***

GUNNER’S GLAZED GREY eyes, wraith-like and zombified, appeared before her. She jerked in surprise, not expecting him so close.

“Ugh.” Elodie rubbed her face. “How long have I been asleep?”

“A couple of hours.”

Her eyes widened. “That long?” She couldn’t remember the last time she’d slept so long. Even so, she was tempted to go back to sleep again. Knowing Gunner was watching over her made her feel safe enough to rest peacefully, without fear. She licked her dry lips. “Why didn’t you wake me?”

“You needed the rest.”

“I need—” Gunner grabbed her as she attempted to stand and pressed her back against the floor. He pulled the blanket over them. Elodie swallowed but didn’t fight back—she didn’t really want to. His comforting heat enveloped her, and as quickly as she had woken, it was now as quickly hard to breathe.

“You need?” He peered into her eyes.

She scrunched her features and pressed her hands against his chest. “Not this,” she whispered.

“This,” his voice was a soft feather as he scanned her face, “is resting, healing, rebounding and readying for the next move. This is exactly what you need. It’s what I need.”

“The anticipation,” she swallowed again, “is killing me though.”

“Is it?” He smirked.

Elodie pushed. No give. Gunner was like an impenetrable wall. He was an impenetrable wall. Even bullets came to a dead stop when they hit his internal frame. She’d seen the smashed balls of metal on the floor. “Stop asking questions that I hate answering. There’s no rhetoricals with you.”

His smile widened.

The heat was suffocating.

She didn’t want him to let her go. Her reflection was clear in his wild eyes and as she gazed at herself through him. Elodie liked being the sole thing he saw. And he really saw her, the true her, the self that she’d never shown to anyone before. He had from the beginning. She wanted to believe that she filled his space as much as he filled hers.

Gunner dropped down onto his elbows and moved closer, crowding. His teasing smile melted into an unreadable, pinched line. She was trapped and it thrilled her. Because he trapped her, captivated her, she was willing. I’m still the only thing he sees. His chest pressed against her own. Elodie dug her nails into his skin, acknowledging the standoff but not pushing him away.

“I didn’t wake you because I liked watching you sleep.” His lips brushed her own. His breathy words sent her stomach into a somersault.

“I shouldn’t like that, but I do... Did you sleep?”

His lips arched back into a smile. “No,” he told her. “I didn’t want to waste a moment.”

Frown. “Waste a moment? Do Cyborgs live forever? Do they age? Either way, you likely have an eternity of moments to waste.”

“Not with you.”

His words gave her pause.

They caught her off guard. She didn’t like the thought that they had moments that could be wasted, meaning that someday they could run out of moments entirely.

It made her want to hold onto this second as long as she could. Like he was apparently trying so hard to do. Sad and wistful. The revelation wasn’t a pleasant one.

She scanned his face, memorizing it.

His nose bumped hers, endearingly, and she wrenched her eyes shut. Her hands loosened on his shoulders to bury into his tousled hair. A thousand irrational thoughts came to mind but she couldn’t manage to open her mouth or find the courage to voice them. Instead, she pulled him closer and mashed her lips to his, choosing to remain shuttered behind the walls of her eyelids.

Gunner shattered her heart as he caressed her mouth open and deepened the kiss. A quiet, subtle, and strange desperation built between them. Elodie hitched up and fought for a breath but it only drowned her further. Her senses filled to the brink with him—the heady sweet sweat, adrenaline-tinged musk, and the rumbling thunder.

His hand gripped the edge of her pants and pushed them down her legs. She untangled herself from them in a rush to bridge the gap. To feel his skin over hers. Her thighs abraded with friction when his were yanked down next and with the blanket still hovering over them both, hiding them from view, Gunner flipped her over onto her front and pressed his weight heavily against her back.

Elodie moved her arms underneath her chest and rested on them as her hands cupped her face. Gunner’s arms appeared on either side of her head.

It was quiet as the head of his cock pushed between her closed cheeks and sought entrance. She lifted her butt as far as he let her to close the distance.

The process was achingly slow, painfully heart-wrenching, and filled her belly with chaotic butterflies.

Gunner found her entrance, dipping in his thick tip in, before rocking back out. Elodie winced despite her essence slicking her skin but he took it slow and she rested into submission.

