When Marvin jumped out of Caroline's shuttle onto the landing pad of Luyan's workshop, two more shuttles were approaching the skyscraper. The scavengers, no doubt.
He ran past Ella's shuttle, priming his arm-shields and sabers. The scavengers would certainly put up a fight. He could only hope to not kill any of them.
As he got closer to the door, he noticed something lying just beyond. A crumpled lump of red and gray—somehow very familiar colors. And the shape…
Marvin froze in front of the doorway. No, that can't be her.
He then spotted Luyan standing a few feet away, trembling hands pointing a handgun at Ella. His finger was on the trigger.
Marvin lunged at him, hitting the gun out of his hands. Luyan could barely move his arms in defense before Marvin clocked him in the face, knocking him out. He didn't bother looking at the unconscious engineer and immediately ran to Ella's side. Blood was streaming from her head, and Marvin was scared to examine the wound. He went to check her pulse, remembered he couldn't feel anything, and instead tried to see if she was breathing.
He couldn't tell. She was as still as a statue.
Marvin kept staring. Some part of him still didn't recognize the figure lying before him. In his mind, Ella had been and would be a constant in his life, at first as a rival, then as a reluctant friend. How could she just be gone? How could all of her dreams be snuffed out just like that?
A shuttle touched down on the landing pad outside the ajar door. Marvin didn't move. There was no point in fighting the scavengers. They could kill Luyan, they could take Immortal Ignition—who cared?
But the figures who stepped off that shuttle were not scavengers. Two of them wore black trench coats and masks while the other twelve were police officers. All of them carried plasma rifles.
The police swarmed around the door and one of the Inspectors walked in. He removed his mask. James Kobayashi.
"Get her to a hospital," he ordered. The police officers hoisted Ella up and carried her outside. James looked at Marvin. "Who's piloting you?"
Marvin didn't respond, didn't move a muscle. He was possessing a prototype's body, grayscale and unidentifiable as Sabersong. It was the only other mech they had at the farm.
"Is that Luyan?" James asked. He stalked over and examined the engineer's limp body. He turned back to Marvin. "You did this?"
Marvin nodded slowly.
"Scavs send you?" James asked.
Marvin nodded again. That was as good a lie as any.
"Hmm." James motioned for the remaining officers to take Luyan away. "We know what Luyan did," he told Marvin. "Tell your people to back off. You'll be compensated."
Marvin nodded once again. He didn't care what Hosaka or the scavengers were going to do. He just replayed what James had said over and over to make sure he had heard correctly: Take her to a hospital.
-----
Everything was white. The curtains, the bed, the drawers, the walls, the IV tubes hooked up to her arms.
The only other color in the room, funnily enough, was the robot sitting beside her, watching over her.
I'm alive.
Ella slowly turned her head till she had a clear view of Marvin Yao. He was sitting as still as a statue—on standby, maybe? He wore his classic blue-cap-and-hoodie fit. His eyes were dark but occasionally glinted as traces of energy passed through them.
"Marvin?" Ella whispered. The other pilot remained still.
"Steve?" Ella joked. Still no response.
Ella turned her head back. The pillow was kind of uncomfortable. She wondered how to call the nurse in to ask for a replacement. In fact, this whole bed was too stiff.
Oh well. For now, she could appreciate the fact that she was still alive.
The memory came back in full force. The click of Luyan's gun. That feeling of dread right before everything went dark. That realization that her mentor of nineteen years had snapped, had tried to kill her.
Tears welled up in her eyes. Did she mean nothing to him in the end? Was she just another part of his mech to be used and discarded?
You're not good enough. It didn't get much clearer than that. Luyan had never believed in her.
And yet, he'd always been there, improving her mech, allowing her to compete at the highest level, cheering her on. Had it all been an act? Had Luyan secretly hated himself every minute of it, wishing for someone better?
"Are you okay?"
Ella turned to Marvin in surprise, sending a sharp pain down her neck. She ignored it. "You're awake?" she asked.
"Um, yeah," Marvin said.
Ella blinked the moisture out of her eyes. "How long have you been here?"
Marvin looked down. "Two days."
"You stopped by twice?"
"No. I mean, I took a few naps, but…"
Ella's jaw dropped. "Why?"
Marvin tapped his fingers together. "Caroline and Ben and Renee came and went, too. And Ishaan and Sienna. And your parents, of course. They're sleeping outside."
But you don't need to sleep, so you stayed here for two days straight. Ella felt herself sink into the bed. "What time is it?"
"4 AM."
"Do you have food?"
"Soup," Marvin said, pointing to a bowl on the drawer.
Ella smiled at how dry Marvin's observation was. She took the bowl and drank some of the soup. It was pretty good.
Inexplicably, her eyes got blurry again. She rubbed them dry. Not here.
"You never answered why," she said.
"I didn't want to leave you alone," Marvin said.
Ella felt her chest tighten. What did I do to deserve this kindness?
She drank more of the soup, then braced to ask the most important question. "What happened to Luyan?"
"He's in jail," Marvin said. "The Inspectors got there before the scavengers."
Despite all that had happened, Ella felt a hint of relief. "How did Hosaka know?"
"Inspector Kobayashi figured it out at the camp."
"I see," Ella muttered. She hoped Sangeet would be satisfied with whatever justice the Hosaka Roundtable deemed fit.
She sat a little higher so she could drink the rest of the soup, and when she still felt uncomfortable, she tried to swing her legs off the edge of the bed.
Tried.
It was then that she realized she couldn't move her legs. Couldn't even feel them.
