Chapter 20: Menace

Didi's head is down, eyes on her feet as she tries to focus on walking and not thinking. The last of the day's sunlight is waning, washing over her shoulder in a stunning pattern of color she's not in the mood to appreciate. A dumpall rumbles overhead, its familiar shadow falling over her and she's lost in the steady whoosh of the sound of its thrusters when two hands grab her from behind and lift her into the air.

She doesn't have time to squeal when the gunslinger heaves her into his arms, for a moment terrified his mind has finally snapped and he's turned into some crazed and uncontrollable menace. But, when she looks over his shoulder and sees the skimmer heading for them, a familiar face in the back seat, Jackus's arm pointing over the driver's shoulder, she understands just how valuable this giant, silver hero really is to her.

She'll never thank him or let him know how safe she feels in his arms as he carries her away from the threat of Ives Jackus.

A plasma shot fires overhead, impacting a pile of trash on their right. It teeters and slips, crumbling down in what feels like slow motion as the gunslinger lifts off, taking to the air. Pip shrieks on his shoulder, clinging to the cyborg's plating and flapping his wings for balance. Didi reaches for the crow and pulls him free, cuddling him against her chest, between her and the gunslinger while the massive cyborg's thrusters carry them upward.

Right for the dumpall. Didi turns her head, hiding her face in the gunslinger's shoulder as they skim past the automated ship, the next blast from the skimmer taking the side of the scum-crusted transport in the flank and sending it spinning. The gunslinger's thrusters fire, carrying them beyond the spinning mass, before he dives for the trash surface and peels past the edge of a mass of decaying organics.

Didi can't help but watch, breathless and oddly excited, as the skimmer barely makes it past the dumpall as the autosystems of the trash carrier kick in and right its trajectory. Another blast skips past, exploding the organics they are passing, sending a shower of stinking, clinging mess over them.

The gunslinger doesn't pause or seem to notice, acrobatic flying taking her breath away. He pulls to a halt on the far side of a trash heap and tosses her to one hip, his hand flashing to his side while she clings to him, her crow in her arms, and waits. The skimmer flies past, his gun already aimed and ready.

The plasma charge hits the back of the skimmer, taking out one of the thrusters, but with the unfortunate side effect of spinning it around to face them. Jackus might look terrified, but the two bulky men in the front seat of the skimmer seem ready and, with one thruster functioning, gun it right toward them.

The damaged skimmer wobbles, but picks up speed. Didi has no doubt if both thrusters were functioning they would be dead, gunslinger or no gunslinger. But, the added few seconds the damage allows gives the cyborg time to target the front of the skimmer and blast it. Again the skimmer spins, toward the healthy thruster, the pilot unable to control the turn. It's almost hysterical, really, seeing their faces turn, their eyes following even as their bodies are forced around inside the damaged skimmer. Didi feels a giggle of absolute horror and delight rise in her chest and has to clamp her lips together to keep it from escaping as the absurd moment unwinds.

He's fast, the gunslinger. What has felt like a half hour's worth of battle has been mere seconds, if that long, and he's firing again, sending the second thruster into failure. It would be over, they would have won, she's certain, if it weren't for the hum of a second skimmer approaching from the distance.

They have backup. Didi taps on the gunslinger's shoulder, but he's already aware, leaving the fatally damaged skimmer to sink to the trash while plasma bursts from the stolen weapons fire toward them. He pushes hard, the air rushing past her, pulling at her lips and cheeks until Didi feels crushing pressure on her chest, making it hard to breathe. But, the speed allows them distance, pushes them toward the now visible mag train, leaving the following skimmer far behind.

The gunslinger pivots in midair, making her scream in fear, though his arm never wavers and she's certain it would take his death before he would drop her. She's clutching Pip so tight he wheezes, the faint sound audible now the gunslinger has slowed his pace and Didi forces herself to release her painful grip on the corbie.

A depot squats ahead, a train at standstill in station. Their luck has turned at last. The gunslinger's thrusters die off as he sinks to the ground, legs churning until he literally hits the ground running. Didi feels the tingle of the mag train firing up, knows they only have seconds before the perimeter of power fries them. Panic surges, equally met with excitement, as the gunslinger throws his giant form at the edge of one of the train cars and lands them with a thud on the surface. The barest fizz of electricity raises the hairs on her neck and arms and they are safe at last.

He sets her down on a pile of trash, looking back over his shoulder. "Perhaps we should make ourselves invisible to the air," he says as if they haven't just been in a major battle and he didn't pull a giant hero act right in front of her.

"Good idea," she says, mimicking his tone exactly. Because it's all in a day's work and really, why else did she resurrect his shiny, silver behind?

She grins. Didi can't help it. And sinks on shaking legs to the garbage while Pip whistles and shudders for his freedom.

She'll let him go eventually. She just needs someone to hold onto right now. The gunslinger sinks to his haunches and begins to create a shelter from the trash as the sun sets in the west and she wonders if this might work out after all while she slowly, firmly strokes the feathers of her crow.

***

The gunslinger sits next to her sleeping form, the crow still cuddled against her, tiny snores escaping the creature's black beak. She looks so innocent and young lying there and fear-something he's been programmed not to feel-emerges for the first time since he became what he is.

The battle, that he could handle. Fighting, dying, killing others to fulfill his orders, all of that he understands. But this emotional turmoil he's woken by allowing his damaged brain to function... this he isn't sure he can handle. And yet, he has no choice. When he tries to bypass it now, it weakens him, makes him feel out of control and as though he can't focus. And that he can't allow.

He will endure, as he has since his creation two centuries ago. He is a gunslinger and he will survive long enough to ensure the promise he made Emma will be completed.

Wait. No. He shakes his head, one hand rising to rub at his metal face, a habit he would realize-were he aware he was doing it-he left behind when he lost his humanity. Not Emma. He doesn't know an Emma. Didi Duke.

His self-destruct ticks softly inside him. He needs to tell her when she wakes. They are running out of time and he fears he won't be able to do as he's promised with the little span he has left. Only twelve hours. He can't let Emma down.

Didi.

What is happening to him? No time and no energy to uncover anything. He must focus. Carefully and with precise caution, he begins to shut down small pathways, one at a time, in an attempt to return to the calm of the gunslinger.

While Trash Heaven flashes by and the girl next to him sleeps, his memory fills with the image of Emma laughing.

***