LE-5 pushed hard and fast, but Ellie was ready for her. When the newer model thrusted forward with an outstretched leg, intent on planting it squarely in her sister's chest, Ellie caught her ankle in a firm grip and rotated sharply to the right. Releasing her hold, she flung the other Nomad into the adjacent wall, watching with satisfaction as LE-5 impacted against it and sent chunks of its plaster flying outward.

Momentarily stuck in the wall, LE-5 pushed herself out and back onto the floor. Lowering her head, she glowered at Ellie.

"My turn."

She closed the gap between them again, sliding along the floor. Ellie tried to cross her arms in front of her, but was a tad slow—LE-5 rose up and delivered a powerful uppercut that sent the older Nomad reeling. Not one to waste an opening, LE-5 began to hammer blow after blow into her stunned target, attempting to land critical hits on vital areas.

Six had to tear his attention away from the two of them, however, as he turned his head and saw Alastor approaching fast. Rolling onto his feet, he ignored the pain in his chest and readied his fists.

"This is foolishness," Alastor said sharply, his mouth and goatee twisted into a frown. "I taught you better than this."

"You taught me what I needed to know," Six shot back, unwavering from his position. "I owe allegiance to no one. The only true power is knowledge—and that's why you never told me the truth."

Alastor stared at him for a moment, his body deflating with a heavy sigh. Then, his fist lashed towards Six's face.

Sidestep, adjust footing.

Having expected the surprise attack, Six dodged it nimbly and sent a fist of his own right into Alastor's solar plexus. The older man staggered backwards, his eyes widening in pain.

Press the advantage.

He reached forward, clapping his hands against the sides of his former mentor's head, disorienting him and stunning him further. This time, however, Alastor was ready for it. Reaching up, he grabbed one of Six's arms and twisted it backwards to force him closer.

Adapt to the situation.

Bending his knees, he leapt up in the air and spun his body backwards. Somersaulting back onto his feet with his arm no longer being twisted, he lunged forward and head-butted Alastor squarely in the nose.

End it.

As Alastor's hold on him was released, Six ran forward and jumped in the air. Bringing both his feet up to his chest, he launched them out and right into his opponent's chest with as much force as he could muster. With a pained shout, Alastor was sent flying several meters backwards, collapsing in a heap on the floor.

Panting, he turned worriedly to look back at how Ellie was faring. LE-5 had wrapped her arms around her now, but Ellie wasn't having it. Activating her thrusters, she jetted upward and rotated to slam LE-5 into the ceiling. The jarring collision forced the younger model to let go, and caused her to fall and crash back down into the ground while Ellie landed safely on her hands and knees.

He spun around once more when he heard a stirring groan, and saw Alastor picking himself back up and onto his feet. He cursed under his breath—the man was a lot tougher than he looked, and he already looked rather tough.

Stepping away, he and Ellie moved to a position where they each had their backs to one another, watching their respective opponents; Alastor glaring angrily at him, and LE-5 standing up to prepare for another charge at Ellie.

"For the record, I'm still mad at you," Ellie retorted to him from behind.

He huffed in exasperation. "For what, trying to save your life?"

"From where I'm standing, I'm not the one who needs saving."

"Point taken."

LE-5 and Alastor began to circle them, looking for a chink in the armor. Six and Ellie matched their movements, remaining vigilant—but they knew they couldn't hold out forever. Alastor was far more experienced than Six, and Ellie had no chance of outmatching LE-5 in a direct confrontation. Sooner or later, one of them would slip up and—

"All of you, freeze!"

His eyes widened in recognition. Turning towards where he'd heard the order, he watched as Lieutenant Gray and her team of 'Ghosts' approached with their weapons drawn. Two of them had eyes on LE-5 and Alastor while Gray and the simulacrum had theirs trained on him and Ellie.

"Six," she began, "we have no intention of hurting you. But we need you to stand down and come with us." She turned towards Alastor. "As for you, don't go anywhere. We've got a lot of questions for you."

The scene before them was a strange one; a Nomad and its Pilot surrounded by another Nomad and its Pilot, and all four of them being held at gunpoint by a squad of four who didn't exactly know who to shoot.

