I couldn’t believe it, but I’d actually forgotten I had superhuman abilities now—much to Eve’s amusement. We set out eastward at a surprisingly fast march, all the soldiers eager to make it to the halfway point so we could stay the next night in the city. We were about two hours in and I felt completely fine, still filled with seemingly boundless energy while the researchers behind us struggled a bit and needed to take the occasional break.

  It was then I remembered I had increased strength and durability, with improved regeneration and stamina. Eve trilled out a little giggle telling me how I could probably keep a march up like this for days on end now, but I honestly hadn’t even thought of something like that—my powers already helping me.

  Of course, it was reasonable I’d forgotten considering what all we’d had to deal with already, and while the Imperial soldiers’ deaths still weighed heavily on my mind, marching along with Eve was greatly distracting and was thankfully making me feel much better.

  We marched in two lines with two regular marines taking point, our mission leaders behind them, followed by the rest of the marines and then the power armor soldiers behind them; that was the combat convoy. Behind them were me and Eve with the researchers lagging behind us, meant to stay out of any potential conflicts—especially Eve who already had an exposure planet-side, we were warned it was vital we kept her secret and stay out of any fights no matter what might happen.

  The agents were off to the sides, scouting occasionally, or keeping pace from a distance. They would join in with the fighting too if it came to it, but their tactics were different, so they wouldn’t exactly fight alongside the regular soldiers, more like they would try to flank or disorient the enemy. Of course, considering our enemies were a bunch of mindless flesh puppets, I wasn’t sure how much they could be disoriented, but being blasted with lasers from all sides would probably be helpful in destabilizing their physical bodies to break Beta-09’s control.

  Lobae and Vinnago came to check in on me and Eve a few times while we marched, at first asking how I was holding up after everything went down with the Imperial soldiers, but when it became obvious I wasn’t about to open up to them at all about my feelings, they tried a different tactic, trying to be personable and friendly once again, talking about regular life and even reminiscing over our time in the Holistia Nebula together.

  It all seemed pretty fake to me, and then it made me think maybe they’d been fake with me all along—another system of control the Empire used, trying to use ‘friends’ to spy on us, make sure we were always compliant. I honestly wondered if Lobae and Vinnago’s friendship with us had been a fabrication from the very start.

  Regardless whether the friendship had ever been real, it felt like our bonds had been totally severed now; I didn’t think I could ever look at them the same way, how they executed those innocent men—how they’d probably execute me and Eve if it came down to it.

  And of course, that brought me back to thinking about Eve and how inhuman she was over the soldiers’ deaths, but despite how unsettling it all was for some reason her reaction didn’t bother me as it did with everyone else. Eve might have been cold and calculating, a monster really, but she was a terribly honest monster—to a fault even. She fully admitted how she saw people the same as insects, and while that might seem terrible, at least she told me the truth, unlike damn near everyone else.

  If it was the Empire, they would weave some lies to control and entrap me instead, telling me how all us insects got along great and worked together for the betterment of civilization, but then the moment they didn’t need me—or I got in their way, they’d squash me.

  It made me wonder if the only thing keeping me safe at all in the Empire was my connection with Eve. They never had to beam me aboard The Radiance back on Earth, could’ve just stolen Eve away after she killed all those government agents, left me down on the farm to deal with the aftermath with my grandparents. But even back then they saw me as a valuable tool they could use—the only person ever to control or command a Predazoan. Whatever risk they needed to take to employ me, breaking whatever rules or laws in contacting a pre-enlightened world, it was all worth it to them for the sake of their mission.

  And then they found out how rebellious humans could be, and since I wasn’t just a tool for them to use—I had a mind of my own, they sought ways to control me same as they did with their Predazoan asset. And now here we were, stuck as weapons and tools for the massive, intergalactic Empire that spanned thousands of systems with trillions of citizens, able to kill and disappear people without question.

  In our mission to achieve freedom, Eve and I would have to learn who exactly we needed to be freed from; were the Lord Generals the highest point we’d need to break away from, or would we need to go even higher, fight against the bureaucrats and politicians that ran the entire Empire? Who knows, maybe we’d have to confront the three Emperors themselves someday, though I had no idea how we would ever do that, but that would all surely start with freeing Eve so she could use her full Predazoan might against our enemies once again.

