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“This is to show you… all that I am.”
The image of Firefly faded away from before Stelle, and she looked up at the towering figure behind it. “You…?”
“I’m sorry,” said Sam. “I really am.”
“Then, Firefly… You’re inside there?”
Stelle wouldn’t have thought it possible for the two-meter-tall war machine to look bashful, but as they lowered their head, Stelle understood. “No,” they said. “She doesn’t exist outside this space. She was… my dream.”
A raging vortex of anger threatened to pull Stelle into silence, to make her run away and never look back. These were the Stellaron Hunters. She’d been warned over and over not to trust them. Again and again, they manipulated and toyed with her emotions and trust. They couldn’t be believed. Not any of them.
And yet… she had held Firefly’s hand as they ran through the streets. She had felt its warmth and her own join together, felt something growing inside her that she’d never felt before at that touch, felt the memory of a long-lost longing. Maybe it was all just a dream, but it was a beautiful one. Not because of the fiction, not because Harmony had blessed it with perfection, but because of the truth it had made her realize.
“Your voice,” Stelle said softly, “can you…?”
“Sound like her?” Sam asked, and they did. She did.
Stelle took one step forward. “That’s how you’ve lived so long. You were never organic?”
“No,” said Firefly. “Never. Although, I did spend most of that time shut down. Even I couldn’t survive that long active.”
So impossibly long, Stelle thought. The figure before her was no young woman. But then, neither was she. Whatever she was, however she came to be, she would never be a normal human either. Maybe that’s why I don’t care.
She took another step forward. “It wasn’t all a lie, was it? You weren’t just using that form to seduce me into following your Script.” She said it as a statement but was still relieved when Firefly shook her head.
“I wish…” she trailed off, but Stelle understood.
“She’s who you want to be?” Firefly didn’t answer, so Stelle pressed on and took one more step to stand directly before the girl who had used her, who had lied to her, and whose death she’d thought had shattered her heart. “Firefly?” Stelle said. “Can I still call you that?”
“I’m not…”
“You are,” Stelle insisted, and she reached out a hand. “And I’m so happy you’re still alive. Firefly, I—” Her surety suddenly left her, and she had to choke back a knot in her throat.
Firefly reached down and took her hand, and in that moment, there was no difference. It was just as warm and vibrant and loving as she’d ever felt. “I’m so sorry,” Firefly said.
“It’s too soon,” Stelle mumbled to herself, “but…” She looked up into Firefly’s expressionless face. “When I thought I lost you, and I could never tell you… I know it’s too soon, way too soon to say this, but…” Stelle wiped at her face nervously. “I love you. I don’t know if you or I will make it out of this mess alive, but here, today, I love you, Firefly.”
“You can’t,” Firefly said, and though she shed no tears, the pain in her voice was clear. “I’m… I can’t ever give you what you deserve.”
“You can,” Stelle replied. “Right now, all I want in the world…” She reached out her other hand and let the pleading look in her eyes speak for her.
Firefly wrapped a hand around Stelle’s back, and with shocking gentleness, lifted her into her arms. As she left the ground, Stelle fell into Firefly’s embrace. So warm…
And though she could never have it returned, Stelle placed a small kiss onto Firefly’s face. “I love you,” she said again. “My beautiful lady.”