Time to conclude this story arc! Only a few chapters remain. Sadly, they'll have to wait a few short weeks, but it won't be long until updates resume.

Friendly reminder of the content warnings, once again.

Many thanks to Cant_Catch_Rabbit for the beta-reading!


Out of all the terrible, treacherous and downright disgusting criminal space hubs out there, Kitanai was possibly one of the worst. Cobbled together from scrap, the only certain thing about the whole place was that one way or another, you were going to get hurt. Either you would get stabbed, or you were going to get robbed, or you would escape the other inhabitants altogether and instead fall prey to the crumbling structure. It was a place where everybody kept a hand on the railing in case the floor fell out, where everybody wore a space suit in case the fake atmosphere gave in and evaporated, and where everybody was armed to the teeth. Trust didn't exist, money only got you so far, and death was the only reliable answer to anything.

The people who dared go there were either ballsy, were in groups, or were outright crazy. The stupid went there and never came out, or at least not out of their own free will; they were easy pickings and easy pickings were first come, first serve. The people who lived there? They were pirate lords, leaders of small armies, dealers of secrets and information. None of them could be touched. The Shion were protected by the quality of their service to the criminal community. These people were protected by their sheer brutality, the depth of their pockets, their anonymity, and their raw cunning.

These people scared the shit out of Luka. The Shion were scarier in a way, because their reach was intergalactic. When it came to the inhabitants of Kitanai, though, as long as she was on their turf, it didn't matter how far they reached. One word from the wrong person and she was never getting out. In a way, stepping out of the ship was like signing a contract; by entering the structure, you forfeited your right to either your well-being, your belongings, your body parts, or your freedom. Perhaps even all four. But now that she had made a 3D scan of the bag, along with all the notes on materials, dimensions, and other details she needed in case she ever needed to replicate the thing, the bag itself had to go, and Kitanai was one place where she was sure she could get rid of the bag and everything in it for at least a fair part of its worth.

So, it was with carefully hidden fear that she stepped onto the hub. She wore her space suit and kept her hand on her gun, safety on but otherwise at the ready. The bag was concealed, wrapped in an old shirt and wedged under her other arm.

"While we are here," Ruko told her, the voice sounding so much closer now that she had the helmet back on, "We could investigate a person on our list."

She hummed, even though she knew the sound wasn't being transmitted out of her suit. She kept her gaze steady and cold, her steps confident.

"One of the hundreds of suspects lives here?"

"Yes. A young man named Dex."

She gulped. "He's not far, is he?"

"No."

Luka frowned; there was reason to suspect that Ruko had intentionally told her of this only after she had left the port. Otherwise, she might have bailed, skipped town altogether. She had no intention of staying any longer than an hour if she could help it.

Then again...

She hid all her apprehension behind a slightly angry mask; the tiniest hint of vulnerability could get her cornered and killed.

"What are the odds she's actually here?"

"Very small." After a bit, detecting Luka's reluctance, the AI softly added, "Perhaps we could use this opportunity to try to be lucky."

"We really could," Luka admitted with a hidden sigh. Her heart was going to give out, she was sure of it.

"The odds are small, but they are there," Ruko whispered. "If she is here, then we cannot afford to let this chance go."

That idea alone strengthened her resolve. If Miku was on this hub, right then, so close...

"Fine. Tell me about him."

"He returned to Kitanai about a cycle ago. He left here roughly two cycles before the auction began."

"Ok, that lines up."

"I do not know what kind of ship he might have been piloting, but there is reason to believe that he has the means and the motivation to attend such auctions."

"Yeah? What does he do?"

"He is an implant specialist. He does research in body modifications, mostly towards implant technology and how to best implement it in a biological subject. He is no doctor, but he is a technical pioneer and inventor."

Luka hesitated for a moment, eyeing a man who had slowed his pace as he neared her. He rounded a corner without incident, though, so she let her attention return to the conversation.

"He got rich from that?"

"He has a few patents. Most of his designs, however, are illegal."

"What are we talking about?"

"Augmenting physical capabilities beyond legal limits; granting better sight, strength, and so on. Expanding limb potential beyond their natural intended limits. He also does aesthetic work, and is known for the variety of patterns he can show on his skin, namely his face."

"Wait. He operated on himself? On his own face?"

"Yes."

"Hardcore bastard."

"With the help of one of his more infamous inventions: dual intelligence."