It was Alastor that made the first move. Rolling to the right, he put Six between himself and the Ghosts and took away their leverage. LE-5 thrusted over to him, opening the front of her chassis and allowing him access. Jumping in, the last thing Six saw was his former mentor looking over at him with a mixture of disappointment and regret.

"I said don't—!"

The Nomad paid them no mind as it shot up through the ceiling without a word, its thrusters leaving a cloud of smoke in its wake. As the Ghosts watched it leave, Six took the opportunity to follow Alastor's example and jump into Ellie's waiting chassis. He bent down, ready to lift off—

"Six, wait!"

Something in her voice made him hesitate. He glanced over towards Gray through Ellie's optics, locking onto her pleading expression.

"Listen to me—I know that you're scared. I know that you want answers, and we're in the same boat." She dropped her gun at her feet, indicating for the others to do the same. After a brief moment of hesitancy, they followed her example.

She extended a hand towards him. "I promise, we can help you find them."

He stared at her hand wordlessly for a few moments, contemplating her offer. All of his instincts were screaming at him to get the hell out of here—but something inside him was telling him otherwise. Something he couldn't explain.

If he truly was going rogue … maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea to have allies.

He bowed his head in her direction. "The Cascade of Spirits. One hour."

With that, he launched himself upward and through the ceiling.

"No, Six—!"

Gray watched him fly away, and clenched her hands into fists. "Damn it!"

Danvers retrieved his weapon from the ground, and looked up at her questioningly. "What now, boss?"

She sighed frustratedly, mirroring his action and placing her gun on her back. "You heard him. Let's head back to the Cascade."

"We're not going after him?"

"Unless you've been hiding one of those mini-Titans this whole time, we're grounded," she grunted. "For now, we're going to have do this his way."

—X—

Six sat on the edge of the rooftop, his legs dangling over the side as he absentmindedly watched the crowds of people on the street below. Ellie sat beside him, her body poised in the same position, but she avoided looking at him.

He sighed as he lifted a hand up to wipe away a bit of blood from the corner of his mouth. "Ellie?"

"Hmm?"

"Thanks for, um … coming back."

She ever so slightly turned in his direction, her optics barely visible from this angle. "You're welcome."

He looked down at his feet, hearing the calm, quiet anger and hurt that was still present in her voice from earlier. "You know … I didn't mean what I said on the ship."

She said nothing.

"I kept thinking about what he told me … how I had to stop letting my attachments get the better of me, that it would make me weak, and I let him get to my head."

Ellie snorted. "Yeah, I've heard that before."

"I didn't want you to leave," he continued, looking back up at her. "I was just trying to protect you."

"I know."

His brow shot up in surprise. "You—you knew?"

"Yeah. I also know that you've been protecting me for years," she admitted. "You're not as hard to read as you think you are."

"Then why are you so pissed off? If you know that I only said what I did to make you go—"

"Because I'm tired of trying to bail water from a sinking ship," she snapped. "You're the closest thing I have to a friend, and I know damn well that you consider me the same. The difference is that I'm the only one willing to call it for what it is—you'd rather go down with the boat than show any kind of emotion because you care more about his approval than our friendship."

He blinked, stunned by the bluntness—and accuracy—of her sentiment. "So … you're mad because I don't act like you're my best friend?"

"In the most basic sense, yeah. For once, it'd be nice for you to show that you give a damn about me."

"Ellie, the Advocate has been watching my every move for my entire life. If I hadn't argued on your behalf, you would have been decommissioned and replaced two years ago." He sighed again, clasping his hands in his lap and fiddling with one of the holes in the dirty jeans he wore. "I couldn't show any attachment or else I wouldn't have had any say in the matter. Even then, he came very close to replacing you several times in the years since. It wasn't that I didn't want to, I just—"

"I know," she said, her voice much softer than it had been before. "It's not fair for me to be mad at you for that. I … I'm just angry at this whole situation. This sucks."

"You're telling me," he muttered, remembering his shock at learning the truth about himself. "I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"I don't know—for dragging you into all this, saying what I said, never taking the time to acknowledge our friendship? Take your pick."

