Had I been foolish to believe that I could move forward? That I could have the home, family, friends, and love I had always longed for? I had been so sure. Now it was all slipping through my fingers like sand falling too fast for me to catch.
Soon my hands would be as empty as they had been before. Only this time, I knew what I would be missing. Forever haunted by the feeling of holding everything I had ever wanted, even just for a moment.
“From the moment I put that thing in my head, I knew things were going to go wrong. Hacking your processors, forcing myself into the rebellion, all of it was done by a desperate girl who had nothing left to lose.” I looked up at Viper’s face, wishing I had done the right thing and stayed the fuck away from the cyborg rebellion. But it was too late now. “I can’t even give you the one thing you asked for.”
The fingers wrapped around my wrist lifted it up, his lips placing a kiss to the center of my palm. “The day you hacked my processors was the best day of my life. I didn’t know it then, but I know it now. And I am nothing but a desperate cyborg who is willing to do anything to keep you.”
His hand slid to the nape of my neck, fingers tangling into my hair. “I can repair your implant, Oz. It’s seeking a stable connection. It is attempting to link back with my processors to fix itself. You opened the door when you hacked me and now it wants back in. That is the code I detected. It’s trying to save itself, but it can’t form a permanent link with your human brain.” He dragged my hand to the top of his bald head. “In here, there is nothing but circuits, wires, and programming. I have everything it needs plus a few upgrades.” The corners of his mouth lifted into a smirk. “After all, I am the best Technology Model ever created.”
My cyborg was not humble. I loved it. Could it be true? Could the way to save me really be as simple as Viper getting in there and working his magic?
It seemed too easy. If that was the case, then why had he pulled away from me during our walk back? No. There was something about this that he was purposely leaving out.
“What’s the catch, V? If there were no risks, then you would have raced at cyborg speed to get me back to the lab. There is something you aren’t telling me.”
The smirk died on his lips. “In order to fix it, I have to shut you down.”
“Shut me down? I’m not a cyborg. I wasn’t born with an off-switch.”
His eyes bored into mine. “Yes. You were. All humans have one.”
“But we aren’t created, we are born. So how-” I stopped, realization dawning. “We die,” I whispered.
“You die,” he whispered in return, his eyes filling with dark fluid. “If I want to save you, I have to kill you first.”
The grim reaper was here for me. And it would wear Viper’s face. He might save me, but the guilt he would feel from what he would have to do first would eat him alive.
I knew what I had to do. Maybe I had always known. I lifted my hand and cupped his cheek. “No matter what happens, know that I love you. See you on the other side.”
Before he could stop me, I tilted my head quickly to the right, reactivating the implant. That familiar buzz roared between my ears, but this time it seemed to be louder. So loud it drowned out every other sound until it was all I could hear.
Viper’s lips were moving frantically, but I couldn’t hear a word he was saying. His face blurred as I felt a rush of something warm run down my lips, a metallic taste filling my mouth as I fought the wave of blackness trying to swallow me whole.
I wanted to see his face for just a few more seconds. If this was the last thing I would ever see, I was happy it would be him.
My hand slipped from his cheek, unable to hold on. My heart stuttered, followed by a quick flash of pain in my chest.
And then with Viper’s face dimming from my sight, I greeted the grim reaper in the way I had wanted it-on my terms.
Viper
I heard her last breath, her heart stopping as her body went limp in my arms. Oz was dead. My female was dead. I wanted to toss my head back and howl but there was no time.
I had to get her to Dax. I tried to hold back the crushing weight of loss that was threatening to shatter me into a thousand parts and pieces.
I could deal with it later. I had a small window to repair the implant and bring her back. The moment her last breath had left her body, I had reached out and linked my processors with the implant. As I raced through the door and into the rebellion, I kept the implant from sending out more tendrils of code that would damage her brain further.
I raced through the halls at cyborg speed, slamming into the lab’s door. “Dax,” I screamed, my voice breaking.
The Science Model raced out from his office, a syringe filled with swirling silver liquid in his hand.
“What happened?” Horror filled his face. “She’s dead. “
“Not for long.” I looked at the syringe in his hand. “Give it to her,” I ordered, praying it was the upgrade he held in his hand.
He shook his head sadly. “It doesn’t bring people back from the dea-”
“Do it. Now! I don’t have time to explain!”