Two weeks had passed since Ava and I started hooking up. Each night she would come by the hanger and I would say the magic words. More than a dozen times I had thought about ending it, about telling her to forget me and move on. But I couldn`t, she was intoxicating, something I knew was bad for me but just couldn`t stop using.

  It didn`t help that she seemed to need me just as much as I needed her. There were a few times when I had moved my hiding spot and she couldn’t find me. I watched as she panicked, began to hyperventite when she started to think I was gone.

  As soon as I made myself known she would calm back down, return to what passed for normal and we would embrace and kiss and do whatever I felt like doing in the moment. It wasn`t all sex, some nights we would just enjoy each other’s warmth or I would feed her dinner from the cafeteria.

  We were happy, I liked to think. It was hard to tell with Ava. Her mind clearly wasn`t her own, she had been conditioner or programmed or something. I couldn`t understand or expin it, so I just did what I could to keep her happy. Or at least what I thought made her happy.

  I was in the cafeteria, grabbing some food for myself and Ava, ignoring the stares and snide remarks. I no longer cared about anyone else on the Valour, all I needed was Ava and the Utter End.

  I was dishing up a double helping of meat when the cafeteria turned red and sirens started screaming.

  BOARDERS! BOARDERS! ALL HANDS ARM AND REPEL!

  Came a voice, screaming louder than the sirens. The carrier was under attack.

  I dropped the tray of food and remembered my training. Every communal room on the Valour was outfitted with a cache of inti-personal weapons for just such an occasion.

  I lined up with the rest of the crew and grabbed the rifle that was offered to me, checking the magazine was set firm and hurried my way to the hanger. It would be the most important pce to be, all our war machines were there and if the enemy were looking to disable us that would be the pce to start.

  I charged down the passages of the Carrier, checking corners and keeping my rifle close. I needed to protect the Utter End, I needed to protect Ava. I didn`t know where she was but chances were I could find her with my Goddess. I prayed she would be okay when I found her.

  I made it to the hanger and found it in total disarray. Enemy combatants and breached an exterior wall and commandeered some of our anti-personal mechs. They opened fire on the armed crew and active military units decimating them indiscriminately.

  One of ours managed to fire an anti-tank rocket and destroyed one of the mechs before being killed himself. I ran to some crates for cover and peaked out looking for any targets of opportunity. I saw one, running across an upper catwalk, looking to fire from above. I aimed, breathed and squeezed the trigger twice. He went down and didn`t get back up.

  I made my way deeper inside the hanger staying in cover and firing out when I had a clear shot. I conserved my ammunition as best I could knowing I only had a single magazine. I looked around franticly, discerning friend from foe all the while looking for Ava.

  I could see the Utter End, our own soldiers defending her viciously. Then I saw Sergeant Vasquez and Ava in front of her. She was in the open, exposed, a human shield. I lost control of my body and tasted blood.

  I stormed out from my position and fired at anything that stood between me and Ava. I climbed the catwalk, taking fire but moving unscathed. I made my way to the top and locked eyes on Ava.

  I screamed her name and she turned, locking eyes with me. I gestured for her to come to me, to get to cover to do anything than stay by that evil woman`s side. But she couldn`t move. Her feet were pnted firmly in pce and she acted as a shield for the Sergeant.

  She hadn`t started taking fire yet but it would be any second now.

  I looked down at the carnage in the hanger and saw someone charge out and toss something in the direction of the Utter End. I fired and took him down too te. There was an explosion by the base of the Utter End and the shockwave knocked everyone on the catwalk off their feet.

  It had become unstable, its supports severed. It only took a few seconds for it to give out entirely. Then nothing.

  I don`t know how long I was out for, but the second I came to I grabbed my rifle and looked for Ava. We were all scattered on the hanger floor, taking fire from all directions.

  I saw Sergeant Vasquez firing coldly at whatever enemy she could. Then I saw Ava a few feet from her, on the ground, head bleeding.

