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"I'll show you some routes on the cliff when I'm more healed. It's a fun climb...? If the rock slides aren't set off...."

No matter how relaxed she was, I still tugged her closer. Away from the platform's edge. Away from the cliff and the valley below.

The river there had to flow around a dam made of branches and twigs. A couple of brown coated animals swam in the pond upstream of it.

"What are those? On the dam."

"...Dam.... What dam?"

When she showed no signs of slowing, I grabbed the back of her head to stop her glancing below. Only one misstep to tumble down the cliff.

"What is it made of?" she asked with a laugh.

"Wood. Branches and twigs."

"Do the builders have a big flat tail like a tennis racket?"

An image of a yellow ball came to mind and a net of some sort.

"...I think so."

"Beavers. They too, don't much like being approached and they like dropping trees. Keep an ear out for that if you're ever down by there.... Bucky...?"

I hummed in response, still watching at the beavers going about their day.

"About last night... Eve's...."

"She lost one of her asse-people last night." Wasn't hard to piece that together.

"...If only it was just the one..." Valeriy mumbled. The one visible gray eye sent me a glance. Calculating. "I... don't really know what you managed to figure out over the last few days.... Eve... the kid she wants... wanted – "

"She had you help kill a kid!?!"

"Nonononono. Noooo."

The spider machine jerked to a stop.

The platform swayed with the momentum.

The controller dropped against the cushion.

Valeriy turned to face me. One eye obscured by a blacked out lens and the other hidden behind the glare of the sun's reflection off her glasses.

"The operation last night wasn't about killing any kids.... Though a lot of them did die.... It was a huge fucking bloody mess. By the time I signed on, one of Eve's Puppets was already dead, another one was halfway there, and a third about to be swarmed.... It was supposed to be a simple rescue mission. Grab the boy. That was the main goal. Most of us wanted to get the rest of them out too.... So we did.... But then... then...."

She curled up into a ball. Hugging her knees.

"The rescue team.... The kid Eve wants-wanted... he-he tripped on... on a bloody fucking landmine. We couldn't stop the kids.... They just – they scattered. Set off more.... I-I I can still hear their screams. Right in my ear."

Carefully, I wrapped my arm behind her, tugging her hands down from her ears.

I knew those ghost screams. When the quiet gets too loud and all I could hear were the screams of those I've killed.

"Val... Valeriy, can you hear the beavers in the river? Their tails hitting the branches. The water drops on the lake surface."

"Bucky," she sighed, head leaning against mine, "my ears aren't good enough to hear water droplets from way up here...."

"We're going back to the boulder," I stated, picking up the controller.

Shouldn't be too difficult. I knew what most of the buttons did from watching her. So I carefully pushed the sliding button to spin us around.

The mechanisms in the thumb skipped when I tried to place it on the mushroom shaped stick button. Twitched in the direction of the cliff.

And the legs moved right for that direction.

I grabbed onto Valeriy and leapt for the treeline. Covering the back of her head with my hand and tucking her face against my chest.

Praying that the weapon of an arm would cooperate this time and not send us flying. That it could take the brunt of the landing and roll out most of the momentum while I fell on my back instead atop of her.

If it wasn't for the sigh that left her, I would have thought she'd been knocked out from how still she stayed.

A bark was all the warning we got, before a large shadow loomed over us.

"Ixie! Don't you dare – fuck!!! I hate the bloody both of you asshats! How'd this go sideways so fucking fast?" the young woman groaned.

It was dumb luck that the metal arm was resting on her back. I doubt the metal cast wrapped around her ribcage could handle the 173 kilograms of two dogs.

On the third thump of her face against my chest, I held up her head. Moving with her when she tried to get around my hand.

"I'm sorry," I started. "The thumb twitched. I-I didn't mean to – "

"The Arachnid is fine."

"What?"

It was. It was just standing there. Five legs over the cliff. Completely fine.

"How is it...?"

I pushed off of it to jump. It should have toppled over. More than half of it was over the edge. But it stood there with only a slight sway.

"As long as it has a foothold, it's fine," Valeriy explained as if that made sense. "It can even climb about the cliff. It's 'bout the same trickiness as weaving between the trees? You did ask for safe."

Curiosity got the better of me, and I plucked the glasses from her face. The obscured lens showed an image of the eight legged machine from behind. Far enough to see all around it. Far enough to see the pile we were in.

Those exhausted pale eyes finally opened, blinking a few times before staring down at me. A small smile pulled on her lips. "It helps me navigate."

I lifted the dogs a little higher, nudging her until she rolled out from under them. Her head stayed resting on my arm. Before the weapon of an arm could send the pair of dogs over the cliff, I dropped all the weight onto me. Part of me wondering what the A.I. ghost's warning about telling the dogs to move was about.

"Alright you two, get off of m – oof!"

Valeriy's hand couldn't cover my mouth fast enough.

Ixie and Zephyr launched off of me at my words. Nothing gentle in their movements. Powerful legs kicking out to send them sailing through the air.

"Fuck," the young woman swore. "Should have warned you they tend to use people as bloody springboards. Sorry. They're little bastards."

"They're not bad," I found myself arguing.

"Yeah, okay.... They're not bad.... Have they hurt you?"

The nails of her hand scratch along the side of my face. Light and gentle.

"Nothing I can't handle."

My head pressed against her fingers. Enjoying the peace they brought with them.

Not much of worry out here.

Not a human in sight.

Just the clouds passing above us.

I could hear a strong wind approach, before I could feel it across my skin. The roar of the rustling leaves sent birds to the skies.

By how Valeriy wasn't blowing at her hair to move it off her face, she was likely asleep again.

And again, Ixie and Zephyr had found a comfortable spot. Their heads resting on our stomachs.

Everything felt warm. Outside by the sunrays. Inside by those around me.

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Author's Note:

If you enjoyed this part, please consider leaving a vote. They're very much appreciated. ^^

This part was edited by the Anonymous Second Beta and the new beta TinselA/Bunny Carrot (https://www.fanfiction.net/u/7591081/).