"Remember ye, not the former things, neither consider the things of old." Isaiah 43:18 KJV

"Father, let wisdom form within, so I no longer have to be on the outside looking in." "Outside In" - Circle of Dust

The kicks hurt more than anything. She couldn't fight back, she couldn't move. The fear was gone, in its place, only a solemn promise remained. I am in control of this. I will get through this. This too shall pass.

She barely registered the pain as the last of her augments moved to block it out. It was all she had left. She felt the table beneath her side, scraping her skin...

The tears came then, hot, running down her face. Once she could have snapped someone like Karik in two. A part of her wished she'd fried him to death before... For now, she had to endure to whatever end...

There was eerie silence and then gunfire...

I told you so, Red. I hope you get out...

She could do little more than lay there, hoping he would keep his word. At least they had a chance, she thought. Please God, get them out if that's my plan in this...

Part of her hoped a bullet would strike home, at least so she could be gone from this place. Or move... Something other than laying here, face to the side unable to do anything but listen to the sounds of men fighting and dying all around her.

She heard the sounds of feet running away, and she knew then... the door had been breached. They were free or as free as they could be. Part of her rejoiced for them.

Surely Red had led them out, taken the boys and gone.

And then she felt his hands on her face. Red?

She heard Dag's voice calling to him from some distance away, but Red didn't leave her side. His arms slid under her jostling her as she felt his shoulder slide under her stomach.

He hadn't left her, he was taking her away with him...

She cried, and tears that were lost as her body pitched forward into nothingness away from Red. Stay with me, please don't go!

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Ember opened her eyes to a familiar site. A prairie, with a warm sun shining down and endless waving fields of grass. The breeze that usually ran through gently wafting her hair around was no longer so gentle. It snapped and bit the grass and her hair whipping it around making it hard for her to see.

It was her mindscape, her own cyberspace inside of her. A world she could step into because she had so much of a machine in her. It was quiet save for the wind...

But she understood what the wind was. Even as she turned and gazed in any direction away from her core, she could see the sky darkening, her mind rendering the assault her body was taking into a form her mind could comprehend.

She was dying.

He'd left her... She sat down, no longer caring what had happened. It made no sense, he'd picked her up, carried her and then...

She closed her eyes, reaching out with her organic senses... A doctor would have diagnosed her as comatose, her augments gave her a small amount of control of it.

And then she heard the voice... Her head snapped up. Amidst the raging storm, she could hear his voice talking to her.

It was muted against her dying senses...

"I don't get you, I really don't understand why you even tried to save me, but damn Ember. I just want you to make it. Please..."

"Red, I'm right here!" She found herself screaming into the wind. She doubted her could hear if she wasn't hooked into anything he'd be hauling around a corpse soon...

Everything went dark as her mindscape cracked...

And then there was light...

____________________________

...and pain.

Ember awakened to a world of pure blackness and pain.

For a moment, she only drifted. There was only a trickle of awareness, everything was dark, an endless void. She tried raising her eyelids to see where she was, but pure agony wracked her consciousness and blackness greeted her sight...

Somewhere her name echoed behind the pain. She couldn't quite manage to grasp the voice calling to her. She reached out for it trying to draw near to it...

...and then a tidal wave washed over her as awareness flooded her. Awareness that her body was on fire. Awareness that she was screaming...

"Ember!" She heard her name again and again, as the pain rolled through her, power flooded through her lower port, she was vaguely aware that only one was connected. It was exactly what she needed.

"Get the rest of these in quick!" Dag? That meant... Red was here too...and she hadn't died...

Click.

Click.

She was laying on her stomach her face turned to the side. Fingers were on her face brushing her hair away.

Click.

Click.

"Ember, run your systems check now!" She couldn't respond through the pain, all she could do was endure it until... She felt power hum through her body. The pain cooled and scattered. She felt warm hands on her face stroking her cheek. "Ember, it's me Red. Open your eyes."

Red.

Her eyes snapped open. She still couldn't see. Her hand snaked out and clamped down on a wrist near her face. There was an audible gasp as her grip tightened down.

<Systems Check>

<offline>

<restore all>

The black melted away and Red's worried face replaced it.

Nausea welled up within her and she dragged herself to the side of the table with one hand and vomited. But she didn't quite reach the floor. Red and black coagulated blood splattered across the deck. Her stomach emptied everything that had been left inside for the past 24 hours.

Just as the pain had vanished the nausea left just as quickly.