The delicious smell of his pre-cum soon pooled to join her arousal to lubricate his way. It was intoxicating—drugging as it rolled over her—trapped by the man that shielded her. The scent of heady sex bubbled them in.

His mouth caressed the back of her neck, over her nape, and along her shoulders. She leaned her face harder into her hands and stifled her moans as his cock drove deeper. Tears prickled her eyes from the sudden stretch.

Elodie broke the silence whispering his name.

Gunner’s hair fell across her cheek as he pressed his own mouth alongside hers, whispering her name back. He pushed down until their bodies plastered together. Locked together. Oh. She rubbed the dew on her eyelashes away.

Then he began to move.

Each time before had been a claiming in its own way. This time was different: a branding. He was burning himself into her thoughts as he took her body, and when her legs parted enough for him to fully seat himself deep inside her core, they began to move in unison.

The silence that had enclosed them vanished in the building frenzy of their bodies. Elodie gasped as Gunner increased his tempo, thrusting harder each time. Rasps filled her ears, their faces still pressed together and their mouths side-by-side sharing the humid air. He rocked into her, spreading her legs further apart and pushed her forward into the floor, his chest hitting her back.

Gunner slipped his palm under her forehead, cushioning it from his ruthless pounding into her body.

A roaring grunt and a brutal thrust had her reaching up to grasp his hand. Gunner snaked his other arm under her chest and climaxed violently, holding her to his chest as he seized.

Hot seed filled her pussy and spilled out to ease the friction where their legs tangled, rubbed, and slapped together. A crazy smile jerked at her lips as his body heaved and careened, caught up by the sudden, unexpected release. Gunner had lost control with her and she liked it, even more so because he had complete power over her own body at the same time.

“Fuck!” His cheek left hers as he rested his brow against the back of her head. “Fuck,” he grunted again with another thrust, grinding her ass harder with his pelvis.

An airy laugh escaped her. Elodie didn’t even try to hide it. She continued to giggle as he released her to collapse onto the bedding.

“How am I going to keep you if I can’t even control myself?” Gunner rasped. “I owe you at least a good half hour for that one.”

Her pussy clenched. He gave her another quick, brutal thrust.

“I can’t believe I’m saying this,” she chuckled and gasped. “But you’re...” she almost lost her words as he continued spearing her, “...adorable.”

He flipped her over onto her back and wicked red eyes filled her vision. My reflection. Mirth replaced the desperation and she wrapped her legs around his hips, slipping his thick shaft back into her.

“Elodie, I’m not adorable.”

“You are. Right now, you are.”

Gunner’s face twisted devilishly. “Do I need to prove it to you?”

Yes. No. Yes.

“I don’t think that’s possible, anymore,” she teased.

Gunner crushed his mouth to hers pulled out of her. His mouth bit and tore down her body, grazing his teeth over the long subtle curves of her frame. His face pressed between her shaky legs, and what she felt between them wasn’t entirely human. He wasn’t playing fair, shifting his face back into the frightening visage he wore when he had found her in this room. Elodie refused to look down and give him the satisfaction. He tortured her stubbornness with orgasms.

When the third one gripped her body, Elodie began to think Gunner liked being vicious with her cunt and enjoyed having his face between her legs.

A thrill swept through her. She was marking him in her own way.

***

SHE WATCHED GUNNER check his weapons and belt them onto the foraged straps that crisscrossed his chest and shoulders. Apparently, he needed to recharge. It was hard for him to admit, and at first she was confused, but as his body healed before her eyes, and his darkening aura faded back into normalcy, she understood.

Even a Cyborg had its limits. Sex wasn’t one of them.

Their supplies had increased each day they had spent in the break room. Gunner had left on several occasions but had refused to let her join him. She would’ve cared if she hadn’t been working so hard on building the radio beacon.

And she had fixed it, despite the odds, at least in a way. It held a charge and lit up when she turned it on, but the connection she’d hoped would happen instantly hadn’t occurred.

Elodie set it to cycle through the most commonly used frequencies and figured it would alert her if it made a connection. She still needed to wire it up. She’d ask Gunner for his input when he was done... armoring up.

Her clit still throbbed, even hours after her last orgasm, from continuous release. Watching him dress didn’t help at all. He made her want to melt back into him and demand another bout of sex. Elodie threaded her fingers and pushed her legs together in an effort to stop her body from wanting the wrong things at the wrong time, again. He can smell it every time. I knew that would be trouble.

