Striking the wall of that memory, he floated like he was observing himself. He was right there, in a kelp forest with a strange device attached to his hip. He had more tattoos, more muscle as well, but he hunted through the kelp with a single-minded intent. Perhaps this memory was to warn him that if he wasn’t careful, the achromos would spread out into the water just like Mira had done.
But what moved through the water toward the image of himself was not a strange achromo or even a creature he was stalking. Instead, it was her.
Mira.
Unbound red hair trailing behind her as she swam up behind him, fins on her feet and a smile on her face beneath that strange bubble around her mouth. She attached herself to him, wrapping one of her legs around his waist because that was as close as she could get.
He noticed the tattoos of his pod winding down her arm and across her chest. She wore a top woven out of kelp, just like his mother used to make. And her belly was so round she could barely hold on to him.
She tilted her head back with laughter, eventually allowing herself to flatten out in the water and gripped him with only her legs as the image of himself reached for her belly. He watched as he touched the rounded mound, running his fingers carefully over her skin and then pressing his webs against her. There was slight movement underneath her skin, large and rippling, just like a tail moving inside her.
It wasn’t possible. Surely the ancients weren’t telling him that he could start a new species. That he and Mira could be the link between their kind. It wasn’t possible.
But the smile on her face... It was one of so much love as she looked down at his hands on her belly.
The memory was ripped from him, and he felt it tear away from his mind like he had been clutching it close to his chest. He wanted to look at it a little while longer. He wanted to see them together. Just like that. The happiness on both of their faces had been so far from anything he’d ever experienced. And he... he wanted it.
A second future barreled toward him, striking him even harder than the first. He saw himself and his pod. He saw Beta falling in the distance and knew they were chasing the small escape bubbles that achromos used to get out of their city when anything went wrong. His brother, one armed and angry, speared through the glass of one such bubble. It shattered, and he heard the muffled screams of those within it.
Maketes swam ahead of him, zeroing through the water with all the speed of lightning as he slammed against the side of another bubble. His people descended upon it, ripping the glass open and yanking out achromo bodies that writhed in their grips as they drowned.
And him? He moved toward one of the escape bubbles and froze above it. He saw himself staring at Mira. He saw her glaring back at him, one of her welders in her hand.
“Stop,” he cried out at the image of himself. “Don’t do it.”
But he did.
Arges watched himself wrench the glass free and yank her out. He saw the spear sliding through her soft flesh where he had just seen their child. She hung suspended in the water by only his weapon. And then he watched as she turned her welder on and tried to burn him through his chest. His kind were too strong for it, so she would be the only one who died in this battle, but he would wear her scar over his heart in more ways than one.
The visions faded, and he was spat out by the ancient onto the foggy, sulphuric seabed around them.
Hissing, he coughed out whatever strange poison had flowed through his veins. “What was that?”
“Your futures, warrior.” The ancient shifted, its massive fin placed on the ground too close for comfort. “There is benefit and loss in both futures, Arges. You are the only one who can choose. Lose her, or lose your people’s dream.”
“I will lose neither of them.”
“You have to lose something,” the ancient chuckled. “No one has ever beaten their own fate.”
As he forced his tail to move, forced his body to rise from the dirt, he vowed that he would be the first. He would keep them both.
Because he wanted that future with her. But he also wanted to see her city fall.
Twenty-Seven
Mira
Mira waited for him for quite some time. She even caught herself a fish, although the whole situation was more luck than skill. She’d trailed the poor thing through the glowing lights until it was finally so tired that it just... stopped swimming.
She still felt terrible about it. Like she had blood on her hands that she couldn’t ever get off. Quite literally, at some point, because she was sitting on the edge of the rock with fish blood and guts on her hands as she cleaned it out to eat.
Even Byte stayed silent the whole time she hunted. They both mourned the life that she hated she had to take.
Then she felt even more guilty as she ate it, because the poor thing tasted horrible. She hated the taste of fish. She’d had it so many times in the past few weeks that she was certain she would never want to eat it again after this ordeal. All she wanted was to taste chicken, or egg, or countless vegetables for the rest of her life until she could forget how awful fish tasted and smelled.
Gagging a bit, she set it down by the water and stared up at the ceiling. “I should tell him.”
Byte stirred out of its stasis. “What?”
“I should tell him I can understand him.”
The silence that came after her declaration was almost enough to make her second guess herself, but she steadied her resolve. She couldn’t keep lying to him, or pretending that they couldn’t converse. It was wrong. Mira had never been a liar, and this made her into some kind of monster.
It wasn’t like she was a spy sent by her people to learn more about his kind. She was just an engineer who had found herself in a rather difficult situation.
So when he finally returned, she rolled onto her side on the cot and stared at him. She searched his eyes, as though there was some balm for the terrible way she felt in his gaze.
He watched her in return, those dark eyes so large in his head. She’d thought those black eyes were soulless the first time she’d seen him. She remembered how unnerving they were and how she’d thought he looked like a shark watching her. But he wasn’t. He was just another person who didn’t deserve to be lied to.
Maybe she was sick. Maybe she was dying. Because these thoughts weren’t the thoughts of a person who had fought against his kind for her entire life.
“Byte finished the upgrade,” she said. “The translation chip isn’t entirely complete, but I installed it. I can understand you now. Almost every single word you say.”
Instead of talking, like she’d expected, he didn’t say a word. Arges held out his hand for her, gesturing for her to come to the edge of the water.
She couldn’t imagine why.
Stiff, her bones aching, she walked over to the edge and heard her knees creak as she sat down at the edge with her feet in the water. A cold rush of ice trailed up the back of her calves, almost painful, but she kept her limbs in the water, regardless.
He swam closer, his gaze somehow darker than ever before. Then he placed his hands on her knees and she felt the webs even through her wetsuit.
He just... looked at her. Watched every twitch and movement of her features as she looked down at him. Mira didn’t know what to do with this. She didn’t know why there were emotions bubbling up in her chest and how those feelings pressed against the back of her throat, urging her to say something, do something, cup his jaw with her hand or maybe dig her fingers into those gills as he’d liked before.