"No!" I cried out, rushing over to his side. His body didn't move in response. I flipped him over, trying to locate the wound. It was on his head, the cherry red of the blood clashing horribly with the vibrant ginger of his hair. Laying on his back, I could now see that his scrawny chest rose and fell in time, so he was still alive, just unconscious. Breathing a sigh of relief, I grabbed his body, trying my best to pull him over my shoulder. He was surprisingly light for his height, though giving his living situation, perhaps it shouldn't have been.

Pulling him further away from the fiery building, I had just sat down, supporting Oliver's head on my lap, when I heard a crash behind me. The building had fallen, my belongings trapped inside. My cheeks began to feel wet, and now, being out of the danger, emotions started to hit me, all at once.

"Why? Why now a fire?" It was normally odd for one to talk aloud to themselves, but perhaps I had gone mad in the past few days. It was all so sickening, and twisted, and seemingly out of my hands. "First I lose Father, lose my only way to keep myself alive, get dragged into this entire plot to end other's lives, trust a criminal, and now lose the only things I had in a fire. When did it get like this? My life was so... so set. So organized." The same sound of a tea kettle on full boil began to fill the air again. "And now I can't even think with that infernal noise!"

"Well that's a bit rude. I like to think the only reason someone can't think around me is because I'm absolutely stunning."

My head had never turned faster as I recognized the rich voice. "Narsi! You're alive!" I got up and ran over to her, about to throw my arms around her.

"Wait! Watch out, I'm still hot!" It was then that I noticed that her skin, or metal in place of her skin, instead of being the smooth silver from before, was as red as a poker pulled from a fire. In fact, that tea kettle noise was coming from her. The pipes that I had seen poking out of her hat earlier were admitting large amounts of steam into the night air. "That's my cooling system. It's pretty good, since it was supposed to be for handling explosives in the War, but it's still going to take awhile before you can touch me." She seemed so happy, smiling and joking despite the wreckage behind her. But it only lasted a moment, when she noticed Oliver lying on the ground.

"Oh my goodness! What happened to him? Did he get hurt when the building collapsed? I was still trapped inside before I noticed..."

"We weren't inside when it fell," I explained. "I managed to blow a hole in the wall with some items that we had, but when we jumped out of it, he must have fallen wrong. He's alive but- I don't know how to wake him up. Unless..." I looked at the ring of keys, still held tight in my hand. "I could wind him, but I have no clue which one of these is his. Do you?" I looked at Narsi, but she looked away quickly.

"No sorry, I don't... Oh wait look!" She pointed, and I saw that Oliver was slowly starting to stir.

"Oh thank goodness!" I cried out, pulling his frail body close and breathing a sigh of relief. "I was so worried that you... That you..." My words began to halt as I realized just how close he was to me. "Well, you're alive, and that's what matters." I pushed him back. He could sit up without my help, after all.

"What happened?" he groaned after a minute. "My ribs hurt like a-" He cut off when he noticed the inferno blazing several feet before him. "The fire! We escaped? We're alive?" His eyes looked deep into mine, questioning everything around him, from Narsi's squealing frame to me, standing right in front of him, still dressed in my thin, masculine clothes.

"Yes, I suppose we did, and just in time. I barely had time to pull you away from your fall before the building collapsed," I explained. Suddenly, Oliver was up, his arms wrapped close around my body.

"Oh Eva you did it! I would have died if it wasn't for you. You're a bloody genius, you know that?" He pulled his head off my shoulder for a moment, holding me out at arm's length, looking straight into my eyes. It was a bit unnerving having him be only slightly above me, as I was usually taller than most men, but I held his gaze. "I owe you one." And with that, he released his hold.

"A-all right," I replied. "But before you go paying me back, we need to figure this out. How did the building catch on fire? And how did no one else notice it?"

"Well, you two were the only humans in the building. Automatons can't smell, so I had no idea there was a fire at all, until the building fell. As for how it started, I think it's pretty obvious..." Narsi trailed.

"Someone is trying to kill us," Oliver finished without hesitation.

"What? But I thought you said the Mits never entered this area?" I asked incredulously, yet it made sense. Even away from the building, I could smell gunpowder, much stronger than what would be in the air from my small concoction. Not only that, but all the grass around the building was burnt, in an almost circular fashion, which wouldn't have happened from any mere kitchen fire. Fire only rose upwards, so any other direction meant it was from an outside source.

"I've seen this before. This isn't the Mits at all." Oliver tried to appear calm, calculated, but I could see the fear rising with the realization in his eyes. I wondered who he was trying to act strong for. "This is the work of assassins. We're beyond just being riffraff on the street. We've been upgraded to a state-level threat. They want us gone, and they want it to look like an accident. They don't care about the Automatons, so it was the perfect setup."

"Well in that case, you can't stay here, but I didn't think you two were planning on staying here long anyways. If this was an assassination attempt, then they probably assume that you both are out of the picture, but I don't want anything else getting destroyed. I already will have to find another place to stay." Narsi sighed. It was a strange sigh, like the groaning of two gears running the wrong way.

"We'll leave as soon as possible then," I concluded. "We just need one piece of information. Where would we find your Gadgeteer?"

"He's a bit far from here," she answered. "You're currently on the outskirts of the Automaton district, M-22. He lives in district M-20."

I felt my heart, or whatever was constructed of it, sink. Missouri was a decently square state, divided up nicely into district blocks, put in rows and columns. M-22 and 23, the Automaton and Lexington district were the first two of their row, so while M-20 was only two numbers away...

"You mean he's on the other side of the bloody state?" Oliver practically cried.

"Shhh! We don't know if anyone is still around looking for you," Narsi hushed him. "Yes, it is a bit far, but if you are collecting heart pieces, I can't think of a better place to look."

"Then we don't have a second to lose. We'll leave at once," I answered. Oliver nodded, grabbing his suicase beside him on the ground. Instead of standing right up though, he paused to open it, and I realized what he was putting into it.

"Oliver? You saved my knife from the fire?"

He looked confused for a moment, glancing up at me. "Of course? You were focused so much on having your gunpowder work, that you forgot all your belongings. I thought the knife was important, so I took it. I didn't have time to grab everything of yours though. I'm sorry."

"Sorry?" I couldn't believe he had even managed to snag the weapon. "I'm simply grateful you even did that much for me. That knife was my father's,so to know that it's safe, I couldn't care that I lost the rest." I felt a sigh of relief escape my chest. 

We had begun to take a few steps away from the wreckage, before Narsi called for us to wait a moment. She gestured for Oliver alone to walk back for a moment, while I waited in the distance. I found I didn't like how she pulled him aside, whispering something in his ear, though I had no clue why. They did seem close, after all, so why wouldn't they have their own secrets? I was just a stranger, working to get my own pieces. We just shared the same goal.

So why was it so infuriating that he looked so bashful once she stopped whispering then? Why did I hate that he also gave her a hug before we left? I did like Narsi. She was kind, sweet, and confident.

So why did it bother me so?