Wilson's POV

Scared would typically be the last thing I would describe my emotions, standing face-to-face with a seven-year-old that I had just fought a fifty-foot-tall moose monster with.

In fact, I was pretty sure that had I thought about it before this whole mess started, I would've thought I was going insane. I wiped the sweat off of my forehead, partially formed from stress and partially from just overworking myself, and took a step back. I was shaking, I realized, probably from the fact that my friends and I had just taken on a fifty-foot-tall moose monster and won. I had intensely mixed feelings of Oh my God did we just do that?! And We could've died and WE BEAT ONE OF THE GIANTS HOLY MOTHER OF SCIENCE. WX seemed to be satisfied with himself, crossing his arms with none of the energy or fear or guilt that I was sure Webber and I shared.

This battle did something to Webber. I couldn't tell exactly what it was, and I couldn't be sure of what it was I was seeing, but I knew one thing for sure.

There had been something else fighting with him. It wasn't something I had seen or something I heard, it was something that I just acknowledged and felt. It was something that was far beyond the forces of science to be able to comprehend. It wasn't good, it wasn't benign. There was something it wanted.

The first person to break the silence was the boy himself. He shook his entire body- not unlike a cat- and looked up to meet my eyes. "She wasn't evil," he said at length. His voice was small and timid, more like the little boy he truly was instead of the fierce facade he managed. "Did you see the way she looked at her nest? She just wanted to protect her babies..."

He was echoing my own thoughts. I turned the shell over in my hands, feeling the unnaturally smooth surface brushing against the scrapes I had earned on my hands after using them to keep myself falling face-first into the dirt. Sure, to my little group, we had perfectly good reasons to be killing her, but did she realize this? I was gathering my thoughts to give him a reply, but WX was the first to jump into the conversation.

Apparently, a more WX-like fashion to replying to someone was to walk up behind him and backhand him heartily. "ANIMALS ARE STUPID," he huffed. "IT PROBABLY DID NOT EVEN REALIZE IT WAS FIGHTING SOMETHING. THEY DO NOT HAVE ANY SORT OF THOUGHT PROCESS."

"No, not it. Her." I bent down, feeling the carefully created nest that the egg had been protected in. With her great size, how long had it taken her to construct this? It was so small... especially to be housing such a monstrous creature. "And, to be fair, WX, that way of thinking could be easily said both ways. Have you ever thought your own thoughts, or have you just always followed the thoughts programmed into you by a human?"

Did he turn his head, only slightly, to glance at Webber as I asked that?

"IN MY DEFENSE, I WAS HAND-CREATED BY THE MOST POWERFUL DIETY TO EXIST." He tipped his head arrogantly. "YOU SHOULD FEEL BLESSED TO BE IN MY PRESENCE."

I felt a smile try to force its way onto my lips, but the back of my mind still rambled about how the robot could possibly function. I felt my fingers twitch, wishing nothing more than to have a pencil and paper right now. Could WX feel anything other than what he was programmed to feel? Was there any way for me ever to figure this out?

I shook my head. Focus, Wilson! I turned away from WX and clapped a single time, pushing my worries about morality and personal ethics and everything in between to the back of my mind. I let the smile that came with knowing that we had just taken the first step to our freedom crack through. "Do you understand what this means? We're a fifth of the way done with this, guys!"

"I CANNOT WAIT TO BE DONE WITH DEALING WITH THE LIKES OF YOU."

I was about ninety-nine percent sure that he was just saying stuff to act big and tough. However, I decided not to bring this up to him, in favor of keeping the bones in my lower jaw intact.

Webber gave the shard in our hand a dubious glance. "Are you sure that's good enough?" His 'whiskers' were twitching, but I couldn't tell if it was nervousness, amusement, or fear. His voice lowered. "Are you sure we don't have to do that again?" He sounded distant, his gaze glazing over and his claws curling again. A shiver ran down my spine. I had never seen him more spider than human, but that look in his eyes when he stabbed the Moose in the nest, the blood staining his black fur...

