I didn’t wait up for Wynn and Tate. I knew where they were going, and headed there directly. My legs were much better and fortunately my last scuffle with Karu hadn’t added any more injuries. I made swift pace towards the mine.

I realized I had no idea what I’d do when I got there. AEGIS was right to try to stop me. Even as I kept running forward as fast as I could manage, I knew I should turn around. What was I going to do? Force her to stop? My powers didn’t work through her cage and hers did. Argue with her? She’d already lied to me before.

“Damn it, Saga,” I swore. She’d said she’d be good, that she respected my vision and would work with me to build a better world for Exhumans. Was it all lip service? Was it just a convenient lie? Should I even be trying to release her, if this was the kind of shit I could expect her to be pulling?

[I said if you released me, I’d follow you,] Saga’s voice echoed in my head. I slid to a halt. [You haven’t released me yet, so I am under no obligation to do anything for you.]

“Damn it, Saga,” I repeated. “You’re better than this. You don’t have to do this.”

[No, I don’t. I want to. Humans are trash, Athan, and as much as I may respect you and your desire for a better, perfect world, that’s not the world we live in. I’ve been down here for a hundred years. And yeah, like I said, I can outlive this mountain and cell and escape eventually, but y’know, I’d really prefer not to.]

“No, Saga. I can get you out. I can, I promise. I will.”

[I know you believe you, but I don’t. You’ve got nothing, Athan.]

“That’s not true. AEGIS and I–“

[AEGIS? (Could it…it has to be. How many AEGIS are there out there?)]

“What?”

[You never said you were working with AEGIS.] I felt a simmering of hate and paranoia. [What does she want? I’m already locked up. Going to lock me up more?]

“I…don’t understand. You know each other?”

[She never told you anything about me? Scoff.] I felt her pry my mind a little bit and filled my surface level thoughts with several choice four-letter words. [Yeah, that’s not how mind reading works. Nice try. I only read surface-level thoughts passively. When I’m trying, I can pick any thought out of your mind.]

“I wasn’t trying to block you out, I was trying to let you know what I thought of you.”

[Oh, well in that case, well done. (Asshole.) Now let’s see. Oh. AEGIS is the other girl with the amnesia. Oh that’s precious. So she doesn’t even remember me?]

“No.” My head spun. “But this is getting wildly off-topic. I demand that you let Wynn and Tate go. They’re innocent.”

[I’m innocent too, and I’m locked in here anyway. The world isn’t fair, Athan, and sometimes all you can get out of it is what you’re willing to take.]

“Fuck! He’s a goddamn child and you’re raping his mind. What the hell is wrong with you to think this is okay?”

[You talk a lot for someone who has no idea what’s going on (and that’s really annoying). I just gave them a compel to come back here and dig me out at night time when they’re asleep. Emphasis on when they’re asleep.]

“You mean to tell me they’re still asleep through all this.”

[Well, it might be a little bit more psionically-induced trance than sleep but yeah, basically. They have no idea. Might be a little sore in the morning but we all have to make sacrifices, right? (He’s going to say wrong.)]

“Right. Wrong. You’re right that I’m going to say wrong. This is still fucked up.”

[It’s ironic, I’m actually doing this for you.]

“How are you possibly doing this for me?”

[Well, if I were doing it my way, I’d have just subjugated them entirely and committed them to a lifetime of servitude until I was free. Hmm, and then after that too, I guess.]

“There is no universe in which that is a reassuring thought.”

[I thought, Athan likes these humans, so he can have them during the day when they’re awake and I’ll take them at night when they sleep. They’ll be like pets we keep together.]

“You are seriously sick, you know that? These are people we’re talking about. They’re not pets or slaves, they’re people.”

[And because of them, we aren’t people. We’re Ex-humans. Emphasis on the ex.]

“Because of bigoted assholes we aren’t. Read my thoughts again, Saga. Find in there what Wynn and Tate think of Exhumans. Find exactly how much of bigoted assholes they aren’t.” I waited, but didn’t feel the telltale tingle down my spine.

[It’s pointless anyway.]

“What? Why?”

[Because I can only read your thoughts and memories. That has nothing to do with the truth.]

“Well fuck you, read theirs then. You probably already did. You know they are nothing but decent people who would bend over backwards to help an Exhuman, and you just don’t care.”

[Yeah maybe so. But you’re forgetting an important detail that I’m getting tired of repeating.]

“Indulge me one more time.”

[Life isn’t fair, and I’m still stuck in here. They’re helping me out.]

“I’m helping you out!”

[You are doing nothing but chit-chatting with AEGIS and eating fish and…potatoes now? (Wow, fuck you very much for not sharing.)]

“We’re trying, okay? She’s very smart and working on it.”

[She hates Exhumans, me most of all. That’s not even our past history talking, that’s her talking to you. And you still think she’s going to help you spring me?]

“I do.”

[Then you’re stupid and deluded.]

“No matter how much AEGIS and I disagree on things, she always helps me anyway. She’s compassionate and smart, and any hate of Exhumans she has is out of fear for herself or for me; fear because she cares about me.”

I felt Saga give a tragic sigh. [I really, truly, for your sake hope that you never find out how wrong you are.]

I heard a noise from behind and turned to see Wynn and Tate shamble into sight, their white eyes staring glassily at me.

“Saga, let them go.”

