Rising After the Fall Ch. 03

This is chapter three of a multi-chapter story commissioned by Adam and written by Vanessa Foxe (breedorbebred)

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The small screen on the power cell flashed to life and displayed the unit's current level of charge.

"Still sixty-two percent?" Cianna frowned at the large battery, a piece of technology that had been absolutely bleeding-edge when she took it with her into the cryopod. Now it was a century or two out-of-date-- just like her.

Footfalls on the stairs behind her preceded Zavier's entrance to the room. He might have glanced over her shoulder to peek at the power cell in her hand, if not for the fact that she was a full foot-and-a-half taller than he was. Some of that was because she stood at a staggering seven feet in height thanks to the genetic augmentations she had been born with, but his short stature was just as big of a factor.

"Still at sixty-two?" he confirmed, obviously having overheard Cianna's grumbling as he came down to join her in the workspace. He grimaced at her nod before leaning against the workbench across from her with a sigh. "That's three days without it going up by a single percent, now."

She gave him a glance, taking in his relaxed posture. It was clear that he wasn't too broken up about the battery's slow charging rate. After all, the longer it took for the power core to charge, the longer it would be before Cianna was ready to leave Elk River Valley. He hadn't exactly made it a secret that he wanted Cianna to stay in the small town for a while longer-- maybe even forever, if he had his way.

"It's only gone up by about thirteen percent in five weeks." Cianna was frustrated, but the grimace on her face had more to do with how close to her Zavier was standing. While she had nothing against the young man-- she was actually quite fond of him, she could admit-- it was getting harder and harder to ignore the tension between them.

A bit more than a month ago, caught up in a surge of gratitude for all the kind things Zavier had done for her and feeling thoroughly giddy from sitting under the most beautiful night sky she'd ever seen in her life, Cianna had taken things a bit too far with the boy. She'd kissed him, stripped down to the waist to let him play with her breasts, and then gone as far as blowing him right there on his parents' balcony. She'd ended up running away when she finally realised that her time in cryosleep had been a lot more than two or three decades she'd expected.

At first, Zavier had been quite content to give Cianna her space, and she had taken that as proof that she hadn't ruined their working relationship in that one evening of excitement. But over the last few weeks, Zavier had started standing closer to her and wanting to spend even more time with her. Now every time she looked up, she found him staring.

Despite all her warnings that her time in Elk River Valley was temporary, Zavier had clearly developed feelings for her.

"There's just not enough power to spare anymore," she sighed, trying to focus on the problem at-hand. One disaster at a time.

"That's not really a surprise, though, is it?" Zavier shrugged. "Even with the increased power rationing they're asking everyone to do, there's barely enough to keep everything running. The geothermal plant is... It's really struggling this year. It's going to be a tough winter if the plant can't keep up with our needs."

And that was her main problem. Cianna had been relying on the town to produce enough energy that she could skim some off the top to charge her core over the course of weeks or months. With winter coming, the town's energy needs would only rise, and there was no way they'd have enough surplus for her to take any for herself. Not without overdrawing the grid and leaving everyone else to freeze when the snow started falling.

So, if she wasn't going to be able to charge the power core any more than she already had, why was she still here?

Cianna knew the answer to that question, of course. It was literally staring her in the face.

She met Zavier's gaze, finding brown eyes full of excitement, adoration, and... something richer than that. Shit, he really was far gone. He'd developed feelings for her even after she'd explicitly warned him not to. Wasn't it kinder to let him off easy, to rip the bandage off before he got even more attached?

"Zavier, I..." Cianna's voice faltered as her courage left her. She drew in a deep, steadying breath, and fell into the standard parade-rest she had practiced throughout the childhood she'd spent in military training. The pose reminded her of her duties: to her comrades, to her captain, and to herself. "I've been staying with you for a long time now. And while I will always be grateful to you for all that you've done for me, pretty soon I am going to have to--"

"I want you to stay," the petite man interjected. "Cianna, I want you to... Why not just stay here? Elk River Valley is a good place to make a life. You have friends here. Alannis, me, even Frank from down the street. You could get your own place, or just stay here with me..."

"You know that's not going to happen." She let some steel creep into her voice as she worked herself up to go through with this hard conversation. "Zavier, we've talked about this. I've been staying here to charge the power core. If there's no more power to spare, then it's time for me to be moving on."

"Is that all you care about then?" he asked, and the look of genuine hurt in his eyes hit Cianna with all the force and sharpness of a sniper's well-aimed bullet. "Just the battery?"

"I told you how it was when I first moved in, Zavier. I have other responsibilities."

"Well, I hope those work out for you," he said quietly, but not quite quietly enough to hide the quaver in his voice.

He turned around and stalked back up the stairs without another word. She heard the distant sound of a door slamming, probably his bedroom door on the third floor of the house. She was going to have to leave sooner rather than later, she knew. If not by tomorrow, then no later than the end of the week.

Cianna idly flicked the power button on her communicator and listened to it chirp as it powered up. The LX-200 had been the standard-issue communications device for the elite military squads like hers. Back then, every one of the genetically-enhanced supersoldiers in her fireteam had used these miniature computers, in addition to all the military higher-ups. Nowadays, no one had anything nearly that advanced, and there were no large-scale networks for it to connect to. The best she could hope for was someone with a similar device coming within range, so that the devices could...

A quiet chime drew her attention back to the device in her hands. It was a sound she hadn't heard in more than three months. Actually, it had been more than a hundred years since she'd last heard the device inform her that it was locked onto a local intranet with another of its peers, but she'd spent most of that time in cryosleep and hadn't noticed the years passing.

A few quick taps on the display brought up the information on the signal. It was weak, just at the edge of the device's detection range, but it was there.

"Holy shit," Cianna whispered, heart suddenly thundering in her ears as she stared at the read-out on the screen. It wasn't just any LX communicator she was detecting... the signal belonged to someone from her own squad, Fireteam VF. "Holy shit!"

She'd finally found someone!

The signal was coming from somewhere east of her. That direction was all mountainous terrain-- not quite as sharp as the cliff that marked the town's west side, but steep enough to be tough walking. But with her power armour, it would be no problem.

Cianna stared at the power core sitting on the table, hardwired straight into the wall of Zavier's parents' shop. Sixty-two percent charge would power her suit of armour for a good while, plenty long enough to find whoever the communicator was pinging. Even if whoever she found wasn't one of her comrades, they would probably be able to tell her where the communicator had come from, and she would be one step closer to finding the hidden military base that she had been separated from during her long period of unconsciousness.

She turned the communicator back offline to preserve what little power it had, and grabbed the power cell off of the table. Sixty-two percent would have to be enough.

It took only a moment to unhook the cell, then she was dashing for the stairs. The world around her was a blur as Cianna all but dove into her room.

"Shirts, extra pants, shoes..." Cianna mumbled to herself as she rolled articles of clothing up and tucked them into the cross-shoulder messenger bag she always carried. Her depleted supply of meds was already packed, and she'd even found herself a fresh supply of freeze-dried meat and fruit to replace the long-expired rations she'd taken into cryosleep with her. Apparently even beef jerky went bad after a couple of centuries in a cryo tank.

Zavier's voice carried through the floor from his bedroom upstairs as he finished a phone call. "I'm making a trip to the plant," he called distractedly as he passed her open bedroom door a moment later. "They want me on-hand while they reboot the... Are you packing?"