  I fired recklessly at the enemy and charged for Ava. I took a bullet in the leg but kept going, she was in my sights, I needed to protect her. A second bullet grazed my side and I colpsed to the ground. I was so close. I crawled towards her, firing with one hand until my rifle was empty. I dropped it and finally reached her.

  I picked her up and shielded her with my body. I looked at her face and gently patted her on the cheek.

  “Wake up! Ava wake up!”, I ordered her. She did as she was told.

  Her eyes opened and she looked at me bnkly, her eyes empty like always.

  “What are you doing?”, she asked me pinly as if we weren’t in the middle of a fire fight.

  “What do you mean? I`m protecting you! Now be a good-“, I didn`t get to finish my sentence. A bullet hit me in the back of my shoulder and I cried out in pain as it tore its way through my body and out the other end.

  Ava`s eyes grew rge and something jumped around in the nothingness of her pupils. I fell on top of her, too weak to keep myself up right, too weak to get her to safety, but strong enough to act as her shield. I felt another bullet enter my body but this time I didn`t cry out. I just looked into Ava`s eyes, those cold dead eyes that were quickly coming back to life. Woken up by the possibility of my death.

  “Jane.”, I whispered to her.

  “What?”, she responded over the sounds of gun fire.

  “My name is Jane.”, I told her finally, before darkness consumed me and I fell away from the world.

  [---]

  When I came to I was in the infirmary, hooked up to an IV and blood bag. I woke up slowly, disorientated from the morphine coursing through my veins. I had taken a bullet to my leg, my shoulder and my thigh. The pain was dull but still there, a reminder of what I had done.

  I wanted to fly from the infirmary bed and search for Ava, to find out if she was all right. But I was too weak, blood loss taking its effect on me. I looked all around me and saw I wasn`t the only one in bad shape. The infirmary was packed with causalities all being treated, some pronounced dead and covered in a shroud.

  I breathed deeply, at least me being alive meant that we had successfully expelled the boarders. I closed my eyes for a second, when I opened them again the lights were dimmed and the infirmary was less chaotic. I must have fallen asleep or passed out.

  I felt a little better. My head was clearer and I could lift my arms from my sides. I tried to rise from my bed once more but while my arms were strong the rest of me was weak. I closed my eyes again and let oblivion take me.

  I woke up again and found myself isoted, surrounded by a wall of curtains. I looked to my side and there was Ava, holding my hand. I squeezed tightly and she looked at me with concern and gratitude in her eyes. I had never seen them so bright, so full of life.

  She colpsed on top of me and began sobbing uncontrolbly. I put my arm around her as best I could and comforted her with my hand to her head. We stayed like that for a few minutes, her crying, me just lying there grateful to be alive.

  Then she looked up at me, tears in her eyes, a pained expression on her face.

  “Why did you do that?”, she asked me, wiping away her tears.

  “Do what?”, I joked weakly, forcing a smile.

  “Put yourself in danger.”, she hesitated a moment. “To protect me.”

  I let my hand rest on her cheek and caressed her gently.

  “Because you`re worth protecting.”, I told her simply.

  She looked at me confused, struggling to understand the words coming out of my mouth. She probably thought she wasn`t worth the trouble, or that I was the one that needed to be protected. But she was valuable, she was the pilot of the Utter End.

  “Do you want to climb on up here and y with me?”, I asked her gingerly, forgetting to use the command phrase.

  Before I could correct myself she began climbing into the bed with me, cuddling up close to my side. She pressed slightly against some of my wounds but I ignored it. The pain was mostly dulled by the morphine and I needed her right now more than I needed to be pain free.

  “Are you okay?”, I asked her.

  She looked at me with an offended expression?

  “Am I okay? Are you okay? You got shot, more than once. You got shot, because of me.”, she stated with a whimper, holding back tears.

  “I didn`t get shot because of you. I got shot because some idiot with a gun thought they could kill me.”, I joked. Ava was not amused.

  “Please. Please never do that again. If one of us has to die it needs to be me. Not you.”, she demanded, gently smming her fist against my chest in mock rebuke.

