Gearing stays buried in his little rubble-strewn camouflaged position well passed morning’s first light. He’s unsure of the plans that were made between Swift and the others, but he’s positive Sable would not wait terribly long for them. Given his desire to hurry up and get back to Stable 68, Gearing is certain that Handy would want to leave at the earliest opportunity. But a lot of that depends on Swift. He’s not sure what effect his sudden disappearance would have with the Freight Cars. And the Reapers.

And he’s not sure just how far Swift is in bed with them. Metaphorically speaking.

The closer it gets towards noon, the more antsy he becomes. A variety of scenarios run through his head. A combination of Freight Cars and Reapers coming for him in the morning, and Sable refusing to give him up. Because that is something she’d be likely to do. And, unfortunately, if she had a good enough sense of the situation to think that his presence would only lead to his destruction, Gearing has an annoying ache that she might just let herself be destroyed instead. To protect him.

Sure, he made that secondary box for her to distribute her consciousness. And, it should work. But he’s not positive. He’s not an expert on AI. And it’s not something he wishes to test and find out the hard way he’s wrong. Not to mention he can’t even comprehend what kind of damage going through such an ordeal could cause her mentally. It could be anywhere from a simple ‘well that was unfortunate, moving along’ to a full blown case of PTSD caused by the death experience.

He hates thinking that way, about her dying to protect him, but it’s plausible. And the more time that passes the more he worries that his fears are justified. To make matters worse, given the current situation, all he has is time, and nothing else to do but think. So he simply stews in his own stream of negative thoughts. An alert through his PipBuck doesn’t help matters any.

He quickly checks it and finds it’s from Sable with her location. But nothing else.

Every so often it just pings with an update to her location. From what he can tell, she’s on the move. Rather quickly. And moving away from the Freight Cars’ encampment. She’s already outside of it by his reckoning, but that doesn’t really tell him much.

Except that she needs him.

He slinks out from under the pile of rubble, letting it clatter down from his cloak before he takes a running start towards a missing wall. And leaps out into the open air. With a couple flaps of his wings he spins around and zips right towards her location. He uses the higher buildings to limit his profile from a distance, instead of simply buzzing over all of the roofs. He’s in a hurry, but leading the entire Freight Car gang, or whoever else, to her location isn’t going to help matters any if she indeed needs support.

He zips over one of the taller buildings, then spirals around to look at the small office building only a few stories tall below him. Judging by the rapid movements of the beacon, Sable’s in there. He glances around and then turns towards the right side of its perimeter as he starts looking for pursuit.

“Sable, what are we doing here?” Handy asks with a sigh as he looks around the office room where she’s come to a complete halt in the center. The room doesn’t look like anything special, except maybe for being one of the few rooms with all it’s windows still intact and some ratty curtains blocking most of what little sunlight the cloudy sky was willing to part with. The office desk, regardless of where it had been originally has been thrown or pushed against the right wall and overturned. The supply closet on the left is left open and empty, with its door off to the side and hanging from the one stubborn hinge on the bottom. But, besides the typical wasteland dust in the air, there’s nothing more of note. Not even another entrance or exit to be seen. Except maybe short of breaking a window.

Sable taps a forehoof on the cement floor and nods her head with a strong affirmative. “I’m going to wait here until my darling Gearing returns to me.”

Handy slaps a hoof over his face and grumbles, “This again?” He pulls it off and flicks it at her. “We don’t even know where he’s gone! He took off in the middle of the night, with no word on where he was going. You said so yourself!”

Sable shakes her head lightly. “My darling Gearing will be back soon. I just must sit here and await his return.”

Handy looks her over, then around at the small office she seems to have camped out in. “Sable, he’s abandoned you, okay? He ran away from whatever consequences he thought were coming.” He shrugs. “We’ll probably run into him later, but we need to get going on towards Megamart before it gets too late in the day.”

Sable shakes her head and, to prove her point, sits down in the office with a soft thump. “No. My darling Gearing would never abandon me, Subject Handy Hooves… I just must sit here, and await his return.”

Handy turns around and walks back into the hallway shaking his head. He looks off to the right, at Swift and Nahlah, who just stare at him awaiting some verdict. Handy points a hoof into the room behind himself as he takes a few steps away from it. “She’s pulling that stubborn protectapony routine again. Says she won’t leave until Gearing gets back.”

Nahlah looks at Swift and frowns as she says, “I almost could understand at the wreck. Was obvious shock. But what’s this about?”

Swift waves both of them away and shakes her head. “I’ll have a word with her.”

A soft metallic grinding sound greets their ears and both Swift and Nahlah only spare the door a quick glance before continuing their conversation.

Nahlah waves a paw and starts walking towards the door. As Handy steps further into the hallway to let her pass, she comments, “I’ll handle this. Already have a bit of experience talking her down…” She steps into the doorway, and then freezes in place, mid step, as she stares into the office while her hair stands on end all over. Her tail even freezes mid swish and frazzles out.

Swift instantly notices the reaction and asks, “Nahlah, what’s wrong?”

Nahlah slowly tilts her head, and sits down, before she says evenly, “Well, she found Gearing apparently.”

Swift and Handy look at each other, and then jump over to the doorway. They cram in side by side, with their heads over Nahlah, and peek into the office where Handy had left Sable.