While she had tried to keep her attention focused on the task at hand as Zavier spoke, the note of shock and hurt in his voice was enough to bring Cianna's head up. She looked up from her spot on the floor, surrounded by a ring of clothes, pictures, and other accumulated treasures that she was sorting through to figure out what was necessary and what would just be extra weight. But she didn't quite meet his eyes-- she wasn't ready to see the look of hurt that she knew would be written across his face.

"Is that... You unplugged the power core?" Zavier's voice conveyed all the hurt she didn't want to see on his face.

"I finally got a signal." She dropped her gaze back down to the shirt she held in her large hands as Zavier stood in the doorway, saying nothing.

The rich cotton-blend shirt was soft, and just large enough to actually fit over her broad shoulders. Zavier had picked it up for her when he made a short trip to a nearby town two weeks ago. She hadn't had it in her to tell him the yellow-green colour was unbearably ugly-- she'd even gone as far as wearing it in front of him twice since then, despite the bright shade being almost physically painful to look at. Now she couldn't decide whether to keep it or leave it behind.

"A signal?" he finally asked, voice quiet but steady.

"I've been trying to track..." she trailed off and silently cursed her carelessness at having almost told him more than she should. She had to preserve operational security, above all else. Her sleeping comrades were vulnerable, and she couldn't risk giving away their position until she knew they were safe. "I've been looking for something since before I came here, and I've finally got a lock on it. I need to get to it now, before the signal fades."

"Oh, that's... that's really good."

Zavier stood there, half in the room and half out, not saying anything else for long moments. Cianna felt her gaze being pulled up, drawn to his face, desperate to know what he was feeling, even if she didn't want to see. Zavier's face held all the hurt she had expected, but also a kind of blankness. He stared at the small stack of clothing she'd piled up on the corner of the bed, the wheels in his mind clearly spinning as he stood there and processed what he was seeing.

"All that clothing, dried food, the power core... you're not coming back, are you?" His voice grew quieter with each word he spoke until she had to strain her hearing to even catch the last.

"I... it's..." Cianna stopped and drew in a deep breath, then another.

In basic training, which she'd been enrolled in almost from the moment she was born from a tank, the instructors had taught each of the child-cadets how to manage their emotions. Some emotions you could let roll through you, allowing it to pass from one side of your mind to the other before being released. Some emotions needed to be tamped down and dealt with later, like the shock and horror of an active battlefield. Basic training didn't cover how to deal with the sharp feeling in her gut, the ice-cold knife being driven into her stomach and twisted.

"I might be able to come back," she offered lamely. She didn't actually believe it, and she doubted Zavier did either. "I told you I was only ever going to be able to stay here temporarily. We both knew I was going to have to go again someday."

"Yeah, but I just thought-- I assumed you'd--" Zavier's words faltered until he stopped speaking entirely.

She stared up at him from where she crouched. She was used to looking down at him, looking down at most people she spoke to from her seven-foot height. His position above her was backwards, upside down, topsy-turvy-- but then, everything felt wrong and backwards right then.

"That's fine," he finally said with a small shrug that shifted the backpack he carried on his shoulders. It probably had all of his repair work gear in it, from the tiny pliers and miniature soldering kit to the magnifying glasses she always thought made him look silly when he wore them. "Do what you have to do. Anything you leave behind I'll-- I'll find someone in the community who needs them."

"Zavier, I'm sorry it--"

"It's fine, Cianna," he cut her off with a sharp shake of his head. His slightly-too-long hair fell in his eyes when he did, and he shook his head to clear his vision, a small gesture that usually drove her crazy. How many times had she suggested he just cut his hair a bit, so he wouldn't always have to shake it away from his face? "Really, it is. You need to do what you need to do. I've gotta get going, Cianna. They want me at the geothermal plant, they need me to oversee the... the whatever."

"Zavier, I--"

"I've gotta get going," he repeated. "Have a good-- I'll see you later, Cianna."

With that last word, he turned away. Zavier walked from her room, almost ran, even as the sound of her name was still echoing off the walls She watched the small, soft man-- barely more than a boy, really-- as he turned sharply to take the stairs too quickly.

She could say something. She could call after him. She could stop him, she knew. All she had to do was call his name.

But she didn't. The door slammed downstairs as he left the house where he'd been putting her up for the better part of three months.

Cianna finished picking out what she'd need for the road. She could carry a lot of weight in her suit of powered armour, but there was a limit to how much physical bulk she could manage while still keeping up a good pace. Who knew how long the signal would be active for?

The ugly shirt went in the bag, alongside two other shirts, a backup pair of pants, and a handful of undergarments. She took a long look at the stack of photographs on the bureau, which had been spread out and pinned up on her wall just minutes ago. Wildflowers, a pristine river, a night sky full of stars, the old lady Alannis Janesdottir taking a bite of a freshly-picked mushroom half the size of her head... Cianna picked up just one picture from the pile, a selfie of her and Zavier sitting by the edge of Elk River with their feet in the water. She folded it in half and tucked it into an inner pocket of her bag, right behind the small stash of remaining medicine that had been prepackaged for her in the old world, and zipped her bag up.

She picked up the partially-charged power core with gentle reverence, and tucked it under her arm. Everything else, she would leave behind. Everyone else. They would only slow her down, and time was wasting.

It was a sunny November afternoon, but no one seemed to be around. On a day like today, with the threat of winter snow looming, everyone would either be getting ready for the first frost, or just enjoying the last days of warmth. Either way, there was no one around to slow her down with conversation, which was just fine with Cianna.

She checked over her shoulder as she reached the edge of the woods, making sure no one was following her. Obviously, she was happy to find that no one was pursuing her... and yet she also felt oddly disappointed.

Satisfied that she was unmonitored, Cianna followed a trail deeper into the cover of trees, looking for the markers she'd left behind. There was a tree with a small horizontal cut eight feet off the ground, and there was another. She walked between the two marked trees in a straight line until she found the thin tree with a small blue ribbon tied on an upper branch. Just behind that was... There, the pile of deadwood and old brush she'd dragged onto her hiding spot.

The dirt beneath was discoloured, obviously having been tampered with in the last few months. She swept it away with her hand, revealing the filthy glass window beneath. Her cryogenic pod, right where she'd left it.

Not that she or anyone else could have moved the thousand-pound tank of glass and steel, mind you.

The hinges creaked in protest when she pulled on the edge, but Cianna was seven feet of trim muscle and a few inches of dirt wasn't nearly enough to hold her back.

The pod opened with a hiss of displaced air, and Cianna smiled down at the pile of gear she'd hidden here. She'd been carrying her service pistol in a concealed carry holster and a submachine gun that she'd disassembled to hide better, but it was still a relief to see the heavy assault rifle laying in the pod's padded interior. Nothing gave the same sense of comfort and security as a gun capable of spitting out a hundred finger-sized bullets in one minute.

Nothing, that was, except for the feeling of being encased in two hundred pounds of mechanically-powered, technologically-assisted armour. She'd changed back into her military uniform, and she pulled the first piece of the metal frame over the thin, breathable one-piece suit.

The wire-mesh underlay went over that basic frame, then a thicker metal frame clipped on and provided the chassis for the rest of the gear. The chest and back pieces were the heaviest, and Cianna struggled to get them into place-- this part was always easier with assistance. Then she connected the wires to the rest of the structure, slotted the power core into place, and let the complicated machinery hum to life.

It took a serious effort of will to not shift and fidget with impatience, but the start-up sequence went smoothest if the user held still during the initialization. She'd sat through this process literally hundreds of times, but her nerves were on edge today and standing around wasn't helping.

