The kids are relentless with Blue and Corax. Blue's constantly being dragged around from game to game, and Corax is ever the show off. I swear, at one point I catch Blue having three separate conversations with three separate groups of kids.

She's obviously really fucking overwhelmed by the whole thing, but equally, is clearly ecstatic to be here. Didn't she have trouble understanding people in loud areas? How the hell is she handling this?

"Auntie Cassie?" One of the kids tugs on my pants. Vince only grins at my obvious discomfort, how the hell am I going to pay him back for this? "Can we race?"

"You think you're finally ready to beat me?" I ask.

"I've been practicing!" He says excitedly.

"I'm sure you'd come close, but we'll race later, alright? I've got something I need to do."

"Oh, alright." Ugh, little bastard. He looks so sad I'm almost tempted to say yes. He hangs around for just a moment, willing me to change my mind before running off towards another group.

I pick my way through the kids, trying to catch up to Blue as she gets pulled away towards another game.

"Blue! Hey, Blue!" I yell over the screaming kids. She doesn't even react to my voice.

Well, ok, I guess she can't hear well in here. If she's barely handling the kids talking to her, I'm not going to make things worse by screaming. Instead I turn towards Vince, and signal for Corax to come here.

I still can't stop myself from flinching when he lands on my shoulder. I don't think my ear will ever fully heal.

"Can both of you- Hey!" A kid starts to climb up my side to reach for Corax.

"Max." Vince crouches down in front of the kid, and he shrinks under Vince's gaze. "I know you're having fun, but the three of us need to have a conversation. You can go back to playing with Corax in a minute, ok?"

"Ok." He says quietly.

"Now, what do you need?" Vince asks, turning his attention back to me.

"Can both of you keep an eye on Blue? I need to get something done."

"Safe." Corax says. No idea if he means she'll be safe, or for me to be safe. Or for some unknown third reason.

"We'll keep an eye on her, go do your thing."

"Thanks." I head towards the door.

Corax leaps from my shoulder and skims just above Max's head. The kid reaches for him, but Corax easily maneuvers out of his grasp, leading him on a chase around the room.

Thankfully none of the kids try to rush out the door behind me, and I grab my knives off the table. It's so nice being back around people I can leave my shit around and not have to worry, people I would trust my life with. I slide my pistols into their holsters, and head up to my room.

On the bottom side of my sock drawer is a small alcove where I have most of my money stored. I grab it all, shove it all into my pocket, and head downstairs.

I can hear the inside of the workshop before I even reach it, pounding music blasting at full volume. It's not as bad as Vegas, but it's not far off, and opening the door only makes things worse.

"Sonia!" Thankfully yelling as loud as I physically can is enough to get her to shut off the music. "How much will it cost to get you to stop working on whatever you're making and build me a telescope. A real one, not just some camera on the end of a stick."

"What, not so much as a I'm back Sonia, it's good to see you again." She pauses hammering only long enough to speak, and returns to it before I can respond.

"I thought you hated small talk." I say over the ringing of her hammer, each hit driving a spike directly into my ears.

"That's fair." Another hammer hit rings out. I know she's doing it on purpose, I just can't call her out. "What do you need the telescope for?"

"Looking at the moon and stars I guess? What the hell else would I do with one?"

She shrugs.

"Let's call it three hundred Arcs and I'll get it done."

Fuck. That's a lot, but way easier than finding one elsewhere in the city. I grab my wad, count out three hundred, and throw it on the table.

"Should have asked for more." She puts down what she's working on and heads to the pile of scrap in the corner. She digs through the endless metal, deep into the center of the pile, and pulls out a telescope that's been snapped in half with large portions of its remaining shell falling away from rust. She tips it to the side, and lets fragments of glass and scrap tumble out of it. She looks inside and pulls out a circular mirror with a round hole in the center. Even from here I can tell it's scratched to hell. "Yeah that's fixable."

She focuses exclusively on grabbing more parts and tools, entirely forgetting me. I take a seat and draw my knife, fidgeting with it while I watch her work. No idea how she does it, but the telescope just flies together. Shards of mirrors get cut into shape and polished to perfection. Melted glass cools and gets grinded down into a lens by a dozen different tools and machines.

She ends up using whatever scrap she has easily available to make a new frame for the thing, and slots and welds each individual piece inside.

