“I would never, in a million Xanteaus-granted lifetimes, ever work with a Cyborg.”
Everything that she’d worked so hard for was vanishing right before her eyes. It’d only taken minutes for the situation to escalate. Cypher pulled his arm back, and she flew between the two men.
“Stop!” She threw out her arms to hold them back. One of her palms landed on Commander Lotrin’s chest, the other on Cypher’s.Cold and hot.They both stopped.
“Please,” she begged. “We want the same thing. We want a better future without war. We can’t afford to fight. We’ve all lost so much already. This isn’t worth a fight.”
She looked at Cypher, who glared at the commander, before turning her face toward Lotrin. Curiously, he gazed at her hand and lifted his free one toward it. Vee tried to snatch it back, but his gloved hand caught her wrist.
Cypher roared. He tore her away from the commander, wrenching her arm, and she slammed into Cypher’s chest.
All hell broke loose.
The alien guards attacked in unison, and she was pulled from Cypher’s arms. In a flash, he transformed—ripping his virtual suit to shreds—into a monstrous mecha bear. Every humanoid part of him disappeared under a frenzy of metal and laser sparks. Vee screamed as spearheads stabbed at him from all sides.
Someone pulled her back, and she fought for release. She shoutedstopat the top of her lungs, but no one paid attention. “Cypher!”
Vee tried to swipe her hand out to stop the game and pull them out, but whoever held her grabbed her arm. When she closed her eyes to source out her intentions through the rig, nothing happened.
Her eyes shot open, looking for another method to power down or rewind, when Commander Lotrin stepped forward, holding a silver lightning rod above his head. Dread coursed through her. As if it all happened in slow motion, Cypher turned his face toward her as Lotrin slammed the tip of the rod down into Cypher’s back.
Their eyes met. His flashed once. It was the only part of him she recognized. And then the light in them faded. He seized as if electrocuted, and fell to the floor with aboom.
“Get us out of here, get us out of here, get us out of here!” Vee cried.
Commander Lotrin thrust his spear farther into Cypher’s back, and Vee sobbed.
“Please no more. Please!” She couldn’t take it. Pain ripped through her. “Please! I’ll do anything, anything, just spare him.”
Lotrin paused without looking at her and tugged his weapon from Cypher’s back. Sparks and blood erupted from the hole. Tears flooded her eyes as Cypher’s body shook and vibrated, and tried to transform back into a man.
“It’s not worth it,” she whimpered. “This isn’t worth it.” Vee wrenched her eyes shut and prayed to be pulled out. Could no one hear her?
Was this a rule for the championship? She couldn’t remember ever being told it was, or if it had been in the past. The smell of copper blood and heated metal filled her nose, and she gagged.
Then something floral replaced it. Her eyes snapped open to find Commander Lotrin kneeling in front of her.
“Release her,” he said to whoever held her from behind.
Vee swiped her hand across the air to pull up the files, but nothing appeared. She was either not in her game, or she was in someone else’s.
“You’ll do anything to spare him?” Lotrin asked. “A Cyborg?”
“Yes!”
“One who has killed many, thousands, a mass slaughterer. You’d do anything for that?”
“Yes…”
His fiery eyes hooded. “Then I feel sorry for you.” He straightened and stood. Just as it seemed he was going to leave, he reached out his hand to her. “You have much to learn when it comes to the value of life.”
She stared at his hand mutely.
“Take it. If you want to join us in colonizing Laprencia, take it,” he said.
“I want Cypher.”
Lotrin’s face darkened. “It’s a game, Vee Miles.”