  “Now why would I let you do a stupid thing like that?”, I answered her, looking deep into those warm grey eyes of hers, my own reflection staring back at me.

  She looked at me angrily for just a second before worry took over and she clung to me tighter.

  “I can`t lose you.”, she mumbled to me.

  “What was that?”, I asked her to repeat, teasing her.

  “I said I can`t lose you!”, she yelled at me. “I can`t expin it but when I`m around you, my head is clearer and I feel like I`m actually alive. I feel hopeful and happy and I burn with this feeling that scares me. I`m afraid that if I lose you then I`ll lose this part of myself that you have given me. That I`ll go back to sleep and never wake up again.”

  I lifted her chin with my fingers and pulled her close, pressing her lips against mine. She kissed me back, softly and deeply with a level of passion I hadn`t experienced from her before.

  She savoured my lips as much as I savoured hers and tried to lose herself in my taste. Something was different now, there was no longer this uncertainty in her, no longer a need for command. She felt… free.

  Our kiss grew in energy and I felt life returning to my limbs. I sat up slightly and caressed her cheek, biting her lip pyfully savouring the sound of her moan as I did.

  I managed to sit up fully and straightened my back pulling her up against me, my hand resting on her lower back. She reached back and moved my hand down to her ass. I gripped and squeezed it firmly, I felt her grind her hips into mine. She was so alive, so eager in a way she hadn`t been before.

  She wanted and needed me with her own free will, not because of some programming, not because she was trained to.

  My body was my own once more and I renewed the passion of our kiss forcing my tongue up against hers. I asserted my will as I had done before and she embraced it happily. I caressed and groped her ass with my one hand and slid the other up and under her shirt to py with her breasts.

  Her breathing grew heavier and I could feel the warmth from her body radiating stronger. She reached up and pulled off her shirt exposing her breasts to me. I focused my attention on them, groping and kissing them passionately.

  They were perfect, everything about her was perfect. If only she knew that.

  I squeezed her tits firmly in my hands and watched as she bit into her hand to silence her moans. We might have been obscured but we definitely weren`t alone.

  I watched her bite down on her hand and pinched her nipples with my fingers watching her squirm. Her nipples had always been sensitive but they had never drawn this kind of response.

  I pressed my lips to one and suckled it gently before gripping it between my teeth and gently applying pressure. She spat out her hand and gasped out silently leaning forward. She grabbed onto me and bit into my exposed shoulder. I was forced to stifle a moan of my own and just kept sucking on her nipples making her bite into me harder.

  The pain radiated through my body for a second before dying to the effects of the morphine. I took advantage of this boon and teased her nipples more thoroughly feeling the pressure in my shoulder grow. I didn`t care, I had her between my fingers and I wasn`t going to let go.

  Her nipples swelled up between my teeth and I nibbled on them roughly, tugging and pulling at them. She screamed into my shoulder and bit down till I bled and I loved every second of it.

  Eventually she could take no more and colpsed against me, drooling from her mouth, her body twitching with ecstasy. I stroked her head gently and held her close to me, the growing wetness between her legs growing hard to ignore.

  I checked and she had soaked through her panties and now her pants. I was both fttered and extremely turned on. I helped her out of her pants and panties in her delirious state. She tried to assist me but was still reeling from the attention I had given to her breasts.

  I slide the bed sheets down and pulled off my own panties, revealing my rock hard cock, throbbing eagerly for her wet pussy. We had yet to have full blown sex. Before, I knew I could just command her to give it to me, but that`s not how I wanted it.

  I wanted her to give herself to me willingly, of her own desire and want. Not some pre-programmed need.

  I rested her back down on me and pressed my cock against her dripping wet pussy and looked her in the eyes. Her head cleared up and I saw the realisation in her pupils. She was aware again, out of that nipple induced delirium and her cheeks were growing red.

  She ground her tight eager little cunt up against my throbbing cock and I ground up against her in kind. I wasn`t going to put it in, not unless she asked me to or did it herself.