Stop it. Elodie tore her eyes away, relocated her double banded sports bra and fled to the bathroom. It was time to hide her femininity anyway. The pressure of the disguise returned as she settled the bra into place.

Gunner appeared in the doorway, resting his shoulder on the frame, as she stepped into a clean uniform he sourced for her.

“You look like a boy.”

She cringed. “I wish I didn’t.”

“Why? Isn’t that what you’re aiming for?”

“Only because I have to. I’m tired of it. All of it. The façade. The game that has no end. Winning it is impossible and winning isn’t something I’ve ever seriously wanted to do.”

She also didn’t want Gunner to see her as a man anymore, but she would never admit that out loud.

He cocked his head. “Then why do it? You know, besides the obvious reason?”

“You already know that answer.”

“Chesnik. Family.” He sighed. “Still fucking clueless why though. Would you follow him anywhere? To the ends of the black universe? To hell?” His voice grew angry and she didn’t know why.

“Yes. No. Maybe.” Elodie frowned. “I don’t know anymore. One time I would’ve followed him anywhere. He’s my dad and he was all I knew but now... I’m not so sure,” she answered honestly.

“But you’d consider it?”

Would she? “Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because I love him. He’s the only thing I was ever able to love and he’s my dad. It’s always scared me, the thought of losing that love. I mean, what else is there without it?” Elodie lowered her voice despite herself, already slipping into her disguise, albeit unwillingly. “What’s the point of living if you never really live? Losing him in the brig was one of the worst experiences of my life. I don’t think humans are meant to be alone.”

“Would you die for him?”

“Of course I would! He’s my dad.” How many times would she have to say it? “But I know I would never have to. He’d never let me and he’d die for me too.” Talking about love made her uncomfortable. Especially with him. “Wouldn’t you die for family?”

“I don’t have any family. So, I wouldn’t be able to answer that. Plus, dying isn’t something a Cyborg can easily do.”

She caught his eyes in the mirror. “No family? What about other Cyborgs? Wouldn’t you consider them family?”

He shook his head. “Don’t look so crestfallen. We’re made the way we are for a reason and although that reason no longer exists, we have freedom and power in place of family. We do have each other, that’s true, but I would never consider the rest of them my family.” He laughed. “Cyborgs can’t stand being around each other for long periods of time. We innately repel.”

“You do?”

“Strong personalities.”

Hmph. “I can see that.”

“Maybe it’s our technology. If you get enough ‘Borgs together we heat up a room like a sauna located on the surface of a star, and that’s before we start fighting,” he added, laughing. “Regardless, we repel.”

“It doesn’t bother you?” She wondered what her life would be like if she didn’t have her dad, the choices she would’ve made. Power and freedom would be nice... “Do you like being alone?”

Gunner didn’t immediately answer her. She watched his face in the mirror as an unreadable expression took away the smirk that bowed his lips.

She suddenly regretted asking and was about to apologize when he spoke.

“That’s a hard question to answer.”

“You don’t have to answer it.”

He shook his head. “I will... It’s just hard to explain.”

He’s at a loss for words? Her brow crinkled.

“I was created half a century ago as a fully grown, functioning human being.” Gunner paused again. “Family and loneliness mean different things to me than they do to you. When I opened my eyes that first time I knew exactly what and who I was. I was born with all the knowledge I needed to exist in this reality. The machine was natural. The human was natural.” He shrugged. “The jackal not so much.”

The jackal? She opened her mouth but he continued talking before she could ask.

“It’s not common knowledge that each Cyborg is built differently, for different purposes. Technology can do so much but only so much can fit in the space of a body designed like a physically fit human. What is commonly known, though, is that we’re all designed with strength—some more than others—and the power to seed into the network and siphon energy. We all have speed. We all have perfect memories that function like storage units and a hard drive with practically infinite space. That’s the machine inside us, and machines don’t need family and they don’t get lonely. The problem is that not all of us are ruled by the machine, and regardless of what technology we’re given upon birth, we still have a conscience and we still have emotions. So your question is a hard one to answer.” He pushed away from the wall. “Each Cyborg created does have a different function and a different power stored within. Some call it checks and balances. I call it intrigue.”

