Tools were scattered around the room, with a screwdriver piercing a fried motherboard and denting the hard stone workbench underneath. Bins of defunct components were piled up everywhere.

—This needs to work. I need to make it work!

She fumbled with the delicate components, her usually steady hands clumsy with exhaustion and stress.

—It needs to be perfect. It needs to work!

Sweat beaded on her forehead as she forced another connection, the metal groaning under pressure it wasn't designed to handle. Warning lights blinked across the machine's surface like angry eyes.

—Without the sensor, I'm running blind. But I can make this work. I have to.

Her hands moved with desperation, applying measures she couldn't verify, cranking power levels to extremes, searching for the goldilocks. The acrid smell of overheating circuits joined the metallic tang in the air.

—Alice is counting on me. The showcase is in days, moments even! I won't let them say I failed.

A spark jumped from an exposed wire, singeing her fingertip. She didn't stop. Couldn't stop. The pain was nothing compared to the crushing weight of time running out.

—This is my legacy. My proof. It has to be perfect.

The door clicks open. He freezes a moment at the entrance, witnessing pandemonium. Trying to chart his way in, he finds Phoebe hunched over on the ground, wires tangled in her hair as she rigged an improvised sensor to control and modulate the machine, using the remaining grace she had left. He stood over silently, watching her precision. But she pulls away, it didn't quite feel right.

She got up, the back of her bumping into Aris. She froze up in shock, but her shoulders fell and her face relaxed as she saw his auburn hair. She fell into his midsection, clutching him into her embrace. He held his arms out, trying to figure her out, only to reciprocate by patting her head.

"I was wondering when you'd come," she shudders. "I don't know how long I've been here, but I couldn't leave. I wanted to leave but couldn't," tears soak his shirt. "I couldn't fail her, fail them, fail everyone. I couldn't leave because they all— they all," her voice caught, barely staying stable. "You're all I have, Aris! You're the only one who actually cares about me!" She clutched him tighter, bringing herself in deeper.

He sat down, continuing to caress her head, left speechless by her confession. Her cries gave him a moment to think of something, something that would help him understand the outburst.

With her grip loosening, he takes out the wires from her hair. "You've already done so much, I'm impressed by the progress you've made in just the few days I was away. At this rate, you'll be done and with days to spare."

So, why not use that spare time to rest now, instead of grinding yourself down for people that aren't here?" He says with a sombre sense of familiarity. "There's a student's cafe nearby, and they have booths you can rest in. And they're completely soundproofed, so you'll be able to rest soundly."

She wipes her face clean, "That sounds... nice."

The heavy booth door seals, cutting out the cafe's ambience. The soft leather seats lining the booth walls, and the heavy wooden table with a central outlet make it ideal for group study or, alternatively, the perfect place to escape for a nap.

Aris slid into the booth, and Phoebe followed, settling beside him with obvious uncertainty. She fidgeted with her sleeve, clearly exhausted but too wired to relax.

"Here." He shifted over, gesturing to the extra space. "You need to actually rest."

She stretched out across the bench, her head finding its way to his lap. He didn't protest.

—She looks ready to collapse.

Aris pulled out his phone, scrolling absently while she finally began to settle. The booth's silence felt almost protective after the chaos of her lab.

"You're the only one that understands me," she murmured.

They stroll back to campus.

"When this project succeeds—" Phoebe says with a rush of energy and optimism. "—and it will." She looks into his deep blue eyes. "Because of your support, everything will change. We could work together... really build something amazing."

She holds onto Aris's arm by her side. He tried lifting his arm, but it felt surprisingly heavy for her stature, or maybe it was his own exhaustion weighing him down.

"I mean it, without you, I don't know what I'd be doing. Scrambling, maybe, pushing myself to the brink... I don't know. But you, you kept me from drowning myself in this, you helped me realise that there's... there's... more to it and kept me grounded."

She studies his face, gazing back and forth bashfully.

"It's no issue, if you need help just ask," his reply felt forced. "If anything, it's still been all you. The research, the work put in, all the effort is you; I didn't really do a whole lot."

"I guess behind every great woman is a great man," she chuckles, blushing.

"...yeah."

She got back to work, while Aris watched from behind, providing small talk to break the ambience of the metallic clatter and whirring of machine testing, as well as the sparks of soldering. The work went by with a breeze, perplexing Phoebe as to why it felt so impossible.

—I could've always used the calibrations of the husk makers and Omega treatments as references for calibration. I never needed all those parts to begin with. Maybe breaks do more than waste time.

She wipes the sweat and bronze lubricants off her face as she spins the machine, which is nearly identical to a medical bed, testing her modifications. Seeing the bed spin around soundlessly was her sign of success.

She jumps up to Aris, hugging him, and with the sudden onset of weight, he is set on the floor.

She's giggling, "I did it! It's done!"

"For real? And ahead of schedule! That's amazing!"

"You have no idea how much this means to me. If you hadn't..." she grasps him tighter, her voice caught with emotion.

"Don't credit me for your own... tenacity; if I hadn't helped, then you would have found it eventually, maybe tomorrow. I didn't do anything, really." He gave a dry chuckle.