Finally, the suit was powered up, and the rest of the process went quickly. The heavy gauntlets on her hands were powered up and provided an ample boost to strength, and she used her cybernetically-enhanced strength to slap the heavy armour plates into place. Cianna had assembled her suit so many times that she could do it blindfolded-- she actually had done so before, while being timed by an instructor-- but it had never been as comforting as it was today. With each piece she slotted into place, she felt more like her old self.

Titanium-alloy boots kept her two inches off of the ground, and armoured gloves put a layer of protection between her and anything she touched. The heavy helmet cradled and protected her head and face, and ensured that anyone looking at her would see nothing more than an emotionless expanse of metal. Her communicator, now back in its accustomed place inside of her helmet and hooked up to the massive power supply, amplified sounds and provided an overlay of useful information. She wasn't just Cianna, now... She was Lieutenant Cianna Alpha, first-gen augmented soldier and second-in-command of Fireteam Victor-Foxtrot.

And Lieutenant Cianna didn't worry about things like the yawning emptiness twisting in her stomach.

"Final systems check," the lieutenant whispered to herself as her computer system connected to each piece of armour and read out their status on her digital display. Green lights confirmed the stability of the install, and Cianna felt a surge of victorious satisfaction. The motion met that cold feeling of loss in her chest and sputtered out, but she pushed it all down. Duty first, she reminded herself. For the republic.

With a few taps on a small screen, Cianna brought up the signal tracker, and her miniature computer manifested it as a yellow arrow pointed roughly northeast. "All systems are nominal, and I'm on my way. Hold on, team."

The first step she took was awkward and shaky-- it had been more than a century since she'd piloted her power armour, after all. The second was smoother, and by the third, Cianna's body remembered how to move in the bulky suit again. She settled into a light run, the kind she and the suit could maintain for literally hours, tracing a path towards the eastern hills.

The route up from the valley would require her to follow steep switchback trails that wound up the sharp incline. The small town was mostly nestled against the cliff on the opposite side of the valley, far enough off that Cianna hoped that she wouldn't be spotted in the early evening light.

At the first peak, she fought off the urge to turn back and stare at Elk River Valley, her home for the past fourteen or fifteen weeks. But as she neared the second, she couldn't resist turning back to look one last time.

The entire town was splayed out below her, the steely facades of buildings interwoven among the abundant greenery. She was closer to the northernmost edge of the settlement, where homes gave way to farms, and farms started to give way to the small industrial area around the town's struggling geothermal power plant. Lights started flicking on even as she watched, the shaded street lamps and porch lights creating scattered dots in the dimness. The middle of the town proper was a ways away, but Cianna could just barely make out silhouettes moving around and going about their days.

Everything looked so quiet, so peaceful, so... wrong. As Cianna watched, all the street lights in one quadrant went dark, then in another. The lights went out in half the homes, and even the many lights shining out of the large building that served as a community center blipped out.

Off to the north, a high-pitched keening started up. A brief panic tried to fight its way up through her gut, but Cianna quashed it and replaced it with calm tactical assessment. It took precious, long moments to figure out what the noise was and where it was coming from, moments that she could have spent acting instead of staring. But then she spotted the flashing lights, flickering red in warning on the top of a massive concrete building at the north end of the valley.

"The power plant," she breathed.

Down below, the emergency vehicles added their own warbling call to the distant cacophony as they sped up the long road towards the power plant. All around the facility itself, people were pouring out of the building-- a full evacuation. Just what was going on down there? Was there some catastrophe? Was anyone hurt?

Then the second round of shock hit her as she finally processed what should have been her first thought. "Zavier!"

He'd been about to go to the geothermal plant, to help oversee some repair or another. Was he inside when whatever it was had happened? Was he hurt?

"Shit." Cianna paced back and forth for a moment, checking and rechecking the signal strength. It was definitely a bit stronger, as high up as she was. She'd been searching for three months for a blip on her map, and if she didn't chase it now, she might lose it. On the roads below her, another emergency vehicle lit up and joined the convoy headed towards the plant. Whatever was happening there, it was bad. "Shit."

There was no more time for thinking, no more time for deciding. Cianna was moving before she was even conscious of the decision, stepping off of the narrow trail and onto the steep, sandy hillside.

The ground slid out from under her, but Cianna had spent a long time practicing in her power armour, and she kept her balance. She rode the small avalanche of pebbles, propelling herself forward in arcing strides to cover the ground even faster. After an hour's worth of hiking up, it was mere minutes of sliding before the slope was evening out before her.

And then she really put her suit through its paces. The powered frame had been designed for rapid deployment, able to reach ground speeds that could nearly rival automobiles-- and today, Cianna was pulling out all the stops.

The world flew by as she coaxed the armour into a full sprint, each striding leap covering almost as much as the full length of her body. It was fully dark by then, and all she had to go by was the circle of visibility shed by the helmet's bright headlights. Trees, bushes, rocks, and other obstacles seemed to materialize spontaneously out of the darkness beyond her light, but she leapt over anything small enough, dodged around anything too bulky, and physically barreled through everything else.

Her heavy boots all but shattered the earth with every thundering leap, and the snapping of branches and small trees joined the sound of her own heavy breathing as Cianna pushed herself harder and harder, trying to eke out just a bit more speed. And above all of that was the wailing siren that grew louder and louder the closer she got to the plant.

"Just hang on, Zavier," she whispered.

All her effort seemed futile. She was burning through the charge even faster now than she had while scaling the hills an hour ago, and for what? Could one person really make a difference in such a crazy circumstance?

But then, she'd made all the difference in tight situations before.

"Let this be another save," she desperately prayed to whomever or whatever might be listening. "Give me one more win."

She exploded out through the cover of bushes and trees in a shower of wood chips, earning startled gasps and shouts from the large crowd gathered nearby. Twenty or more people stood helplessly at the far end of the parking lot, apparently just staring at the massive power plant with its flashing emergency lights and blaring sirens. Off to the side, a pair of emergency response workers had a woman on a stretcher, and froze with her loaded halfway into their all-terrain medical transport. Now everyone was staring at her, expressions running the gamut from confusion to fear at the sudden appearance of a seven-and-a-half foot tall humanoid block of metal and lights.

Cianna skidded to a stop, the concrete surface of the parking lot shredding under the friction of her heavy boots. She scanned desperately over the crowd that shied away from the bright spotlight of her helmet, searching for a familiar face and not finding him. "Where is Zavier?"

The crowd scattered as she took a pair of long steps towards them, one or two of them even reaching for firearms they kept on their sides. Cianna had spotted the occasional security-type carrying batons or staves that they used for breaking up fights, but she'd never seen anyone else in Elk River Valley carry an actual gun, except for hunting. Not that their pistols posed much of a threat to her while she was in full gear.

Before someone could do something stupid and escalate things even more, someone in one of the small clusters of civilians staggered sideways as they were pushed from behind. Then Zavier was walking directly towards her, with more confidence than she'd ever seen from the young man.

He was short and petite enough that she'd hadn't even seen him behind the others in the group.

"Zavier!" Cianna shouted, momentarily forgetting how strongly the suit's sound system amplified her voice. He staggered backwards, and she silently cursed herself for getting so used to walking on the ground that she forgot how much the suit enhanced everything.

With a quick click of a button on her wrist, she extinguished the pair of headlights that were probably nearly blinding for him, then reached up and detached her helmet. The night air was warm on her bare face, far too warm for an autumn evening.