In the middle of the floor, there Gearing lies on his back, belly up, while Sable seemingly has him pinned to the floor with her own body as she continuously digs in with kiss after kiss. Gearing’s cloak lays sprawled out around him, and makes a sheet of sorts on the ground, as he gently caresses her entire length with both his green hued crystalline wings. All while treating her cheeks to gentle caresses with his forehooves.

Handy pulls back from the door wide-eyed with his mouth agape. He looks around back and forth, spins around in a circle, and then starts pointing his forehooves in random directions. “Wha- How? Where? I mean- He wasn’t- How’d he-?!” He throws his head back and screams up at the ceiling, “What’s going on here?!”

Nahlah puts a paw to her chin as she examines the action and deadpans, “I’m not entirely sure about the finer points of robotic mating rituals… but it appears to me that she’s in the process of queuing up for a ride on his pony pogo stick…”

Gearing’s eye opens partially as his ears twitch towards the sound at the doorway. At least as much as they can while on his back. He glances sideways with the one eye, and it instantly jumps to its widest as he looks at the doorway. Just as quickly, his ears start whistling, which only seems to encourage Sable to escalate the situation.

The fact they have an audience, of a goofy faced feline and an incredulous looking pegasus mare, changes nothing from Sable’s perspective.

However, Gearing hasn’t quite reached Sable’s level of Laissez-faire attitude when it comes to such matters. Especially potential, if not literal, exhibitionism. And so, Gearing puts an end to whatever Sable had in the works by wrapping her up with his limbs and wings, rolling with her, and quickly getting back up onto his hooves with the maneuver. Though Sable takes advantage of his disheveled cloak, by stepping on it, and holding him there long enough to steal one more deep kiss. Then she politely steps off and uses her cables to help reorient his cloak for him.

Nahlah grins as she looks back and forth between Sable and Gearing. “You need a few minutes?” Gearing’s head dips down as his ears start whistling and he tries to cover his face with the hood of the cloak. Nahlah snickers as she puts her paw to her mouth and asks with a twinkle in her eye, “Or a few hours in your case?”

Gearing’s head jumps up, sending the hood flying back off his head from the sheer momentum, as his mouth hangs agape. Understandably, his ears start whistling even louder at the comment.

Handy groans as he looks in through the doorway at them, “We don’t have time for this…” He shakes his head and then darts his eyes back and forth between Gearing and Sable. “I thought you said you didn’t know where he went? How’d you know to meet him here then?”

Gearing looks over at Sable, and takes note of the lack of an immediate response. Though, given their relationship, it only takes less than a fraction of a second too long for him to perceive it. He can’t help but feeling like his choice in a ‘partner in crime’ has been completely validated. The fact she wouldn’t have it any other way isn’t even considered. But, covering for your special somepony goes both ways. And Gearing, true to form, looks over at Handy as he’s rolling his eyes and comments, in the most condescending tone he can ooze out of his muzzle, as he waves it away dismissively with a forehoof. “She didn’t, Handy. I’ve been keeping tabs from out of sight.” He shrugs and gives Handy a smirk. “I just tracked ya down once you were out of the terminal. No problem. I already knew were you were headed after all.” Gearing shakes his head and then lets out a sigh. “Given what happened, I didn’t think it was a good idea for me to hang around there longer than necessary.”

Swift shakes her head as she looks at Gearing. “Actually… the only thing they really seemed put out by, was you just disappearing without talking to anypony first.”

“Especially Big Daddy…” Handy says with a frown as he doesn’t even look in through the doorway at Gearing.

Gearing shrugs and shakes his head. “It couldn’t be helped. Sorry about that.” He looks back and forth between Nahlah and Swift. “They give you too much grief for me being unaccounted for?”

Nahlah shakes her head. “No, actually.”

Swift nods and adds, “Actually they were worried. They weren’t sure what was going on. They spent quite a while combing the terminal trying to find you.”

“They were seriously about to organize a search party, but Sable was insistent on leaving and said you wouldn’t be found if you didn’t want to be,” Nahlah adds.

Handy sits down and folds his forehooves across his chest as he grumbles, “There was so much hustle trying to find you, and Sable kept wanting to leave, that we didn’t even have time to stop and eat all day. First because of the search, then because she refused to stop ‘til we got here.”

Gearing looks around at them, and then waves a hoof towards Swift. “Sorry. Did you get to bring anything or do we need to go find something for you all?”

Nahlah grins wide and opens up her bag to show its contents as she practically gloats, “Oh no, we’re fine! We got enough supplies for a few days from them.”

Gearing looks over at Swift and gets a warm smile and a nod in return as she pats on her own bulging saddle bag. He looks around the office room as he asks, “Well how about we take a break, and you guys can eat. We got a ways to go and don’t need you falling over from hunger halfway to MegaMart.”

Handy hops to his hooves and walks down the small hallway away from the private office, and more into the wider open area where office space was shared among a few desks. “Sounds like a plan to me!” He uses a foreleg to shove some debris off of a desk and starts setting down a few items as he tries to figure out which mystery can he wants to dig into now.

Nahlah and Swift head out of the office and join Handy as Sable starts unloading her bags not far from where the others are sitting for Gearing to peruse their contents. The group sits on the floor in a rough circle, with Swift and Handy together on one side, and Gearing and Sable on the other. Nahlah, being the odd feline out, lounges perched on a desktop as she opens her lunch.