Actually constructing the thing only takes an hour of intense work from her to build. Calibrating the thing, on the other hand, takes hours. I just have to sit there, watching her fiddle with knobs she installed, removing and replacing pieces and changing seemingly nothing, rewelding shelves inside the thing into an almost identical place. Each time she checks the eye piece, she frowns in exactly the same way. Her frustration never grows, just an endless chase for perfection.

I should have just bought one. Even if it would have been a few extra hundred bucks, it'd be worth it to avoid this torture. The worst part is that I can't even leave. The second I do, she's just going to return to whatever project she was working on before.

"Finally done."

I jerk to attention at her words, adrenaline being dumped into my muscles and my hand reflexively curling around my knife. I'm home, why he fuck am I still so twitchy?

She's carrying a massive, multi part tube. Four feet long and half a foot across at the widest. A tripod is neatly folded against the body, with massive plates at the end of each foot to keep it stable even on just sand.

"Thank you." I slide my knife home, and pick up the thirty five pound behemoth. My legs and new arm makes holding it easy, it's just that my spine can't quite keep up. "Payments on the table."

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

"I saw." She returns to whatever project she was working on before I interrupted, and I carry the thing to the car. Thankfully she got the thing done just before the sun began to set, hopefully we can fit in a chance to use it before the next storm hits. Only problem is that it's going to be useless inside the city dome, and too clear to anyone who looks how excited Blue will be if we do it right outside.

It fits easily in the recently cleaned back seat and I toss a blanket over it. Might as well keep it a surprise.

Now how the hell am I going to make sure C-1 doesn't freak out when we drive away from the city? The timing should make things pretty easy, actually. Storms hitting tonight most likely, chances are we couldn't even get halfway to another city before then.

Just in case, I head up to my room and grab my tablet. I write a simple message in as large letters as possible on it and hold it against my window for a few seconds.

We're not running away. We'll stay in sight of the tower. Back before the storm hits.

Hopefully that stops him from worrying too much. I'll stick it in the car window as well as we drive, just in case.

With that taken care of, I head back down to the kids' room, dropping my weapons on the table before heading inside.

Thankfully, most of the kids have tuckered themselves out. The room is mostly quiet, with just three separate groups spread throughout. Vince is sitting in the corner, telling another of his stories for the hundredth time. A second group is densely packed together, but as they shift I catch a glimpse of what they're surrounding. Corax is on the ground with a big pink bow tied around his neck.

Oh my god, where's Ivy when you need her? I desperately need a picture of this moment. I don't know when I'll need to blackmail him, but I'm sure I will eventually. Even just the knowledge that I could show everyone if he bit me again would be great.

Blue is in another corner, teaching the kids about… math? How the fuck did she get them to much less listen, but also be excited about learning math? Last I heard, their teachers were pulling teeth to corral the kids.

The biggest smile fills her face when she sees me, and my heart melts. She's just so cute it's absurd.

Ok? I flash her a quick signal.

Ok. She responds.

I give her a thumbs up and head towards Vince first. He needs to know what's happening.

"Hey." I whisper, interrupting his story. "I got Blue a telescope. I'm going to take her into the desert and give her a chance to look. We'll stay in sight of the tower."

"Alright, long as you thought things through."

"It's not like we can even get anywhere, he'll live with it."

"Hope you're right. You two have a nice date."

My heart skips a beat, yet more adrenaline courses through my veins, and my body goes into full-on fight or flight mode.

It's one fucking sentence. How the hell does it affect me so badly? Whatever. Don't let it show, that's all that's important.

"Will do. We're heading east if you need us."

"Sounds good." Vince stands up and claps his hands together loudly to get everyone's attention. "Alright everyone! Blue and Corax need to get going."

A chorus of sad cries fills the room.

"Sorry everyone." Blue says.

"Will you be back?" One of the kids asks.

Blue gives only an unsure, hopeful glance towards the both of us. I stay silent, this is Vince's call.

"Well I don't see why she wouldn't be able to." He says. "Although we might have to put her to work and help teach all of you."

The kid's cries are far more mixed this time. I can't imagine why.

"We can still play!" Blue quickly reassures them. "We'll just have to play after learning, ok?"

"Thank you for playing, Auntie Blue." One of the kids says.

Ugh, I can't handle it. I can literally see Blue's heart melting. She quickly tries to blink away a thin film of tears from her eyes.

