"You can't be a King if people's lives are unimportant. That's stupid. If you have a soul and sovereignty then subtract soul, you leave nothing but a head to a broken crown. Now I'm not a judge, and never really cared about everyone else, or crowns. I'm just Jessica, and the world is not a zero-sum game. I know that. Still... You still managed to fuck up my life."
Malvis was stiff.
"Why did you have to kill Beth?"
"Is that the engine of your pretense? An elder victim?"
Jessica's lips contracted into a grin that played against the fury in her eyes. "We're not both emotionless, after all."
"Coarse or timid, my motivations are proper."
"My motivation was a firefighter, public servant, friend, former mother, sister, widow, devout Jew... More love in her fingertips than a callous cliché like you—probably your whole race. And I hate generalizing."
"Your motivation is limited and singular. I am not motivated by one or a few, but many. Countless."
"You speak for 'countless' yet don't feel for a single one?"
"100 years nurturing this planet should suffice. Reversing your mistakes, mitigating the primal residue of interminable flaws. To what more must we aspire? Your ungratefulness speaks for many and only validates our means. But if you join us, we shall not simply undo but, as I have stated, amend."
You don't amend certain things, Jessica wanted to say. "The last human who agreed to work for you killed my friend."
"Is Pine Rim's perpetrator so relevant?"
"It might be when I tell the world about it..."
"Would that sate you? Would the promise of vengeance let you see the greater good?"
"Maybe, it couldn't hurt."
"If I understood your personal fury, would I understand humans? My curiosity is earnest."
"Would you just give me their name if I promised to join you?"
"If it may placate your rage long enough to hear reason."
"As if telling me will decrease your chances?"
"Very well... You are acquainted with David Mourner?"
Jessica curled her lips to hide a deep frown forming.
"David Mourner was your ally, yes? He was the perpetrator. A no-man, false loyalist, and actor who facilitated Pine Rime's destruction. He received his motivation from the data you collected on his behalf. Congratulations."
Liar.
"That uttered, Lynx, I have presented you with redemption for your sin."
"You're lying..." Hoarseness in her voice, she looked at the ground. "It's a lie."
"Mourner has been apprehended. You, on the other hand, may compensate for his treachery."
"I didn't kill Beth..."
"Do not neglect this opportunity out of madness."
"I didn't kill Beth." Jessica turned her back to the alien. "I wouldn't kill her. I just wanted to understand why my dad died. I wanted to know what they were hiding. The secrets, the black sites, the government funding. I wanted to help the prisoners on the top of Goliath."
Malvis furrowed his brow. "What have you learned?"
Jessica froze, a Cheshire smile on her face. "I remembered something. If David was responsible, why wouldn't he be working with Sub Terra?"
"He is."
"Except, that nutjob you paid to vomit your message on the Fourth of July, he was an amateur, like SK-3. Know how I know?"
Again, Malvis was silent.
"When I took Drama in the academy, my teacher—he was pretty cool—told me that, in order to reach a broad audience, a stage actor had to project his voice. Ancient Greeks and all that. From what I remember that day, the hack who plastered his face all over New Sumer, his vocals hit like a fucking horn.
"Fear tends to skew perception, Angst macht den Wolf größer als er ist, so New Sumerians didn't catch on. Almost got me too, I'll admit. That actor is not with Sub Terra; David wasn't responsible for any of it. Human flaws worked against you. Flaws can be a good thing.
"See, humanity doesn't rebel because you're aliens; it's because you're robots."
"Jessica..."
"With hearts of stone..."
"Accept my entreaty."
"And minds of metal."
"You haven't seen a mind of metal!"
The Azarean's first pant and the first bout of fury were startling. The bright red eyes dilated. Quickly, Malvis reclaimed his composure and cleared his throat. What came next was the cock of a gun.
"Get away from her."
Dexter appeared on their flank, focused, his pistol leveled at the Goliath Agent.
Coldly, Malvis' head creaked and angled until his crooked gaze rested on the boy, as if to an insect. "You've brought a toy to a battle of words, human. What do you intend with that?"
Dexter stared Malvis down, a mix of anger, anxiety, and fear to freeze his trigger finger. "I said, back away from her."
Dexter. The new reality of the situation made Jessica's blood rush. "Dex, we'll all be okay if you're not rash," she said shakily.
His dark eyes darted between her and the alien. "What does he want?"
"To compromise," said Malvis.
"Azareans don't compromise without lies and force."
"Yet, you do not see me conducting diplomacy with a weapon."
Jessica bent her knees, —"Is that what this is?"—gaping between her friend and Goliath's agent.
"Dispense with your firearm." Malvis lifted his sleeve.
"Just do it, Dexter!" Jessica, however, needed the distraction, and carefully nudged her hands closer together.
1...
Jessica ignited her Vambrace and input characters.
2...
Malvis lifted her by the neck and squeezed as her feet kicked back and forth.
3...
Her weightless pain was accompanied by Dexter's weapon discharge, and thunder in her throat.
4...
More gunshots scathed reality as her breath funneled.
"I laid bare the stairs to your ascension," Malvis seethed. "No matter. One human or a million is inconsequential on the road to providence. Surrender the intel you stole, and you may live to see it."
The sound of turbines preceded blazing lights in the distance, and the resonance droned in her ears. Airships.
"Or you may live long enough to see Asgard purge the woods... Did you believe Goliath would consider a second eye for humans living under trees? Not before tonight."
Eventually, Jessica's knees hit the ground. Salvation allowed her to inhale and wheeze, to muster a sliver of energy for breath. Feeling around her neck, she looked up and caught Dexter struggling on top of Malvis.
"Just run, Jess!" he cried.
"Moron!" she coughed.
Laboriously, the young man grappled with the alien on the ground. Jessica needed that extra moment, though. Dexter needed her. Revving her lungs, she powered the luminescent brace around her forearm and made a call. She was distracted by raspy moans, all the while.
Dexter dangled under Malvis, by the wrist. From underneath his coat sleeve, the Azarean ejected a blade. The long edges irradiated into a yellow neon that hissed like his next sentence.
"A will that cannot convert must be severed."
Dexter hit the ground unconscious; his arm followed. Jessica's heart sank, her face numbed, and she was deaf to her own scream.
"DEXTER!"
Eyesight handicapped by tears, a blurred image of her friend convulsed under the wicked branches. The blade illuminated the ground where Dexter's arm had dropped, humming with whatever energy cauterized the wound.
Casually, the alien watched Jessica fume until her eyes turned into fire.
A hot flash later, her senses returned. When the atmosphere cleared, she inhaled then focused on the subject of her hatred. "Babel!" she screamed.
"Here!" he said.
She sprinted away.
"Cowardice will only stall your demise, Lynx," Malvis spat. "But not the demise of your kin."
I'm not running! A hum echoed across the woodland when Jess stepped out of the clearing. From the distant mansion sped the gravity board. She slid on the ground, letting the deck magnetize to her feet, to uplift and circle around in a single maneuver.
"Boost, Babel!"
Malvis reappeared in focus. She charged at full speed.
"Haaaaaaaa!"
"Naive gir-!"
"HAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
'