Luka found a pawn shop and pushed open the door. "What do you mean by that?"

"He has an AI affixed to his brain," Ruko said. "He no longer feels pain or fear, instead using the AI to process immediately urgent information of that nature and tackle the problem logically."

The fence behind the counter was a snake of a man. Human, but barely, skin scabbed over so many times he looked like he was covered in scales. The protruding chin, as well as the large, beady eyes, completed the look. He gazed at her hungrily, his tongue wetting his lips.

With quick movements, she unwrapped the bag and placed it on the counter. He smiled at it, looked at the contents. Meanwhile, Luka mulled over the information.

"So he's a cyborg."

"Yes."

"Fucking hell."

The man offered her a price, which was a lot more than Luka even hoped for. It would allow for two full refuels and a good bit of extra storage, at least. She couldn't hide the grin; this good news was more than welcome. It was a brand bag after all, and replicating it a few times could make the search for Miku a whole lot easier. She nodded, accepted the money, pocketed it carefully, then left the store, shirt stuck under her arm.

Outside of the store, though, she was forced to decide between returning to the ship or heading toward a cyborg.

Her heart sank to her knees, the brief happiness gone.

"A fucking cyborg..."

"That is also why I have reason to believe that he might have reason to obtain Miku for himself," Ruko went on. "Whether it be for study or for parts."

Luka shivered. "And I'm betting he has the means to neutralize her."

"He has no guns like Miku does, but his hands are not organic. I do not know more than that."

"Where is he?"

"Keep to the central road. You will see his workshop to your right in fifteen minutes."

Luka gulped, following the directions while keeping a hand on the wall. Everything on Kitanai was so damn rusty. It probably wasn't real rust, oxidized metal, but it was red and made every single material on the hub turn flaky and brittle. The fake atmosphere was probably to blame, or maybe it was the frequent space exposure. Or both. Every step made a sound, sometimes strong like the beat on a drum, sometimes a scary creak, sometimes a whine. In the central road, the foot traffic of only a handful of people created a veritable chorus of impending structural failure.

The buildings were hardly any better. If there were windows at all, they were thick, bulletproof and able to withstand sudden changes in pressure. The walls were usually recycled bulkheads, layers upon layers of container material, or anything else thick, easy to find, cheap and airtight. Doors had no hinges; they slid open and shut, with a click or a hiss, always ensuring a perfect seal within the building. And all of it was so rusty. If something wasn't red from rust, it was red or purple from blood.

It was a huge floating trash heap in the middle of space. There was nothing as fancy as bright screens for advertising, or indeed many lights at all . The whole rusted heap lay in constant, sunless, space-tinted obscurity. The occasional lamp at a corner would give an illusion of safety, tinting the rust beneath it orange. The market, in the heart of the hub, had lamps focused entirely on the wares there. Seeing faces was a challenge. Seeing equipment, all the more so. Ambushes?

Luka bit back a whimper. The only thing that the owners or citizens bothered to maintain was the gravity field; without it, she was sure half the hub would simply float apart. But it wasn't any real reassurance at all. It was an exposed gravity field, a grey shimmering star about fifty meters in diameter that glowed in the darkness of space, visible between the structural struts of the hub as you approached it. If the floor let you drop, you would fall straight in.

Science still wasn't sure what exactly happened to lifeforms sucked into these gravity fields. It wasn't quite a singularity, but...

Luka shuddered.

She hated everything about this place. Her face had just gotten better; her reflection looked damn near normal, the scarring almost invisible. Even her tongue had just gotten better. But now that she was sticking around for more than the ideal twenty minutes, she was sure she was going to walk away with a gnarly scar. Maybe a missing limb. Maybe only half-alive, if alive at all.

"What is your plan?" Ruko asked

"I have no fucking clue."

"Of course, one can simply ask."

"What if he didn't tell anybody? And that's assuming he did buy her," Luka hissed, eyeing a gang that stalked down the road. There was safety in numbers, which she absolutely did not have. She had no safety at all, yet she was staying for a shot in the dark.

"Then that is less of an option," Ruko admitted. "Looking at their catalog may provide clues."

"They have a catalog?"

"I do not know. You should be able to browse their wares, however. They do provide implant installation services. Perhaps what they have available may betray any inspiration of her technology."

"Right. Do they even have a real doctor on-site?"

"Sometimes."

"And is Dex the main man?"