“But jackal?” She was still stuck on jackal.

“Let me explain.” He took a step toward her. “The moment I woke up, I knew something was different about me. I had all this knowledge and I knew there were other Cyborgs—like me—waking up in separate vats throughout the cybernetic facility. My first memories were of feeling ill. I knew, instinctively, that Cyborgs didn’t wake up feeling that way, but there I was, freshly created, and feeling unnatural. There was a third part to me, an animalistic part, that agreed with my illness. I had just experienced life and yet I had an affinity for death.

“In those first minutes of waking I registered my abrupt obsession as a malfunctioning calibration, maybe a misplaced code, but the more I gleaned from my makeup and from the others around me, I quickly realized that the illness I was feeling wasn’t an error at all. It was a bestial contender for my headspace. That different part of me, the one that made me unique compared to all other Cyborgs, also made me unpredictable.

“Some beasts are docile, some beasts exist in perfect harmony with their environment. Those beasts are not jackals. We were all coded to win a war and war meant death, a lot of death. But in those first few years of my life, I wasn’t only filled with bloodlust like my brethren. I was filled to the brink with hunger, and I was ravenous. I felt at home among the corpses. Fucking docs spliced an opportunistic, pack-centric carrion-eater with a machine and then sent their creation off to war.”

Elodie stiffened her spine and held her ground. “Did you?”

“Did I what?”

“Eat...carrion?”

“Never.”

Gunner stood at her back. Her fingers gripped the edge of the sink, her knuckles white. Relief filled her but so did her curiosity. “Did you want to though?”

His eyes flickered red. “Yes. The problem with a jackal-machine-human hybrid is the jackal thinks it’s a great idea and the machine sees an abundant energy source ripe for the plucking, but the man...” Gunner paused, “...the man is horrified. Horrified and outnumbered.” He pressed a hand to her lower back. “I have more control over myself than that, Ely, so don’t look so sick.” His palm was hot against her spine. “I never ate a corpse but I’m also not infallible. I didn’t do it out of motherfucking spite. Those who made me knew what they were doing and maybe it was a fun test for them, to see how far they can push us before we lose control. I wasn’t going to give them the satisfaction.”

Gunner ran his hand up her body until he held the back of her neck. “No. I did what you did. I hid in plain sight and pretended normalcy. And although I was surrounded by corpses—constantly—for years, I buried that third part of me until it was like it never even existed. Because I am a spiteful bastard that didn’t want them to win. It was probably my biggest mistake.”

Gunner’s eyes went dark red and glazed as if he was looking into the past. To something she would never truly see. When he didn’t continue Elodie prompted, “Why was it a mistake?” She glanced down at her camouflage and wondered if she was making one herself.

“I corrupted myself.”

“How?”

“I erased some codes that I shouldn’t have.” He pried one of her hands away from the sink to capture it between his own. “I was looking for the parts of myself that gave control to the jackal but I ended up reconfiguring my basic settings instead. To do so is tantamount to suicide.” Gunner shrugged. “But at the time I was sick of feeling at home among the dead. And I’m not even a goddamn spider! Or a bat. I know a guy who obsessively rests upside down. Obsessively. Can you imagine?” He released a grim laugh.

Confusion still gripped her. “Did it work? What happened after you messed up your codes?”

“It did work. When it happened, I was commander of a battle station and suddenly I had no driving will to fight a war that wasn’t mine. Cyborgs want nothing more than to kill Trentians. Taking even one of those alien bastards out gives us a better high than any possible combination of narcotics. The scientists figured Pavlovian reinforcement to our basic coded desires was a good fail-safe. I inadvertently axed that part of my brain. I had dozens of ships in my fleet, all designed for guerrilla warfare and planetside battles. I got up, walked out of the bridge, hijacked one of the flyers and deserted. The shock I created brought on panic from the pretty boys in charge. My desertion branded me with eternal exile.”

Silence settled between them.

She hadn’t realized how little she knew about the dangerous man at her back until just then. And he was right, loneliness and family meant vastly different things to them. On top of that, the war had ended when one of the Cyborgs single-handedly demolished a Trentian colony ship roughly forty-five years earlier.

Everyone learned that as a child, but that had to mean that Gunner had already been alone for almost half a century.

