Welcome to Gaia! ::

Adrian’s response hadn’t been what Sybil was expecting. It had been hoping to divide the pair, show the citizens the rebellion was nothing more than a well-armed disorganized group looking to grab power. After the briefest consultations they decided to take one more stab at showing division in the group before assaulting the building the pair was standing in. “Oh, she was hardly a hostage. I think you will find she quiet enjoyed the work and we wouldn’t have been able to kill nearly as many of your friends without her contributions. Friends who are all criminals, so yes we killed them to protect the dear citizens. Your little rebellion has forced us to move from non-lethal weapons to lethal to stop the constant theft of supplies and spreading of propaganda. You are threatening to kill hundreds of law abiding citizens to grab power for yourself. Tell us, what exactly have we done that is so terrible? Are the people not fed, sheltered and safe? Have we not served the people well?”

“There is nowhere to go. Sybil has this building surrounded.” Amelia answered a lot more calmly than she felt once Adrian and finished the transmission. Since he had sent the soldiers away it had been an easy thing to accomplish. Sybil had only waited this long to finally attack in its vain hopes tear down Adrian before killing him. Now they marched on the building flooding the first floor. Of course once Sybil was gone they would all shut down, so it was all a race at this point. Could the traps and spider drones hold off the machines long enough to evacuate the Tower and blow it up? She glanced down at the tablet screen and then began walking towards Adrian. “The good news is you’ve convinced them to leave.” She informed him holding out the tablet towards him so he could see. Whether they were leaving because they had discovered what Sybil was, or if they just didn’t think Sybil could protect the Tower and didn’t want to die when it went down was another question entirely, but for their purposes it didn’t really matter.

How did they get here, she wondered to herself. Amelia had spent the last while trying to save him and now he was trying to save her. “Adrian…” She said softly. “I won’t let you sacrifice yourself for me. You are only doing it because you think you are going to die anyway, but there is still one more option. You said you wouldn’t take someone else’s heart, but what if it was someone you hated? Someone who killed your father, lost you the Hanger and well…killed you. Once Sybil goes down the machines will shut down and we can call the medics. You just need to hold on a little while longer. The world needs you Adrian, not me.” And maybe, just maybe the world would forgive her for the things she had done

“You are the most infuriating man I have ever met. You are only saying that because you are dying. Why would you spend this whole time blaming me for everything that went wrong if that wasn’t what you really thought?” Time wasn’t exactly on their side if they were to use Adrian’s plan, but neither could Amelia let him go without getting some answers out of him first. “I am agreeing with you Adrian, I’m giving you what you want and still you argue with me? I’m trying to choose not to be afraid for once and you’re telling me to go cower in a corner while the man who saved my life twice dies doing it a third time? You don’t get to do that to me Adrian. Let me repay the favour for once. Let me do the right thing. No one will see you as a coward, only a man who survived impossible odds.”

Logic was on his side of course, as much as she didn’t want it to be. Her death would be meaningless if she couldn’t save Adrian. “It feels so wrong. You should be the one to see the Tower fall. Sybil isn’t just going to kill you, you know. It knows it lost and will want to cause as much pain as possible.” She didn’t quiet meet his eyes while she spoke. Amelia could theoretically at least save him from that fate and allow Adrian to watch Sybil crumble. Very likely on the ground it had switched to a kamikaze tactic of killing as many humans as possible, but she didn’t check her screen. They were running out of time. She took a deep breath, closing her eyes briefly and wondering what future generation would say about this moment. Then she looked at Adrian dead in the eyes. “Just tell me the truth, not what you think I want to hear, and I’ll do whatever you ask.”

“I should have gone with the others.” Amelia admitted. Sure the others had left Adrian undefended as well, but somehow being the last one made it worse. Some irrational thought that being last somehow put this last act on her shoulders, that even though she was only doing the exact same thing the others had done it was her who was abandoning Adrian. Logic was on his side, there was no saving him and no time for grief. “I’ll give you thirty seconds to get to the roof before I recall the drones. I’ll make sure everyone hears your message and that you are buried where your command tent is. Goodbye Adrian.” If nothing else, she could promise him those two things, even if meant dragging his body across the city and digging the hole herself she would see it done. But first she would need to get out of this building and down to Will. How she would find him in the middle of the battle she had no idea, but she’d find a way.

It didn’t take long for the machines to join Adrian on the roof. Without Amelia’s spider drones to slow them down and without needing to search each floor, it was just a matter of ascending the remaining stairs. A few traps had caused some further casualties, but Sybil more or less had a direct path to its destination. The first to arrive didn’t seem to do anything other than surround Adrian to make sure he couldn’t go anywhere. What they were waiting for was answered shortly as one of the bots in the Presidents likeness showed up. While they all were technically Sybil, perhaps it felt this last meeting should be with the machine Sybil had ruled the people with. “Any last words before I break you? Prayers to your impotent god?”

“Will!” Amelia’s voice came from behind him. Standing just behind her was a member of the resistance who had evidently led her to Will’s current location, casting uncertain glances at the woman. Her left arm was badly broken, more or less dangling uselessly from her shoulder. Bone, gleaming white and jagged, priced through the skin of her upper arm, crimson blood running from the wound down her arm and slowly dripping from her finger tips. Though her face was deathly pale she seemed to hardly notice the injury, probably mostly due to adrenalin and shock, as she walked the last few steps towards Will. For their part, the spider drones followed her like ducklings on the ground. She had switched them to a passive mode, but didn’t have the time to put them back in her bag or a practical way to do it with her arm. “Will….he’s gone…I couldn’t….He gave me a message. I’m supposed to play it when the Tower falls.”