"Yes. Perhaps his mechanical hands aid him in this regard."

Luka bit down another swear. She was walking towards a cyborg that had the guts, power and confidence to not just do business on Kitanai, not just to live on Kitanai, but to do both unhindered.

"If he does have Miku, do you have a plan?"

She knew the answer before Ruko even finished their sentence. "Shoot his brains out."

"That is a plan. You are approaching his workshop."

She slowed her pace, keeping her hand on her gun. There were fewer people walking this far down the central road; just a stone's throw further up, the street came to a sudden stop, showing the vast void of space. The people she did see were, as far as she could tell, just hanging out, perhaps eyeing the visitors that dared venture so far. One of them, a huge lizard who wasn't even wearing space gear, leaned on the railing of a balcony as a cig slowly turned to ash between his scaly lips. The cig's barely illuminated graying, withering scales, and a dewlap torn to tatters; he was probably so old he was either hoping to die or daring death to find him.

She did her best to ignore him.

The workshop itself looked closed. She approached nonetheless, feigning interest, some disappointment.

"They're closed, bub," an insect-liked species rattled to her as they walked by, voice distorted by their space gear. Luka only understood them half a second later, when the translator in her helmet spit out the phrase in a language she could understand.

She clicked on her exterior speaker and her flashlight. "Why?"

The insect, almost double her height, stopped and turned to face her, clicking on their light in return. Their perfectly spherical appearance would be comical if it weren't for the six person-sized rifles hanging from their back. "Fuck me if I know. Get your implants somewhere else."

"Like I have a need for more implants. I have a delivery for Dex."

"Deliveries are in the back," the ancient Craypt piped in, which the insect took as an excuse to leave, disappearing into the dark. After taking a long drag from his cig, he asked, "You have exciting new tech for good old Dex to play with?"

She only had the folded shirt under her arm, yet she said with all the confidence she could muster, "Yeah."

"Nice. He's really busy with a project right now, but he's always happy to see the new toys, and so are we," he said with a slow rumble. That was when Luka spotted the faint glow in his throat, betraying a complex implant. "Just go back and knock. You know the knock, right?"

"Of course."

The lizard hissed, tapped the ashes from his cig. "Good."

Without further ceremony, Luka made her way around the back, clicking her light off.

She had hoped he would have told her the knock.

A small alleyway, barely wider than her shoulders, sat between the workshop and the neighboring building. The alley hugged the side of the workshop, turning sharply to the right, where it disappeared into a set of steep steel stairs.

Luka hesitated. The odds that Miku was actually there were slim to none; Dex being busy with a project, whatever it was, was probably a good thing. She wouldn't have to go toe to toe with a cyborg that didn't feel pain or fear. Miku was probably somewhere else, safe. Singing to orphans or something.

She wanted to believe that.

She desperately wanted to believe that.

"I... What if she isn't here?" she asked after clicking off her speaker. "I'd be kicking the hornet's nest for nothing. I need to stay alive for her..."

"Please wait," Ruko said. "Now that we are close, I will try to find additional clues."

Luka nodded, waited at the top of the stairs. She heard her pulse rushing through her ears. Her heart rate was fast and heavy. She was confident the fading withdrawal had nothing to do with that.

Just when she was about to leave, Ruko said, "I have strong evidence of her presence."

"What?"

"I am detecting sounds. The profile matches her voice."

Luka's stomach twisted into a dense knot. "Turn up the microphone sensitivity, as high as you can."

Ruko obeyed, and there, in the background, against the rattling of the hub and the faraway hum of the gravity field, was faint screaming.

Luka unholstered her gun and turned off the safety, immediately started down the rusty stairs, the shirt forgotten on the ground.

"I'm going to fucking end him."

"We cannot be absolutely sure—"

"I'm going to paint the walls with his insides."

"I advise caution."

The door was red like everything else. All she saw was red. It was barely even a metaphor.

"Luka, please."

"What?!"

"If that is indeed Miku, then you would both benefit from patience and a carefully considered plan."

Luka nodded, taking in a deep breath. "Right."

"Let us discuss the possibilities."

"Is she still screaming?"

Ruko paused, then said, "Either this is Miku, or it isn't."

"Is she still screaming?!"

"If it isn't, then..."

The rest of their sentence floated away. Luka tried to keep calm and control her breathing, but her surging adrenaline wouldn't let her.