"IS OUR PLAN TO STAND HERE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT AND WAIT FOR THE NIGHT MONSTER TO CATCH US?" WX scoffed, holding out his arms, indicating the powerful glow coming from his body from the lightning that had struck him. I felt a pang of jealousy- when was I going to show up with awesome powers that rip someone's throat open or bash a mosling's head in with a single swing- but then I instantly felt fear spawning from these thoughts. Where had that come from? "I CAN ONLY STAY THIS WAY FOR SO LONG, YOU KNOW."

"Right," I forced myself to say between my thoughts and worries. I had time to worry later when Webber was asleep and WX was in his nightly trance that he seemed to force himself into despite his inability to sleep. Now was the time for optimism. I hoisted the morning star over my shoulder, decidedly not nearly falling back due to the weight, and held the shell closely to my chest, trying not to crack it any further. "Safety first. Come on, Webber." I waited for him to break himself out of whatever state of half-consciousness he was in and follow me. He matched my steps, looking quite like he wanted to say something, but also looking too nervous to say whatever was on his mind. It was so weird.

As soon as I saw our base appear between the thickly placed trees, I was hit with a powerful surge of exhaustion. It felt like we had only been fighting the Goose for an hour at most, but apparently, it had been the entirety of the day. I chose to ignore this in favor of collapsing on the ground next to the unlit fire. I was way too tired to want to light it. I heard WX let out an audible groan of annoyance before starting to do so himself. By the time his system overcharge had worn off, the fire was large enough to chase away the monsters in the night. Take that Mom, Dad came those thoughts that I suppressed so hard. The thoughts that I buried beneath observations and theories and concerns during the day- they always came back out at night. Right on that borderline edge between awake and asleep, just a couple of them would leak through. I told you I could be strong.

I told you I wasn't useless.

…

I was running through a maze. How long had I been wandering through this twisting and turning labyrinth? I couldn't remember. High walls surrounded me on all sides, threatening to trap me forever in stone and marble.

My eyes were dazzled by a flash of light in front of me- a bright, dancing orange light, that threw orange spots in my vision until I got used to the lightning. The fire was burning on top of two pillars, with no rhyme nor reason as to how they continued to burn. I puzzled over this phenomenon, frowning at these pillars until my eyes hurt.

Which is probably why it took me so long to see the creature that was standing just on the edge of the shadows cast by the fire. I recognized it- the tall, slim figure that had sent me and my group on the quest to kill the giants in the first place. It was still cloaked in shadows, probably the reason why it was standing in the darkness instead of the light just paces in front of it. I was kind of afraid of what it would look like in the light anyway.

"One down, scientist. Four more to go," it said in that weird, warping voice of its. It rose its clawed hand, tiny black flames that gave off no light flickering at their tips. With the slightest flick of its wrist, one of these flames sputtered out.

I stepped forward, shivering at the unnatural way my shoes clicked against the floor, and it continued speaking.

"Your next fight will be the hardest." It gave me a scrutinizing glance as if it didn't quite believe I was cut out to be fighting. "But I assume you already know this."

I took a deep breath. "Summer. The Dragonfly. Two tons of pure muscles and scales and fire. With claws that can impale even the strongest of hides."

"It's a shame the fight has to be so soon. If it were just the two of you, you could easily last long enough to fight it after you've had more experience. You two are strong, but I know one of you... who isn't." It shook its head, making a clicking noise with its tongue. "Keep your eyes peeled, scientist. Not everything here is as it seems..."

I was thrown out of the dream rather violently. Cold sweat dotted my face and back, but the heat from the fire and the soon-to-be-rising sun was already beginning to dispel the fear I had felt in facing that creature. Why did I fear it so much? It didn't seem particularly evil in any fashion, and it certainly had done nothing but helped us so far.

But there was something I couldn't shake off. Some underlying fear of it that made me cautious of its mere existence. It was hard to explain, but just being near it felt like I was standing near a tear in the fabric of space-time, something that should not- and should never- exist. I should probably be waking up now anyway, I thought blandly. But I barely got any sleep... I glanced quickly at Webber, who was only a foot or two away from me, curled into his typical ball and snoring softly. He didn't seem like he was going to wake up soon anyway... Shrugging my shoulders, I let myself fall back asleep.