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Vernon is regretting directing his boss to buy this hunk of junk ostensibly known as a vehicle. Not very much, but a little. Mostly because she then made him drive it, and this is a finicky and temperamental beast that keeps listing to the left, but in amounts that change a bit on every single bump. They are driving through what is colloquially called 'the wasteland,' which is a desert about half as hospitable and twice as rocky as it sounds. He is having to adjust often. It's annoying. Not very, and honestly, having a functioning vehicle that is not potentially going to explode is a bit of a novelty for him, but enough that he will think fondly of that other vehicle boss-lady had been eyeing before he steered her this way. That sure would have been nice to drive. It would have been painting a gigantic target on their backs, but still. He can dream.
And the bomber is no more.
"--You can have your gun back I need to go," she says, and she practically throws it at him, and then she's up the stairs and off to desperately work to save a life instead of taking one.
Zash shows up, running down the steps like he's running for his life. "You need to evacuate, right now, if there's still anyone in town—"
There's a sudden tremour.
And then another.
And then from the sands, outside the walls of the city, starts emerging an enormous robot.
Why is there a robot what the fuck is Nai doing.
"—where's Yvette."
She is exactly where she fucking should be, which is at this damn console telling this stupid idiotic tech to stop killing her patient.
Turning it off is easy, asking it to please fix what it just broke is significantly harder. She can barely look at the poor red plant as it -- it's definitely writhing -- writhes in its tank, clearly in pain.
"God, I'm sorry," she's saying to it, a touch hysterically, "it was so stupid for me to not abort all actions the minute there was anything at all going on, I wasn't thinking, I, I'm, I killed him it's over it'll be okay."
There's a man, who climbs up the stairs to the platform where she is. The skin of his hands, feet, and face is human, but the rest of his body is paper-white with patterns glowing in the same soft blue as a plant does, and he's not wearing any clothes. Despite his male frame, he does not seem to have any genitals.
His hair is a nearly-white blond, but his face is otherwise identical to Zash's.
"Get out of my way, human."
"Not yet I'm not done saving it." Click click click there okay despair spiral interrupted have your nutrient please please please be okay please.
...hm.
A series of blades appears out of thin air around him, one next to the other almost looking like a set of sharp chains if it werent for the fact that they're floating and not actually connected to each other. "I said get out of my way, human," he repeats, more forcefully.
Oh good it worked it worked it worked what yes get out of the way, sure, okay, her adrenaline is starting to leave her anyway she'll just be over here and be a heap in the corner.
"Don't you dare take it somewhere it'll be all by itself," she says to the terrifying knife man, anyway.
There's a tremour, but the Zash-doppelganger doesn't react to it at all. Instead he shoots four of the "chains" of blades towards the tank with the plant so they envelop it and pull it free from its socket.
He spares her a look. "What do you take me for?" is what he says, and then he, himself, starts floating, rather than walk down the steps. The tank with the red-state plant follows him along as he starts making his way out.
(Back downstairs, the giant robot has easily plucked the not-red plant free from the clutches of the machine the bomber had trapped it in.)
(And Zash has rushed back into the city because no no no no no no no no—)
There's absolutely nothing she can do about that. She doesn't even have a gun anymore. So. She'll just sit here on a heap in the floor, and. Probably cry, actually, about how they were so close and now so many people are dead or going to be and at the injustice and unfairness of the world. That sounds pretty good.
Several people try to stop this new thief (thieves??? it's not clear in the chaos). They have guns, and they know how to use them.
The robot, standing up, is nearly as tall as the rock the city is named for. From where it is, its hand can easily reach the highest reachable area of the city.
Which is where the Zash-doppelganger is aiming to go to, to get his ride away.
And that's where he's stopped by the Jeneorans. "Get out of my way, humans," he says, for what feels like the tenth time today. What is it with humans and getting in his way.
Zash reaches him from the other side. "Nai! Don't hurt them, please!"
You know what, the giant robot looks like a job for the grenade launcher, actually.
The man shoots a chain of blades, lightning fast, intercepting the launched grenade and redirecting it... causing it to hit the big rock instead.
Also, the woman who just used that grenade launcher now has many knives going through her chest one after another.
The man's blades block Zash's shots easily. "You're weak, Zash. They've made you weak."
Predictably, a human dies when they have many knives going through their chest.
The other humans take steps to attempt to avenge her.