The possibility that it was Miku was numbing her to the core. Why would she be screaming? What would they be doing to her...?

A single long-forgotten memory pierced through a drug-induced veil.

Nothing a little tinkering can't fix.

Luka pounded on the door, her gun raised a little higher than her eye level.

"Luka!" Ruko urged. "Please, consider—"

The door slid open.

The scavenger didn't even think, shooting the moment she saw eyes.

The man, an alien species she wasn't very familiar with, took a second to slump down, a cauterized hole drilled straight through his skull, entering right above his upper lip and exiting somewhere at the back of his head.

He didn't even have time to scream.

Luka swallowed vomit, stepping over the body as it leaked a purple goo onto the red floor.

The basement was a large, dark room. The boxes lining the walls were brown, silver, and black, but the rest was the same ubiquitous red. Luka ignored the scene, focusing instead on the screams that were echoing through the space.

Her heart was pounding in her ears so hard she felt it more than she heard it.

Luka stepped forward, weapon raised. There were a few walls dividing the area, and one, at the far end of the room, hid a bright light source. No visible shadows were cast on the floor.

She approached anyway.

"Why won't it shut up?!" someone yelled through the noise. Non-human, throaty, a Craypt.

"It's got speakers, dude. Gag ain't doing shit," another voice, human and male, replied. "Get me the pliers, the big ones."

"Why does it even feel pain!?"

"That's what I intend to find out."

Luka stalked onward, her jaw clenched so hard she swore she was about to shatter her own teeth.

"Luka, please," Ruko whispered. "You have the advantage right now. Surprise is your friend; they clearly haven't heard you come in."

No wonder; the closer she got, the louder the cries. Even the burst of her laser had been drowned out by it. She panted, ready to be sick for at least three or four different reasons. Still, she approached, barrel lowered, her back against the wall.

Still no shadows.

She crept closer, leaned, peeked around.

First, she saw Miku, undressed, gagged, and bound to a dentist's chair. Her limbs were straining against her binds, and her gun was out, right arm forced apart, in tethers.

Second, she saw the pliers rip the barrel of the gun straight out of her arm.

The screaming doubled, and all Luka could think to do was raise her weapon and fire. Fire at the wolf of a man who was holding the pliers, his face decorated with yellow lines, his hands shiny and bright, hair silver and smooth.

Fire straight at his face, and watch the laser ricochet right off of him.

The eyes found her.

They were like beryllium. Shiny, yellow, toxic.

He barked something, but she didn't listen, firing again in vain.

"I can't—?!"

Her sentence was knocked out of her when he barreled right into her, punching her in the gut and pushing her over. Her skull hit the back of her helmet as she crashed down, summoning stars.

"Ruko—!"

"From what I can gather from the sound profile, he has implanted a deflection field," Ruko noted, but before Luka could even process the information, a metallic fist met her visor. Then another.

The visor cracked open, and Luka yelped when glass shards fell in her face.

"My, my," he spoke, leaning forward. "A little volunteer has entered my workshop. Are you here for an operation?"

With that, he thrust a hand into the hole in her visor, and Luka saw how his fingers split into tools, drills, knives. She screamed and kicked at the floor to get distance, dropping her gun to keep the hand away from her face, but he straddled her, his weight keeping her pinned in place.

"I was thinking some new eyes!" he yelled over the whirring of the tools. "Some pretty new peepers for the peeping tom!"

She shrieked, keeping her hands on his wrist, pushing with all her might. The tools weren't getting any closer, but if his grin was any indication, that was by design. She saw the sadistic glint in his eyes, boring right into her.

He was enjoying the show.

He was taking his time because he could.

He would toy with her, then kill her the moment he grew bored with it.

Pop her eyes, yank out her tongue, cave her skull—

She finally got a knee between them, and pushed with all her might. He groaned as he fell back, using his hands to brace his fall.

Luka didn't take a second to thank the distance between his tools and her face; she scrambled to her feet immediately, rushing towards the bound android, coughing and sputtering the whole way; the glass of her visor had fallen into her eyes and mouth. Dex kicked at her, and she couldn't avoid it. She stumbled, falling onto the operation tray beside the bed. Tools clattered to the floor, the noise only worsening the ringing in Luka's head.

"Luka?"

Through tears, Luka saw that Miku was staring at her with wide, red eyes.

