Page 148 of Godslayer
And I sighed, and said,That’s exactly how it works. Negative feedback loop.
“Are you listening to me?” Epsilon asks.
“What do you want?”
“What?”
“What do you want, Epsilon? From me? Get on with it then. Let’s do it. Let’s fuckin’ go!”
“Well, the two of you certainly are refreshing.”
“What?”
“She said the same thing. Not in such colorful language, but essentially so.”
“So do it. Whatever it is, just do it.”
“Odd,” he says.
“What’s odd?”
“Theeagerness. Why?”
He’s right. I’m giving away hints here and this god, he’s very perceptive. Because while it makes sense that Clara would be eager to give her spark to save me, I should not be as eager to let him experiment with my genetics. It doesn’t fit. Because he doesn’t know I can steal spark from across dimensions to feed Clara after she feeds me.
I growl the next few words out. “You wanna make a deal? Let’s make a deal. I’ll let you do anything you want to me. Augment me, fight me in that cage again. Whatever it is. But I get a reward out of this.”
“Let me guess… you get your woman.”
“That’s right. You get me, I get her. That’s why I’m eager. I want her and want her now!”
“Well, now just isn’t gonna work for me. I’ve got protocols to follow.”
“Then do it. Because if she dies while you’re fuckin’ around, your little experiment is over.”
“She’s not gonna die. Not if she was telling the truth and she’s got a lake of spark hiding inside her.”
“Well, I figured it’d be a simple deduction.”
“And how’s that?” Epsilon asks. His tone snarky now.
“Because I don’t want to live without her either. I go where she goes. If she dies, Epsilon, your fun is over. I’m goin’ with her.”
“Not if I keep you alive. I might be willing to do that. To give you some of my precious spark to keep it going.”
Now it’s my turn to scoff. “Have you never made a real augment? Have ya not had one that made it into Sweep? They give us suicide programs, Epsilon. And my data display is flashing that fucker at me right now. It’s been asking me for the last ten minutes if I’d like to run the final program. And if she’s dead, I will just go ahead and do that.”
A slow clap echoes off the walls of the room. “How.Romantic.”
“Believe me, or not. One way or another, we’ll find out.”
He stands up, walks over to the control panel on the screen, and sighs. “Very well. Protocol number two. Begin.”
Immediately, every part of my body lights up with pain.
I hear myself screaming as the threads make their way deeper, and deeper into my tissues.
The world goes black.
