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“Dumb?” She glowered.
“Drake may not be angry at dumbness, but I am not sure about the other.”
“You’re not helping me.” Calli buried her head again.
“Neither is hiding here. Your options are to return and face Drake, to run away somewhere, or I suppose you could stay here and rust.”
“You know people cannot rust.” Deciding it was past the time where hiding her head was an option, she uncurled and leaned into the wall behind her.
“I was making a joke. I rarely joked before.”
The bot sounded wistful. “What was it you wanted to ask of me?”
The following pause was long and unusual. She was certain the bot had little need of time to think.
“I killed fifty-two people tonight. That makes me feel sad, or at least I think I do. I was exuberantly happy at first then angry? I’ve never felt this before.”
She tilted her head. “I allowed you to do it though, didn’t I? And you saved many more.”
“True. Drake’s force suffered only two fatalities, judging from the life forces I detected in the street. Many wounded, few deaths.”
She waited again.
“I do not like what I am. I know my capabilities. I can kill with ease. I do not like killing people with ease or with anything.”
“Shhh.” She’d heard something—sounds from somewhere nearby but beyond their little space, out in the spaceport graveyard. “What was that?”
“Probably Drake. I led him here.”
Confusion rained down. What had Sassi done? Why? Okay, she figured she knew. It was because Sassi thought it the best answer to her running. It was a relief and also terrifying to think Drake was coming.
She could still run...
“I wrote where you were going on the message. I left markers on our trail.” Sassi’s eyes glowed a denser red. “Before he arrives you must promise me you will revert me to what I was. Please.”
He hated killing and she’d made him do it, in a roundabout way.
“I understand. Yes. Of course I will promise that. I’m sorry. So sorry.”
Another error on her conscience. For once the sadness she felt welling up was not for her. Others were hurt. Not just her. She’d been selfish and yeah, maybe stupid.
“Thank you. I need to tell you something. I was in stasis for decades before your grandfather partially woke me. All prototypes like me were destroyed by Overwatch. I think we were the reason for the Quarantine. We were too deadly to be allowed out in the universe. Do not mourn me.”
This was too much to understand, when she was in the middle of falling apart. She nodded at Sassi, as he seemed to expect a response. Mourn him? He wished to become the friendlier, less deadly being he’d been before, and that seemed good and right. Maybe tomorrow she’d see another angle. If there was a tomorrow.
Had he caused the Quarantine? That seemed... inconceivable.
Drake emerged from the darkness of the passageway they’d entered by. His expression was stern yet not the end-of-the-world one she had dreaded.
She edged her back higher on the wall, pressed into it.
The crunch of his boots as he walked over seemed terribly loud. When he stood before her, she drew her knees under her then, even though the floor dug into her knees, she wormed herself around until she kneeled. Then she looked up at him, and found herself hoping, hoping she’d not destroyed everything.
“What do you want to say, Calli.”
Not Princess. Calli. Was it that bad?
So many words were possible. Sassi’s way was best—simple. “I’m sorry I hurt you. I’m plain sorry for everything tonight.”