"A little hero in shining armor!" jeered Dex as he stood. His hands rearranged themselves again, and Luka's stomach dropped when the familiar shape of a gun started forming. "A little hero whose tale ends here!"

She didn't have time to think. She struggled to stand, slipped, scrambled, and found something that felt distinctly like a lever.

The gun was pointed right at her, right between her eyes.

Without even considering what it might do, she pulled it, accepting that it just might be the last thing she would do in her life.

One second, there was a sharp clacking chorus, like four car doors closing almost at the same time. The next, Dex was gone, replaced by a flurry of teal. Luka blinked and coughed, shook her head, managed to look up and keep her eyes open for a split-second.

Miku was literally tearing Dex apart.

Luka felt her breath catch as the screams dissolved into incomprehensible gurgles. She backed up into the grim embrace of the dentist's chair and its many limbs, but try as she might, she could not get further from Dex's destruction. The chorus of flesh being torn, bones snapping, and the sight of pure, ice-cold anger that filled the android to excess, pouring out in tears, it all made her gut squeeze. Before Luka could hurl, movement from the far end of the room caught her attention.

The Craypt had retrieved a rifle and was aiming right at Miku.

Luka yelled, scrambling forward to grab her gun. A shot echoed through the space, then another. Only then did her hand find the grip of her weapon.

She didn't have time to think, much less aim, shooting blindly at the man until her cartridge emptied. The glass was scratching her eyes; she still felt it lodged in the back of her throat.

A dull thud punctuated the chorus of laser fire. Through her tears, she saw the man's limp form, the rifle on the floor, the growing puddle of blood and the splatters on the walls. She stared, numb and frozen.

"Luka...?"

She flinched, turned to look the other way. Right there, standing a few paces away, was Miku, her left arm and hand bathed in blood, her right arm a mass of metal. Several fresh puncture wounds marred her side and her leg, the material of her skin smoking slightly. But it was unmistakably Miku, her Miku, the android she knew and loved. Dex, on the other hand, was an unrecognizable mass on the ground behind her, everything above his ribcage reduced to a lumpy mixture of meat, bone, hair, and metal.

Falling into the gravity field might actually have been more humane way for him to die.

"We need to get out of here," Luka hissed as she tore her eyes from the carcass and struggled to her feet. The only thing that kept her from falling over was the metric ton of adrenaline coursing through her system. She coughed at the glass in her throat.

"I am ready to depart," Ruko said into her implant. "Please return as soon as you are able."

"Working on it," Luka replied, teetering towards the dentist's chair.

"Miku's communications system has been disabled or removed," Ruko informed her. "I cannot contact her."

"That's just the start of it," she whimpered, sifting through the fallen tools; eventually, she found the barrel of Miku's gun. There was nothing else there that she recognized.

"Is it really you?"

Luka turned again to face the android. Luka forced herself to look her in the eye, away from the gore that covered her, her undressed state, the injuries she had sustained.

"Did they take anything else?"

The tealette shook her head, tears pouring down her face. "No..."

"Let's go."

"It's really you?"

Luka didn't reply, grabbing her by the shoulder and pulling her towards the exit. They almost tripped over the body she had left there, getting a surprised squeak from the android. They climbed the steps, rounded the corner and emerged on the street.

The lizard saw them, immediately stood and pointed.

"What did you do?!"

Luka swore and darted down the road. Miku followed close behind, dripping Dex all over the passageway, leaving him behind in bloody footprints.

"They got Dex!" the Craypt screamed. "Get them!"

"Ruko!" Luka called, struggling to replace the cartridge of her gun as she ran. The chorus of pending structural failure was rising behind them. "We need emergency extraction!"

"On my way."

A laser flew right over her shoulder, the sound of the shot following close behind. Luka swore as a random passerby screamed in pain, yet more shots rang out, illuminating the scenery with bright flashes. Miku yelped and Luka was sure she felt her heart stop.

She wanted to turn around and fire back, but the possibility of tripping or falling through the floor was too high. The duo slipped into the ever thicker crowds, ducking behind wares and crates when they could.

"I am nearing your location. Please find an open area," Ruko told her.

Luka panted. "We're in the marketplace. Too many people."

"Please find altitude."

The scavenger growled, ducked behind a stall when she heard another shot. Around them, chaos broke out. Miku stuck to her side a second later, cowering.

That hardly felt right. Luka put an arm around her and pulled her close, her eyes trying to find something higher up.