  As we marched and I pondered, I saw Eve watching me with great interest, her new blue eyes sparkling with curiosity and adoration same as always. I knew she wanted to know what I was thinking, sad her senses were dulled now so she couldn’t read my mind or emotions or whatever, but I could tell she didn’t want to pry—didn’t want to risk saying the wrong thing and upsetting me even more.

  In a weird way, I found Eve to be incredibly innocent; she was smarter and wiser than I would ever understand, but emotions were foreign and overwhelming to her still, and she was so new at them I could see it created an uncertainty in her. While she might be able to use that supercomputer brain of hers to map out her plans or schemes for the next hundred years, she would be at a loss for what to say to properly console her boyfriend when he was upset.

  Despite being a monster, despite being an eldritch Outsider god with powers beyond my mortal comprehension, despite seeing people as mere insects and perceiving their deaths as the same, I could accept all that as part of Eve’s nature, and in that moment I realized I couldn’t be mad at her for how she handled the situation. I didn’t forgive her, no, because there wasn’t anything to forgive; I loved Eve and needed to accept her or at least learn to accept her and all those wildly inhuman parts to her.

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  Didn’t mean I wouldn’t still try and get her to be more human, but I couldn’t really fault her for when she stumbled or failed.

  After all, I was far, far from perfect; biggest mistake I ever made was allowing the Empire to put that bomb in Eve’s core which led us to this shitty situation now. Anything callous Eve might say or do might seem rather mild in comparison.

  We’d been walking side-by-side all this time, Eve giving me space while I worked through my thoughts, but I suddenly grabbed her hand and held it, pulling her a little closer to walk beside me.

  I could see Eve was clearly relieved with my simple gesture, “How are you feeling now darling?”

  I shrugged one shoulder, “I’m holding up fine, just going to keep soldiering on. I realized it doesn’t really change much for us at all, just a shitty situation we had to deal with. But still, same as always, it’s us against the universe.”

  Eve smiled brightly, “Always.”

  ***

  We marched until the brilliant red and purple sun dipped below the horizon, coating the bloody forest in strange red shadows so everything looked like it was on fire. Captain Seash confirmed we made it well past the halfway point, so we would likely get to Wesseran by late afternoon tomorrow.

  There were cheers from the soldiers who were already talking about hitting up some bars if they had any free time, others insisted they wanted some real food instead, but everyone agreed getting cleaned up in a hotel bath would be the best way to relax after everything we’d been through.

  The soldiers set up camp in a huge clearing, with a few lookout towers established to guard our perimeter. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised, but since we’d been roughing it through the forest the last several hours, I just wasn’t expecting all the advanced technology available for the camp. There were laser sensors and radars, optical disruptors to help cloak the entire encampment, and a pop-up command building that honestly didn’t make sense physically with the way it grew from a small cube—reminding me of Capsule Corp technology from Dragon Ball Z.

  For the rest of us, we had sleep-pods instead of sleeping bags all underneath these canopies that gave us just the right amount of heat and wind shielding without blocking our view of the surrounding area. They put Eve and I along with the researchers on the far side of camp behind one of the guard towers and a dark repulser barrier to hopefully keep us shielded and hidden in case of an assault, whereas the soldiers would be able to immediately engage the enemy from where they held up.

  It kind of felt like we were just being escorted around the way they did everything for us—babying us almost. I wasn’t sure if it was to ‘protect the package’ since Eve’s role was so vital, or they wanted to keep us out of the way so we wouldn’t get in the way, or maybe it was a simple matter that we didn’t understand how the military ran their operations.

  Before, it might have bothered me, not wanting to be useless for the mission, not wanting other people to take care of me. But now I really didn’t give a shit; fuck the Empire, let them handle their missions however they wanted while escorting us around like royalty. I planned on taking advantage of it now, wouldn’t lift a finger for them if they didn’t explicitly ask for it.

