on Harmony during the Amalgamation event, and again here on Luma while they'd been in hiding.

There wasn't a doubt in her mind that he loved her. And for her part, she certainly loved him-

Is it right to love him?

Of course it's right to love him! How can I even think otherwise-

The nature of our differences renders it illogical to proceed-

Logic is irrelevant here, love is something you have to be brave for-

Her body immediately spasmed in retaliation to her thoughts, and Tobias noticed the movement as the box she was carrying fell to the ground. Acting quickly, he grabbed her shoulders and brought her gaze to meet his. "Hey, I'm right here. Focus on me, you've got this."

With a bit of mental concentration, the other voices quieted and slowly faded away into silence. She nodded appreciatively at him before retrieving the crate. "Thank you."

He returned her nod in kind, and they continued watching. He glanced at her. "I don't know exactly what causes it, but it seems to happen when your ideals come into conflict with one another. What were you thinking about?"

"Oh, nothing in particular," she hastily replied, not wishing to share the thoughts that had been running through her mind only a few moments ago.

He raised an eyebrow, but didn't push the subject and kept walking. Mentally, she scolded herself for almost losing control over something so … so ….

She would have said trivial, but the truth is that she considered her bond with Tobias to be anything but. There was no point in trying to hide it, especially not from herself. The only question was how to move forward from this point-

"There," said Tobias, breaking her out of her inner thoughts and pointing her attention to what appeared to be a row of storage cubes to their right. Closing the distance between them and it, he continued, "We can store the gear here until we need it later."

She tilted her head quizzically. "Are we scoping out the place first?"

"You know it- and unless you want to be carrying that thing around all day, renting one of these is the best option." He selected one at random, then reached into a back pocket to pull out his fake ID and presumably transfer over the necessary credits.

She placed her hand over his arm to stop him, much to his confusion, and then stepped forward to place her hand flat against the storage cube's surface. Its small monitor, which had previously been displaying that it was vacant and open to rental, began to flicker and glitch for a moment before showing a 'thank you' and a time of twenty-four remaining hours left for rental. She looked at Tobias and flexed her hand as it floated above her wrist.

"Short-range data control," she explained as he stood there was a bewildered expression. "Allows me to hack into systems remotely that would otherwise require a hardwire connection."

Understanding dawned in his mind. "That's how you were able to open the medical bay's lockdown on the frigate-"

"-and manipulate the Ion Titan in the hangar," she finished quietly. She wasn't proud of her ability, not when it had been used for such situations in the past; but at least it had aided someone positively for once.

He could tell that she wasn't keen on the topic, so they fell into another silence as they embarked on their trek once more. Looking around in the misty rain, he pointed to a particular building visible off in the skyline. "That's the privately owned research station we're after. A few years back it was IMC controlled, but now it's in the use of an 'anonymous individual'. I'll give you three guesses as to who it probably is."

She giggled, much unlike her. "Does he have a bad case of a superiority complex?"

"How did you know?"

He emphasized the last word in mock surprise, and they both broke into genuine laughter. It was so strange to hear such a normal reaction coming from the two of them, especially considering their circumstances. Not to mention that laughter was a rare occurrence for humanity these days; she felt like it was more valuable a gift than any other in current times, and they'd been just been given a healthy dose of it.

It was inevitable for her thoughts to turn back to the affection she felt for him, and she once again considered the term, 'relationship'. Had she wanted one as a Titan? Of course, as weird as it felt to admit it, but she'd never been able to think of any way for them to truly entertain one. Titans weren't built for comfort, they were built for war. And the images of an eighteen foot tall Titan and a human just didn't seem to fit together for most activities human couples would undertake.

But now? She looked over her form again, admiring how it allowed her to view life as close to a human's perspective as she was capable. Certainly it was still a difficult task, but … not quite as monumental as it would have been in the past.

Without waiting to talk herself out of it, she reached her hand out and slipped it into his own, intertwining their fingers.

He instantly looked down at the unexpected event in shock, then up to where her blue visor met his eyes under her hood. "Umm-"

"Nobody's looking at us," she said, indicating the general lack of other people on the street as well as the inattention they were receiving. "Nobody knows who we are, and besides- we're caught up in the worst galactic-wide struggle for survival yet. The odds are that neither of us are going to live through this whole thing; and if we're going to die then-"

She paused, and he waited for her patiently to keep speaking. "I want to establish what exactly this is, this thing between us. I know that this may not technically be the best time for it, but I'm not sure when or if we'll even get another chance-"

As always, he answered best with his actions rather than his words. He separated the two of them only to fully loop his arm around hers and rejoin their hands once more, squeezing tightly as he smirked. "If that's the case, then at least learn how to properly do it."

She was nonplussed, but pleasantly so. They strolled along arm-in-arm, and he hummed thoughtfully. "You know … you're different."

"You don't say," she chortled sarcastically.

"I mean, yeah, but seriously- the way you talk, your mannerisms, even the way you think … it seems so much more complex than before." He looked at her as she faced him curiously. "Not that I'm complaining in the slightest, quite the opposite- I'm just making an observation."

She could definitely see what he was referring to, and gave it some thought of her own. "Maybe you're right."

"If I'm right, and it's because of yet another thing that Spyglass did to you …" He sighed. "Well, I hate to give the bastard credit for anything, but I'd be lying if I said I wouldn't thank him." He turned to her again. "But what's the harm in hoping he had nothing to do with it, and it sticks around after we've kicked his sorry ass?"

She leaned against him, resting her head on his shoulder as they walked. This moment that they'd been given, being able to do these simple actions after so many years of desire and want … it was all the answer she needed.

"No harm in that at all."