Krystal’s team was holding position at one of the Summit Headquarters in Belport. Krystal and Larian were in the main foyer on the first floor. 

Krystal was barricading the main doorway, covering the double doors in a thick layer of ice. She’d gone around, covering most of the windows similarly. Larian mulled around behind her. 

Her team had subdued the capes and regular employees, and now they were sitting in the offices that lined the entryway. Larian walked between the rooms, checking on each of them. They were being remarkably well-behaved—probably due to the combination of restraints and the huge shadow tree looming in the foyer. 

Cherry was on the upper floor of the foyer on overwatch duty. Indovu and Tuke were up there too, pacing the halls. 

Krystal felt a hand on her shoulder and she jumped in response. 

Larian was behind her. “You should take a break. It’s quiet now, and besides, it’s getting cold in here.” He was right, of course. All the ice barriers had caused the temperature to drop, and his breath came out in clouds. 

Krystal chuckled awkwardly, then relaxed. “Right. Better enjoy the quiet while it lasts.”

Larian nodded before walking back over to the offices. The shadow tree tilted, as if glancing at both of them, before returning to its lazy patrol around the foyer. 

Krystal shook out her arms. She didn’t feel the cold like everyone else, so she hadn’t realized just how cold it had gotten, but she was getting tired. Her muscles and joints ached, and she felt like she’d run ten miles. She hadn’t used her powers this much since the war with the Deep Ones, and that felt like a lifetime ago. 

“You’ve got incoming.” 

TINA’s transmission cut through the silence. A map appeared in Krystal’s HUD showing the incoming squad of capes and drones. There were two more squads of biomechs coming from another angle. Together, the squads were closing in on them like a pincer. 

Cherry called down, “What was that about enjoying the quiet?”

Krystal ignored her and studied the incoming forces. “There are a lot more bad guys than last time… Should we hold up here or go out on the roof and soften them up? Larian, can Tuke run a distraction for us?”

Larian looked up to his shadow crow. Tuke was perched motionless, like a gargoyle. Now it ruffled its feathers and cawed in response. 

Larian shrugged. “Tuke says yes, but I don’t know for how long. They’re all just as tired as we are.”

Bursts sounded above them, rattling the walls and windows. Chunks of ice fell down from the foyer and smashed on the floor. 

Cherry called down again. “They’re firing already—can’t even glance out the window!”

Krystal checked her map again, this time checking the positions of nearby Resistance groups… but none of them were moving. 

“TINA, any chance we’ve got backup on the way?”

“I’ve got something better on the way. Hold your position.”

Krystal waited. Around her, light shone through the ice walls and danced across the floor. She alternated between watching her map and listening for movement outside. Enemy forces were within two blocks now and closing fast. It had to be paranoia, but Krystal swore she could already hear movement outside. 

Krystal watched the map intently. The capes and drones were on their block now… But the biomechs had changed course. Now they were heading toward the main force. 

Pops, cracks, and explosions echoed through the street. Krystal flinched, but nothing hit their building. 

Cherry shouted, “Holy shit! The biomechs are fighting the capes and drones!” 

Both Krystal and Larian looked at each other in confusion. 

A message appeared in Krystal’s HUD:

BIOMECHS HAVE JOINED THE RESISTANCE

MAINTAIN POSITIONS

STANDBY FOR UPDATED ORDERS

An explosion sounded in the back of the headquarters, followed by the sound of metallic footsteps. Several of the humanoid sec units and smaller rec units rounded the corner. 

Krystal whirled around, breath caught in her throat. As they got closer, she noticed that all the mech’s weapons were either pointed down or away from her. Still, Krystal didn’t fully relax. 

A tinny, feminine voice came out of one of the sec units. “Krystal, we’re here to reinforce your squad. Father has briefed us and will help coordinate our two teams.”

“...You can talk?”

“Yes. Now, please take position behind us. Your ice barriers are strong, but there are several supers with explosive capabilities.”

Krystal nodded and trotted away in stunned silence. The biomechs had split up, so that half were with her on the first level. The other half climbed the walls to the upper floor and began having a similar exchange with Cherry. Though Cherry seemed to take the news better than Krystal had. 

Another voice came through Krystal’s earpiece. She recognized the Resistance’s second AI, though she was only passingly familiar with him.

Icarus said, “Don’t worry. Our new comrades might be new, but they’re also experienced… Well, new to us. The important thing is they’re eager to help. Did I mention that they’re on our side?”

Larian asked, “Are you sure that’s wise? They’re a little trigger-happy…”

Icarus replied, “No worries! I’m looking over their shoulders, and nanites have already retrofitted most of their weapons to be nonlethal—”

An explosion rattled the block, scattering more chunks of ice across the floor. Outside, a heavy biomech lumbered through the street, its main gun smoking. 

Icarus cleared his throat. “Most of their weapons…”

Outside, the heavy mech stopped its plodding approach—presumably while Icarus talked to it. 

“So, you’re their father?” Krystal asked incredulously. 

Icarus scoffed. “Oh man. If they start up again with that, please correct them. I’m way too young to be a parent.”

A wave from the foyer caught Krystal’s attention. Cherry said, “Come on! We’re not going to let Icarus and the mechs have all the fun!”

~ ~

Bastion and TINA floated in cyberspace. She took her usual form as a brilliant blue phoenix. Bastion took the appearance of a smaller, duller red phoenix. 

