Charon had no idea where she was going but she ran across the wasteland with Crimson gripping tightly to her neck. She knew they’d catch up with her eventually so she spent the time sharing the knowledge with Crimsons own nanobots, the ones Charon had deliberately infected her with, to keep her safe. Charon stopped momentarily, she would have to allow the cybernetics to re-charge at some point but she knew she also had to keep going until they shut down, she grabbed Crimson and hugged her close, then set her down.

“Crimson, I am going to give you only one instruction and you are to follow it without question, do you understand me?”

Crimson smiled, the limelight was fading, and Charon allowed herself only a momentary sigh of relief as her daughter nodded.

“When the EVA’s catch up with us and they will. I want you to trust the binary in your head, I want you to trust Markus and I want you to do as he instructs. You are to ignore anyone else unless Markus tells you otherwise, do you understand?”

Crimson tilted her head to one side to look at her.

“Who’s Markus?”

Charon sighed.

“All I can tell you is that I trust Markus with my life and now I’m trusting him with yours. Do as he asks and he will guide you out of this damned hellhole. I’ll make my own way back…”

She trailed the sentence off without finishing it, grabbed Crimson back up and she held tightly to Charon’s neck again.

“We have to go.”

She’d already heard the EVA’s and she began to sprint as fast as she could, she had to give Crimsons own nanobots a chance to do some of their own conversions to keep her safe.

It was a good two hours before the EVA’s began to catch up, by then Charon had reached a mountainous region. She climbed with reckless abandon; Crimson clinging on tightly and she knew now where she had to get to before setting Crimson loose. All the while the EVA’s were blasting plasma cannons and anything else they were armed with, she kept climbing much to their annoyance. She knew it wouldn’t be long before Fein turned up either, he’d want to see them re-captured but today he was only going to get one of them and it wasn’t going to be Crimson.

She reached the ledge and with the very last of the cybernetic charge in her body she hauled them both up. She reached round and grabbed Crimson, she held her tightly as she stood up, her back to the oncoming EVA’s.

“You need to trust me now. I am going to propel you as hard as I can up beyond this ledge. As soon as I do, I want you to land and climb like a lunatic and keep going no matter what you can hear or see behind you okay?”

A couple of plasma blasts took chunks of rock from either side of her but Crimson nodded, she stood facing Charon, her feet cradled in Charon’s palms. She bent her knees and with the very last of all her energy, she shot Crimson high into the air past the ledge. Crimson flew upwards like a trained gymnast, she twisted in the air, bringing herself round so she was facing the rocks. She caught onto the rocks lightly and began climbing like the devil himself was on her tail. Charon watched her go, turned to face the oncoming EVA’s and then launched herself at them.

It was like watching some sort of extreme bowling match with Charon as the ball. She caught the closest two but not before one of them loosed off a plasma blast and caught her in the left shoulder causing her to twist violently in the air. She crashed into a couple of rocks before grabbing another EVA’s ankles as she flew past taking it with her, the sudden change in direction caused them both to take out another three EVA’s. Charon had to let go of the EVA she had hold of; she bounced hard and then spun round crazily. A couple of EVA’s made a desperate grab for her, she could hear Fein’s voice virtually screaming for them to get hold of her before she killed herself, they caught her foot momentarily but that just caused her to change direction as she slid, bounced and smashed down the mountainside. A couple of more EVA’s tried to avoid her but she caught one full in the chest and the two of them tangled, it cushioned her against a particularly sharp set of rocks before breaking free in a bloody mess. Fein struggled to work out which flailing body was Charon and which was an EVA.

He watched on helplessly as the EVA’s slowed her descent but not one managed to actually stop her, instead the momentum kept them dropping like bowling pins every time she hit one. Part of him suspected she was doing it on purpose, the other part realised even Charon wouldn’t have that much control over a fall down a mountainside.

She dropped off the last ledge and slowly rolled to a halt in a plume of dust, which hung lazily in the air. Fein stood there watching motionless for a few seconds before he yelled at the EVA’s and they began to react. Charon laid in the dirt, she didn’t move, she knew it would hurt but she gritted her teeth and squinted her eyes open, she wasn’t going anywhere now.

She took a slow even breath; the pain was almost unbearable. She knew Fein was now standing above her, he said something, and she wasn’t sure what it was but something inside of her made her grin. As the EVA’s picked her up, the pain it caused made her black out and it was the last thing she remembered for some time.