"Zavier, are you okay?"

"Cianna?" he asked, shock written across every molecule of his face. "What-- how-- where did-- what is--"

"No time," she said curtly, waving his questions off with a flip of her hand. "Are you hurt? What happened?"

"The geothermal plant, it's in full meltdown," he stuttered out. "It's... it's bad Cianna..."

"But are you hurt?" she repeated, then sighed in immeasurable relief when he shook his head. "Okay, good. Now tell me what's going on in the power plant."

"They've been pushing it too hard for too long." Zavier raked a hand through his mop of sweaty hair as he spoke, making a mess of it. Cianna fought to push down the urge to reach out and straighten his hair-- this wasn't the time, and with her enhanced strength she might accidentally knock him over. "The plant only ever had a life expectancy of maybe fifty years... and they built it like eighty years ago. It was always going to break down; all the maintenance in the world can't beat entropy. You can maybe delay it a while, but eventually--"

"The problem, Zavier," Cianna reminded him loudly. "In ten seconds or less."

"The system was pushed past capacity, and now there's a severe leak. Steam drawn up from close to the mantle is flooding the entire west side of the facility. Everyone got out in time, but the plant... It's a cascade of failures, getting worse and worse. If it's not stopped now, there won't be any chance of fixing or salvaging the plant. There's an emergency shut-down, but it's completely inaccessible-- I don't know why they'd build a safety mechanism somewhere that was at risk of flooding with scalding vapour. It sort of defeats the purpose of having it..."

"Where is it?"

"What?" Zavier asked dumbly and blinked up at her. Cianna cursed herself for a second time in as many minutes as she belatedly realised the young man was in shock. The trauma of the emergency was too much for him. But as much as she wanted to let him collect himself, she had to push just a bit more. He had the information she needed, and him being dazed wasn't a good enough reason to let up.

"The emergency shut-off, Zavier. Tell me where it is." She put a bit of steel in her voice, using the tone she normally reserved for new cadets with particularly thick skulls. "Describe the location and how to activate it."

"Basement floor," he answered immediately as his willingness to listen to authority figures cut through the haze of adrenaline. "The main nexus room, in central-west. It's a big wheel valve handle, you just twist it."

"Wheel valve in the big nexus room with all the pipes," she repeated, "central-west in the basement. Just twist that shut and it'll seal the pipes?"

"Well, yeah, but the last person who tried to get to it..."

Cianna followed his gaze to the woman on the stretcher, who was still moaning in pain as the two emergency responders finished loading her into the vehicle. Most of the crowd was still standing around and staring dumbfoundedly, but the medics were taking advantage of her distraction to load the injured for transportation. She silently commended them for their quick-thinking in the panic.

"The last person who tried to make it there wasn't part of Fireteam Victor-Foxtrot," she shot back with more bravado than she actually felt. Fortunately, she was already pulling her helmet into place, so Zavier wouldn't be able to see the uncertainty written there.

"Cianna, don't be crazy. It's not like the steam when you're boiling some pasta, this is-- it's a binary geothermal plant, but it still pulls heat from the earth. The vapour is a hundred and twenty to a hundred and sixty degrees, Cianna. Enough to melt skin off of bone."

"Let's see it melt titanium," she declared boldly. She unstrapped her bag and her rifle and dropped them to the pavement with a loud clatter as she started towards the plant.

She made it all of two steps before Zavier was in front of her, both hands pressing against the thick metal of her chestplate and pushing with all his might. It might have been cute in another circumstance.

"Move, Zavier," she growled before trying to step past him.

"Cianna, no!" He sidestepped again, trying to stay between her and the power plant with all of its sirens and lights. "You can't!"

"I'm not going to leave everyone to freeze when winter hits, Zavier. I can do this. Now move!"

With the last, she swept her hands under his armpits and physically scooped him up before spinning and dropping Zavier behind her. Then, before he could even recover his balance, she was turning and running, and there was no way for him to catch up to her.

She heard his voice faintly over the sirens as he called her name, then she was shouldering aside the front door and stepping through the splintered remains into what might honestly have been Hell.

Even with her lights on, Cianna could barely see the end of the armored glove stretched out before her in the thick wall of steam. The vapour was so swelteringly hot that she could feel it even through the layers of temperature-controlled material she wore. Her armour was tested for extreme temperatures, but nothing with complicated moving parts could survive the caustic heat she strode into for long. Especially after having sat frozen and unused for five or ten generations.

She stumbled forward almost blindly, the endless wall of white only broken up by the flashes of red lights from the emergency warning lights. "Wish someone would've turned that shit off," she grumbled as she staggered deeper into the mists.

The stairs leading down were clearly labeled, but the fire door was shut tight-- apparently it only opened from the other side, to keep people from accidentally wandering into the danger zone in the event of a fire or other catastrophe. It also served to keep anyone from accessing the failsafe controls in such a situation. What kind of idiot designed this place?

Fortunately, Cianna had a knack for undoing locks. She wound back and swung a thick metal fist into the space just above the handle, shattering it one strike. The door, no longer able to actually latch, swung open easily, and she was hit by a wave of even more intense heat as she started down the stairs.

"Only going to get worse from here," she whispered to herself as she powered forward. The inside of the helmet was starting to fog up now, and beads of condensation rolled over her visor. That wasn't good.

The basement landing diverged into three cleverly-named hallways: South, Central, and Central-West.

She barreled down the latter hall without letting herself stop to consider the realities of this insane situation. Already, she could feel the limbs of her armour getting heavier as the joints started to struggle under the intense conditions. Were the joint-seals rubber? What was the melting temperature of rubber? The heat grew worse with each step until Cianna could feel sweat pooling freely in her armpits.

"Gonna get cooked like a goddamned lobster," she snarled as she shoved open one door, then another, looking for the room where all the pipework met and the failsafe valve was located. "The room with the highest concentration of pipes-- you know, the one statistically most likely to spring a deadly leak. Let's put the safety features in there."

Another door, another wrong room. How many rooms could there be... She spotted the literally glowing sign that read "Pipework Nexus," and actually groaned out loud in mounting frustration.

The handle splintered under her mechanically-powered hand, but shoving the door open took more effort than it should have. The suit was definitely weakening now. Warning lights flashed inside her helmet, telling her all the myriad places where the armour's systems were failing, but there was no way to tell how long she actually had before it gave out entirely.

The failsafe valve handle was helpfully painted a bright red colour, and right above it was a huge sign that said, "Emergency Shut-off Valve," with a huge arrow pointed down at the circular handle. The sign also read, "Don't use the emergency shut-off unless it's actually an emergency, Frank," but she ignored that on account of not being Frank, and this being a pretty catastrophic emergency.

It was the kind of valve handle that would take two or three burly people to turn, or maybe one with a really big wrench for extra leverage. But if you didn't have two extra sets of hands and couldn't find a pry bar in all the steam, a military-grade set of power armour will do the trick.

Cianna pulled on the valve with every ounce of strength she had, multiplied by every watt of power the armour could give, but for a long moment nothing happened. Confusion gave way to fear, which gave way to panic, which slowly morphed into a deep dread that threatened to make her shut down. Her heart was hammering in her chest as she desperately tried to cope with the fact that she was about to die for nothing, not having even managed to make a difference, when the valve finally let out an ear-piercing shriek and started to turn. Or it would have been ear-piercing, except that the speakers and microphone on her helmet were all shorted out and dead, and Cianna could barely hear anything outside of her heavy helmet.