"Oh, of course! I had a great time." Her voice wavers as she speaks.

"Will Corax come too?" Another one asks.

"Yes." Corax answers for himself, and uses the opportunity to escape the tight knit group around him.

Blue had better give me a picture of this moment. It's not just the big pink bow, he's drowning in small beaded bracelets. Most of them fall off as he flies, leaving behind a trail. The rest are quickly removed by him, but Blue has to reach up to remove his bow.

"You three have fun. I have a story to finish." Vince says. "Say goodbye everyone!"

"Goodbye Auntie Cassie! Goodbye Auntie Blue! Goodbye Auntie Corax!"

"Corax is a boy." Vince gently reminds them. "It's not auntie, it's…"

"Goodbye Uncle Corax!" One of the kids yells out excitedly, followed by everyone else joining in.

"Bye everyone!" Blue calls out, and we finally head towards the door.

"I take it you had fun?" I ask the moment we're out.

"Yeah, I think they like me."

"You think?" I laugh and shake my head. "Come on, we're going out of town, I have a present."

"What? Is that safe?" All happiness immediately drains from her. She glances between both Corax and I.

"We'll stay in sight of the tower, and I'll hold an explanation up to the car's window. Come on!" I can't hide my excitement and drag her off towards the garage.

"Oh, ok." She says tentatively.

I rush to the garage, barely able to stop myself from sprinting inside. I just want to make sure she has as long as possible to use the thing, I'm not certain we'll get another chance before dealing with C-1.

I hop into the driver's seat, and my foot starts to bounce while I wait for her to climb in next to me.

"Can you grab the radio? Let me know when the next storm is hitting." I ask the moment she's inside, and ease the car out of the packed garage.

"Sure." She covers only one ear with the headphones. "So what are we doing here?" She asks.

"You'll see." Nobody in their right mind is trying to leave the compound this close to a storm, and everyone is looking at me like I'm insane. I wave them off and head out into the street. The second we're clear of the walls, I push my tablet against the window. If he somehow misses the message, then that's his problem.

"I don't hear anything about a storm yet." Blue says.

"Good." I head back out into the desert, a small shiver running through my arm as we pass through the dome. I kind of hate that, my old arm didn't freak out in the same way.

Neither of us say anything as we head out into the desert. I keep my eyes in the mirror, just waiting for someone to come after us.

I drive miles away from the city, until the point where the tower is barely visible from atop a large dune. The light pollution isn't exactly gone, but it's a hell of a lot better than it is under the dome.

"I need you to look away." I hop out of the car and grab the telescope from the back. It only takes a few moments to set it up atop the hill. I probably should have asked how this thing works, but it's a little too late now. I'm sure she can figure it out. "Alright! Give it a look!"

"Oh!" She freezes when she turns, taking it in. Corax has to pull on her ear to get her to finally slowly step out of the car. "Where did you find one?" She asks softly, laying a hand on the side of it, seemingly afraid to break it.

"Sonia made it."

She lets her hand drop from the telescope and rushes towards me, throwing her hands around me.

"Thank you." Her words are barely comprehensible, and a torrent of tears soak into my shoulder.

"You're welcome." I wrap my arms around her and hold her tight. We stay here for minutes, trying to squeeze out the last of her emotions. Eventually I'm forced to break the moment. "I don't mean to rush you, but a storm will be hitting eventually."

"Right." She nods, finally coming back to her senses. Even after, it takes her a few seconds to break off our hug and wipe away her tears.

She still hesitates before actually touching the telescope, and Corax nips at her ear again. Eventually she manages to gently guide the telescope to look at the moon and looks through the eyehole.

Instead of an excited smile, she frowns. Both her hands reach up, each playing with the small dials on the side of the device. I have to assume she fixes something as her face lights up, brighter than the moon above. A small giggle I've never heard her make before fills the air.

"It's incredible! Thank you." Her voice is even thicker with emotion. "Do you want to see?"

"No, you just enjoy." I sit on the edge of the passenger's seat and loop the headphones around my neck. They don't need to be on for me to hear, and I want to give her attention while I can. "I'll let you know when we have to get home."

"Ok." Blue's telescope sweeps across the sky, with her finger pointing at each constellation for my benefit. She enthusiastically tells me about every single one, her sheer joy infectious. The warmth she radiates keeps the cold air away.

Oh god, I'm going to have to tell her how I feel one day, won't I?

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