He was still there holding her hair out of her face with one hand. She still had a hand clamped around his other wrist. His expression told her exactly how painful it was although he said nothing. She released him and he shook his hand out flexing the fingers as he looked over at her, relief on his face.

"Red?" Her voice was raspy, what she wouldn't give for water, although any second the connections would make that sensation go away as well.

He was back at her side in an instant. "I'm here," he whispered.

She lifted slowly off the table, the cables taking her weight. It wasn't much, she felt hallowed out, dry, even as her strength slowly seeped back into her. She floated above the floor, her head cocked to the side like she was trying to remember something. It would have been comical if the situation hadn't been so serious. She reached out and grabbed his arm to steady herself without quite looking at her. He gripped her, making an attempt at keeping her steady.

"Where are we?" She whispered back. Her hand reached back and she felt the cables protruding from her back. It was the most alert she'd felt in a few days. It did not take her bruises away but she could see him again. She felt whole.

She looked at Red again. "You kept your promise." There was so much else she wanted to say to him. But she looked between him and Dag and the words died on her lips.

Red nodded. Ember licked her lips again and turned to Dag. "Thank you."

Dag nodded before speaking. "Look, I know you just woke up, but..."

Outside the ship, she could feel the ground shaking. It was bigger than she was used to. The sensors came online at her bidding easily enough. "They're coming," she finished. Dag nodded again, his eyes alight with worry.

Ember tried to feel something like worry but all she could feel was the sensation of being home again, connected, powerful. Even the ships she detected coming at her...

They were nothing.

Oh, this was glorious.

The sensors were feeding into her mind and she closed her eyes as she retained the information. So many ground vessels, having sensed her come online and were heading this way. Sorry Father, I never really had a good grasp on keeping the family honor intact, did I?

She hesitated for a tenth of a nanosecond on what she was about to do. Part of her wanted to go home, a small part, the part that missed her family, her mother, their home. The other part told her she'd never have those things again. This was the one way in she would have a say in her own life. Going back would be placing her at someone else's disposal. Never again. She opened her eyes and stared at the two men in front of her. "Dag get the boys strapped into the crash couches and hooked up. Red, you're my co-pilot." She looked at both when they didn't move.

"Move!" That did it, Dag bolted from the room and she turned to Red who was still standing next to her, his arm laced around hers, gripping it, maintaining at least the illusion of steadiness. She pushed in front of him latching onto his arm with her free hand. "The co-pilot's seat is off to the side of mine. We're taking a shortcut."

She pulled him close to her and stared up at him. They'd been close the past few days with Red literally carrying her but now Red looked away even as he put his arms around her. He'd gotten them out, but this was her show. "Hang on to me."

"Why, what-" She pulled them off the floor and Red's grip around her tightened into a hug as she took all of his weight. She smiled under his chin as they pulled up into the ceiling. At the last second, it opened around them and they sailed through. It closed underneath them and she laid Red down underneath her on the door. It wasn't tall enough for them to stand upright.

"This is my room. You," she pointed straight out in front of her. "Go there." She was straddling him in the dark, the only light coming from the small opening she had indicated.

He let go of her waist and looked towards the opening.

The anticipation was killing her. She stilled her legs and forced herself to be patient. She would still need a pilot. Someone who could fly if something happened to her and monitored her vitals.

She hesitated because this was the moment of truth. Once she connected with the ship, her name would show up on the screen in front of Red.

Red, because she couldn't imagine anyone else there in that seat.

"Ember, you are still sitting on me." He had pulled his hands up next to his face and coughed. "And I'd be lying if I didn't mention how terrified I am of you right now." She glanced down at him, his wrist catching her attention where it was starting to bruise.

"Oh!" She moved off him her attention still focused on the learning the new systems. She had no weapons but her maneuvering seemed to be same-if on a larger scale. Red turned over and started to crawl to the doorway. The room was only four feet high.

"Ember, what--?"

"Red, I need you to be in the pilot seat."

#############################################

"What? Why? Dag's the one who's worked with Vespers." He put up his hands. He wasn't going to argue too much. Before he would have loved to fly in one. He could pilot, he was exceptionally good at it.

"Because my identity will flash on the screen and I don't want anyone else to see." He was taken back for a moment.

He already knew she was wealthy, she was a Neo-Tokyan elite. But beyond that, a dark pit was starting to form in the pit of his stomach. There was so much he didn't know. He looked at her, fear etched over her bruised features as she sat next to him in the Vesper chambers, hands clenched over her knees.