  I wanted more than just some fuck puppet that did as she was told. I wanted a partner, an obedient and loyal pet that followed me because it wanted to, not because it had to.

  She could see it in my eyes, what I needed from her and I could see that it pained her to be so assertive. To shake off the st vestiges of her programming and give herself to me entirely.

  My cock was covered in her juices and her pussy was burning hot. She wanted nothing more than for me to fuck her here and now but I needed her permission, I needed her love.

  “Please…”, she begged me with a whisper.

  “Please what?”, I responded, struggling to keep a clear head.

  “Please put your cock inside me.”, she asked again.

  “Why?”, I responded one st time, desperate for the right answer.

  “Because I want you to, because I need you to. Because… I love you.”, she confessed.

  That was it, exactly what I needed.

  I lifted her up slightly and smmed her back down onto my cock. It tore through her dripping wet pussy and sat snuggly inside her. She let out a loud moan as I penetrated deep inside her and by this point neither of us cared about the noise. Let them hear for all I cared. Let them grow wet with jealousy over what I had.

  I lifted her back up with my hips and arms and smmed her back down onto my cock. Each movement made her moan louder, each movement filled me with the sensation of my rock hard dick sliding back and forth inside her tight moist pussy.

  I fucked her hard and I fucked her good as best I could, the wounds in my body starting to open back up. I colpsed back and breathed heavily, looking her dead in the eyes.

  “Bounce.”, I ordered her.

  She did so without question, without condition. She gripped my waist and smmed her eager cunt up and down on my throbbing cock trying to milk me for all I was worth. I reached up to her face and caressed her cheek, forcing my thumb against her lips and into her mouth. She sucked on it obediently and moaned passionately as her pussy pounded against my crotch.

  I was nearing my end, reaching the very limits of what my body could take without giving in to the pure pleasure I was experiencing. I pulled my hand from her mouth and gripped her waist firmly helping her ride me. I drew in every drop of strength I had and rammed into her as she came down on me and held her there as I came.

  Ounces of my hot raw cum pumped itself inside of her body, flooding her pussy and no doubt filling her womb. We both let out a deep and primal moan of orgasmic pleasure before colpsing together. Our bodies spent beyond their limits.

  I knew she should leave, that we should hurry and hide what we had done. No doubt everyone had heard us and soon someone would grow curious or concerned and come to investigate.

  If we were discovered the Sergeant would no doubt kill me. Fine, let her try. I wouldn`t go down without a fight.

  Just as I had expected the curtains were torn away and looking in on us was none other than Sergeant Vasquez, her arm in a sling and a look of utter bewilderment on her face. She looked at me, then at Ava, then at what we had done together. What I had done to her.

  Her face grew red with rage and her eyes dark with murderous intent. She pulled her gun from its holster and pointed it me.

  “I warned you! I fucking warned you!”, she screamed at me.

  Ava was startled by the Sergeants voice and sat up, spinning around. She shielded me from her, put herself between me and the gun.

  “Hound, be a good girl and get out of my fucking way.”, the Sergeant ordered.

  Ava remained where she was.

  The Sergeants eyes grew rge and she repeated the command.

  “Hound be a good girl and move aside, that`s an order!”, she reiterated, more firmly.

  Ava refused to move, stayed exactly where she was. I moved up behind her and held her close to me, looking over her shoulder at Sergeant Vasquez, a look of horror creeping across her face.

  “What did you do? What did you fucking do you god damn tranny! You broke her! You fucking broke her!”, she screamed, enraged and incensed beyond reason.

  She charged forward with her pistol in hand determined to press it against my head and end me.

  Ava cried out and dived off of the bed onto the Sergeant screaming and cwing at her face, knocking the pistol from her hand. I rushed out of the bed and tried to pull her off, what she was doing was insubordinate and I couldn`t risk her getting into trouble.

  Some other soldiers rushed in behind the Sergeant and managed to pull her away from Ava. I pulled Ava back with me and she spun around holding me close, a wild savage look in her eyes. Then she looked back at the Sergeant.

  “Touch Jane again, and I`ll fucking kill you.”