As Tobias exited the command center, he passed Fenrir who was traveling in the opposite direction presumably at the request of Barker. The Embers' second-in-command staunchly refused to meet his gaze, though he wasn't too eager to meet hers either if he was being honest.

Finally hearing the door slide shut behind him as he found himself in a hallway leading to the rest of the pre-fab facility, he found himself surrounded by the other three who had been waiting patiently for him to emerge from his one-on-one with Barker. Gates was the first one to catch his eye, and she did not look happy with the situation at all.

"Am I in trouble?" he asked jokingly, though, despite his tone, it was a very real question.

"We'll discuss that later," she answered shortly, and he was all too sure that he'd guessed correctly that there'd be some repercussions from her coming his way.

Deciding not to worry about that now, he diverted his attention to Vale and felt an involuntary grin creep over his face as he extended a hand towards her. She bypassed the handshake entirely and pulled him into a gentle hug, likely a consideration on her part for being composed entirely of sharp metal.

"It's been too long, Tobias," she greeted warmly, and stepped back to look at him again for the first time in years. "I haven't seen you since you entered the gardens with KT."

He remembered that moment somberly, leaving Vale behind as she volunteered to keep the Amalgamates off their back while they looked for the final array. "There was so much that happened that day … I never got the chance to reconnect with you in the wake of all the chaos. I was still trying to deal with losing Kay … and Tyra."

The Simulacrum gave a small, regretful nod. "It was hard for a while after she was gone. Still is, but I don't let it hold me back. The last thing she would have wanted would be for me to mourn her the rest of my life." She gave him a playful punch on the shoulder. "Besides, I think she'd be pretty stoked to see you and I teaming up to save the day again, right?"

"That's right," he chuckled, gripping her hand in an expression of camaraderie. "At this rate, we'll have to start charging for our services."

Stepping back, she gave a quick jab of her head towards Buck. "This is Cedric. Gates tried to send me to meet you at the landing zone, but I was denied by Fenrir, she said I was too 'valuable' to lose if this all went south. Had to settle for him instead."

"Not a bad reason to be denied permission," Tobias joked. He turned to Buck. "Glad it was you and not Fenrir herself who came out to meet me."

"No kidding," the commander agreed, "I half-thought that she'd skip with marching you out back and just shoot you then and there."

Though he didn't verbally express it, he was relieved that everyone aside from Fenrir seemed to take him at his word, or at least refrain from passing judgement, like Buck.

Noticing the way that Vale had introduced Buck by his first name, he looked at both of them curiously. "So, you're a good friend of Vale's I take it?"

"I would hope so," the male Simulacrum chuckled, "Amelia and I have quite the history."

"Not just us," she added, "Gray was there too." Turning to Gates, she asked, "Where is she, by the way?"

"She and Davis are monitoring air-traffic," the Captain supplied. "That's where I was too, until I picked up his signal which lead to the shit-storm we're in now." Upon saying 'him', she jabbed a thumb at Tobias accusingly. He winced somewhat at the sharpness of her tone, like his ears were being forcibly fed broken glass. He was definitely in trouble.

Opting to keep that conversationat bay as long as possible, he glanced back at Vale. "What kind of history?"

"We were all abducted by Vinson Dynamics and placed in an arena-style battle to the death that our captor called 'Live-Fire'. Almost three hundred Pilots and Titans were taken, but under thirty of us made it out. Happened about a year and a half before I met you." She placed a hand on Buck's shoulder. "Buck, Gray, and I were on a team that managed to outlive most, along with two other Pilots; Clint Rose and Dean Fallon."

The name 'Rose' sounded familiar to him. Vaguely, he recalled a WOH Pilot on Harmony that had assisted him in reaching the final array. He made a note to ask about it later. "What happened to them?"

"Both of them are here, surprisingly," she answered. "This many years later, it was unlikely any of us would be alive, let alone all of us. Clint does what he knows best, and helps with maintaining our shuttles and ships. Dean's part of my security team, though he's been itching for some real action lately."

Unexpected, though not unwelcome. There were far too few happy endings to such tragic tales nowadays. He gave a low whistle. "Sounds like one hell of a history. Surprised you never told me about this."

Vale shrugged. "It never came up. And it's not exactly enjoyable to talk about, so …"

He held a hand up apologetically, understanding her reluctance. "Got it. I won't pry."

After stealing yet another glimpse of Gates' expression out of his peripheral vision, he sighed and decided that there wasn't any sense in trying to delay the inevitable any longer. "Buck, Vale; Barker said that Kay's allowed in the base now, so long as I or someone else is escorting her. Would you mind heading over and letting her know?"