The valve gave in slowly but surely, and with each twist it got a little easier. The valve controlled some huge shunt or plug, and the pipe narrowed as she spun the handle in jerky motions punctuated by snarls of effort. With one final twist, she slammed the failsafe into place, cutting off the flow of steam to the building's pipes. She had no idea where the pressure was redirected to, but it wasn't here, and that was all that mattered.

Job done, Cianna spun towards the room's door and dropped to the floor as one of the suit's knees gave out entirely.

"God damn it," she shouted at the inside of her helmet as she pushed up against the floor and tried to struggle back to her feet. The hot air rushing up was stemmed, but the building was still full of a lethal amount of heated vapours, more than enough to cook her if she didn't get out. "Move, damn you-- move!"

With another pained grunt, and almost more physical force than she could manage, Cianna forced herself back to her knees. From there, she braced herself on the doorway and managed to reclaim her feet, although one of the suit's legs was barely responding. She limped through the doorway and turned on sheer instinct, relying on her sketchy memory of the layout of the building to guide her back out in the right direction. It was too damn hot to think, and it felt like her brain was starting to sweat.

She shuffled through waves of heat for what felt like hours, until she was sure that she'd picked the wrong direction and was only going deeper underground. Just when she was about to turn around and try her luck in the other direction, she caught a glimpse of the beautiful green glow of a lit exit sign.

"Thank you," she whispered hoarsely as she willed herself forward, one step following another, "thank you, thank you."

If the basement hallway had been hard, then the stairs were a nearly impossible challenge. The steps were slick, and they felt like they were ten feet tall each as she struggled forward. She had to walk awkwardly, using the good leg to step up, then pulling on the metal railing to drag herself onto the stair. Then repeat. And repeat. And repeat.

Seven thousand stairs later, she staggered out of the stairwell into the upper hallway. The steam seemed like it was starting to thin, but it would be a while before the building's circulation system pulled enough of it out for anyone to come in. Assuming the building even still had a circulation system.

She could distantly make out the doorway now, and triumph slowly replaced the looming sense of doom. Just a dozen paces left. Ten, nine, eight, seven, six...

And then the other leg gave out.

All at once, Cianna was toppling forward again, desperately pushing out with her arms to try and cushion the fall. But those joints were hardly working by this point, and she could barely slow the descent.

Her helmet smashed into the floor hard enough to chip the cement-- and more than hard enough to crack the thick plexiglass of her visor. A loud hiss invaded the silence of her helmet as hot, expanding air pushed on the tiny opening in the glass. It wouldn't be long now before the inside of her suit was as hot as the building outside, and all the genetic augmentations in the old world combined aren't enough to let someone survive temperatures of a hundred degrees or more.

Sweat rolled down her face as Cianna's body tried in vain to cool itself, while she tried in vain to push the suit forward with just the barely-functioning arms.

She craned her head upwards, but the visor was so fogged up now that she couldn't see anything but the wall of vapour, those awful, flashing lights, and a bright beam of light pointed right at her.

Something the size of a fist flew through the air above her head, and she felt the heavy impact against her back, even though the shock-absorbing mesh. Then her whole torso rocked as whatever landed on her suddenly yanked backwards.

"I got her!" a familiar voice cried from somewhere a million miles away. "Give it a tug-- yeah, it's hooked on there. Pull, man, pull!"

The sound of a loud engine echoed through the entire world, and she felt herself lurching forward. The loud shriek of metal-on-concrete had her gritting her teeth as she was dragged forward, pulled by the grapnel line hooked into the back of her armour. On the other end of the thick cord was a small all-terrain vehicle, and the rider revved up the engine as they dragged her unresponsive suit of armour through the power plant's doorway, then down the four concrete steps.

Cianna grunted with the impact as she bounced down to ground level before being dragged another dozen paces.

"Cut the engine," Zavier shouted, and her awkward motion stopped abruptly. Then all she could hear was loud hissing as her assembled rescuers doused her with bucket after bucket of water, ironically creating even more steam.

Hands pulled at latches on her metal shell, and piece-by-piece they stripped away her wall of titanium until Cianna could feel fresh air on her face. The cool breeze felt like heaven on her sweaty skin as Zavier and a few others pulled the last layer of mesh off and helped her out of the metal frame.

"Cianna, are you okay?" Zavier was staring at her, face less than a foot from hers. His face was wet with sweat from standing so close to the heated metal-- or were those tear tracks making his cheeks damp?

"You're really beautiful," she whispered back. How long ago had he said those same words to her?

A metal canteen was pushed into her hands, and Cianna had to wave off the emergency responder as he tried to help her drink. This, at least, she could manage on her own. Zavier was also fussing around her as she sat on the cool concrete with her knees drawn up to her chest, but she didn't tell him to give her space.

"I'm fine," she said after a long pull of the cold water. "Zavier, I'm fine."

"Oh, thank God," he sighed. He closed his eyes for a moment, and Cianna could actually see the moment the wave of fatigue he'd been holding back washed over him. "I thought you were..."

"My armour," Cianna gasped as she whirled to check the extent of the damage.

Zavier caught her chin before she could see, and gently turned her face away from the pile. "You don't want to... It's probably better not to look right now."

"It's toast, isn't it?"

Zavier winced, and the reaction was answer enough. "We'll take a look at it together tomorrow, okay?"

Cianna already knew how bad the damage was-- she'd been inside of the armour as part after part failed. Repairing it was probably out of the question. At best, there might be some good salvage left behind. But she nodded, trying to look brave for Zavier. "Is everyone okay?"

"Everyone's fine, Cianna. You... I don't know how you did it, but you shut the system down. The chief engineer said the steam is clearing out, and they'll be able to get back in there tonight and assess the damage. She's cautiously hopeful-- those were her exact words-- that the system can be repaired."

"Good," she said quietly, and let her eyes fall closed for a moment. Relaxing was a mistake, however, since as soon as her eyes closed they suddenly felt a hundred times heavier, and it was a massive effort to get them back open again. "Can we go home now?"

"Yeah, Cianna. We can go home."

She took Zavier's offered hand and hauled herself wearily to her feet. Cianna had to pull on him a bit harder than she would have liked, but Zavier managed to stand his ground and not stagger. When he wordlessly offered a shoulder, she took the support and did her best not to lean on him too heavily. They made for a lopsided pair as they shuffled to the bed of the plant's truck, which one of the workers was using to ferry people back and forth from town.

Neither of them said a word as they bounced along the unpaved road back to the still-dark Elk River Valley, but his hand on her leg said everything Zavier wanted to express with words, and her hand on top of his said everything Cianna couldn't bring herself to.

They watched the stars together until the truck came to a stop a block from Zavier's house, and they leaned on each other as they walked home.

Part of Cianna expected him to make a move as he supported her up the stairs, and most of her was disappointed when he didn't. He left her in her room to slowly unpacked her bag and sort the small pile of firearms-- they were definitely going to have a conversation about those, she could tell. She bathed quickly, washing away the grime and old sweat, and was asleep less than a minute after her body touched down on the too-plush mattress.

It had taken her weeks to get used to the luxurious softness, but now it felt like home as it cradled her sore body.

Morning came around too soon, as it always seemed to when the night was as hard as yesterday had been, and she stepped out of her room to find Zavier making breakfast.

"Rare that I'm up before you," he said by way of a greeting.

"Even rarer that you're alert and chipper before noon," she shot back with no heat-- but certainly some warmth.

