Against the Tide - A New Elysium Story [Complete]

3. Out With a Bang

Good, she thought. That means  the General is still out and they haven't noticed yet that we have it.

I'm surprised by your optimism, he remarked. It's unlike you.

What's up with you, why are you so snarky? She asked.

....it suits you, he added, in a softer voice.

She furrowed her brow skeptically, but did not pressure him any further.

I don't remember how we got here, she realized.

That's because they knocked us out. They were quite scared of you.

Of us, you mean.

No. Of you, he asserted.

She could feel it now - besides the headache at the front of her head, there was a tingling at the back. The metal plate had probably protected her from any serious injury, but the sensation was not exactly pleasant. Still, the lump forming on her forehead where her head had hit the upper bunk was worse, and she rubbed a hand over the throbbing lump above her eyebrows while she took in the rest of their surroundings. The holding cell was old-fashioned, but the doors were electrical.

Wait a moment...They haven't realized that I'm an aug, it occurred to her. How stupid can they be?

Seems like you were right. People weren't paying much attention to your face after all, he remarked.

She smiled at the notion, despite the fact that he sounded somewhat cranky, and she still couldn't quite figure out why. And then, as sudden and brief as a flash of light during a thunder storm illuminating a nightly landscape, an image flickered through her mind. It was a just a snapshot, a memory of the dream she had had while unconscious. But it was enough to bring it all back to he forefront of her mind, where it lingered as a vague and hazy collection of shifting images. There were several other questions floating about in the periphery of her mind, but they all became of lesser importance right now.

Lars, that dream... she began to ask the one that really mattered. Where you really there?

He remained silent, and that was answer enough.

What was that? She asked.

I wish I knew, he said, back to his usual soft voice.

In that dream you were –

I know, he said wistfully. I felt it. It was strange. Different from this.

A few seconds of silence passed between them, and she found herself wondering whose dream it had been. Never before had they both been corporeal in a dream – either she had shared his memories from his times as an android, or they had dreamed as one, as Amy.

Null, he addressed her, pulling her out of her thoughts. What did it look like?

What did what look like? She asked.

....what did I look like, he clarified. She knew his voice better than anything in the world, but she had never heard him sound quite like that.

Bashful, she realized, baffled as she finally made sense of his tone. She wondered what was going on behind his side of the veil.

She rubbed her forehead again and winced in pain as she tried to remember. She attempted to conjure the image up in her head to show it to him, but it didn't work. The images danced out of focus and out of her grasp the more she tried to hold on to them, slipping away like sand through her fingers.There was only water and sand and lots of fog.