When the ship steadies again, I extend it to Evo.
Evo takes the chip and looks it over. His face ripples with the glowing honeycomb pattern.
Steele gasps. “Wow... That is wild.”
His comment clearly makes Evo self-conscious. Evo promptly hands the device to me and slides back a step. I don’t think he likes changing in front of others, or at least hedoesn’t want to make others uncomfortable. Insecurity is not a characteristic I remember being built into Titans. But if Evo can feel self-doubt, then he’s far more human than most likely think. He could feel like an outcast. His behavior definitely hints at it.
I glare at Steele and bare my teeth.
He grimaces and silently mouths, “Sorry.”
Brodin takes the tablet back, packs it in his armor along with several other things, then motions to Steele. “Get dressed. If the Solcrue know she’s alive, they’re going to come for her.”
Steele looks over the things and begins dressing in his armor. “Because she’s a key to a really big weapon?”
Brodin rips a device out of his case and closes it. Then he walks up to Evo and hovers it over his hand. The scanner beeps. “Inconclusive. Too much nano interference. But there are residual threads in there. Perhaps as a human, you were one of us. Now, you are if you choose to be.”
“I will protect Aera until I am decommissioned.” Evo is firm. “I do not care what you call me as long as my loyalty is clear.”
The door slides open, exposing Daken in armor like Steele and Brodin. His eyes dart to me. “Poppy would like to speak with us, but we must meet her onAegis,where others gather for a meeting.”
I walk up to Daken and squint up at him, trying not to smile. “I should punch you for not telling me and for carrying this burden alone.”
“Yeah, man. What the fuck?” Steele snorts.
Daken chews a cheek, then glances between us. “I wasn’t supposed to know.”
“Did you find out before or after we were a thing?” I quietly ask him.
Daken adjusts his grip on his rifle. “After.”
“So was any of it real or just a feeling that you had to stay close?” I ask.
He shrugs and looks away. “I don’t know, Aera. But I will always care. And I will always be here.”
“Same goes for you.”
He gives me a terse nod, then looks up at Evo like he sees something familiar in him. “I’m new to this, too. And it’s just a guess, but what if the Titans werehowthey preserved the resistance?”
I look back at Brodin.
He scratches his gray beard. “It’s possible. But I didn’t work deep in the labs. I don’t know how they chose soldiers.” But when he looks at Evo, he nods. “I could see that being the reason some Creators like your mother pushed for production of models the other Creators objected to.”
“They objected to me?” Evo asks with such emptiness in his voice that it makes us all look at him.
Brodin purses his lips like he didn’t expect such a reaction.
Evo’s eyes fall on a distant place.
“Final jump,” Poppy’s voice announces.
Evo doesn’t look at me. He just secures me to him with an arm and grabs the doorframe like protecting me is second nature. A jarring bump tears through the ship.
“Sorry about that, everyone. There’s a little extra turbulence in the tail end of the solar storm, still leaving the area. Please make sure to check all systems for cracked seals or shifted items. We will be in the nebula in five minutes.”
As our flight smoothes out again, I expect Evo to let go of me, but he doesn’t. And I’m starting to like it more every time.
“I’m glad you’re here,” I tell Evo. “The resistance would’ve lost me and maybe Xiphos forever if you hadn’t saved my life. Now, we just have to find it.”