He waved at her to sit at her usual spot, and she smiled wistfully as she settled into the sturdy wooden chair. She'd gone through the better part of thirty years of life with no "usual spot" of her own, but now Cianna realised that she had actually missed it. Or maybe she'd only missed what it represented.

"Any news on the plant?"

"Some good news," he said as he slid two bowls of oatmeal onto the table, one heaped much higher than the other. "As you can see, we have power again. They got everything booted back up and running, but it's going to be running at even lower capacity than before. No one's willing to push it hard for a while."

"Seems like a wise plan, all things considered." She blew on a spoonful of oats before taking a bite, then sighed with guilty pleasure. Zavier always used far more sugar for the recipe than she did, but today felt like a good day or a bit of extra sweetness. "At least I don't have to worry about getting enough power to charge anything anymore."

"About that, Cianna," Zavier started. "I just wanted to say that I'm so..."

"Don't worry about it." The soldier-- or maybe ex-soldier-- waved a hand as she spoke. "It was a miracle that thing survived as long as it did. It might've broken down the first time I took it for a run anyway. At least some good came from it."

"Why did you risk everything for the power plant when you were just planning on getting out of here?"

"Because this town... It's worth it." Cianna was surprised to realise that she meant it. "You're worth it."

"Why did you come back?" Zavier asked, his face carefully neutral. Cianna had never been particularly good at dealing with the nuances of communication, it didn't take a sociologist to see that the young man's question had a lot more meanings hidden just under the surface.

"I saw the lights and heard the sirens," she explained, pushing her half-finished breakfast aside. "And I remembered you were going to be there and... and I needed to know you were safe."

"What about the signal you were chasing?"

"Like I said," she answered with a small shrug, "you're worth it."

Zavier nodded and swallowed hard enough for her to hear it across the table. He licked his lips once, then again, clearly fighting his own nerves. Finally, he managed to screw up his courage. "Can I kiss you now, Cianna?"

"I think you'd better."

He stepped halfway around the table and took her face in his hands. With him standing and her sitting, his face was actually on level with hers for once, and he took advantage of their closeness before his nerves could regroup and go on a counteroffensive. The kiss was soft and sweet, and his mouth tasted like sugar and cinnamon. It lasted only a moment, then he was already pulling back.

Really? After all the waiting, all the tension, it was just going to be a quick peck? Not a chance.

Cianna grabbed the front of his shirt in strong hands and pulled him back towards her, and their lips met again. The hint of force seemed to awaken something in him, and suddenly Zavier's passion was off its leash. He pressed his face harder against hers as their lips opened and tongues met.

"Bedroom?" he managed to gasp out when the kiss paused for a fraction of a second.

"I thought you'd never ask," she hissed before mashing her mouth back over his.

His hands were everywhere on her as they kissed. Cianna was walking backwards, matching Zavier step-for-step down the hall. They paused for only a moment at the junction between the stairs and the door to Cianna's room.

"My bed's closer," she whispered into his mouth, and then they were pushing through the door and across the room, mouths never separating. Zavier's hands roamed up her sides, caressing her hips and brushing against her toned middle before coming teasingly close to her breasts.

Cianna slid her own hands down his back to cup his ass through the plain sweatpants he only wore around the house, then lifted upwards and picked him up. He wrapped his legs around her waist as she turned and carried him the last few feet before flopping down on the edge of the bed with him on her lap. Their chests were pressed as tightly together as their mouths as he ground forward on her thighs, and they shared a groan.

Then he was pulling at the bottom of her shirt, and Cianna moved her arms long enough to let him slide it over her head. She hadn't bothered wearing a bra to breakfast-- she'd told herself it was just to be more comfortable while she recovered from yesterday's exertions, but some part of her admitted that she had been hoping for exactly this.

She pulled up on his shirt with the same fervour, and he helped her pull it off so she could run her hands down his skinny torso. He wasn't strong, but she could still feel muscle and bone under her hands, and the feeling of his warm skin on her palms was enough to make her purr. Zavier's hands explored just as eagerly, running down her sides then back up her front to caress her breasts.

"Mm," she groaned as he lightly palmed and squeezed the sensitive skin of her chest before flicking his fingers across her stiff nipples.

"You're so perfect," Zavier breathed against her lips. He shifted his hips as he talked, and she felt the physical evidence that he meant what he was saying.

The stiff pressure of his growing erection against her middle brought the heat in her core up to a rolling boil. She reached down to the space between them, but Zavier grabbed her by the wrists and stopped her short. "Let me do it this time, Ci."

She could have broken his grip with minimal effort, of course, but Cianna let him push her hands aside.

Zavier slid his hands back up her front, clearly savouring every inch of skin he brushed against, until he pressed his hands on her broad shoulders and lightly pushed her. Cianna leaned back at his touch and let him push her over until her back pressed into the soft mattress. He was looming over her as best he could now, straddling her hips with his mouth hovering over hers again.

"Did I ever tell you how much I appreciate you?" he asked, his voice low and almost gravelly compared to his normal tone.

"Of course you have--"

"I mean really told you?" he finished, almost perfectly mirroring what she'd said to him those weeks ago, before she'd kissed him that first time.

Then, instead of bringing his lips to hers and finishing the reproduction, Zavier pressed his mouth briefly against her cheek in a chaste kiss. Next, he kissed a little further over, where cheek met jaw. Then again between her jaw and her ear.

His lips and hot breath briefly flitted over the shell of her ear, and Cianna sighed quietly as a burst of goosebumps spread across the surrounding skin. Then his lips were on her pulsepoint, her throat, the nape of her neck. Zavier drew a line down her sternum with his mouth, then deviated outwards to lavish kisses and gentle licks first on one breast, then the other.

She expected him to make his way further down, but Zavier seemed to be in no hurry to rush things towards the conclusion. Instead, he let his lips trail back up the side of her chest and to her shoulder. When he held her elbow and wrist in his nimble fingers and peppered a hundred kisses down her arm, she couldn't help but sigh again. And when he pressed a firm kiss against her inner wrist and gently sucked the skin there, she actually groaned.

"You're so gorgeous," he whispered as he kissed her palm, front and back, then each of her fingers. Then he started from the tips of her fingers on the other hand, and worked his way back up. "I've never met anyone as beautiful as you."

It seemed like there wasn't a single inch of her Zavier didn't want to explore. He laid his affection on her from her shoulder back down to her chest, and across her breasts once more, then in a line down the flat plane of her stomach. He stopped short of her waist, just short of the line of the pants that Cianna was ready for him to tear away. He kissed her again and again, just above that point, running his mouth laterally below her navel and back up the obliques, then lingered just beneath the swell of a firm breast.

Just when she thought she couldn't handle any more teasing, Zavier switched to the other side of her abdomen and kissed his way back down again, finally letting his lips press into her hips. He even gave a light nip there, earning a surprised squeak and giggle from the big woman-- and Cianna never giggled.

Finally, his fingers were on the waist of her pants, and Cianna was all too happy to flex her thighs and lift her hips enough that he could pull the garments down. She'd half-hoped he would take her panties with the pants, but he didn't leave bare just yet.

She glanced down the length of her own body to watch his face as Zavier lightly ran his nose and mouth against the front of her panties. His eyes shut in obvious pleasure, probably from a combination of proximity to a place he'd no doubt been dreaming about for months and the smell of the slickness between her legs. Cianna had been feeling more than a little aroused when Zavier's lips had first met hers over their half-finished breakfasts, and she'd grown even more so with each step they'd taken towards the bedroom. And now, after the touching and kissing and teasing, she could absolutely feel the wetness and heat seeping from between her lips.