"How can I not... You blew open the scope of my research. I only wanted to help people who already had the potential, then you brought up giving it to everyone, and that opened up everything. When I told Alice about it, she told me this was the greatest thing since Omega itself. You brought my niche research to the verge of revolution, that's why—" she caught herself before slipping out her exploits. "That's why I was fighting so hard recently, barely spending much time with you. I wanted to spend time with you, but to make your dream a reality, I had to throw everything into this. More people than ever were tuning into its showcase; it was my only chance to make it a reality. I couldn't give it up; I couldn't give you up!" She looks into his abyssal eyes, staring back.

His lips form a forced smile, unable to find words to respond with.

"But now that it's done, I don't have to solely focus on this anymore, I can focus on you, on us, Aris! I wanted to spend all my time here with you. I want to spend all my time out of here with you, Aris!" She leans into his face. "I want to spend my life with you." She said softly, closing her eyes, gently pressing her lips against his... hand.

She opened her eyes, seeing his head further away than she had last saw.

She apologised, looking away, clutching her chest. "It's her, isn't it?"

"Huh?" Aris's face flumexed, his body knowing who it was before he did. She saw his physical reaction from the corner of her eye.

"That's fine, we can end it today." She equipped her jacket, putting up its hood. "I won't bother with you anymore." Phoebe rushes out of the room, sniffling.

Aris gets up from the ground, dumbfounded by what has unfolded. His face felt warm as he tried to figure out her question, her actions, Phoebe.

He turned off the lights as he made his way out, still stuck in his head.

He heard whimpering to his side, in the bathroom. Aris approached, hearing the sound of water flowing. She froze at the sound of footsteps, horrified at being discovered like this. The squeak of her sneakers signalled her panicked movements toward the stalls. He pursued, despite not knowing what he'd say. She almost made it to safety of the bathroom stalls, then she heard: THUD!

At the sound, Phoebe turned around; her tears stopped. She clutched her drenched collar towards her lips as she walked to Aris, prone on the ground in the puddle she'd made filling up the clogged sink. She turned him over with ease using her foot. She moved the wet strands of her hair that were stuck to her face, covering her eye, and found purple already forming where he had landed. Her lips curved up at the scene. Water dripping from her chin.

Beaming lights, sterile ceiling, familiar ceiling, familiar taste, wet sensation, metallic taste. Blood. He raised his arm to check, but it barely moved, tied down. Move the other arm, stuck in place. Tries sitting, bound, legs bound. Body bound.

"Don't move so much, it'll hurt more if you do." Phoebe's voice, deeper, colder, clinical.

He tries looking at her, but she can only see the top of her head. Then heard a click, then his head snapped back.

Warmth erupted from the backside of his body; the machine was active. His heart churned, struggled. His muscles screamed. His jaw tightened. His lungs screamed. His head panged, fading. Darker, lighter. Dread overcame him; his instincts howled. Death is approaching. Darkness is coming. Eternity is inevitable. The end is coming, Aris.

His vision went black.

—Don't kill me.

Light flickered.

—I want to live.

Live for what, Aris?

—For myself.

And how did that go, Darwin?

—That wasn't living for myself!

Then what was all of this for, Strider? To make a way out for yourself?

—I was lying to myself.

Why did you lie to Aris, Darwin?

—Because I'm bound by my blood.

Whose blood, Darwin?

—The ones who raised me as their own.

Who would that be, Strider?

—My parents, of course!

Who would they be, Aris?

—The Striders.

You would rather continue to die as you have lived?

—...

So be it, Aris Darwin Strider, the captive.

The heart monitor flatlined. The machine is turned off.

His face pale as his backside grows bruised and swollen.

Phoebe watches his neck fall limp. Failure.

She approached the body, her eyes unblinking, keeping watch as she approached, then releasing him. The body falls on her, her legs keeping her from falling. She tossed the corpse to the side.

Eyes fixated as the complexion returned, but the body remained flaccid. Not a twitch. She knelt, touching the face. Void of blood and water, it felt like untreated leather. It had become a husk. She continued to inspect the body automatically, possessed until the door was barged open.

Armed officers find the scene. The sensors have flagged the flatline and dropping blood pressure and temperature.

"Body identified as Aris of the Strider family." The paramedic declares.

###

"Aris, child of the Striders, time of death approx. Eight to fifteen minutes ago. Omega interference found." A police officer notes. "Cause of death, undetermined."

###

"And here I thought the Striders were untouchable..." the conversation between paramedics continued.

###

"You sure this boy a Strider?" the pathologist doubts.

—Member of the Strider family. Child of the Striders. A Strider...

This is the death you chose; all you will be is a Strider.

—I don't want to die a pointless life. I don't want to live a pointless life. I DON'T WANT TO LIVE AS STRIDER!

Then who will you be?

—I AM ARIS DARWIN! THE ONE WHO WILL LIVE BEYOND THE NAME NO ONE DARED TO SURPASS, STRIDER!

Light beams into his eye as the pathologist inspects his eyes. He steps back from the reanimated corpse.