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August 22

It was rare when Geppetto gave Sam news of the outside world.

She had to move slowly that morning, learning to walk and breathe under the weight of a gas mask. The gas had blown into the city before, but never this thick, and it had never lasted this long. She hadn't gotten a chance to listen to news or gossip when she reported for duty, only rushing to relieve Peter and bring him his own mask.

"No more walks outside for a while," she'd announced when she joined Geppetto in the bunker. He didn't respond right away.

He looked grim. Quiet. Old.

"The Chancellor is dead," he said after a long silence.

Any other time, any other place, she might have celebrated. But the old man just looked too sad, too weary. She couldn't bring herself to act so callous in front of him, even if she was glad the tyrant was gone.

"What happened?" she asked quietly, trying as hard as she could to be sympathetic. Geppetto had known the Chancellor, after all. True, the Chancellor had immediately betrayed him, stolen his masterpiece and used it to try to take over most of the continent, but at least he had known the guy. That had to count for something.

"He and a convoy of his men were trying to flee the city," he said slowly. "They were… armed. They expected an attack. They weren't prepared for the gas."

So that's where it had come from.

"The government is broken," he continued. His worn hands were wrapped around something under the desk, stroking it gently—another invention of some sort. "The country is broken. The machines have already won."

"That's not true," she said, a flare of anger. "No, this is just a setback. We're going to pull through this. We're gonna make it."

"I don't think you understand," Geppetto said. "The BRAIN will never stop. It won't tire, won't sleep, won't starve. It will keep going until every fragment of life in this world is dead."

"Maybe it won't stop," she snapped. "But neither will I, and neither will you. Life finds a way, remember? You said that. And there is a way to stop this thing—I know there is. We just have to find it. And we will, and we'll end this nightmare, and someday everything will be all right again."

Geppetto's eyes rose to meet her fiery gaze, and he sighed.

"I have something for you," he said. There was no argument or rebuttal or 'yes, you're probably right'. An entire change of subject. That was fine. He was depressed. She could give him a moment's rest before she tried to snap him out of it again.

"What is it?" she asked, trying to hide her impatience.

"For your sister, actually." He unfolded his hands and revealed a tiny figurine. Little scrap bits of metal and wood came together to form a long torso, a four legs, a savage head. A short length of unwound spring made an itty bitty tail, and spare bits of canvas and glove and thread formed a scruffy mane.

It was a lion, small enough to fit in the palm of her hand.

"Her very own Aslan," he said, a weary smile warming his face.

She didn't know what to say.

She was touched—that he'd honestly listened to her complaints, that he'd thought of her sister, that he'd taken the time to come to her aid. She wanted to jump forward and hug him and thank him and cry to the one person she was sure was really listening.

And yet a part of her was still angry—angry that he'd given up so easily, that he sympathized with the Chancellor, that he used valuable time making toys when he should be saving the world from his last invention.

And yet another part of her was drowning in grief. Because she knew what the gas meant. Because she knew that he was at least partly right. Because somehow this little toy meant that it really was the end, that they had nothing left but to enjoy their final hours.

"Thank you," she said quietly, taking the little lion from him. "I know she'll love it."

AN: In case it wasn't clear (who am I kidding, I know it wasn't, because it wasn't meant to be) the person who asked about the lion was 2, shortly before his release into the outside world. As was pointed out to me, the diary said that 2's first creation was a telescope thingy. But it never said he didn't make a lion. :D