As they are relaxing, Sable cozies in under Gearing’s wing, who kindly obliges by pulling her in even tighter and holding her to himself with it. He slowly goes through the items in their combined bags, as they are laid out in front of him. But, as they are sitting in practical silence, Gearing’s eyes trail over to look at Nahlah’s lunch.

He watches, intently. His casual glances turn into focused attention as he watches her manipulate and fish out the pinkish substance from the can in roughly evenly sized scoops. Each one scraped away from the rest of the shaped material before being brought up to her awaiting muzzle. His eyes follow the pinkish morsel, and watch as Nahlah licks her lips after cleaning the spoon following each bite. Obviously enjoying whatever it is. Whether it’s strictly hunger based enthusiasm, or true enjoyment, he can’t tell.

“I’m sorry… are you hungry?”

Gearing blinks a few times and looks up from the can to Nahlah’s concerned face. “What?”

Nahlah rocks the can a bit towards him. “You were just kinda spacing out staring at it. Do you want some?” She smiles widely and rocks the can side to side as she extends it towards him. “I’m not stingy, I’ll share!”

Gearing shakes his head. “Oh, no! Sorry! I was just…” He shakes his head again. “It’s nothing.” He smiles at her. “You go ahead and finish it. I don’t need to eat. I don’t eat…” She purses her lips to one side of her muzzle as she tilts her head and regards him.

“Well stop staring,” Handy speaks up as he glares at Gearing. When Gearing makes eye contact with him, Handy continues, “It’s really creepy staring at someone like that when they’re eating. So knock it off.”

Gearing shakes his head and stands up. “Sorry. I wasn’t- I just-“ He shakes his head again and starts walking off towards the side. “I’ll go watch the perimeter while you guys finish.”

The others stay in their positions, and don’t move, as they watch Gearing walk out of the room and head down the stairs, including Sable. Then, once he’s entirely out of sight, Sable redirects her gaze.

Directly at Handy.

Handy, for his part, intentionally avoids looking at her. Even though he not only feels the intense stare but can actually see her looking at him in the peripheral of his vision. Though he has the good sense of not needlessly antagonizing her with a similar comment.

“I feel bad for him…” Nahlah says softly as she keeps looking at the stairwell Gearing had disappeared into.

“What for?” Handy asks automatically, then cringes and raises his gaze up to meet Sable’s. He quickly directs his full attention to Nahlah to at least appear as if it was a genuine question instead of the snotty comment he suddenly realizes it sounded like.

Nahlah looks at him, then over at Sable before she asks, “He can’t really taste anything, can he?”

Sable turns her head to look at Nahlah and tilts her head as she examines the features of the atypically perceptive feline across from her. “While the conversation has not come up, I believe you may be correct.” She looks over at Swift and explains, “Judging by his lack of reaction when exposed to a variety of materials. Materials that would make a normal pony gag if not actually vomit, or at the very least frown or show some sign of discomfort or distress. Gearing has shown no such response to such stimuli.” She looks back at Nahlah and nods as she adds, “In fact the only response I could attribute my Gearing having to such materials would be… indifference.”

Nahlah nods as she looks down at her can of food and slowly swishes her tail. She pokes the pink substance with her spoon, moving it around inside of the can as she thinks it through. “I bet he’s curious about it.” She looks up at Sable and smiles. “As you’d said, he’s got a strong inquisitive nature.” Sable smiles and nods in reply.

Nahlah shrugs. “I don’t know. I mean… just think about it.” She looks over at Swift and Handy. “Not needing to eat, might seem like a huge plus. Like he won the jackpot, especially given how scarce it can be… but…” She looks down at the can and rotates it around so that the pink blob inside rolls around the inside of the can as she looks at it. “But him not having the ability to taste… to enjoy food… just seems… so wrong.” She looks up at Handy and Swift, and only sees confusion as they don’t seem to be following along.

Nahlah waves towards them and rolls her eyes. “It’s like he’s not getting the whole ‘life’ experience. Can’t enjoy good food, can’t suffer through bad food. None of it. I mean, if you’re only going through life experiencing half of what life has to offer can you really enjoy life? I mean he’s missing out on a lot and I just don’t-“ She stops mid sentence.

The others all turn to look at her, then look around at their surroundings as they aren’t sure if she’s seen or heard something to make her stop. But, no. She’s stopped of her own accord.

As a sudden thought bubbled to the surface, conjured by her own ramblings.

Nahlah looks over at Sable and asks, softly, “If his senses are all wonky… is his sense of touch off too?”

Sable shakes her head. “His tactical responses have always been extremely fine and articulate. He’s shown no sign of numbness.”

Nahlah shakes her head. “No... I don’t mean if he can feel… but how much.” They all stare at her and she raises the can of food she’s holding as she adds, “There’s more to sensation than ‘am I touching something or not’. Warm. Cold. Hot. Freezing. Gentle. Rough. Good. Bad.” Sable locks eyes with her and seems to be processing the request thoroughly. Nahlah makes matters worse as she asks, “If his sense of taste is jacked up, is his sense of touch as well? Can he even really enjoy it?”

Sable’s eyes go wide as her mouth hangs open in sudden realization of what their feline friend is asking.

Swift looks back and forth between the two quickly before she asks, “Why’d it be important that he’d enjoy being touched? Not everyone likes touchy feely.”