[Or what? You’ve got nothing and both of us know it.]

“Or I’m leaving and never coming back. You want to take your chances with them and their rusty tools…I can’t stop you, I guess. Or you can have a super-smart girl and an Exhuman. Make your choice.”

The two kept shambling forward as I felt the gears turning in Saga’s mind. “Saga, at least stop them while we talk.”

[They’re under a compel. They’ll keep doing what I programmed them with unless I remove it. And I’m still considering it.]

“Well, fuck this,” I said, and reached out grabbing them by the shoulders..

AEGIS was right again. As soon as I was an impediment, the two turned on me violently in an instant. I jumped back as the hammer came sailing through the air at my face, and the shovel swung upwards towards me from below.

[Oh this is hilarious. Please, fight them. I want to see who wins.]

“Shut up,” I growled. As soon as I’d let them go, they went right back to their scheduled path. I jogged ahead of them and waited in their path. The moment they reached me, I bent down and grabbed each by the leg, and put on some juice.

As I’d hoped, their legs twitched and seized, and both of them fell over uncontrollably. Each hit the ground face-first, though I caught Wynn a little. Within a second, their eyelids fluttered shut, and then open again.

“Athan?” wheezed the old man. “What in God’s name are we doing out here? Where’s Tate? Why won’t my legs move?”

“Easy old timer,” I soothed. “Let’s get back to home and then I can explain everything. It’s not a good idea to talk here.”

[(Asshole.)]

“You say something?” Wynn said, looking around wildly.

“No. Just ignore the voice. It’s Saga, if you remember her.” I saw confusion and then understanding cross his face. “Help me up boy, and let’s get out of here.”

Saga let us go without issue and it was only a few minutes before the two of them could walk unassisted. Once we were out of ear-, or mind-shot, I told them what had happened to them. Surprisingly…or maybe unsurprisingly, Wynn laughed once the tale came out.

“Seems awfully nice of her not to enslave us in her mines,” he chuckled. “I’d been wondering why I was so darn tired lately, but just chalked it up to old age. Glad to know I’m in better shape than I thought.” Tate beamed.

“You guys seriously aren’t concerned about this?”

“I mean, we certainly are, but it doesn’t seem like there’s much to be done, and that she doesn’t have much interest in harming us. I don’t mind helping her out when I’m asleep too much. Would have preferred she ask, but helping folks out is always a good thing in my book.”

“You guys…seriously…aren’t concerned about this?”

Wynn stopped walking and looked me in the eye with a serious expression. “Now I’m sure you don’t see it this way, and I don’t blame you, but I don’t see too big a difference between stopping by now and again to see you through the winter with a bit of neighborly advice, and busting her out of that jail. If you’re going to argue that she’s an Exhuman and she’s dangerous, well, I’d advise you to check your reflection, son. People are people, and what’s decent is decent, no matter who you’re doin’ it to.”

He straightened up and there was a sparkle in his beady eyes again. “Now that ain’t to say she’s playing by the rules herself, entirely, but she’s not having us out there slaving away in a two-chit factory or harvesting our organs for profit. She’s in it for her own freedom, which is something nobody shoulda taken away from her to begin with.”

He began walking again, and I fell into his wake. “So no, we seriously aren’t concerned about this. Might be a bit unpleasant, and if we get tired or it turns cold, I may turn to your hospitality more than I expected this winter, but hopefully these unexpected guests aren’t a burden to you. And besides, we may just be the motivation you need to figure out your own way of getting her out of there.” He turned and gave me a sly wink.

“You truly are something,” I confessed, and he laughed.

It wasn’t long after leaving Saga’s range that we entered AEGIS’. A camera drone was practically bouncing up and down in the air with excitement to see the three of us coming back unharmed. If I were a crueler person…or maybe just a slightly more quick-witted one, I’d have said we should all come back shuffling, eyes rolled in our heads. But that ship had sailed and we’d just have to endure AEGIS’ unreserved glee instead. The little two-rotor drone fell into our parade as we returned triumphantly home, and AEGIS welcomed us like returning heroes.

A shame that she wasn’t there in person, because I think she definitely would have kissed and hugged me. Instead she settled for lots of yelling and jumping and bouncing perilously close to the limits of her dress. Which was very nearly as good for me.

Once things had died down a bit and we were all returning back to bed, the door now very securely locked with its huge rusted locking mechanism which I was mostly sure we’d be able to unlock in the morning, I had a few words with AEGIS as I laid in bed.

“She seemed to know you, Saga did,” I said.

“I guess I shouldn’t be surprised if she’s lived her a hundred years like she said. I only remember being underground for…I don’t know. Years? Not a hundred of them, I don’t think.”

“Yeah, you don’t have the look of a hundred-year old woman,” I said, smiling.

AEGIS was serious in her reply. “Neither does Saga. I don’t know, Athan, if I was locked up during my Ramanathan window, I could be any age. Just because I got amnesia ten or twenty years ago doesn’t preclude me from being a hundred.”

“Well somehow I’m a little skeptical,” I concluded. “She didn’t seem to like you much. I got a very strong impression of hate and fear and…something else. Shame? When she was talking about you.”

“Huh.” AEGIS tapped at her computer thoughtfully. “I wonder what we did together.”

“Me too,” I said, rolling over to mull things over. I only pondered for a minute before sleep fell on me like a hammer.