Apocalyptic Rebirth: With a repairman system space, she rises again.

Chapter 729: Change of Mind.

Sunshine nodded slowly. She reached into her space and pulled out a small, jagged fragment_ no bigger than a marble_ of the Prime Core. She placed it in Argon’s massive hand.

Melvin leaned forward, his face twisting in confusion. "Is... is this all? You showed us a larger piece when you were trying to make a deal with the council. This small thing is not worth the trip for both of us."

"It’s a sample," Sunshine lied easily, her heart hammering. "I had to make sure the river could actually handle it before I threw the whole thing in."

Argon stared at the stone. Even as a fragment, it pulsed with a terrifying, power. He looked at it with something that wasn’t hatred_ it was closer to hunger. He hesitated, his fingers closing slowly around it.

Before he could move it away completely, Sunshine lunged. She snatched the fragment back with the speed of a thief and, with a grunt of effort, tossed it far into the bubbling greenish-violet heat of the waterfall.

"NO!" both men shouted in unison.

The sound that followed was deafening. The waterfall didn’t just splash; it erupted. A pillar of violet-hot flame shot into the sky, making a sound like a thousand angry snakes. The sizzling was so loud it vibrated in Sunshine’s teeth.

[Warning, Host: Oxygen levels are at 15%. Running low,]

the system chimed in her head.

Commander Melvin ignored the explosion, his eyes fixed on Sunshine. He had seen the blinking red light on her oxygen tank minutes ago. He had been waiting for this. He wanted her weak. He wanted her desperate to get rid of the core and leave.

"Sunshine, look at your tank!" Melvin shouted over the roar of the fire. "You’re dying out here! Hand over the rest of the Core right now. I’ll stay behind and finish the job. You need to get back to the pod and leave before you suffocate!"

Sunshine looked at the blinking red light. Then she looked at Melvin. He looked like a hero, but his eyes were cold, searching her for where she was hiding the rest of the treasure. He knew she had a space, but he had no access to it.

"You know, Commander," Sunshine said, her voice muffled by her mask but dripping with sudden clarity. "I am really grateful for the help. Truly. But I think I’ve changed my mind."

Melvin’s face went pale, then bright red. "What? What do you mean you changed your mind? We are in the middle of a lava lake!"

"I mean," Sunshine said, standing up tall despite the lack of air, "that I made a decision out of panic. But if the rifts are going to stay open, and if the Watchers are going to continue coming... I think I’d rather have a ’time bomb’ in my pocket than nothing at all. I’ll use it to make weapons. I’ll use it to fight."

"You’ll run mad!" Melvin screamed, stepping toward her, his hand reaching for her arm. "It will consume you! Hand it over, that is an order!"

The oxygen meter hit 5%. The world started to go grey at the edges. The system screamed in her head: [CRITICAL DANGER. ENGAGING IMMEDIATE EVACUATION PROTOCOLS.]

Sunshine looked at Melvin’s furious, disappointed face. She actually found the strength to chuckle subtly. It was a bubbly, oxygen-deprived sound.

"Commander," she whispered. "I cannot breathe; I need to go."

In the next blink of an eye, the boat was empty. Sunshine was gone, pulled into the safety of her space, leaving Melvin and Argon sitting in the heat, staring at the spot where she had just vanished into thin air.

******

At home, Hades was losing a battle with his own mind. He had spent the last three hours staring at the ceiling, watching the shadows of tree branches dance like skeletal fingers across the walls. It wasn’t just the empty side of the bed that kept him awake_ though the absence of Sunshine’s rhythmic breathing felt like a missing heartbeat in the room_ it was the ghosts of Iron Wood City.

Every time he closed his eyes, he saw the smoke. He smelled the blood and the charred bodies. The gruesome images of the Watchers playing with human body parts. He couldn’t get the picture of Alvin out of his head. His mother had hidden him inside her gaping, bleeding stomach, like a newborn!

Had she been injured previously or did she make the cut herself? Would that boy ever forget that day?

How many people could make that kind of sacrifice for their loved ones?

Finally, restlessness won. He tossed the duvet aside and stood up. "Warm milk," he muttered to the empty room. "The old-fashioned cure for an apocalyptic nightmare."

He padded down the hallway in his bare feet, his movements silent from years of habit. As he approached the kitchen, he heard a strange sound. It was... wet. A sort of rhythmic, frantic chewing.

He peered around the corner. A figure was hunched over the kitchen island in the dark, illuminated only by the faint, icy blue light of the open refrigerator. The figure was moving with the desperate intensity of a raccoon that had just discovered a discarded pizza.

"Suni?" he whispered, his heart leaping into his throat.

He reached for the switch and flicked it. The overhead light buzzed to life, bathing the kitchen in a warm yellow glow.

Sunshine jumped nearly six inches off her stool. She turned toward him, a half-eaten chicken leg in one hand and a piece of bread in the other. A generous smudge of ketchup was smeared across her upper lip, looking like a tiny, red, edible mustache.

His mouth fell slightly open. This was not how he had been expecting to see his wife. Between this and when she returned with a half-naked Carson, he couldn’t tell which one was ranked higher.

"Mmmph!" she tried to say, her cheeks puffed out like a squirrel. She swallowed hard, coughing slightly. "Babe! I... I’m sorry! Did I wake you? I was trying to be a shadow. A very quiet, very hungry shadow."