Nahlah slowly turns her head and then stares at her for a moment before she tilts her head and raises an eyebrow at her in disbelief. Her eyes dart over to Handy for a moment, then she exaggeratedly gives Swift the exact same dumbfoundedly disbelieving look. It only takes a moment more for Swift to catch on before her eyes shoot open and her mouth hangs agape as well. She puts a hoof to her mouth and asks softly, “You don’t think…”

Nahlah bobs her head around a bit and then nods as she frowns.

Handy looks around at the three, and then asks, “I don’t get it. What’s the problem?”

Nahlah waves him off with a paw without actually looking at him. “Girl talk, don’t worry about it.”

Swift looks over at Sable and they exchange long glances before Sable says softly, “I do not know…”

Swift sips on a bottle of water as she mulls it over. She resecures the bottle in her bag as she’s standing up. “I need to go have a word with Gearing.” Nahlah looks up at her and her eyes nearly twinkle as she gives her a goofy grin. Swift rolls her eyes and starts walking away as she says, “Get you’re mind out of the gutter, perv, not about that.” Handy starts standing up and Swift pushes him back down with a wing before she gets out of reach. “You just finish eating, I’ll be right back.”

Swift heads over and down the same set of stairs Gearing had disappeared down not long before. She walks slowly and quietly, both trying to think of how she is going to talk to Gearing about what she wants to talk to him about, and making sure a certain somepony isn’t following her down despite her wishes. She’s not sure how this is going to go, and she doesn’t need her well-intending husband to make matters worse. What she needs is to get some answers, and closure.

And for that, she needs to find Gearing.

At the bottom of the set of stairs to the next level, she steps out into the small greeting room where a secretary would sit and welcome visitors before the war. It’s impossible to tell which company had this particular suite in this section of the office building. No logos or even identifiable paperwork remains. Which, for Swift, is telling in and of itself. Either a small company that didn’t have a very big presence, and was easily swept aside. Or a more important company that had cleared out everything of note before abandoning the place.

Either way, she doesn’t see Gearing in the room and starts checking the floor for recent hoofprints in the dust away from the stairs.

“Need something?” Gearing’s voice startles her out of her investigation.

Her head zips up and she looks around, slowly panning the room, until she’s looking in the exact direction where the voice had come from. Even looking right at him it takes her a moment to recognize him.

Gearing’s sitting at an off kilter angle, almost leaning up against the far outer wall with his right shoulder. His muzzle is directed towards the wall on the left, where a hole has developed and provides a view out and towards the lobby below that leads to the stairs up to this level. And the only apparent access point to this office suite. In the mottled cloak Gearing practically melts into the dingy surroundings and debris of the corner. Adding in the fact that he’s remaining perfectly still, from not needing to breathe, and his practical camouflage becomes nearly magically perfect.

But, he’s tilted his head just enough to peek out at her from under the cowl of the cloak with the edge of one brushed copper eye. Which, along with some of the spider-web like cracks in that part of his face, almost seems to glow in comparison to the rest of his shadowy head.

Swift blinks a few times as she rotates her ears, to make sure they haven’t been followed, before she starts walking over towards him. “Got a minute?” He turns to face her a bit more and raises his left eyebrow, causing the spidery golden threads to warp and bend on that part of his face. “To talk I mean,” Swift adds.

Gearing lets out a forceful sigh then directs his focus back through the small hole in the wall. “I wasn’t trying to creep everypony out. I get it. He had a point. I’m not mad at Handy. Don’t worry about it. Just figured I’d use the time efficiently since we’re in hostile territory…”

Swift pauses walking towards him and tilts her head. Then she shakes her head and waves it away with a hoof. “No. Not about that. I’m not worried bout that.”

Gearing turns his head enough to look at her sideways again as he asks, “What’s on your mind?”

Swift walks over to him, and sits next to him. She takes in the view of his vantage point and quickly becomes grateful that there were no hostiles in this position when they came in. Or they probably wouldn’t have even made it to that first set of stairs. She looks sideways, past Gearing’s face that has turned directly to look at her, and can’t help but notice that Gearing’s rifle is already set up and ready to go off to the side. Likewise it blends in with the pipes and other debris, but within reach for quick use if and when the time comes for it.

She starts looking through the gap as she says softly, “Yesterday… Today…” She tilts her head to look at him as she smirks, “Pretty much everything since I met you… really…”

Gearing chuckles and goes back to looking out the hole. “Oh… is that all?”

She turns to look at him, face on, but ends up just staring at the cloaked profile of his head. “I’m trying to figure you out…”

“Would be easier to just ask… I think I’ve said so before, ya know.”

“Well, back then you coulda just lied to me for all I knew,” Swift says with a shrug of a shoulder before she nods behind her.

“If you’re convinced I’m going to lie to you about whatever it is… why bother wasting our time asking me? Since you won’t believe me either way?” Gearing retorts.

Swift turns her head to try and regard him again. “I think I’ve learned enough about you by now to give you the benefit of the doubt… besides…” She turns her head to look back through the hole but keeps her eyes sideways on him out of the corner of her eyes as she finishes, “If you’re gonna lie about it, I’m sure you have your reasons.”

Gearing pulls the cowl of the cloak off, revealing his mangled left ear and golden spider webbed side of his face before he turns to look at her. “So?”

