With bated breath and tense shoulders, JD walked through the shadows. His eyes jumped from one corner to another, from building to building and up to the sky where the clouds kept the stars hostage behind a veil of smoke and darkness. He could feel the darkness stroking his cheek, the cold crawling over his back.

Whenever he threw a glance over his shoulder, he thought he could spot some DeeBee's hiding around a corner. It made him feel restless, so restless that sometimes he even believed Jinn was following him.

But she would never. She barely ever left her office, especially now that the swarm was growing by the day. She had a baby to protect, a baby that wasn't born yet and maybe one that would have the luck to never know what the swarm was.

Just like JD had been lucky to not know what the Locust were.

Shaking off this torturing feeling, he moved on. His grip around the chainsaw gun tightened.

The streets lay empty before him, only the dim lighting of the lamps illuminated his steps and drew shadows onto the stones of the facades. Not a single soul was out.

Somehow, that made him more nervous than the possibility of being discovered.

A silent curse left his bearded lips. His body stiffened, sending a sharp pain through his arm.

Why was he so nervous?

Not only nervous, but also as tense as a brick. It felt like as if one wrong step would cost a price that he wasn't willing to pay. Not in a thousand eons.

With a quick glance, he checked if any Gear were patrolling the settlement walls before rushing towards a side entrance, only available for COG members. The terminal beeped lightly as he put his identification number in.

A light turned from red to green. With a swift movement, the door opened and granted entrance into the small border that still separated him from the outside world.

His steps echoed from the metal walls. Walls that had been build to protected the settlement and everyone inside from the windflares. Your research had helped stabilise the walls, despite them not being your idea. Another scientist has had the idea. You had just perfected it. Ever since that, Jinn has held you in high regards.

And JD knew you had kept it secret from him but Jinn's admiration went so far that she had squeezed and eye or two shut whenever he had fucked things up with his careless jokes.

At the thought, a sigh left his lips.

"How did I survive so long without you?", he mumbled to himself.

A small sound filled the silence.

"I wonder too.", Jinn's voice suddenly sounded.

Struck by surprise, JD looked up, his gun raised.

With some hint of amusement in her dark eyes, Jinn nodded at him. It wasn't actually her, as usual, but a communicator.

"Good evening, Captain.", the robot came closer to force him to step back.

But JD refused and gifted her a grim look.

"First Minister.", he growled, trying to sound as calm and as little suspicious as possible. "With what do I owe the honour?"

She huffed.

"Why are you out at night?", she asked, frowning in displeasure. "I thought you gave up being one of the Outsiders."

"I did."

"So you're a Gear again. A member of the COG."

"Yes, First Minister."

"Then, remind me again, why are you trying to leave?", Jinn raised an eyebrow. "Do you have places to be?"

Curling his lips, JD shook his head.

"I must go somewhere.", he said, calm yet incredibly impatient inside. "Alone."

The robot moved, mimicking a human shrug. But it seemed awfully threatening.

Quickly, JD let his eyes wander through the metal staircase.

Everything was empty, not a single other DeeBee was in sight. It seemed as if Jinn seriously thought she could convince him to turn around only by addressing his loyalty. And in a way, she was right.

He was loyal, maybe even foolishly so. Just not to her.

Squeezing his eyes shut for a moment, JD fought back a wave of a headache that threatened to make his head spin.

"Listen, Jinn.", he was surprised how irritated his voice sounded as he spoke to her again. "I have no time for this. Someone is waiting for me."

"Oh? What are you implying?", the robot stepped even closer and lowered a bit, so that the two were kind of face to face.

"None of your business.", he smirked and let the chainsaw on his gun scream.

Before another word could cross her lips he raised his arms and let the chain cut through the metal and wires.

A loud screeching and scratching filled the silence, while golden sparks of heat jumped through the air like fireflies.

Swiftly, he stepped to the side as the pile of metal crashed to the ground and made his legs tremble.

"Sorry about that.", he shrugged and turned his back on her. "But you nor the COG will ever be as important as what is about to come. I'd sacrifice the world if it meant saving this one person. And maybe I am. Maybe I am sacrificing everything right now."

But as his hand touched the door and the terminal lit up to ask for another identification number, he hesitated.

All of a sudden, the rush of adrenaline was gone and the cold, harsh realisation hit him.

If he would step through this door, two options were waiting for him. Returning into the arms of that one person he couldn't be separated firm without being miserable. Or he had to say a final goodbye and move on with a kind of pain that not even his stone-hearted father was able to fight.

Only the thought made him tremble and think that it might be better to not go. His dad would tell him the bad news, would pull him into a hug. Maybe he would even apologise only for father and son to suffer though the same kind of pain together.

Taking a deep breath in, JD's eyes hardened.

"No.", he said to himself and opened the door. "That would be the easy way. Not the best."