A stack of crates caught her eye.

"Miku," she rasped. "We're climbing up that."

"Right."

"Ready?"

The android nodded, her posture shifted. Luka felt the tension rise in her, like a wound spring; she was ready to bolt.

"Go!"

Miku quickly outpaced her, leaping up the stack of crates. Luka followed, pushing past the bustling crowd, trying to ignore the yelling, the laser shots at their heels.

Right as she pulled herself up on top of the first crate, the noise of the crowd and their pursuers got drowned out by the deafening roar of the ship. Ruko flew overhead, their boosters shining like a sun over the red hub. The ship lowered itself steadily, the door to the airlock open and ready to welcome them. Miku, already at the top of the pile, kept her good arm outstretched until her fingers found purchase on the floor of the airlock.

"Come on!"

The scavenger did her best to follow, twitching at every laser shot, the impacts crashing into the crates. She refused to let go of her gun, and even more so of Miku's barrel, each held in an iron fist. One laser impact broke a crate above her entirely, sending a deluge of purple powder right into the opening of her visor, covering her face.

It was Galdyssian spice of all things.

Coughing, blinded, she shook her head, batted away the cloud of spice with her armed hand. She reached and grabbed, pulling herself up despite the stack of crates shifting under her weight. Other containers above her tumbled down, almost knocking into her, while the chaos below doubled.

An iron grip latched onto her shoulder and pulled her up. The next moment, the crates vanished from under her feet. Ruko flew away, the two passengers dangling from the open airlock.

"Get up!" Miku called, her bad arm barely hooked onto the ship.

"I advise entering the ship," Ruko said into her implant. "The artificial atmosphere's outer limit is fast approaching, and I do not recommend staying for much longer."

Luka sputtered and coughed in the pool of spice stuck in her helmet, but was unable to grab; with the weapon in one hand the barrel in the other, she had no way to anchor herself.

"Get up!" the android called again.

"I can't!" she cried through the powder, the hand on her shoulder squeezing so tight it hurt.

Suddenly, the ship all but fell out of the sky, and Luka watched through the purple cloud as Miku, once above her, dropped to her level and then below, with Ruko under them both.

Just like that, the android pulled and threw her into the airlock below. Luka crashed against the inner door. She didn't have time to inhale before the engine revved, Ruko gaining altitude once again, pushing her against the back wall. Miku fell right on top of her, smears of blood trailing in her wake.

The outside door shut with a hiss.

"Departing Kitanai," Ruko informed her. "Where is our next destination?"

Luka panted, laying on her back, Miku draped over her.

"Home," she rasped, her head ringing from the impact. "We're going home."

"Understood. Engaging interstellar boosters in three, two, one..."

The scavenger reached for Miku and pulled her close, just in time for the lurch. One of the android's hands held onto her in return, both of their bodies keeping them braced in the small, bare airlock.

Once the acceleration turned into constant speed and they no longer relied on the four walls around them to keep stable, the inner door slid open with a hiss.

It was barely enough time for Luka to catch her breath. She kept patting at the form that covered her, checking that she was real, that she was actually there.

"You're all right?" she managed, the glass and spice still in her throat.

Miku lifted herself up, supporting all her weight with her left hand. Instead of answering though, she crawled on top of the woman, her blood-smeared hand going for the helmet.

The opal eyes weren't happy or even friendly. Luka felt a familiar fear nestle in the pit of her stomach as Miku's hand grasped at the broken glass, then at the seal with the suit, each touch leaving behind red streaks.

"Miku...?"

"Show me," the android hissed.

Luka reached up and undid the seal, allowing the android to pry off her helmet. Her pink hair tumbled out messily, the Galdyssian spice clinging to it like burrs. Luka shook her head, coughing, sitting up to get air, but the android pinned her down and kept her still.

"It's you," she whispered, her eyes taking in her face. "It's... It's actually you."

Luka tried a smile, only to cough again. "I can't breathe."

That was when the android backed away, letting the scavenger kick herself up to a sitting position.

"Fuck," she sputtered, patting at her hair, the powdered spice clouding around her. "This shit is nasty."

"You're alive."

Luka paused, her eyes meeting the android's. They welled with tears, their expression incredulous.

"You thought—"

Miku reached forward to brush the rest of Luka's hair out of her face.

Her palm was slimy, but cool.

"You're alive," she repeated, barely above a whisper. "They never told me what they did to you..."

