Volume 4: Beta-09, Chapter 4.2

Our apartment looked exactly the same as I remember those 18 cycles ago, and thankfully the maintenance bots worked to prevent dust and cobwebs from settling everywhere—wait,

was

there dust in space? Or cobwebs and spiders? Well, the maintenance bots prevented me from knowing that answer, which I was grateful for.

Once we were inside our little apartment Eve rushed off to get changed, getting into comfortable clothes—a sexy black tank top and some purple skull pajama pants. I felt mentally drained more than anything, not exactly tired yet, I was more concerned with Eve and how she was holding up after the fight with Gamma-12.

“Are you doing okay, sweet-thing?” I asked, putting my arms around her.

Eve shrugged, “I’ll be fine.” She said rather dismissively.

It was pretty obvious Eve was in a mood—a wildly human side of hers how moody she could get. I let out a weary sigh knowing we needed to address every elephant in the room before we could continue on with anything else. “Figure we should probably have a talk.” I offered.

Eve who was normally quick with a joke was completely serious now and led me over to the couch and sat down with me, “I figure you’re right.”

It was so weird having this awkward tension between us, like it didn’t seem normal. But the weird thing was fights and disagreements

were

normal, so really, didn’t it mean we were just dealing with regular relationship issues at this point? Well, as regular as we could be when a silly little human was dating an all-powerful Predazoan.

“Alright, so what’s on your mind?” I asked.

Eve draped her legs over my lap as she laid down on the couch, then let out a long, annoyed sigh, “I don’t know, everything seems like it’s suddenly gone wrong; we’re back aboard

The Radiance

with all this drama, I still feel like we should’ve taken our chances and tried to escape—” She held up a hand to stop my interruption, “Even though I understand your reasoning on why you were against the idea.” She reached back and put a pillow under her head so she could look at me, “And now worst of all I feel this horrible tension between us, like you suddenly don’t trust me—like we’re back where we were all those cycles ago.”

I shook my head as I trailed my hands along her thighs, “Evie, it’s not that I don’t trust you, but as I told you before there’s a small part of me that has some instinctual fear over what you are and what all you can do—”

“Why—

why

would you still fear me? Did you not see how I protected you from Gamma-12?” Eve pressed, sitting up now as she grew frustrated, “See how I obeyed your orders even though I fundamentally disagreed with them?”

I quirked up an eyebrow, “Orders? Eve, I didn’t

order

you to do anything, I just wanted you to keep your promise so you wouldn’t take away my freedoms—to overrule my will and take complete control over our future.”

“Instead,

you

control our future for the both of us. I’ve told you before, Adam, your words act as

law

to me, and I can’t disobey. Yes, I might resist and rebel, but when you give me a command there’s trillions of cells in my hivemind who engrave those words into themselves and make them a fundamental part of my entire being; I don’t think you realize just how powerful your hold over me is.” Eve explained.

I shook my head, “There’s no way it’s so fundamental; I just

barely

talked you down from implementing your plan and ghosting us away into the vacuum of space.”

Eve gestured to the room around us, “We’re here back on

The Radiance

, aren’t we? I fully obeyed your commands back there.”

I waved my hand out in a frustrated gesture, “You told me a long time ago you still have your own will and desires—that you weren’t just some puppet who would do everything I say. Now I guess I just have no idea where the lines are; seems like things go back and forth plenty with you obeying or disobeying my orders.”

Eve growled in frustration, “There’s

levels

to this, it’s nothing simple—nor can I fully explain it all to you.” She tried to use her hands to help illustrate the point, “Your commands don’t override fundamental truths, and you could never command me to do something that would jeopardize our future. And sure, sometimes if you’re just being silly, I can ignore those commands. But when you really put your heart into your orders and I can

feel

its importance, something happens in my hivemind that rewires me that makes those orders important to me too.”

Once again Eve was revealing more about her nature as a Predazoan, and once more it went beyond my simple human mind, “So, what, you’ll only obey my orders if it’s something I think is really important? I have to put my whole heart into it?”

Eve sighed, “In so many words, yes. So, if you’re doubting yourself or your orders, if you hesitate or lack real conviction, I’ll sense that and won’t take those orders into myself—my hivemind will easily dismiss it.”

“And if I’m lacking conviction, then you have to

choose

to obey me?”

Eve nodded along, “Basically, and I try to follow along with what you want, really I do, because I want you to feel safe and comfortable and equal with me, but it

irritates

me when I can feel your convictions waver because then

I

have to make the choice if it’s something you

really

want or if it’s just something you

think

you want.”

I waved back to the door, “So out there in space when I was telling you to keep your promise, how was my heart then?”

“When I first told you I wanted to run away with you, you faltered a little, but when I told you I would sacrifice this version of myself, you became completely certain in your convictions to stay on this course.” Eve explained.

Well good, I should hope I wouldn’t hesitate with such an important decision; the idea of ever sacrificing Eve was unthinkable to me.

“Yes, glad you had such conviction in the future

you

decided for us.” Eve grumbled.

I let out a weary sigh, “Eve, this whole control thing with you is weird and way beyond me, but from how I understand it, you

gave

me control so I could shape our future so I could feel like I mattered in this relationship—keep us equals.” I reasoned.

“Yes, and in doing so you make it seem like I don’t matter.” Eve added, sounding a little hurt now.

Hearing her like that was heartbreaking. I pulled her up and into my lap, and she wrapped her arms and tentacles around me quickly, “Evie, I

never

meant to make you feel like you don’t matter; you’re the most important person in my life and I’ll do

anything

I can to secure our future together.”

“You have a funny way of showing it; didn’t even ask how I felt about returning to

The Radiance

or about the mission, and now our fates are sealed.” Eve said quietly.