She wanted to turn around and hug him, to bury her face into his chest and breathe in his hard smell, but that meant she’d have to stop looking at him, if even for a second. They watched each other quietly until the distance his words at first created slowly receded.

Until they were gone altogether and it was just the two of them again.

In a bleak situation.

Alone.

Gunner lifted a pair of scissors that she’d set aside earlier by the sink and raised them to her hair. He twirled them with his fingers and she was transfixed.

“Do you regret it?” she eventually asked.

“No.”

“Why?”

A small smile twisted the corner of his lip. “Because since then, they have never even tried to create another Cyborg like myself, at least one who preferred the dead over the living.”

“So you’re no longer hiding then?”

“Not anymore. Losing me was a costly shock—god, I love how much money I’m worth—and a setback. It created some political strife but it was for the best in the long run. Those that came into power after the war ended took into account that Cyborgs couldn’t be controlled forever. If they wanted our continued help and for us to never turn on them, we would have to be as free as any natural born man.”

“And your exile?”

“I’m not allowed to enter commercial air space or any Earthian-controlled colonies without prior notarized clearance from both the head the EPED and the fleet admiral in control of the region I’m visiting. I’m not allowed on any star port or waystation that is in full control of the government on pain of imprisonment. My contact with the civilized world is to be at the barest minimum,” Gunner said as he took the longer strands of her hair between his fingers started clipping away.

“Didn’t the government go after you when you deserted? Wouldn’t they try to kill you or lock you up? Even I knew that back then and treason is one of the highest crimes one can commit. You should be dead.”

“Power and freedom.” He smirked. “Elodie, I’m still employed by them.”

She deadpanned. “You are?”

“Yes.” Her strands fell softly around her shoulders in waves as he tugged her head back and forth and styled her hair. “The EPED or the Earthian Planetary Exploration Division. A pseudo-private corporation under the government umbrella. I’m a retriever for them and the job suits me. They can make use of me and send me to the brinks of the known universe to hunt and bring back whatever it is they want to study... Or to have quietly vanished from existence and in return I’m paid enough to keep my ship maintained and have purpose.”

“But after everything you’ve been through, don’t you want more?” She wasn’t exactly sure how old Gunner was but if he was created around the time the rest of the Cyborgs were, then he was at least twice her age. I would want more.

“Do you think I deserve more?”

“Yes, because you’re alive and free and scant few have the opportunities you have. You were exiled by the same people who are employing you, who created you. I would think you’d want more out of life than eternally roaming the edges of the known universe and working for them. Why not run?”

“I tried that. Nothing changed.”

She narrowed her eyes. “I don’t understand. You could go off the grid, change your name, and get new upgrades. You could find a new ship and fly it so far away that no one would ever encounter you again. If you’re above the law why not just leave? You didn’t regret it then, what’s so different now?”

Gunner set down the scissors and ruffled her hair. “I don’t want to,” he said again and smiled, turning her around to face him. “Don’t get me wrong. I’ve thought about it. I’ve tried and each time I turned back.”

“What stopped you?”

“What stopped me? There’s nothing out there and that scares me too. What else is there without this?” he asked, suddenly looking at her directly, intensely.

Her words from earlier were thrown back in her face. Gunner searched her eyes, imploringly, and she took a short step back, bewildered. The strings that pulled her to him cinched and wrapped around her heart. He rested his hands on the sink to either side of her.

He’s going to kiss me.

She dug her nails into the palms of her hands. He leaned down and she leaned back. Her lips parted and the guns on his cheeks pointed to his beautiful bow-shaped mouth.

If he kisses me...

But his lips never met hers.

“Well, are you ready?” The words breezed over her forehead and he took a step back.

She wasn’t ready. Not anymore. She was overwhelmed.

“No.” She licked her lips against the kiss he didn’t give her. “But it doesn't matter.” Elodie maneuvered around him, fleeing and leaving the bathroom behind. The courage she once held was now gone. “I don't want to be here anymore.”

Her heart raced as she collected the rest of her supplies, stopping at the table to pick up her contraption and a piece of piping she was going to wield as a weapon.

When she was done, she headed to the broken door. Her eyes briefly looked at the punctured wall, to the gel casings that littered the floor from the food replicator, and to the pile of blankets lying in the corner. The place had become a sanctuary and one she would always remember...but it was time to leave.

Gunner stood at the edge of the room quietly. Elodie refused to meet his gaze.