But Zavier didn't unveil her yet. Instead, he moved his face to the side, pressing his lips against the seam where her simple black panties met her muscular thigh. He followed that line down, letting his tongue and lips play along the lines of each muscle group in turn: the pectineus at the front of her inner thigh, then the long adductor muscle when she spread her legs for him.

She expected the young man to be spurred onwards-- and inwards-- when she opened her legs to give him access, but he only continued his quest downwards.

"Every inch of you is perfect." The heat of the words mixed with the warmth of his tongue along her lower inner thigh combined drew another sharp inhale from her parted lips, then a pleased sigh when he lingered on the small dip in the muscle just above her knee. He gently lifted her leg, which Cianna was happy to allow, and moved his lips behind her knee to tease the more sensitive skin there. He had to kneel in front of her to get the back of her leg, but Zavier didn't seem to mind one iota. "I could spend every second of my life here with you."

He kissed down the back of her calf, back up along the toned line on the side, then down the front of her shin. Her socks finally came off, and she was relieved when he only briefly kissed the top of first one foot, then the other.

With lips, tongue, and sometimes light grazes of his teeth, Zavier made his slow way back up her other leg. He stopped at her inner thigh, opening his lips to caress and gently suck on the skin there.

Then he was finally making his way back up, in, towards her core.

Cianna almost screamed in frustration when he stopped shy of the edge of her panties again to start kissing up towards her hip. She reached a strong hand down to tangle in his unruly brown hair and gently-- but insistently-- guided his face back inwards. The sharp, excited inhale he tried and failed to hide made her skin tighten in anticipation as his mouth finally found its way back over the place where her thighs met.

Nimble fingers played along the band of her panties briefly before he seized the material and pulled down. Cianna pressed her hips up, both helping him slide the panties over her ass while also bringing her aching wetness even closer to his face-- just in case he wasn't sure where to visit next.

"Oh heaven," Zavier quietly breathed as her undergarments were pulled far enough down for him to get his first glimpse of her nakedness. "You're a goddess."

He left her panties bunched around her ankles, and she slid one foot out to kick the silly things away with the other. Then she parted her thighs once more, so Zavier could finally see her fully, and his response was a quiet, quavering gasp.

Cianna propped herself up on her elbows, looking down her front to watch him watch her. In a moment of mischievousness, and desire to tease him back a little, Cianna spread her legs even further to really show herself off.

Zavier gaped at her display in silence for a long moment, and she might have worried that he didn't like what he saw... except for the profoundly obvious lust that was written on every inch of his face and made his erection strain against his lounge pants. This was clearly a man who'd never seen a bare woman up close and personal.

"Do you want to touch me?" Cianna asked quietly, huskily.

Zavier nodded twice in eager quickness, and licked his lips. Excitement and nerves seemed to war on his face as his momentum stalled, until he finally confessed, "I'm not really sure how to start..."

"Why don't you start with your mouth," she suggested, "like you were doing a minute ago."

Another nod, another lip-lick, and then he was leaning in. His breath was hot against her inner lips, and Cianna couldn't tell which of them was more eager. Zavier's mouth pressed down against her very innermost thigh, then he slowly traced his way in until he was touching her outer labia. Then a little more.

"You can kiss and taste me there, if you want-- oh." Sweet warmth swept up in a delicious line as he ran his tongue up the outer surface of her labia. Then his lips were planted against the puffy lips between her legs, and his tongue was sliding up the space between. "That's a pretty good start, Zave."

Just like before, Zavier started a slow and methodical exploration of her body, only this time it was even more intimate. He licked and tasted her from bottom to top and back down, kissing and probing and playing everywhere.

Then he was pressing his tongue against her opening, to taste the source of her wetness, while his nose pressed against the short blonde hair she kept in a neat triangle above. Cianna groaned in appreciation as he slid his tongue into her, and whispered to him to keep going. He dutifully, diligently, licked and teased her vagina, following her directions.

"Do you want to use a finger too?"

He nodded eagerly, and Cianna talked him through the act of sliding a single finger into her wetness. She groaned at the increased stimulation, and Zavier seemed to grow more confident as he went.

"That's good, Zavi. Now try moving it slowly-- yeah, like that. You can even curl it to touch..."

"Is that good?" he asked eagerly as he crooked his finger to stroke the top interior wall of her vagina, pressing lightly on the spongy tissue on the underside of her clitoris.

"That feels really nice for me." She stroked her hand through his curly hair, and when his gaze flicked up to briefly meet hers, Cianna decided she really, really liked the sight of Zavier's face between her legs. This was definitely something she could get used to. "Do you want to use your mouth at the same time?"

While it was clear he had no idea what he was doing, Zavier was eager to learn and a quick study-- a great combination.

At her direction, he latched his lips over the apex of her vagina and ran his tongue across her clit. It wasn't long before he found a rhythm with tongue and finger, and scorching heat flowed up her body at his touch. "That's really good, Zavier. It's-- you're doing so good. Just keep doing that, just like that."

Zavier licked and fingered her with eager abandon, and he seemed truly happy to please. All the confidence and sexual experience in the world couldn't beat that.

"Don't stop," Cianna panted as the sensations mounted higher and higher. She closed her legs around his head without even meaning to, crossing her ankles behind his shoulders as he diligently fucked her with his hand and mouth. Somehow, she managed to maintain enough self-control to not crush him with her thighs when her muscles started tightening up. "Oh god, Zavier. I... Just like that-- just, ah--"

Words failed her completely as an electric bolt of pure sensation shot up her spine. White-hot pleasure exploded outwards, spreading through her body and down every limb until her fingers and toes tingled and buzzed.

Her back arched under the rising pleasure, and all the while Zavier kept it up-- she'd told him not to stop, and he was apparently perfectly happy to keep going until she said otherwise.

The pleasure mounted with each motion of his finger and tongue, doubling and redoubling until she was shaking and twitching against him. She passed over the amazing peak, down into a dip where the sensation suddenly started growing too intense. "Too much, Zave, too--"

He pulled back with reluctance, his pretty lips slick with the evidence of her climax. "Sorry, Cianna! Did I go too far?"

"No," she rushed to assure him, cupping his jaw in one hand. His cheek was warm against her, and the faint pricks of stubble tickled her palm. "No, Zavier, that was perfect. You were perfect."

"It was good, then?" he asked, pride blooming to replace his earlier concern. "And you really..."

"Oh yeah," she panted and grinned. Cianna could feel sweat beading on her face, stomach, legs... everywhere, really. "I definitely came. What about you, did you enjoy that?"

"Yeah!" Zavier beamed at her, clearly delighted. "You taste amazing, Cianna. I loved touching you, tasting you, hearing you moan... and the way you tensed up and clenched down around my hand when you--"

"Okay there, mister," she cut him off with a chuckle. "Why don't you take those pants off and come join me up here?"

Cianna worked her way backwards to the middle of the bed as Zavier all but leapt to his feet and shoved his pants down. His cock sprang out as soon as the fabric was out of the way, obviously just as eager as the rest of him. Even from where she sat, she could see the slickness shining on his tip. He peeled back the extra layer of skin, rolling back the foreskin so his swollen head was uncovered.

With a crook of her finger, Cianna invited him into her bed-- finally.

She laid back against the pillows and then spread her arms and legs to welcome him into her embrace as Zavier crawled onto the bed. His feet were still covered, and the sight of his clean white socks pulled up to his mid-calf almost made her laugh.

