Whispers of Spring

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Harmony took a deep breath of unfiltered air, her armor removed for the first time in decades. Everything around her felt murky, deadened. Yet it felt... right. Real. She had grown so used to the second skin—to the boosted senses it provided, the subliminal processing it handled—that she had almost forgotten what it meant to just be her. Harmony took a second breath. Everything was coming back to her.
"Harmony... what are you doing? It's time to go, and it's not safe. Put your armor back on. Let's get out of here."
"You have to get out of here!" Explosions rocked the facility, the ground trembling under the assault.
"I need more time. We don't have enou..."
"There is more time. Forget it, Harmony. You'll have to leave them... I'm sorry."
"I'm not coming with you this time, Duty. You won't make me leave this place again."
"The Measure..."
"Is done. I have done my part, and you yours. There's nothing left for you here. But for me?" Harmony sighed, but as the pure air passed her lips, she couldn't help but smile. The action didn't feel so childish anymore... Or maybe it did. She didn't care. "Go home. Find peace. You deserve that much, but my place is here."
"Harmony-of-Reborn-Spring..." The builder almost chuckled at the name. The irony it held with what she was pushing to complete, "The towers are in place, but we need your solution."
"It... it is done." Harmony stepped back, looking at the vial in her hand. Such a small thing. "If you would afford me a few cycles, I could index them as they are. Just in case someone changes their mind."
"You have already done enough." The builder gestured to the vial in her hand. "You grant them mercy our last enemy was not afforded. It will be quick. Painless." He paused, staring at Harmony, before shaking his head. "No. You can index them after the solution has taken hold."
A door swished shut. Engines ignited. The ground shook as the keyship took to the stars, and breathing in one more deep breath, Harmony was alone.
She took a step. Unaided by armor, bare to the world around her, it almost sent her sprawling. Almost. For a moment, she thought to don her armor one more. "No." The word came out audibly. Harmony took the bundle, knelt down, and began to dig.
The keyship slipped into the atmosphere, surface defense towers flaring to life on the sensors, tracking... but not shooting. Punching through clouds, Harmony-of-Reborn-Spring guided the vessel across vast oceans and aimed for specks of land, piercing from the depths below. Artificial constructs their ancestors had built many millennia ago, they now were mothers to newer artificial constructs. Yes, the defense—the containment—towers, but also what they were meant to contain against. Cities.
Harmony landed her ship, stepping out onto the pavements beyond. Built to last, they still showed signs of lacking caretakers. Dull grey where gleaming metal and glass once shone. Vines and grass reclaiming the cracks in roads beneath her feet. And the quiet, heavy over a dead city, left to stand sturdy, solid against decay, but still little more than a skeleton. Empty.
She wouldn't find what she sought here. She needed living things. One specific set of living things. The Conservation of this world still sat incomplete. One more species. One more responsibility. Her responsibility.
Harmony turned, walking away from the metal bones into the forest.
The process was long. Arduous. Grueling without armor. But it had to be that way. The hole grew deeper and deeper, still seeming an abstract thing to her adapting senses. The effort stung her fingertips. Soil clung beneath her nails as she scooped, dropped, and scooped again. Finally, it was deep enough.
Harmony laid the bundled armor within the hole she had dug, resting her gaze upon it. She smiled again, forcing herself to feel the gesture on her face. Forcing herself to be a child again. To be anything but Forerunner. She pushed the dirt back into the hole, piling it slowly, deliberately onto the armor below. Only when the task was done did she stand. She was thirsty.
Turning deeper into the forest, where she had noticed a lake earlier, she walked. Harmony looked around as she went, taking in the sights. The sounds. The smells. Her observations were coming back to her. She noticed things she had missed before, since taking off her armor. And there, in front of her, she saw the animal, stooped low on all fours, taking a drink.
"Come on." She held a hand out, her helmet collapsed to reveal her face. Show she meant no harm. "I know you can understand me. You're not that far gone yet."
The animal started walking closer, and Harmony backed away slowly, leading it along toward her keyship.
"That's it." She reached out across the intervening air, waves from her armor soothing the animal. Others would be collected more... mechanically. But Harmony needed to see at least one, face-to-face. See what she had wrought. "Just a bit more. I'm taking you somewhere safe. Where you never have to worry again."
It was a lie. There was nowhere safe left. Only safer. How long would the secrets hold? Would the Measure work? Why did lies come so easy to her? "Just a few more steps."
Harmony approached the animal, one hand extending. She felt the fur beneath her fingers as they passed along the drinking beast's neck. It didn't startle. It just looked at her, eyes locked on eyes. Intelligent eyes. Harmony felt tears.
She felt the ramp beneath her feet as she reached the keyship, guiding the animal back to the Cylix within. Eyes met eyes, and she stood aside. The two watched each other as he took one step more after the other. The device hummed, sparking to life.
Her voice was a whisper. "I'm sorry."
Her voice was a whisper.
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