Her head slowly turns towards him as her eyes dart around his head and face, taking in each and every bit of golden shine she can see. In her mind’s eye she overlays the sparkle, with scabs from injuries as she forces herself to be mindful of the exact reason those areas are no longer as dark and dull as the rest of him. She manages eye contact, looking him face to face, as she asks, “Why’d you do it?”

Gearing stares at her in silence for a moment before he tilts his head. He doesn’t look away. Not even to take a quick peek through the hole at the entryway. Whether from training, personal attitude, or some factor of his constitution, he’s exceedingly hard to read at the moment. And manages to give away absolutely nothing to Swift in terms of if he’s planning to deceive her already. Not even if he’s thinking about it. “Mind giving me some context for that question?”

Again, he manages to give away nothing, and doesn’t even fall for a guilty conscious admission. An infuriatingly good poker face.

Swift smiles and shakes her head lightly. She leans in towards him a bit and asks softly, “How about why you saved me?” She reaches out and gently taps on his chest with a hoof as she looks at its general area even though it’s still hidden by his cloak. “You took that blast… for me…” She looks up into his eyes and asks even softer, “Why?”

Gearing maintains eye contact for a few seconds before he shakes his head. “That’s a weird ass question…” He motions towards her with a hoof before going back to staring out of the hole. “It would have killed you. That’s why.”

Swift smirks as she puts a hoof to her chest and looks up and to the ceiling, away from him, as she grins. “Hey, don’t count me out. I’ve been shot before. I’m a lot tougher than you’re giving me credit for.” She turns her head back to look at him with a smile as she says, “I woulda been-“ She stops short, as she makes eye contact with him again.

As he’s already staring right at her again.

“Dead,” he finishes her sentence. “You would have been dead.” Her smile slowly fades off her face as he continues, “That was a point blank blast from a 12 gauge combat shotgun… loaded with anti-personnel scattershot. Not exactly flechette rounds, but more than enough force behind it to completely take your head off at that range.”

She’d already run the scenario through her mind countless times since it happened, and came to the same conclusion: her death. Swift lowers her head and closes her eyes as she says softly, in complete resignation to the facts, “Yeah, I know… The moment I saw the barrel out of the corner of my eye I knew I wasn’t going to be able to dodge it… I knew I wouldn’t be able to take it. Time seemed to just stop for a second… But then she shot. And I waited for the pain. But it didn’t come, and I was still alive.” She looks up at him and starts exploring his face as she says quickly. “Because you took the blast for me… so… why?”

Gearing lets out a snort and goes back to looking down at the lobby through the hole. “I just said it… you would have been killed if I didn’t.” After a few moments of silence he turns his head to look at her and sees she seems to be struggling with something internally as she scrunches her face in weird ways. He lets out a sigh and leans toward her. “You have three young foals that desperately need their mother. They are waiting on you back home…” He smirks as he adds softly, “Getting shot was a small price to pay to keep from having to explain to them that their mother won’t be coming home anymore…”

Swift lets out a partially amused snort at his joke attempt. She looks him over, at least as much as she can see that’s peeking out of the cloak. “But you’d already been through so much…” She looks him in the eye and tilts her head. “Sable filled us in while you slept… According to your PipBuck alerts you were so injured if it were anypony else a stiff breeze would have knocked them over, and the fall would have killed them.” She shakes her head. “Sable couldn’t understand how you’d remained conscious that long, let alone walking, fighting, and getting shot more.”

She scoots closer as she leans over and looks up into his eyes. “I know that shot had to of hurt. Sable kept complaining about having to dig the pellets out of your body… And you were already so close to dying… so… why would you risk death… for me?”

Gearing closes his eyes and lets out a sigh. “I just told you… your foals need you…” He looks at her and frowns lightly as he says, “It was a calculated risk… I’m far more bullet resistant than you are, naturally. So between the two of us, I had that highest chance of survival. But, even so, I don’t have anypony that is counting on me. Nopony that needs me the way your foals need you in their life.” He shrugs. “So, the math was pretty clear and that was the logical choice.”

Swift frowns as she shakes her head lightly. “Don’t give me that, Gearing. You’re not disposable. You have friends…” She tilts her head and asks as she partially closes an eye, “And what about Sable? You saying she doesn’t matter? That she doesn’t need you?”

Gearing lets out a sigh and goes back to looking through the hole. “I didn’t say that. She matters. She matters a lot to me… but she doesn’t need me.” He looks back at Swift and shakes his head. “Not the way your foals need you…” He shrugs and waves it away with a hoof. “Sable doesn’t need me… She’d get along just fine without me… She wants me… there’s a difference…”

He turns to look out the hole and can’t help himself, smiling as he continues softly, “Though… it is very comforting to be desired… to be wanted… instead of simply needed.” He looks over at Swift and motions between her and the stairs up. “From a relationship standpoint I mean… When someone doesn’t actually need you, but wants you around anyway?” He smiles lightly and goes back to staring through the hole. “Yeah, that’s the magic ticket for me… Can’t really say I’m used to that though…”

Swift looks him over for a moment before she tilts her head and asks, “You really going to sit there and try and tell me that you saved me, just for my foals… And made the decision that you’d have a higher chance of survival than I would… quick enough that you saw what was coming and still got into position in time to save me?”