Her heart raced as his knees came to a rest just against her ass, his arms on either side of her chest while his cock swayed from side to side. Zavier's eagerness gave way to a brief moment of concern-- a look of vulnerability that made him seem even younger.

"Have you ever done this with a woman before?" Cianna asked softly, although she already knew the answer.

"No, I've never had sex with a woman," he confessed, looking even more nervous. "With anyone at all, actually. I'm still a... you know..."

"That's okay," she whispered as she stroked his cheek again. "You might not last very long, but it's okay. No one lasts long on their first time. Just... take your time, Zavier. Don't rush, and don't worry if you finish faster than you want to, okay?"

"I don't want to disappoint you..."

"You won't, Zavier," she promised, holding his gaze until she knew that he'd really heard her. "You can't. Sex is about feeling good together, not performing in a certain way. I'll be happy and pleased, no matter how long it lasts. Are you ready to take the next step now?"

He nodded again, and Cianna spread her legs a bit wider. Zavier shifted his knees back a little bit, then held himself up with one hand and took hold of his cock with the other.

"Here, let me," she offered, reaching out and closing her hand around his stiff shaft. It was like red-hot steel in her hand, hard and eager, and he twitched against her palm as she caressed his length. Then she switched to hold just behind his tip and pulled him towards her like it was a leash. Zavier rolled his hips forward as she held him, and she guided his swollen head to her slick, hot lips.

"It's just down here..." Cianna told him as she rubbed the tip of his cock along her labia until the crown was nestled between her lips-- pressed against the opening to the inside of her body. "Now just push forward a bit."

He did, and they both sighed in unison as the head of him pressed into the tight muscle of her opening until it had no choice but to part around Zavier's cock and allow him entrance. The feeling of him spreading her open for the first time was a delicious medley of pleasure and discomfort as he pushed into just the entryway of her vagina. She held up a hand to still him, and Zavier patiently waited for her to signal her readiness before starting to ease in again.

It took a few starts-and-stops, but finally she felt the moment the short curled hairs above his cock were pressed against her own tidy pubes. His hips were nestled against her inner thighs, their pelvises were pressed together, and Zavier's testes were resting against her ass. He was inside of her, fully and completely.

They were as close as two people could get.

"How does that feel?" he asked, checking in with her with earnest concern.

"It's really good, Zavier. You feel really good. How is it for you?"

"It feels so good," he breathed in half-restrained ecstasy. "No, it feels better than that. It's... it's perfect. It feels right."

"Like you belong there," she agreed, and he nodded emphatically. "That's how I feel too, Zave. You can start moving, if you want. I'm ready."

He readjusted his arms around her, elbows against the sides of her ribs. His face was basically on-level with her chest, and Cianna was disappointed that she couldn't kiss him as Zavier rolled his hips back to slowly withdraw before pushing into her again.

"Oh, that's good," Cianna sighed dreamily as he slid his length into her in a gentle, smooth motion.

It must have been good for him too, because Zavier's eyes fluttered as his face became a slack vision of ecstasy. He pulled back to slide into her again, their bodies coming together even easier than before.

Cianna wrapped her arms around his shoulders and pressed her legs more tightly against Zavier's knees as he thrust into. The length of his cock brushed against her from the outer entrance to the innermost wall, and part of her wished this could last forever. He grew more comfortable, more confident, with each stroke, until his hips were rhythmically pumping as he brought their bodies together again and again.

"Mm," Cianna groaned as his strokes picked up speed. She knew she wouldn't finish again like this, but the feeling of having someone in her-- no, the feeling of having Zavier in her-- was perfect all the same.

Zavier groaned out his own appreciation, and Cianna cradled him tighter as his face scrunched up. His brow furrowed and his jaw clenched as thrust into her again and again, and she smiled fondly as she watched his war for control. It wouldn't be long now.

"Are you getting close, Zavier?" The signs were all there, from the look of concentration to the tightness of his muscles, and even the shaking rhythm he struggled to maintain.

"Yeah," he admitted, looking briefly embarrassed. It hadn't even been two minutes since he first entered her, but Cianna was genuinely impressed the boy had even lasted that long.

"That's okay, Zavier. You don't need to hold back-- you made me feel good, and I want you to feel good, too. I don't want you to stop, I want to feel everything."

Obvious relief flooded his face at her words. She'd already insisted that he didn't need stamina for their first time together, but it was obvious that he'd still been worried. Even as she told him that it was okay and he could let go, some part at the back of her mind prickled. It was the same part that warned her when she was in danger before she'd spotted enemy combatants, or nagged her when she was forgetting something. But Cianna tucked the concern down-- there were no dangers here, she was safe with Zavier.

And then, between one fast beat of her heart and the next, Zavier broke.

"Cianna," he groaned out in something between pleasure and pain. He drove his hips against her hard enough to almost hurt, the wet slap resounding through the room. His arms clenched around her ribs, probably instinctively, and she held him even tighter in return. Zavier ground his pelvis against hers even harder, not willing to leave even a micrometer between their bodies. "I--"

Then his shaft flexed, the entire length of his hardness twitching and stiffening even more inside of her. He groaned wordlessly and shuddered against her as his cock twitched again, again, and suddenly she could feel the burst of warm heat rushing up to soak her from the inside out.

"Oh, Zavier," she moaned as he juddered and thrust into her again, burying himself to the root once more as the long muscle convulsed and loosed another burst of slick heat, and another.

Cianna held him tight as he came inside of her, stroking his hair and neck as Zavier's orgasm swept through him and poured out in pulse after pulse until he was a twitching, shuddering wreck. She welcomed his pleasure, privately thanking the old world military medics for their forethought in packing contraceptives into every soldier's meds.

Zavier finally stilled on top of her, panting heavily. They laid like that, nestled against each other with him still inside of her, for a long time.

But eventually he started shrinking, and Cianna could feel the mess he'd left behind threatening to spill over. She excused herself with a quick peck on his lips, which still tasted of her arousal, then dashed to the bathroom with a tissue held between her legs.

By the time she got back to her room, Zavier had pulled the blankets and sheets back and was lying in her bed. "Is it okay if I stay here, or would you rather I--"

"Here is perfect," she whispered as she slid into bed beside him. The clean sheets were warm on her naked body, and the room was filled with a beautiful mixture of their scents. His hands found hers immediately, and their fingers entwined as if they'd always been meant to be together like that. It was only then that Cianna really realised just how far gone she was, too.

She was in much, much too deep to even think about walking away now.

"How... how was it?" Zavier asked uncertainly, and Cianna leaned in to reassure him with a kiss. This one was longer, slower, and left both of them a bit breathless. "Oh. That good then?"

"You were fantastic, Zavier."

"Have you been... I mean, maybe it's rude to ask, I just wondered..." Zavier trailed off until she gave him a reassuring nod. "Have you been with... many other guys? You don't have to answer if that's too personal of a question, Cianna."

"No, it's okay, Zave." She paused for a moment to consider her answer. There was more to the question than just the surface words, she knew. "I've been with... a few other people before, Zavier. But I'm not comparing you to them, and you shouldn't either."

"Oh, okay. I guess that's good."

"Everyone is different, and every time is special," she went on. "And the others were... a long time ago. A really, really, really long time ago, actually."

"How long?" Zavier asked, his curiosity pulling him up from the post-coital daze he'd started to slide into.

"Well, that's a long story. And I guess it's time I told you everything, Zavier. Operational security be damned."