“Eve, that’s not fair; you told me time and again how you didn’t care what we did so long as we were together.” I countered.

“And here we are with an uncertain future where people might try to separate us.” Eve almost snapped.

I sighed, “Alright Eve, what would you have us do?”

Eve looked up at me, her brilliant yellow eyes glowing bright with concern and frustration, “Too late to do anything now that we’re back on

The Radiance.

”

I shook my head, “Forget what’s going on right now and just give me a snapshot into how you’d want to live; what would you want to do?”

Eve’s glare continued on for a few more moments until it softened and I could see a little fear in her eyes, “Oh Adam, I just want to love and protect you, I don’t even care where we go. We could go back on those vacation stations, travel back to Entana even. Honestly, I’d love it if we could just return to Earth and live a simple life on your grandparents’ farm.” Eve looked up at me, eyes shimmering with tears, “I love it so much when you look at me like I’m a person—like a human. Despite all my power and abilities, despite how I perceive the universe around me, I wish I could give it all up and just return to Earth with you and live a normal life.” Eve started crying now, hugging me tight, “Adam, Adam I can’t lose you, I won’t—I can’t live without you!”

I could feel Eve’s fear and desperation, her anxieties over the uncertain future. Every decision I’ve made this far was all to try and take care of Eve, but I seemed to screw it all up every step of the way, and now my actions caused my wonderful Eve to cry. It more than broke my heart, it made me feel true despair—made me feel like the worst human in the universe. I couldn’t help it then, tears started welling in my eyes, and for the first time in years I started crying there with my Eve, “I’m so sorry I fucked it all up Eve, I’m just so stupid and reckless and got us all into trouble—”

Eve shook her head and forced me to look at her, both of us crying now, “No,

I’m

sorry; I should’ve understood your feelings rather than make those terrible suggestions. I don’t want to sacrifice this version of me, I just want to live with you, safe and far away from the stupid Empire.”

I nodded along, “That’s all I want, to just get out of here and be with you—be free with you. I hate how anxious and scared we both are, and it’s all my fault.”

“No, Adam you

saved

me; reckless as it might’ve been, without you there to be my handler I would’ve just been kept in that containment cell for years, dissected and experimented on over and over. So yes we’re trapped here, but it was the

only

way we could be together now.” Eve insisted.

“But what if they try to separate us? What if they send me back to Earth and wipe my mind; what if they make me forget you?”

Eve shook her head quickly, “I would rather die and take everyone with me than allow you to be sent back to Earth without me.” Her tears stopped as her eyes blazed with fury, “I will not allow

anything

to get between us, you hear me?

That

is my promise to you now; we

will

be together, and we will

stay

together no matter what happens from here.”

“I love you so much Evie.” I said, kissing her desperately.

“I love you too Adam.” She said, kissing me back with even more fervor.

Our sorrow was burned away by our passions, and we found renewed strength in our bond; we knew then and there nothing in the universe would ever come between us, and more than that we would work to strengthen our relationship and maintain our love, working to grow and mature together—the start of our forever.

We snuggled up on the couch for a little bit, holding each other, breathing together, feeling each other’s heartbeats. I could feel Eve slowed hers down to match mine, and when I looked at her she just giggled, being all silly and playful with her godly powers.

“I really am sorry, Adam.” Eve finally said.

“About what?”

Eve shrugged against me, “I don’t know, about everything I guess; we shouldn’t be fighting each other, we should be fighting

together

.”

I nodded at that, “Definitely. Whatever happens from here on out, we need to stand united.”

Eve looked up in my eyes, “Do you still want to stop the Predazoans? You mentioned we had a responsibility to use my power to save innocent lives.”

I paused as I thought over my answer, but finally nodded, “Yeah, I do think it’s important we use your powers for good, but honestly it’s more like the mission itself I hate.”

“You’d rather we hunted the other Predazoans on our own, without the Empire?”

I smiled at that, “What, like vigilantes? Then you’d really be Spider-Man.”

Eve’s smile was brilliant, and she bopped me on the nose, “Silly.” She sighed and settled more into my lap, “But I’d rather live like that than be tethered as we are.”

I sighed too, “You think there’s any hope we can squeeze through this drama untouched? What with everything going on between the researchers and the agents, think maybe they’ll forget about us?”

Eve was silent for a few moments, and I wondered if she was thinking of lying to me—give me some false hopes and fake comforts. But I knew she wouldn’t be okay with that, “If high-command comes down on

The Radiance

, we very well might be the first ones on the chopping block.”

I let out a frustrated groan, “But we’ve followed along with their rules, stopped two Predazoans so far. What more can they ask of us?”

Eve shrugged against me, “You saw their decision with Gamma-12; even though she was putting on that peaceful front, because she didn’t reveal her supremacy drive they immediately shifted to contain and kill conditions. To them, I’m probably just another dangerous Predazoan they can’t properly control.”

“What, because of me—because I’m compromised?”

Eve smirked at me, “Not everything is always about you, silly boy. Maybe I’m just too much of a troublemaker on my own.”

“You think?”

Eve’s smile fell, “It’s probably all of it—the handler and the asset, neither are properly controlled, and the mission suffers for it.”

I sighed, “They’ll probably blame us for the researcher grievance too.”

Eve looked up in my eyes, really searching there for something. Finally, she just let out an irritated sigh and pushed me down on the couch, “I don’t like all this doom and gloom, I don’t like how upset you are.”

Eve readjusted herself on the couch so my head was in her lap, looking up at her massive breasts that mostly blocked my view of her face. “Well, what are you thinking?” I asked.

Eve smiled that playful smile of hers, then lifted her shirt to reveal her perfect breasts, then pressed one forward to put her nipple against my mouth, “Let me take care of all your concerns, your stress and your worries. Just let your Mistress take care of you, my sweet, darling boy.”