A surge of excitement shot through her. The taste of freedom was at the tip of her tongue. When he finally approached, he looked bleak but self-assured and she wondered what he was thinking.

It was time to go.

He didn’t say anything as he gripped the door panel and shoved it into the wall. Heavy plumes of heat and steam, damp with humidity, cascaded over them as the giant machines came back into view and the sounds of shifting metal with it.

They stepped out together. Gunner took the lead and her excitement fled as she watched him walk away from her. Sweat beaded on her brow as he moved steadily further ahead. She knew he did it for her but it wasn’t helping. The gap between them widened. They were vastly different but she felt connected to him, now more than ever.

I don’t want to say goodbye to the only true friend I’ve ever made. The only person who sees me... And each residing step onward brought the possible inevitability closer.

Because Elodie knew, once they were out of this hellhole, life would return, and with it, their very real differences.

***

GUNNER MONITORED EVERY footfall behind him, listening to Ely following the path he set out for them through the rigs. She was at home within the machines and although he wanted to turn around and help her, he didn’t. He needed her to follow him of her own volition and he didn’t want to make her appear weak or feel unprepared with his newfound obsession with her well-being. He gritted his teeth and continued forward.

She was in her environment even if it was an unsafe one, but knowing that didn’t make it easier for him to not want to turn around and shield her.

“We’ll be rejoining the other prisoners soon, are you prepared?” he asked instead, adding to the distance she’d already created. He wasn’t an idiot. I know why she pulled away.

It was also so he would not turn around and press her into his side.

“Yes.”

“Good.”

Was he prepared? The question made him scoff as they ducked under a railing, dodged a steam vent, and turned the corner. Even now, with the barrier still between them and the others, he could already begin to sense the activities of the prisoners. They were preparing.

“If you get hurt...” He hated the silence. “They die. If you die, they all die. You’ll be safe.”

Elodie made a humming sound. “I’m not that worried. Not anymore.”

His jaw ticked. “We’ll be moving fast.” The door that led them to the rest of the ship came into view. Gunner stopped before it and turned around. “It’s time to uphold my end of the deal.”

Sweat dripped from her hairline and caught in her eyebrows. He wanted to lean down and lick it clean off her.

“So we’re finally heading to the escape pods?” Elodie lifted the sleeve of his jacket and wiped it off.

His fingers twitched.

“No. We’re not.”

“We’re not?” She tilted her head. “What’re we doing then?”

“We’re taking over the ship,” he answered and already his mind filled with the images of finally breaking into the bridge and confronting the captain. Worry clouded Elodie’s features and he raised his hand to cup the back of her neck. Her pulse thrummed and he ran his thumb over it, petting.

“You still want the ship they stole from you back? Is this for your ship?” she asked.

“No.” Gunner smiled softly. It was the truth, the realization wasn’t surprising. “I’m going to bring them in.”

“Who? And in where?”

“I work for the EPED, Ely. Like I said before, I’m a retriever. A Monster Hunter. And I found some fucking monsters the EPED would love to have.” He leaned slightly back and smirked. “See, I’m not such a selfish prick. Although, they’ll owe us a fortune for my lost vessel.” The corner of her lip twitched. It wasn’t quite a smile but he would take it.

“I never thought you were. I guess unless you’re an adorable prick.” She laughed.

He grumbled, “Not this Cyborg, and despite my fucking tattoos, I am a government employee. It doesn’t sound so badass when I say it but maybe after all this, I’ll tell them to change my title from acquisitions specialist to hero or I won’t take any more jobs.”

Elodie laughed some more. The sound was addictive. If she continued, he was going to be coming back for seconds. He lightly squeezed her nape.

“You’ll always be Gunner to me.” Her expression abruptly sobered. Her eyes drifted from his to the door. “The others may not agree, though, and it’ll be dangerous.”

“Everything is dangerous. But you’ll follow me?” His other hand cupped her chin.

Her eyes were back on him now but they looked distant and glazed, like all emotion had seeped out of them and vanished into the ether. Gunner knew that look, knew how far away and searching it could be, and wondered if Elodie might be, once again, receding back inside herself.

Suddenly, her eyes cleared and she nodded. “Yes, I’ll follow you.”

It was the answer he wanted and yet, somehow, it offered little reassurance.