After enduring Robera's silent glare and breathing curses for a while, Marion left the safe side of the wall and began inching closer to the war.

His gun was raised high in alert and so was Robera's as they gradually infiltrated the wild arena of raging roboxes.

It was a suicide mission at best. But it was their only chance to catch Trevor before he escaped, if he hadn't already.

Marion's knuckles turned white from clutching the plate so tightly. His arms were about to fall off from holding it for so long. Beads of sweat began to coat his already oily and dirty tanned skin.

Robera noticed his busy arm tremble and gently grabbed his arm.

"Here, let me hold this—"

"Hold your gun," Marion gritted, tilting the plate inward to shield them from the increasing onslaught of firing.

Robera frowned.

She had been tolerating his moods for quite a while now and her patience had been running thin. She knew he was doing his best to protect her despite being in more danger than her and she admired his bravery with all her heart.

But Robera wasn't here to coddle his big guy feelings but to put an end to this war. If Marion wasn't going to listen to her then she would have no choice but to take matters into her own hands.

With pursed lips, Robera left his arm and yanked the plate closer.

"What are you—"

She ignored Marion's hissed sputtering and looped her fingers to one of the crisscrossed metal wires.

"Robera-"

"Hold the fort. I'm leading."

Marion groaned. "This isn't a fucking video game!"

"What's a video game?"

Robera bit her lips to hide a smile when Marion grumbled a curse under his breath.

She knew what a video game was. She had a wall shelf full of game DVDs and VCR sets in her bed chamber. She used to play sometimes when she would have gotten tired of studying and site-seeing out the window.

But it was more fun to mess with Marion, even while their literal lives were in danger. There was no option to save the checkpoint and reload if they died. Hell, they didn't even know if they would get to see the next sunrise after tonight.

All they had right now was this fight and she wasn't going to let her final hours on earth be full of gloomy moments. She had already shed enough tears since waking up from a decades-old slumber.

The sound of a close shot had Robera flinch out of her thoughts and she looked out to see wisps of smoke floating out of Marion's gun barrel.

Her eyes turned wide. "What are you doing?"

"Doing your job, since you're doing mine." Marion swiftly raised his hand to shoot out and hid below the cover, earning a few plate-rattling bullets in return.

Robera's eyes bulged out in horror when their plate quaked vigorously on impact.

Was he nuts!

"Marion!"

"Move fast. Don't slow down."

Marion increased his pace while looping his fingers on the plate again and raising the big plate over their head.

"Marion, this is crazy!" Robera screamed, wincing when Marion shot in a random direction again.

"Death is crazier," Marion gritted his teeth, leaning a little forward and blowing another gray robox's head. "You won't get it when you want it. It loves to play hide and seek with us mortals."

Robera couldn't help but look at him while he so calmly dished out the philosophy.

His eyes held no fear, no concern for himself whenever he would poke his arm or head out to take roboxes down. But they would light up in blazing fire when a stray bullet or laser come so much as an inch closer to her.

"You have no regard for your life," Robera whispered those words out, almost dazed by the way she spoke.

Marion didn't respond, though. He either didn't hear her or he didn't want to hear her.

Robera sighed and pointed her gun outward, eyeing one of Trevor's croonies and raising his weaponized metal arms toward Marion while he was busy shooting the other one.

"What are you doing?"

"Doing your job for you."

Robera aimed for that robox's head but her shaky gun fired and blew away his throat instead.

Hmm... Not bad.

For the next half an hour, Marion and Robera swiftly maneuvered through war ground, speaking only with their guns and adjusting their mostly tattered chest plate cover occasionally.

It was in poor condition after enduring the vigorous onslaught of bullets and lasers for so long. After all, even platinums had limits.

But there was no time to change the plate without risking exposure and getting killed within seconds, so they had to endure the ever-rattling plate with small dents carving the outer surface of the metal.

It was a miracle that they had crossed the huge mass destruction in the middle ground still intact and now they were edging closer to the thinning crowd.

They moved in fast speed, zigzagging their way through to avoid hits as much as possible. The winning crowd of black roboxes helped much in the case as well.

Robera had yet to see a black robox hit them while they crossed them.

Marion must have changed their program in some way so that they didn't hit them while fighting with the gray roboxes. The same way Trevor voice commanded his soldiers to leave Robera alone.

This made her wonder if she had the same ability to communicate with those roboxes the way Trevor did. She was an advanced hybrid, according to Trevor. She should be able to channel her command to roboxes the same way she could with humans.

But what if she called out these roboxes to stop and the plan backfired? What if instead of helping, she risked their lives further by attracting more unwanted attention in the middle of the war ground? What if she got Marion shot or worse killed with a stray laser from one of those gray devils?

The thought of any harm befalling Marion because of her impulsive decision had her shiver and shoo away the idea.

Marion and Robera reached the outskirt of the war ground when Robera spotted the vague outline of a helicopter afar.

A thick blanket of fog was surrounding the dark silhouette of the old vehicle. This kind of transportation had become rare after the rise of the airbus and the two-seater private copters—a smaller, more convenient version of this long-tailed, prolonged-bladed helicopter.

At least, that was what she could remember from the articles she used to read about the twenty-first-century transportation system. She didn't understand most of those things from the old era. But they were no less fascinating, nonetheless. And she was grateful for her photographic memory to allow her to remember at least one thing she was fond of in her life before they died.

She smiled as they crossed the last pile of a fallen robox arm and was about to drop the plate.

But Marion didn't budge and placed the ruined metal behind them where war still caused chaos. Only they dimmed down a notch now.

Or was it just a feeling they had after getting out of a raging hell?

After all, everything felt numb after the moment of high adrenaline rush and they had been on the edge of their skin for a couple hours now.

But Robera didn't fail to recognize the calm before a storm.

The real was just about to start now and Robera had a feeling that what was about to come would dull even heavy rain of fire behind them.

Her only hope was that they survived the night and put an end to this bloodbath.

For once and for all.