Buck gave a single nod of understanding, and turned to walk down the corridor to the nearest exit back to the airstrip. Vale followed suit, but not before tilting her head quizzically in response to Tobias' apparent discomfort at the prospect of being alone with Gates.

Nearly half a minute had gone by since they left before Tobias quietly muttered, "Well, Al'cor is awake, so I should probably go-"

"That can wait," she said in a clipped tone. "You. Follow me. Now."

She spun on her heel and walked several meters down another corridor, presumably where no one else would come across them. He had a pretty good idea that this was due to the many obscenities he was likely about to have thrown his way. With no other options available to him, he obeyed.

When she finally stopped, it was in a dimly lit area of the hallway where it appeared that one of the subsection's lighting had gone out. She faced him with an obvious expression of frustration and anger, and he couldn't help but tense up in preparation for the earful he was about to get.

"Look, whatever you're going to say-"

Without warning, she reached forward, grabbed the front collar of his suit, pulled him close, and then did perhaps the most unexpected thing imaginable.

She kissed him.

For the next few seconds, her lips were locked against his as he stood there frozen in stunned compliance. His mind ceased to properly function as he tried to ascertain what the hell was actually happening. The only sensation known to him right now was the warmth of her mouth placed firmly against his own.

Finally, she stepped back and shoved him away none too gently. "You absolute, bloody idiot!"

His mind was reeling and trying to sort through the plethora of emotions and thoughts running through his mind. Upon hearing her outburst, it sped up the process and decided to focus on one; confusion.

"I thought you were mad at me?" he probed dumbly.

"Oh, I am. Furious, in fact," she seethed. "Do you have any idea how stressed I've been, waiting for some sign that you weren't dead? How long-"

"Okay, hold on," he ordered, holding his hands up to grab her attention. "I'm going to need a bit of context to understand what you're talking about."

She looked like she wanted to strangle him, but she did stop for a moment to regain her composure. Taking a deep breath and brushing her short hair out of her face, she began again. "Nobody knew where you were. The last time anyone had seen you was when you told Davis to transmit the rendezvous coordinates to you on the frigate. He sent them to the bridge since he didn't have a direct link to you, but it didn't matter. The hangar was in ruins, the whole thing had nearly been burnt to the ground. Everyone thought …"

Shakily, she continued. "I've been holding out hope against hope that you managed to escape somehow, but with every passing hour that went by without some kind of word from you …" To his even greater shock, he saw the telltale signs of wetness in her eyes due to the pain of having thought he was dead. Never, in all his years of knowing her, had he seen her so vulnerable like this.

"What if that was it?" she asked, her voice becoming increasingly choked up. "The last time I'd ever see you? Unable to do anything but watch as you stayed behind, yet again, to fulfill this damn hero complex of yours you seem to have?!" She became increasingly loud until she was practically shouting at him, only to instantly fall quiet once again. Stepping forward, he thought she was going to hit him; instead, she wrapped her arms around him and buried her face into his shoulder.

"I've lost you so many times," she cried softly, her words muffled against his suit. "I don't want to lose you again."

As rude of an awakening as it was, he realized that he'd never considered how Gates had been affected over the years; just like Kay, she'd left him behind at Erebus. She'd allowed him to go on his mission to find the source of his nightmares, not knowing if he'd come back. And when Spyglass had told everyone he was dead … he could only imagine how painful it must have been for her to get him back only to seemingly lose him once more.

Slowly, he reciprocated her embrace and held her tightly. "I'm sorry. I would have come immediately, but I couldn't risk bringing Kay here until I was sure she wasn't a threat. I didn't want to endanger you all."

She sniffled slightly. "I know. You always have a good reason for what you do, it's just- it doesn't make it any easier."

Finally, she stepped back and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. "I didn't mean to, uh … I didn't mean to get so aggressive with you."

"Yeah," he said carefully while lifting two fingers up to his lips absentmindedly, "aggressive."

Embarrassed, she seemed to avoid looking at him directly. "Sorry about that."

"You regret it?"

"What? No, that's not-!" Sighing, she held a hand up to her temple and began to rub in small circles. "Look … I care about you a lot. With how long we've known each other and after what we've gone through, I think it'd be nearly impossible not to. I just didn't want to throw anything else on your plate in addition to what you're already dealing with, so … sorry for telling you at such an awkward time."

He shrugged somewhat regretfully. "Well, nowadays you've got to take any chance you can get, right?"