"I'm fine," she whispered back, placing her hand on Miku's. "I'm perfectly fine."

"Thank the stars...!"

With that, Miku fell forward, wrapping her arm around the scavenger's shoulders. Luka reeled a bit, caught off guard, but held her as the android openly wept into the crook of her neck.

"Are you ok?" she asked, her throat still itchy.

"They—" Miku shook her head, held her tighter. "It doesn't matter."

"It does."

The android preferred not to reply, keeping her face buried in the spice and blood-covered suit. Luka's smile fell as she timidly held Miku close. Being squeezed as she was, grabbed, pushed against, it all resurfaced old memories that had just started gathering dust. That was hardly her main concern though; she forced them away, told herself to focus instead on the android in her arms.

Luka closed her eyes and tried to breathe without coughing as Miku continued to cry. Those hands on her, so strong, could crush, destroy, pulverize her like they pulverized Dex. It was almost overwhelming. She needed distance again, even the cool touch of her bare artificial skin too much. Yet, she let Miku cry, breathing deep through the spice, forcing herself to get used to the feeling, holding her close. When the android calmed down a bit, her balled fists turning to open hands, palms pressed against her, slowly roaming her shoulders, her neck, the scavenger had to start anew, fighting the urgent, instinctual need to flee.

She decided that letting Miku hold her was more important, even if she felt fear racing through her bloodstream.

After what felt like forever, when the crying calmed down a bit and the constant hum of the engines was all but forgotten, Luka whispered, "They hurt you."

Miku nodded, barely perceptible.

"What did they do?"

"My communications. Gone. I can't connect to the internet anymore..."

Luka hummed, gently stroking her back. "What else?"

"My gun..."

"I have it."

Miku sighed. "I know. But my hand..."

"I'll fix it," Luka assured her. "Everything they broke, I'll fix. What else?"

"Nothing. At first, they tried gagging me, silencing me, threatening me, but they wouldn't touch me… After I was bought, I remained in a box for… For ages. To quiet me down? The first thing he did was get me offline, then he analyzed me, again and again... X-rays, infrared, everything in between. I was stripped and pried at and poked and prodded. I thought that would be it, but just this morning, he unpacked me, started taking me apart..."

"That's over now," Luka whispered, fighting a new wave of nausea. "He's gone."

"He is."

"You're safe."

Miku nodded, relaxed. "You... You found me."

"A miracle," she admitted. "A huge fucking miracle. But yeah. I found you. I finally found you."

"You were looking? All this time?"

"I was at the auction. I tried to buy you. Even got them to lower the price a bit. I wasn't... I tried my best to get money. It wasn't enough."

Miku pulled back. "That was you?"

The woman did her best to look her in the eye, refusing to stare at her bare form. "Yes."

"You... You went to the Shion to get me back."

Luka nodded.

"You went into that basement to save me."

Another nod.

"I..." Miku hesitated. "You..."

"It's all right."

"I love you."

Luka hesitated. Softly, she whispered, "Don't go saying that."

The android frowned, taking in her features. "And you're all right...?"

"Right as rain."

"They didn't hurt you?"

Luka frowned, eyes averted. "They hurt me a lot. But I went home, got help. And looking for you took a while, so I basically got all better again."

"I see scars," she whispered. "What did they do?"

"It doesn't matter," the scavenger assured her. "It's all fixed."

"But—"

"I'm better than ever," she insisted. "My arm works, my organs work, I can walk and talk, it's all fine."

The android looked conflicted, keeping silent for a moment. In the end, she asked, "Is that all they wanted to do to you? Beat you up? I thought that the Shion was there to..."

"They took their money back," Luka admitted. "Every last cent. They tore Ruko apart to find it all. And since some of it couldn't be recovered because it was all invested in a planet that was more worthless in their possession, they decided to take you instead."

"Every cent?"

"Every single one. I had nothing. I scavenged for days on end just to be able to afford the buy-in for the auction. I... I did find your tip money. I spent all that; it made all the difference. Sorry."

Miku barely even looked like she was listening. "Your fortune is gone."

"Gone."

"You wanted to retire... Yet you went after me, instead."

"I guess I did."

"I..."

Miku didn't finish her sentence, preferring to sink back into Luka's arms. The woman held her, held the memories at bay, held her composure despite the rising stench of dried blood around them.

Miku was back.

That was all that mattered.