Page 69 of Repossess My Heart

“No!” I snap, “I’m not going anywhere until Nine is here!” I storm towards the control panel, slapping my hand down on the interface to activate it.

“Hey, you have no idea what the fuck you’re doing. Don’t mess with it.” Six starts and I don’t bother looking back at him as I prod around on the machine, letting my hands blindly lead the way. My pulse drums as each swipe of my hand brings me deeper into the controls. I frown when I’m met with an access block.

“Can you bypass this?”

“Nobody can but the Officials and I doubt there’s any left.”

The sound of pounding boots has everyone…everythingjerking towards the door. The screen and whatever my body was trying to tell me to do with it is forgotten as bloody white hair pops around the corner. “We need to go.” Nathan rushes out through panted breaths.

His eyes find mine and there’s so much in his eyes. So fucking much where there was nothing before and I can’t decide if I’m better for it as my chest explodes with emotion. The metaphorical bomb Six was so worried about detonating at I stalk towards him, shoving him with everything I have. “How could you do that to me!? How could you put me through that?” I sob, shoving him harder. I fight him as his hands band around my wrists, stopping me, unable to meet his eyes.

I can’t see everything there after what he said and I don’t care why. I don’t give a fuck how good the reason is.

“Master is in-“

I gasp as he slams me into him, banding his arms around me like twin vices as he hugs me tightly to his chest, his own breath leaving him in uneven heaves. He holds me so tightly my lungs can’t expand fully, but I don’t dare pull away as I cry.

“Why?” I sob, thudding my forehead roughly against his chest.

“Because I love you!” He snaps, letting go of me long enough to jerk my head up, forcing my eyes to his. I don’t miss the rough, agonized burst of air that leaves him when they meet. “I love you and the things I love die. I couldn’t risk you, not even for a moment, and I don’t fucking care how much it hurt you. I need you more. I would force you to spend an eternity in suffering if it meant you stayed by my side. That is the only love I can give you, Reverie! It is selfish and cruel and unforgiving, but you have no other option than to accept it. I don’t fucking care if it hurt, I was going to keep yousafe.”

I stare at him, and when he leans forward kissing each tear that leaves me I melt into him, “…I love you too. D-on’t… don’t leave me again. If you die, I want to die too.”

His smile is shaky but real and my dammed heart flutters in my chest. “Good. There’s no way I’d let you live without me.” I had always wondered how he’d look at me once he finally saw what he wanted to in my eyes. It’s the same. He loves me just the same.

When his lips slam into mine, it’s fundamentally different from the rest. It was a promise written in blood and carnage. A vow between broken beings that we’d decided to live for no other reason than one another. As selfish and wrong as it was, I want him. In whatever insane broken version I can get him and he wants me just the same. I don’t know if that’s what love is supposed to be. An obsession without sacrifice. There would be no letting go for the greater good, none of that if you love something you’d let it go propaganda. I knew at that moment that he meant it all. From the very beginning, I washis. My death, life, pleasure and pain belonged to him and he belonged to me just the same. If he died, he’d take me too and there would be no other option for me. I’d do the same for him. Die for him because he’d remade me, built me, destroyed everything I thought I was.

Six clears his throat, halting the hungry clash of our lips. “That was all highly toxic and we’re all about to die.”

21

A Way Up

When You & Me Dance by Grabbitz

“Readytoseethesun, sweetling?” He breathes. When I step back, I finally look at him. His skin is paler, pallid even. His body shaking with every breath.

“Nathan…”

“Above help me. I love the way that sounds.” He murmurs before jerking me back to his side, heading for the control table.

“No!” I yell, clinging onto his arm as he reaches to dismiss everything there that I’d pulled up. He lets me stop him and even I know in this state he didn’t have to.

“We don’t have time for this.” Six grunts, his head snapping towards the open door like he's seeing something we aren’t. “Our brothers are coming, we need to move now!”

His and Nathan’s drones zip from the room, off to slow the Repo Men all lobbying for the only remaining exit if the red lights on the layout map are any indication. There’s another odd pinch in my heart, knowing his drone is already running on fumes. Knowing it isn’t coming back. I jerk again, trying to dislodge the mechanical arm wrapped around my waist. “I can save them!”

I’m wrenched backwards by Nathan. “They aren’t worth saving baby.”

My chest flutters, my stomach whirling. It’s an incredibly inappropriate reaction at a time like this, but here we are. I shove it away, fighting against a brick wall and when Six steps in to help stop me a growl slips from Nathan his eyes flaring with a possessiveness that makes my heart jump. Their heads snap towards the hall again as yelling and gunfire filter in. It sounds like a war.

They all want out. The only way is through us.

The distraction is enough for me to slam myself past Nathan, my hands shaking as they flutter over keys. Each thing I type coming back with a loud, blunt sound and a red error message, “Fuck!” I yell, “CeCe, please. There was to be a reason!”

“Reverie enough.” Nathan urges. A sob leaves me, my heart pitching unexpectedly for everyone trapped. I feel it the moment he decides this is enough. Knowing what it cost him to let me try.

“Please!” I cry out as he grips me gently, wincing as I fight against him.

---