She gave a small, wet chuckle. "Yeah, I suppose so." She paused for a moment. "I know that you love KT, you told me yourself. But I'd never forgive myself if I didn't ask … is there ever a chance for 'us'?"

That question sent his mind spinning in several directions it was not supposed to. He groaned frustratedly; not at her, but at the situation. "I … damn it. I don't know, Elizabeth. There's too much else going on for me to think about that right now- for you or Kay." He ran his hand backwards through his hair as one does when faced with a particular dilemma. "Assuming we survive this war, let's worry about it then, alright?"

It wasn't the answer she'd wanted, but she accepted it gracefully nonetheless. Nodding curtly, she said, "Of course. Speaking of the war, I believe you had an Architect to see?"

"She was taken away to medical, wherever that is," he replied.

Turning around, she gestured for him to follow her down the corridor. "This way."

…

Kay was trying to be patient, but she had to admit that it was wearing thin after nearly half an hour with no news.

Back when she was a Titan, it would have been far easier to simply reach out to Tobias through their neural link and ensure that he was okay. Now, however, she didn't have any reliable way to do so. He likely still had the remains of his side of the link buried in his brain, but with all that had happened to her she was worried that her own might have been damaged beyond repair. Certainly if the rest of her mind was any indication …

This new body gave, but it also took from her. It seemed that there was no advantage she could gain without also losing something she considered precious. Now, she could see and interact with the world as humans did- but only when a safe fragment of hers was in control. She could be with Tobias in ways she couldn't before- walking hand in hand on Luma, nestling her head into his shoulder on the dropship- but she felt more mental distance than ever, now that she'd been locked out of the link.

And above it all was the odd way she now talked and thought. Tobias had first noticed it on Luma, and she'd continually observed it ever since. No longer was she a somewhat empathetic tactician that she'd been as a Titan- she found herself cracking jokes, laughing, tearing up, utilizing sarcasm … she spoke like a human would.

Was that another trick of Spyglass's too? Tobias had theorized he'd created the feminine aspect of this form to psychologically attack Tobias, and she couldn't exactly disagree with that assessment; what if her speech was made to do that as well? To humanize her even further? But then that would mean her very thoughts were programmed to do exactly that, and she didn't think that would be efficient on the AI's part …

She held her head with her hands tiredly. She, as a machine, was growing tired. If that wasn't indicative of the mental strife flowing through her, she didn't know what would be-

Perhaps Spyglass didn't alter my speech … maybe it was something else.

Maybe. But what kind of ramifications would that imply?

No ramifications. Only a pleasant surprise for me to enjoy with Tobias.

She had to admit, it was a nice thought. To permanently be this empathic would be-

But there's only one outcome where Tobias and I live long enough to reap those benefits … by helping Spygl-

Immediately, Kay felt defiance course through her as well as shame for not recognizing such traitorous thoughts sooner. Get out of my head, Artemis!

Realistically speaking, Artemis is correct. New Humanity is still the likely victor by an astronomical margin-

It's not about probability! Putting my trust in Tobias to do the impossible has always been-

But this time, he's wrong! I certainly don't want to work with Spyglass, but there's no other choice! Not if we want Tobias to survive-

No.

All the other voices became a quiet him as one stoic voice quelled them all with that single word. Amazingly, she felt an intrinsic shift within herself once again- she'd exchanged fragments.

I once told Gates that I trusted Tobias more than myself- that the tenacity of the human spirit was a trait to be admired, not ridiculed. And now, I am certainly not going to be told otherwise by a broken shard of myself that betrayed everything I used to stand for.

The hum disappeared completely, and left nothing but silence in her mind.

Shakily, she became aware of her surroundings once more to find two other Simulacrums standing over her. One of them was the security officer who'd lead Tobias away, and the other …

"KT? You alright?"

She was stunned to hear that voice again, and stood up hastily to match their height. "Warrant Officer Vale?"

"It's 'Lieutenant' now, but yeah," she chuckled. "And I'm not the only one who's changed; how's the Simulacrum life treating you?"

Thinking back to the last few minutes, Kay sighed. "It has its ups and downs."

"Tell me about it," Vale agreed.

With the small talk out of the way, Buck stepped forward. "You've got permission to walk around, but you must be accompanied by someone while you do."

She nodded. That was more than acceptable to her. "Where did Tobias go?"

"He and Captain Gates sent us here to retrieve you. I assume they made their way to the Architect; it's awake now."

"Then that's where I'm going. Lead the way."