Gearing snickers and shakes his head. “No… not at all.” He looks at her sideways, and sees the look of endless confusion on Swift’s face as she struggles to understand. He taps on his chest as he bobs his head. “The fact my body doesn’t react the same to getting shot as a normal buck, is simply a matter of science.” He smirks as he continues, “And common sense… I didn’t need my previous experiences to inform me that brass is stronger than flesh… Skin doesn’t even rate a one on the hardness scale, and brass is somewhere in the three to four range.” He lifts his hoof and rocks it side to side. He slowly lowers it as he watches Swift’s eyes follow it down to the ground. After she’s regained eye contact with him he says flatly, “It wasn’t a long calculating decision.” He shrugs. “I’ve already made that choice before… You’re not the first I’ve taken a bullet for.” He goes back to looking intently out of the hole in the wall as he adds, “All I had to figure out was if you were worth the risk and the pain… and I’d already figured that one out by then too… So when the time came, I just acted…”

Swift’s eyes go wide as she stares at him. She leans over, lowering and tilting her neck so she can look at his face and regain his direct attention. “But why? After everything that’s happened. You didn’t owe me that.”

Gearing lets out a sigh as he looks at her out of the corner of his eye, then finally turns face to face as she seems to refuse to accept anything short of his full attention. He leans closer to her and says softly, “I might not agree with your train of thoughts, or your brash attitude.” He lets out a snort as he rolls his eyes. “Or some of your other life choices… but…” He looks at her and taps her on the shoulder with his hoof. “I’d seen enough of you to know you’re a good pony at your core… For the most part.”

Swift smiles a bit then partially closes her eye as she asks, “‘For the most part’? What’s that about?”

Gearing looks at her sideways and says flatly, “The decision to run off and join the Reapers is a bit suspect…” Her eyes go to their widest and he turns to face her as he asks, “Did you know?”

Swift closes her eyes and takes in a deep breath. She shakes her head as she opens her eyes and gives him the respect of her undivided attention and focus. “Gearing, I’m sorry. I…” She shrugs as she tries to think of how to explain it. She taps her forehooves together sheepishly as she admits, “I mainly entered the fights to test my own skill… to find a challenge… to push myself further. They all seemed to be looking for the same thing. It seemed like a good opportunity…” She looks over to the side and lets out a sigh as she closes her eyes. “And with their influence… I thought… I thought…” She looks up at Gearing and shrugs. “I thought I’d be able to use their influence to keep my family safe. I didn’t think they’d be the kind to sucker others into fights.”

Gearing looks her over and raises an eyebrow. “Is that what you think happened?”

Swift shrugs. “Well, there was Gauge… and he’s a coward, so I know there’s no way in hell he’d just volunteer for some kind of death match.” She motions towards him and adds, “And you’ve repeatedly told them to take a hike every time you stepping in the ring was brought up. So I knew something had to be up when suddenly you were in there.” She looks him over then asks, “What…? Why are you looking at me like that?”

“So you really didn’t know?”

Swift stares at him for a moment, then realizes her own apparent ignorance as she shakes her head. “I guess not… I’m not an idiot… but judging by your response I’m guessing there’s more to it than just that…?”

Gearing nods as he turns entirely to face her and lifts up his left foreleg to reveal his own PipBuck. “In short I was extorted into a fight. No Shoes wanted Gauge’s PipBuck, and I couldn’t let them have it…” Swift’s eyes go wide and he asks, “So you realize the problem if they got their hooves on it?”

Swift nods slowly. “I know enough of them to know they could have used it to find and get access to the stable…”

Gearing nods and motions towards her. “Great… so that’ll make this easier then… because they told me either I give it to him, just because he wanted it, just because he’s a fucking Reaper… or I would have to fight him for it.” He leans in closer to Swift as he adds, “Or I’d end up fighting all of the Reapers and the Freight Cars, for not playing along with the rules, that was my third option…”

Swift’s eyes go wide and she puts a hoof to her mouth as she quickly runs the entire scenario through her mind and starts plugging this new information into missing gaps. Including his final statement in the ring about ‘threatening his foals’. She pulls her hoof away from her mouth and asks softly, “You killed him so they wouldn’t find out where my foals are… to protect my family?”

Gearing nods lightly and adds, “And everypony else in the stable… If they got their hooves on it, we’d never be able to feel safe again. Especially with their blatant willingness to rob and exploit others for their own amusement.”

Swift looks down and her eyes start darting around as she starts running one scene after another though her mind. He’s strange. Not even including his whole ‘curse’ deal. The incident when he attacked her while she was asleep was, as far as she can recall, the only real blemish on his record. And now that she’s thinking about it far more clearly, instead of in a grumpy stupor of sleep deprived anger, she can see how he truly had her best interests in mind. Her well-being. At the time he plead ignorance and innocence, and she didn’t really believe him. She’d thought he was simply trying to play it off given his attempt had failed. But. It obviously didn’t. If he had wanted her dead, he wouldn’t have needed to try and slap her to Luna with a thousand hoof clops.

He could have just sat on her while she slept and it would have been her end. No Shoes was proof of his ability, and willingness, to put his ridiculous bulk to use in lethal context if and when he deems it necessary.

Which means, he was telling the truth. The entire time. Though that raises more than a few concerns about his mental stability if he’s hallucinating about sleeping mares spontaneously combusting in front of him.

But, regardless of that, it’s undeniable that his heart has been, and is, in the right place.

Which just makes her feel even worse about how he’d been getting treated and what he’d had gone through over the last few weeks.