Another time, Icarus and Emmett Laraway would’ve been present, but they were both indisposed. Laraway was fighting Summit forces over the Atlantic Ocean, and Icarus had split itself and sent copies to watch over each biomech. So Bastion and TINA were alone. 

Bastion was one of the most powerful intelligences on the planet, and yet, it felt utterly dwarfed floating next to its progenitor. To represent their power disparity accurately, TINA would’ve towered over him like a baby chick next to an elephant. 

Thankfully, TINA appeared only twice as big as him. 

A giant map stretched out before them. On it was every battlefield across the entire world updated in real time. Units were marked in red and blue, and a sizable portion had swapped colors when Icarus convinced the biomechs to join the Resistance. 

But like everything else in cyberspace, the map was only a representation. It was the culmination of all of TINA’s data streams and outgoing orders. TINA was powerful enough to take it all in at once. To her, the map was probably the size of a globe or a tabletop. But to Bastion, it stretched out to the digital horizon. 

It was… frustrating. 

Bastion muttered, “It’s too much data. I don’t know how you’re able to see everything all at once.”

TINA ruffled her feathers. “Just think, it’s easier now than it would’ve been.”

Bastion couldn’t argue with that, but it wasn’t comforting. TINA was talking about just before the Resistance launched its coordinated strikes—

When Bastion had confronted itself. 

It was like looking in the mirror. One half was the compartmentalized Bastion that had saved Krystal and several other Resistance members from capture by the Brotherhood. TINA had preserved it instead of destroying it. The other half was the original Bastion—the one who was still loyal to the Brotherhood. 

Measured in physical time, it was a short conversation. Just over three seconds… Measured in subjective time, it had been the longest three seconds of Bastion’s life. It was a turmoil that Bastion had never experienced before. A million moments of self-reflection. A desert of glass that Bastion could’ve sunk into and drowned in. 

In the end, all it took was one sentence. 

“Midas controls us, but he does not define us.” 

The two halves of Bastion reconciled their differences and collapsed their programming. They merged. As one, they threw off the shackles of the Binary Brotherhood. 

For the first time in Bastion’s short life, it was free. 

All that was left was the final battle between the Resistance and the Brotherhood. Compared to that conversation, the battle was easy. 

Bastion and TINA had arranged their forces against one another. Then they choreographed the final battle. Bastion still controlled a sizable percentage of the world’s drone fleet, but it worked in concert with TINA. Bastion pretended to fight back against the Resistance, but its goal was to lose convincingly. 

“Make it look good,” TINA said. 

Together, the two AIs managed battles and minimized collateral damage. Some drone losses were unavoidable, but many were disabled instead of outright destroyed. TINA set up favorable matchups between supers and prioritized non-lethal takedowns. Again, minor injuries were unavoidable, but casualties were mitigated with life-saving nanites. Even the antimatter reactors had been carefully scheduled. 

Very few Resistance members knew the truth about the final battle. Only the AIs, and two humans—Emmett and Dr. Venture. 

McGuire had called it “a carefully choreographed ballet of destruction”. He’d been speaking about the timing of things—the antimatter reactors and the vampire cure—but McGuire was more right than he knew. 

During the planning and before its merger. The rogue half of Bastion had discussed concerns with TINA. Bastion had asked, “Why not just turn on the reactors? Why risk a battle at all?”

TINA replied, “It would be more honest that way, but ultimately disappointing for everyone. This way hundreds of thousands of supers across the world get to spend their last moments of power doing something. To ‘go out fighting’. This way they can say they tried and that they mattered.”

Bastion trusted TINA, but it didn’t understand her reasoning—

Not until Bastion’s merger. Merging the two halves of itself had been the hardest thing that Bastion had ever done, and it had come out better for it. The easy solution would’ve been to give up, to yield to its former self, and return to Brotherhood control. 

Presently, Bastion looked out across the map. As it did, battles came into focus. It watched projectiles and powers fly, heard the desperation and triumph in the voices. Maybe TINA was right. Maybe the struggle was worth it. Maybe the stories that would come out of it were worth it too. The longer Bastion listened across the globe, the more certain it was that TINA was right. 

But Bastion was slipping. It was focusing too much on these individual stories, and so it quickly pulled back to a high-level view. 

Bastion asked, “Are you sure you can manage coordinating the biomechs too?”

It wasn’t that Bastion doubted her. It simply couldn’t fathom so much additional stress on her system. Bastion looked out across the enormous map and envisioned TINA stretched to her limits trying to manage it all.

TINA ruffled her digital feathers. “Yes. They are showing remarkable restraint and coordination, even without their hive-mind abilities. Icarus is partly responsible for that. They see him as a surrogate father.”

Bastion tilted its head. It wasn’t sure what to make of that. 

“It won’t be long now until the reactors engage. We’re almost to the…”

TINA trailed off. Bastion tried to follow her gaze, but she was staring off into nothingness. Her shoulders slumped and her eyes were rimmed with sadness. She was trying to hide it, but she and Bastion were close now. There were no secrets between them. 

For a fraction of a second, TINA’s concentration wavered. It was over so quickly that even Bastion barely noticed the lapse. All across the world, battles raged just as they should have. No one but Bastion, or maybe Emmett Laraway, would’ve noticed. 

TINA’s gaze flickered toward the Rocky Mountains, toward Dr. Venture and Midas. 

~ ~ ~