She looked at Marvin, eyes wide. He recoiled with apprehension, shaking his head ever so slightly.
No. This can't be real.
The bullet had struck her head, or somewhere close to her spinal cord. This made sense. It was already a miracle that she was alive.
"Is this permanent?" she asked.
Marvin nodded. "I'm sorry," he whispered. "There are implants—"
"I know." Implants that could make her walk again. Heal her brain.
Make her worse at piloting.
It seemed like such a simple choice. The implants were an easy fix, completely risk-free, and yet what did it all mean if she became a nobody afterwards? All those hours of pilot training gone to waste.
"I know," Ella repeated quietly.
-----
Ella stayed in that whitewashed room for five more days. Her parents stayed for hours at a time, and they talked about stuff ranging from Luyan's fate to a family vacation in Sector 12. Ella was more than happy to get away, and greatly appreciated her parents' willingness to criticize Luyan so heavily after knowing him for decades.
Unfortunately, her mother and father still needed to work, and there wasn't much point in staying at the hospital when her recovery was confirmed.
So the rest of the time was spent either alone or with Marvin and his teammates, but mostly Marvin. Sometimes they talked about everything under the sun, and sometimes they didn't talk at all. With each passing day, Ella felt herself sink deeper into an invisible abyss. Again and again, she wondered what she had done to deserve Marvin's company.
When she was alone, she could think of little else except the implants. Her fear of falling in the mech rankings was lessening by the day. She saw how it had consumed Luyan. How it had led Varyn to overwork himself to the point of a stroke. Was it really worth it?
Besides, she had time. She might not be as good this year, but she was nowhere near her prime. The implants would be like motivation. They'd force her to work harder, and she would rise to greater heights.
And, deep down, a part of her also did not want to be a hypocrite. Marvin, Caroline, and many others had heard her say that Carlos Esparza should get implants. Those statements became double standards.
What happens to Immortal Ignition, then?
She supposed it would go back to the scavengers. She would use last year's iteration, and… and that would be it. No one was there to improve it. Until they found a new engineer, she was stuck with the old design.
She sighed. Maybe she could salvage a few things from Luyan's workshop. Maybe Caroline was willing to help. Those were worries for another time.
-----
The sky was a shade of sunset Marvin had seen a million times before. Orange, pink, and yellow. The awe-inspiring hues he'd seen that one time were absent, but that was okay.
He wheeled Ella towards the edge of the roof, making sure to stop a ways behind the railing. He couldn't feel the breeze, couldn't even hear it, but he saw it blow Ella's hair out of her face.
It had been seven days since the hospital. First day of discharge. Last day of living in a wheelchair.
They looked out at the city for some time in an unspoken pact of silence. They both knew that this marked the end of their little adventure. Marvin wasn't sure if he could say it had been fun, but he'd made memories he'd cherish. That counted for something.
Almost immediately after being offered the choice, Ella had decided to get the implants. Marvin was impressed. She'd been adamant about Carlos getting them, but he hadn't expected her to follow through herself.
The city sprawled before them bustled as usual. Hospital staff walked in clusters and chatted. Streams of hovercraft flowed through the sky. Lights shifted on the skyscraper walls.
They were on the roof of the hospital, of course, not that one building in Hoxing University. Ella needed to stay here to get her implants. She had asked to be taken up here so she could "chill" before she got the surgery.
Marvin turned from the city towards Ella, and she glanced up in return. He felt a foreign fluttering in his chest, something he hadn't felt since he'd become a robot. When Ella had been taken to the hospital, he'd never felt so worried for anyone before. Sure, none of his friends had been so close to death, but still.
"Sorry our month was so unproductive," Ella began. "I don't know what I would even do, but if you ever need help finding your body…" She patted the tablet in her pocket.
"Thanks," Marvin said. He fidgeted with his steel fingers. "So you're just gonna go back?"
"I'm still Immortal Ignition's pilot," Ella said. "We can always get a new engineer."
Things will go back to the way they were, Marvin thought. I'll go back to Caroline and Ben and Renee. We'll keep on with our investigation. I'll see Ella once a month, maybe twice if we duel in the same arena.
Back then, that would've been a blessing. Now Marvin couldn't help feeling sad.
That is, unless you ask her to help. It was true—he had no idea what she could help with—but having an extra pair of hands couldn't hurt.
"Do you have anyone in mind?" Marvin asked. "An engineer, I mean."
Ella shook her head. "Whoever it is, they won't be half as good as Luyan." She sighed. "It's crazy to think it's just me and Aria now."
"If it gets rough over there, you're welcome to stay with us," Marvin said.
Damn, where did that come from? He'd probably used up all his charisma for the next five years.
Ella smiled. "I appreciate it."
They went back to staring at the city. The silence was good. There was nothing more that needed to be said.
At length, Ella checked the time and turned her wheelchair towards Marvin. "I should probably go. Parents are waiting."
Marvin smiled. It was good to know that Ella's parents would be by her side, even for an operation as safe as this.
Ella held her hand out. "See you around, Marvin."
Marvin wondered if there was any way to drag this moment on a bit longer. Appreciate that weightlessness in his chest, that proof of his humanity. But in the end, he couldn't think of anything.
He took Ella's hand, then suddenly felt a gentle tug on his arm as she pulled him into a hug. It was like a blanket had wrapped around his phantom heart. He was sure had it not been for his top notch cooling systems that his face would have burned up.
It seemed like yesterday when he was complaining to Caroline about not being able to like anyone as a robot. What a sellout he was.
He had to admit, this was nice, though.