  We couldn’t start up any real campfires, instead we had these strange, heated cubes just a few inches across that glowed a dull red like dying embers, enough to warm us from the night chill, but not bright enough to give away our position for any enemies that might be stalking us.

  Eve and I snuggled together, sitting around the cube in the little clearing we made while Eve pelted me with questions about camping back on Earth.

  “So really, it’s like this? Sitting by a campfire, just warming yourself while lounging around?” She inquired.

  I nodded, “That’s about it sweet-thing. Why, does that sound boring?”

  Eve shook her head, then settled more against me, sitting between my legs while her back rested against my chest, “No, it sounds quite relaxing, I think I would enjoy it.”

  “That’s the whole point, just to relax—get away from the city noise. Of course that’s not all you do. During the day there’s usually something going on; you could go hunting or fishing, hiking maybe, and cooking over a campfire is a lot of fun. Might have some games you could play depending on who you’re camping with. And of course, you can just sit around and get drunk, that’s one of the most common things people do.”

  Eve let out an angry huff, “Always with the drinking. It irritates me there’s so many activities tied in with getting drunk when it’s physically impossible for me to become inebriated at all.”

  I chuckled at that and squeezed her tighter against me, “Sorry about that. I wasn’t really a big drinker back on Earth, but there are some things that, yeah, that’s really all you’re supposed to do.” I cocked my head to the side as I thought of something, “Do you think you would be able to alter yourself so you could become drunk?”

  Eve leaned her head around to look at me, “You mean like how I weakened myself so you could make me bleed?”

  Hearing her say it again filled me with a weird flash of guilt, despite the fact Eve literally begged me to hurt her, “Yeah I guess.”

  Eve shrugged, “Maybe? Though I doubt it. Even trying to weaken myself as I did playing around with you, I still didn’t really feel it as pain, and all the extra blood was just repurposed biomass that might as well have been makeup with the way it was disconnected from my core system.”

  I quirked up an eyebrow, “Really? It didn’t hurt at all? Then what did it feel like?”

  Eve tilted her head back and forth in consideration, “The ghost of pain was there, but honestly it was more…tingly than anything.”

  “Tingly?”

  Eve trilled a cute little giggle, “I don’t know how else to describe it, darling. It was a comforting discomfort, a strange tingling sensation that was unique to pleasure, but somehow intrinsically tied to it; the more you tried to hurt me, the more pleasure I felt.”

  I chuckled and shook my head slowly, “You really are such a weirdo.”

  Eve turned to try and bite at my nose, “And you love me for it.”

  Eve and I stayed secluded from the others for most of the night. Even though the researchers were just a few feet away, I wasn’t in the mood to join in with any Imperial supporters then. Kianna asked us a few questions, and Gorgam wanted Eve’s opinion on something they’d been debating, but other than that we were fine to stick with our own company.

  I wasn’t wary of the researchers now, not like I was with the soldiers and agents especially—like I didn’t blame them for how it all went down with the execution. But I just didn’t want to get involved with anyone who belonged to the system that had Eve and I entrapped now. I was sure things would cool down between us soon, but I wanted the night for just Eve and myself.

  We didn’t have anything else important to talk about, no more planning needed, no more schemes on how to be free—or even how to deal with Beta-09. Instead, Eve and I decided to enjoy the quiet night, talking over the strange heat cube about the various campgrounds I’d visited back on Earth, places I’d like to take Eve someday. It was nice to have the distraction so I wouldn’t have to dwell on the soldiers who died—so I wouldn’t see their faces as I was led away from them before they were to be murdered.

  Eve and I got into our sleep-pods and put them together, and while Eve was eager to try out her new body with me (despite there being literally no privacy around us), I told her I would be fine to wait until we had a hotel room in Wesseran. A little put out, Eve complied after teasing me a little, sneakily showing off her new petite celicapoz boobs before getting tucked into her sleep-pod beside me.

  Eve fell asleep easily beside me, as she almost always did. On the other hand, sleep was rather elusive for me, with dark thoughts swirling around in my mind, and it felt like I had a flare-up of insomnia again, something I hadn’t had to deal with since meeting Eve.

  It would seem my nightmares from Earth could follow me even out into space.