She hangs her head and looks around at the various debris on the floor as she says, “I’m sorry you had to go through that for us.”

Gearing turns back towards the hole and resumes his watch as he says flatly, “Better me, than somepony else. I can take it.”

She scoots a bit closer and says quietly, “Gearing, I meant what I said earlier…” She shakes her head. “You’re not disposable… If something happened to you, you’d be missed.” She shakes her head again and smiles as she adds, “And not simply because of your technical ability.” She reaches over and taps him on his chest. “You have a good heart, Gearing… Sable would miss you. The children would miss you. Your friends would miss you…” She leans over, closes her eyes, and gives him an encouraging side nuzzle as she smiles and says, “And, yes, I’m pretty sure I’d miss you as well…”

Her smile quickly falls off her face as she pulls back and maintains eye contact with him, as he’d turned his head enough to look at her sideways. She’d meant it as a way to let him know he was truly appreciated. But to say the maneuver was cold, would be a colossal understatement. It wasn’t simply his metal hide, she’d expected that. But in this particular case he was as unyielding as the earth itself. Like she’d just bumped into a cloth covered piece of furniture or attempted to nuzzle a pillar. And she’d gotten about just as much out of it in return.

She’d seen him and Sable nuzzling each other. In mutual love and affection for one another. His body, despite standard logic, has the capability of being as flexible and dexterous as any other pony. Fluid movements included. The pair have repeatedly nuzzled each other with a fluidity that had seemed so natural. But this wasn’t like that. There wasn’t even the automatic response most give just out of the joy of such contact and tenderness being showed them.

He didn’t lean into it. He didn’t move with it. He didn’t even shy away from it.

From all she can tell, given she’d had her eyes closed, he’d simply looked over to see what or who was touching him. Like somepony had just accidentally bumped into him with a shopping cart and he was trying to sort out if he needed to move or not. Nothing more. She’s worried that she’d overstepped or done something wrong as she maintains eye contact and tries to think of something to say to salvage the situation. But then he does the unexpected. Again.

He smiles.

Gearing returns the gesture with a reciprocated side nuzzle, in the same manner as she had done, as he says, “Thanks. It’s… nice to be treated as more than just some machine.”

Again she’s caught off guard. And her previous expectations are, again, smashed against the wall of reality. This time, instead of the solid block of inanimate material she’d expected, she’s treated with a flowing level of tenderness. One that she has a hard time grasping the physical possibility of. His plates, his gears, all move along in a smooth fashion. But they all do so in a way that is gentle and soft as they press against her pelt. Applying just enough pressure to be comforting, instead of hard and abrasive.

And she instantly realizes it’s because, this time, he’s not only aware, but that’s what he wanted, what he willed them to do.

Consciously.

Again demonstrating a kind heart beneath a literally hard exterior.

She shakes her head as she looks at the floor. “I’m not going to the arena. I’m not going to be apart of something so… despicable…” She looks up at him and frowns. “It wasn’t right what they forced you into.”

Gearing looks back through the hole and pays careful attention to the light coming in through the glass of the front door. “You’re free to make up your own mind… but would you at least listen to some advice? Maybe keep an open mind to a separate opinion?”

She wasn’t expecting that at all. Given his out right slaughter of No Shoe’s she’d almost expected him to start making plans on hunting them all down like the radhogs he’d picked off from the bushes not long ago. She tilts her head as she asks, “What’d you have in mind?”

Gearing glances at her sideways, and sees the undivided attention he’s earned. So he does in kind, and looks her right in the eye, face to face, as he says, “Hold off… at least as long as you can stomach it… We’ve had limited exposure to this group. And the only real reaper we’ve met, as far as I know, is Big Daddy…” He waves a hoof dismissively. “No Shoes doesn’t count. He wasn’t a Reaper long enough to really say if the others are like him or not. So we don’t really know what they are like… That rule could just be something stupid that they don’t regularly exploit… or it could…” He puts a hoof to his chest as he says, “I’d really rather get to know more about them before making any rash decisions… You might be right… their influence could be helpful. And that would be hard to figure out if we lay our cards out on the table already and tell them in advance that we’re not going to play their game.”

Swift looks him over before asking with a smirk, “And what if they are as bad as No Shoes, or worse? What then?”

“We deal with it as best we can, but either way we’re going to need to know more about them before we get to the point of having to handle them. If that’s what it comes to.”

Swift’s eyes jump wide open as she stares at him. She’d actually expected that answer. If not worse. Possibly with some form of typical Gearing over confidence and bravado. But what she wasn’t prepared for was that quick shift in his eyes. It was only for a moment. But she saw it.

It was the same look he had in his eye when he declared the fight with No Shoes ‘an execution’.

Swift smiles as she shrugs. “Well, that makes sense… but… don’t worry. If it comes to that…” She reaches over and taps on his shoulder with her hoof. “I’ll have your back and be right there with you pounding their sorry asses into the pavement.”

Gearing smirks and brings a wingtip out from his cloak to hold it up for emphasis as he says, “If it comes to that…No point in looking for a fight when it’s already coming. Until we’re ready, anyway… until then...” He shrugs. “Just play it cool until we can figure them out better.” Swift nods and smiles, so he goes back to looking through the hole in the wall before he says, “Sorry for ditching like I did… I didn’t want to end up in a constant cycle of getting challenged for one stupid thing or another… and I didn’t know what other rules they’d try to spring on me…”

Swift starts snickering, which devolves into a steady laugh as she tries her best to hold her muzzle closed and hide the mirth that’s doing it’s best to burst out.