"And I'm sorry for blaming you when none of this is really your fault."

The two of them fell into silence again for some time, watching the people of Harmony as they went about their business, completely ignorant to the contents of the conversation taking place twenty meters above them.

"So," Six started, letting out a deep breath, "I guess we're on the run now."

"Yeah."

He glanced over towards her. "Well, so long as we're rogue … friends?"

She turned to look at him, and saw his hand outstretched to shake hers. The expression he had on his face was so earnest, so genuine for once that she wished she had a mouth to smile with.

"It's a start. Let's see how it goes from here."

She gripped his hand in hers, and the two of them shook warmly. Looking back at the ground beneath them, Six exhaled deeply. "Well … we've got about twenty minutes left before we meet back up with Gray."

Ellie spun around in confusion. "Hang on, you meant what you said? I thought you were just trying to give us an escape."

He shook his head. "Maybe part of me was thinking that—but we both know what we're up against. The Advocate has eyes and ears everywhere, there's no way we'll make it on our own. Eventually Alastor will come after us again, or maybe it'll be an actual retrieval squad next time. Either way, we need to start making friends, and fast."

"Can we trust them? We've been attacking the FDN for years, why would they offer to help us now?"

He pursed his lips. "I don't trust the FDN, not yet—but I trust that woman. Gray."

"Why?"

He looked over at Ellie and gestured to himself. "Because of who I am. She needs us just as badly as we need her."

Processing his words, the Nomad gave a frustrated groan. "I hate it when you're right."

—X—

Gray stood against a crate in the hangar, checking the time in the corner of her HUD every minute or so.

"It's five minutes past," Husher growled.

Danvers rocked back and forth on his heels. "Think he's not coming?"

"Would you?" Vogel asked honestly.

"Probably not."

Gray sighed. "Damn it." Turning to her right, she saw Ava watching the rest of them attentively. "Ava, see if you can open a line to Harmony air control, ask them to monitor radar for an object fitting that mini-Titan's profile. We'll have to do a sweep of the city tomorrow and hope for the best."

Ava was about to respond, but something caught her attention. "I do not believe that will be necessary, Lieutenant."

Furrowing her brow at the ancillary's cryptic response, Gray turned around to look out of the hangar door. At first, she saw nothing—then, her eyes were able to distinguish a bright point of light in the air that was approaching fast.

"Ava, make sure our automated defenses are down," she ordered quickly. "We don't want them to open fire and scare him off."

"Done, Lieutenant."

The four Ghosts watched silently as Six continued making his way towards the Cascade of Spirits, eventually flying in through the open hangar door and disengaging his thrusters. Falling down to the ground, he landed neatly on his feet, then turned to look at the group of four—the same group that he'd been trying to kill the day before.

"Alright, Gray. Let's talk."

A/N: Before you click away, please read what this author's note has to say.

Yes, I'm aware that it's been over a year since I updated this story. There's a reason for that—since March of last year, I switched focus onto two things, the first of which being the rewrite of the current continuity. I finally finished the rewrite of Inferno in 'The Architect Codex', and I'm much happier with the canon now than I was before. There are still things to fix with Tempest and Cinder, but I've put those on hold for the second thing.

I have actually been writing a LOT since the last time I updated, just not fanfiction; see, I've actually been writing a 100 percent original novel of my own titled, "Spectra: The Mark of Eden". I'm hoping to finish it this year and actually get it published, that would be a dream come true for me. And I'm going to keep focusing on it until I finish, so sorry to say but this story is going to be back on hold again until that happens.

If, however, you actually enjoy reading my work because you're a fan of my writing rather than just these particular stories, then I would LOVE if you gave Spectra a shot! Most of the book is done, and it's completely free to read on Wattpad! I've had a lot of fun developing the universe that Spectra takes place in, as well as the diverse and colorful main cast of characters! I even have artwork available of them on my discord server, so be sure to join that if you haven't already.

If you want to read the book, just search up its title on google or Wattpad, and if you want to join the discord server, then use the link below and remove the spaces;

www . discord . io / Starfall

Thanks, and I hope to see you there!

- Matteoarts