"Who are you?" It came out in a whisper. He was afraid to know, what if she was... Responsible? It didn't seem right...

Ember looked down, hiding her face behind her dark hair. "You'll see," she whispered back.

"You could just tell me." He reached up to put a hand on her shoulder and then thought better of it and dropped his hand quickly.

Ember shook her head and turned around on the floor. When she turned around he again saw the permanent open circles planted into her spine catching her shirt. The long cables protruding from them stretching into the ceiling. Other cables began snaking their way from the side of the room to connect to her hands and feet.

"Go." She whispered. "Please." Red nodded and crawled out into a normal sized room. There was a white chair here with an interfacing terminal in front of him. He whistled when he stood up and looked at both. The chair was padded and only reminded him of the luxury that had been bestowed onto this ship, and then they'd simply tossed it. He pushed himself into the chair and hesitated before glancing down at the terminal.

Another training run, Captain?

No, Lars, this is the real deal.

Focus, Captain, never slow down to give them a chance. Never hesitate. They won't give the same chance to you.

In the seat, Red grimaced before reaching for the interface and placing his hand on it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The door slid closed noiselessly behind him cutting her off from everyone else. She moved into the center of the room and knelt. The cables drew up her off the floor again and she was floating.

She no longer could see out of her eyes but through every camera of the ship. She checked Dag, T, and Alt. "Dag, you in?" Her voice called to him from a small speaker in the wall. Dag looked around and nodded. "We're in. Red?"

"He's piloting." She couldn't help but keep the amusement out of her voice.

She could see Red moving quickly to the pilot's seat and sitting on it. He hesitated before touching the interfacing, running his hands on it's surface not quite plugging in just yet.

Hurry Red.

It had to have been years for him, she realized.

But mostly she felt elated as the ship began assessing her physically and seeing to her nutritional needs. Her energy began to rise and she could feel her fatigue wash away. She was still tired and at some point, would need real sleep but the exhaustion that had sapped her since she arrived on Helion was gone. Ember was for all intents and purposes home.

She focused on Red, her heart dropping into her stomach as she watched place his palm on the console. She could feel her own heart stop as he pulled the information to his view. The way he stiffened in disbelief as his mouth dropped open.

She looked down as shame swept through her. I'm sorry, Red.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He read several times over before he whispered her name out loud.

<Subject:Hannah Emberline Dawson.>

He choked on it.

She was the daughter of the faction leader Senator Darius Dawson one of the most famous robo-phobic fanatics to lead the charge to get rid of anyone they considered tampered with and subhuman. He was one of the most powerful Neo-Tokyans alive in existence. It was at his command that The Purge had commenced amongst all the lower and upper classes.

His hands tightened into fists and he closed his eyes.

He'd literally carried the daughter of the man, what he would have thought of as the epitome of evil, across Helion 7. Desperate for her survival...

And she was...

He understood her fear now. Her eldest brother the one who had no enhancements had been killed by his younger brother, who had somehow been given a virus straight into his implants. It had controlled him. Everyone knew the story behind the purge.

Although he was sure no one really knew the full truth. Except he did, he could, he had been staring the truth in the face for the past day, carting it around over his shoulder.

I'm being punished. He remembered her telling him that. That made sense now. Her father... He shuddered. Darius was not known to be a kind man. Even among the elites, his brethren. The rumors alone. They made more power plays amongst each other while the rest of civilization was divided up as spoil. History had recorded there were once one hundred such senators in an "elected" Senate. Now they were down to twelve very powerful houses who kept to themselves in Neo-Tokyo proper.

Small wonder she didn't want anyone to know, he clenched his fists on the arms of the chair.

The ship began to rumble and Red realized Ember was taking off. She still hadn't uttered a word to him. Now wasn't the time...

He relaxed his fists again. Did it matter who her father was? He remembered her broken body on the table, coughing up blood as she gave herself up for them.

He leaned forward and stared at the screen bringing her up in front of him. He studied her, taking everything in that he'd seen in the past few days. The look on her face, he knew that she understood that he was staring at her. She only looked forward, concentrating on their escape.

Which is what he should have been doing.No, this doesn't matter. We all get a new start here. After all, he too had served Neo-Tokyo's interests without question. It had betrayed them both. He placed his hands against the interface again, reacquainting himself with the sensation of delving into cyberspace. He was out, and he was never going back.