Gearing lays his ears back as he stares at her. “Oh fuck, what now?”

Swift waves it off with a wing then giggles some more before she looks at him and tilts her head. “Well… it’s about rules that you weren’t aware of that you were trying to avoid before they got dropped on you…”

Gearing narrows his eyes and asks, “And?”

Swift smirks and giggles again as she puts her forehooves up in mock surrender. “Promise not to shoot the messenger?”

Gearing slaps a hoof over his eyes as he asks with a sigh, “What now?”

Swift giggles a bit more before she replies, “It has to do with how to become a Reaper.”

Gearing pulls his hoof away and waves it at her. “I know that much, beat a buncha wannabe’s and work your way to the top until you’re promoted… What… why are you looking like your going to laugh even harder now?”

Swift snickers then says with a twinkle in her eye, “Yeah… that’s one way… but there’s another way too…”

“And?” Gearing asks as he’s dreading the coming punch line.

Swift nods and leans towards him. “Killing a Reaper is another way to get in… Either beating up a bunch of other wannabe’s to prove how tough you are… or taking out one that’s already gone through the process, and proving your better than them…” Swift waves her hoof around as she smirks. “They only want the best, so that’s how their ranks are full of only the toughest ponies in the wastes… and if your tough enough to take one down, you’ve already earned your place.”

Gearing’s eyes slowly go ever wider, revealing even more of their brushed copper shine. “And… No Shoes just made the cut…” Swift nods, and smirks even more. “You’re not serious…”

“‘fraid so.” Swift replies with an even wider grin.

“What’d the say?” Gearing asks with a groan.

Swift shrugs. “Most of them just asked me to pass along their congratulations… It was pretty unanimously agreed that, with your display in the ring, you were well deserving of the title.” She shrugs again. “Well, Big was a bit more reserved on it. Wasn’t happy that he didn’t get to talk to you before they left. But he did tell me to pass along a message.”

“And what’s that?” Gearing asks as he raises an eyebrow.

Swift smirks and taps him on the chest. “He said to tell you, that he can understand why you said he really wouldn’t want to watch you fight. That he’s still waiting to see you in an actual fight, because what happened in the ring, was no fight. And now he’s even more curious of just what you’re capable of.”

Gearing groans and then slaps a hoof over his eyes as he moans, “Great… a glowing-eyed fan-buck with an invested interest in keeping the status quo… fuck.” He moves his hoof out of the way and asks, “He say anything else?”

Swift shakes her head. “Not really. Just that he looks forward to seeing you again.” She shrugs. “A lot of the Freight Cars were asking when you were going to the arena to make it official… but that’s about it.” She notices Gearing’s head go back to focusing at the hole and asks softly, “What do you keep looking at anyway?”

Gearing nods through the hole towards down below. “I’ve seen several groups walk back and forth in front of the building, but none have walked in so far.”

Swift leans over and looks down through the hole as she asks quietly, “Are they hostile? Should we take them out?”

Gearing shrugs. “No idea. Won’t know until I actually see them or they do something.”

Swift looks sideways at him and raises an eyebrow. “‘See them’? You just said there’s been groups going by, how you know that if you can’t see them?” She twitches her ears and adds, “Or even hear?”

Gearing nods towards the lower levels. “Look, there goes another group…at least three.”

Swift looks down quickly and stares into the open space below, but ends up shrugging and shaking her head as she stares at the floor of the office building’s foyer. “I don’t see anypony.”

Gearing smirks and says, “Of course not.” She looks at him sideways and raises an eyebrow so he explains, “They’re out walking in the street… But the angle of the sun is casting their shadow on the glass across the street, and blocking the light that’s getting reflected down into the foyer.” He nods towards the lower levels again. “See… the dust in the air gets ever so darker, but it travels from one side of the building to the other, not just randomly.” He nods towards the floor. “That’s somepony walking by and blocking the reflected light with their body.”

Swift keeps staring at it, and then smirks as she says, “I’ll have to trust you on that one… because, I’ll be honest, I haven’t noticed a single thing.”

Gearing chuckles as he keeps looking down at the floor below them. “Well, it’s a good thing my eyes are so good.”

Swift shakes her head and turns to head back up. “I’m going to go check on the others. If you need any help, just holler, we’re right upstairs.”

Gearing smirks and keeps looking down at the floor below. “If I need help, I’ll let you know… Enjoy the break…”

Footnote: Resuming reboot procedure. . . please stand by . . .

‘credential matrix’, sync failure. Retrying. . . please stand by. . .

Secondary components reinitializing, please stand by. . .

‘gravity assistant matrix’ reinitializing, please stand by. . .

This chapter delves into a few personal / interpersonal issues, along with drumming up a few more questions to the surface about our local Clockwork repairpony. This also points out and answers some questions a few of my observant readers have had about certain rules and traditions that Gearing wasn't even aware of. But now has to deal with the repercussions of. Kudos for guessing correctly!

Thanks to my helpers for helping me get this chapter out. The support in both encouragement and active forms has been a god send. Thank you all!

As always Critiques, comments, and suggestions are welcome and encouraged

-Quillsy