"Maybe we could do something about that," Eddie suggested.

"Are you going to invent a time machine?" Melanie questioned.

"I suppose that's one way," Eddie answered with a grin. "I was thinking of something else, something more like a manufacturing process."

He began pacing the floor, his words coming out quickly as if he were trying to put his racing thoughts out into the room before they escaped his mental grasp.

"The fusing together of organic and mechanical components has been done for years and is the basis for all mechanical augmentation," Eddie explained. "What if we didn't use mechanical parts? What if we made organic ones, crafted from the biological material of the intended recipient? We already have, or had before the zombies, machinery to accelerate tissue growth, so what if we expanded the process to grow entire organs and bones?"

"It would be simply a matter of surgical installation," Dalton agreed. "Organ rejection wouldn't even be an issue as it's made from the host body."

"Everyone changed when the zombies came," Eddie reminded, stopping his pacing and looking at each of them in turn. "Inventors became weapon makers, some people became weapons."

"Who is to say we couldn't become something else?" Melanie quoted what Eddie had once told her.

He smiled at her, and without thinking, she returned it.

"We've all been changed," Eddie cautioned. "So, we'll never be exactly who we were, but we can become better, our scars less pronounced, less troublesome."

"Such an invention might take years," Dalton mentioned.

"If we're going to rebuild the world, we'll need inventions like this, no matter how long they take," Eddie countered.

"I'll see about getting you a workshop and all the supplies we can spare," Dalton promised.

"What about you," Melanie asked before adding, "Mother?"

Cassandra stared silently at her daughter for a long moment before reaching up and closing a valve on her armor. A hiss of steam escaped the power cell as she disconnected it, removing the component and handing the black cylinder to Melanie. Standing, she unbuckled the other straps holding her armor in place over her leather undersuit, removing the armor a piece at a time, stacking them on the carpeted floor until all the electrodes and corresponding gear capable of producing and throwing lightning had been surrendered.

"I don't know how long I'll last," Cassandra admitted, a slight waver in her voice. "But, I would like to try."

Melanie's thoughts were in their standard state of confusion as conflicting emotions and ideas pushed and jostled each other for dominance. She was tired of trying to organize the chaos, tired of finding the meaning behind things. Everything had been so much simpler when she believed herself a machine and nothing more. Her current state was all Eddie's fault, him and his persistent questions. She decided to ignore the jumble arguing for or against what she was considering, so before she could talk herself out of it, Melanie rose from her chair and wrapped her arms around her mother.

Cassandra seemed equally unprepared for the gesture, but her response wasn't delayed more than a second or two. She embraced her daughter tightly.

Pulling one arm away from her mother, Melanie reached out toward Dalton. "Father?"

Dalton took the offered hand but didn't move from his spot, his gaze on Cassandra. Mimicking her daughter once more, Cassandra reached out to him as well, tears glistening in her blue eye. Dalton allowed himself to be pulled into the embrace of his family.

As Melanie hugged her reunited parents, one of which she had never known, she knew this too was Eddie's fault, and she'd have to thank him later.

***

The night was quiet and still, many citizens of Geargarde sitting in chairs outside their homes to stare at the stars hidden for so long behind the flashing brilliance of lighting. Melanie had pushed her goggles up to her forehead while looking at the distant points of light in the sky, but her thoughts were turned inward, considering the events leading up to this moment and how they would affect and direct the path ahead. She couldn't make sense of it as there were too many variables, far more than the simple mission of finding any undead and ending them. Melanie preferred the simple as it was easier to organize in her head.

Eddie joined her on the balcony of the hotel where they'd been provided temporary rooms in gratitude for saving the city.

"Not sleeping?" Eddie questioned.

"Obviously," Melanie dismissed, her gaze still focused above.

"I was wondering how you're taking all this," he stated.

Melanie frowned. The last thing she needed was him shoveling more questions onto the pile as she had enough to deal with already.

"I don't know," she admitted. "So many things are beyond my experience. I'm not sure what to make of them, let alone handle them."

"I'll help if I can," Eddie offered. "Anything specific?"

"Ever since my transformation, I had the benefit of simplicity," Melanie began. "I'm a machine, made to hunt the undead. Simple and effective. Ever since you started talking about my humanity, I've unanswered questions cluttering up my mind."

"Perhaps the truth of it isn't that you have questions," Eddie suggested. "Perhaps, it's just that you refuse to accept the answers."

Eddie leaned his forearms on the stone railing of the balcony, staring across the city as he continued his line of thought.

"Since I've known you, you've been committed to the idea you are only a machine and nothing more," Eddie reminded. "I keep pointing out the evidence to the contrary, but you're stuck on the idea and won't let go of it. Consider it from a mechanical standpoint. Your system has been designed to function in a certain manner and contrary programming has been introduced. The reason for the malfunction isn't in the design but the programming causing a deviation from the design. You're human with mechanical parts, and the more you try to deny the human half, the more internal conflict it causes."

"You're an inventor," Melanie pointed out. "What would you have me do?"

"You can't face your life as a construct as it only applies to a part of you," Eddie told her. "Your mother raised you to fight, then you were enhanced to fight. Fighting and training has been your whole existence. Since Geargarde is secure from outside threats, I think now would be a good time to experience a little of what it is to be a living, human being."

"Such as?" Melanie prompted.

"Take a walk to enjoy the sunshine without having to be always on alert for the undead," Eddie mentioned. "Sit near an open door and relax to the sound of a gentle rain. Sample foods for the joy of the taste. Discover what music you like. Find the things that can make you laugh. There are many things to do and experience in life, so why not try a few and see what's good? For starters, how about having a friend?"

Eddie placed his hand, palm up, on the railing beside her, but he didn't touch her. She knew he was waiting for her to take the invitation.

"I don't know if I can do this," Melanie objected.

"No one does until they try," Eddie countered.

"Even if I could, I don't know if it would work," Melanie pressed. She looked at her hands, fingers curling like a dying spider. "I don't even have a heart."

"It doesn't matter," he assured her. Eddie stopped waiting for her to take his hand and took hers. "You have a place in mine."

She looked down at his gentle grip around her hand before her eyes flicked up to meet his gaze. Melanie smiled.