Big Apple, 3PM

[Jim Raynor]

A meagre spark gritted against Raichu's cheek. Smoke sizzled from the orange pouch. Ditto couldn't muster enough strength to counterattack. He'd expended too much already, taken too much damage when he drove into the truck as Charizard. He'd die, maybe waking up in the Nexus if that Omni had spoken any sense. His intuition told him that he wouldn't, though.

Cyborg stared at the orange mouse with stern professionalism. His eyes hard and strained, lips flat. If he was finding any joy in eliminating Ditto, he was excellent at suppressing it.

"Wait!"

The blue energy welling within Cyborg's arm cannon still pulsed with heat and light, the whirring high and unending, but it no longer grew. Cyborg shot a glance to the source of the sound, as did Ditto.

The rogue soldier rose himself onto an elbow, his skin dirtied and wet. His other hand was outstretched towards Cyborg, fingers splayed. He breathed heavily, his chest rising and falling as he collected enough oxygen for another sentence.

"Don't ... don't kill him."

"What?" Cyborg barked. "He tried to kill you! I'm not going to let him live!"

The rogue soldier's smiling eyes fell on Ditto. "You ... you don't know what we're ... doing, do you?"

Ditto's black eyes shrunk beneath his brow. "I don't really care."

The soldier laughed weakly. "You can't fool me. I can see ... you're the type of guy who likes to ... know everything."

Ditto thrashed his tail against the concrete with a spur of energy that rode on his frustration. "So what? You want to spill your guts before you kill me? Want to stroke your precious pride?"

"How much have you figured out?" the soldier said, ignoring Ditto's outburst.

Ditto snarled. "What does it matter?"

"Tell me."

His beady eyes looked away. "You were a soldier in the employ of the Empire. You were involved with their R&D division or some such, working on experimental technology. You ran off with a valuable item; a device capable of inserting anyone into the Dataverse from any location without the requirements of an uplink station." Ditto returned his gaze. "It's the reason I've been hunting you."

Cyborg turned his head between Ditto and the soldier, lips parting enough to see his clenched teeth.

"To turn me in?" the soldier asked. "Or do you want the tech I stole?"

Ditto's eye flinched. He didn't like talking so openly about his plans. Unfortunately, he wasn't in the driver's seat in this situation. Plus, if he stalled long enough, maybe he could congeal a plan together from the corners of his weary mind. "I have no intention of assisting the Empire, if you must know. I assumed Ray there was another bounty hunter, but it turns out he was your personal bodyguard all along."

Cyborg humphed.

"So you don't know why he's been helping me?" the soldier asked.

"No."

"Have you ever heard of the Copper Eye?"

Ditto ran a fuzzy paw over his eyes. The fatigue was getting to him. "Should I have?"

"Perhaps not," the rogue soldier said. "They were a 'terrorist' group, or so the Empire would have you believe. In truth, they were simply civilians tired of being ignored and mistreated by the very government that should've been there for them. When they rebelled against their oppression, they were systematically hunted by a volunteer force and executed."

"Let me guess. You're part of the Copper Eye."

The rogue soldier shook his head. "No. But they weren't all wiped out. I always felt like the Empire's response was too heavy handed. The remnants of the Copper Eye reached out to me. With my connections and the tech I had, I knew I could help them. So after I stole the device, I started ferrying them into the Dataverse physically. Because of this device, we never had to fear being caught; we could enter anywhere, anytime."

"A good samaritan," Ditto remarked. "Warms the heart."

"Then Spook Eye, as you know him, offered to apply another layer of security; digitally encoding our bodies once physically inside. We could become anyone, look like anything. We were shapeshifters in that world. Like you." The soldier paused to take a deep breath and reposition himself on his elbow. "We were hidden both from sight and from any sort of scans or hacking the Empire could throw at us."

"It's becoming clear," Ditto said. "You were sympathetic to the rebel's plight and risked everything to help them. But you-" Ditto pointed a pudgy paw at Cyborg, "-why did your boss assist wanton criminals?"

"Still not obvious, huh?" Cyborg said, humming arm cannon still trained on Ditto. "Spook Eye doesn't want the Empire getting involved in his business. They're already getting too nosy. If there's a well resourced, virtually indestructible militia waging war with Palpatine, they'll have to expend more effort on hunting them. They'll take the focus off Spook Eye."

"Interesting," Ditto said. "But I can see through your ruse. You're trying to make me step down, aren't you? You're trying to make me see that letting this bounty go would actually be beneficial to me, since I could also take advantage of the distracted Empire for my own gains." Ditto frowned, though some of the edge was taken off by Raichu's cuddly face. "I didn't just go through all of that time, trouble and pain to simply turn about face and meander back from whence I came. Now that the quest is almost over, I refuse to stand down."

Cyborg shifted his arm cannon. "You're not in the position to be making that decision."

The soldier chuckled, his chest vibrating. "I didn't delay your death so I could explain the situation to you. I'm offering it up to you."

Ditto blinked. "The device?"

"Yes. On the condition that once I do, you leave Cyborg and I, and that you never again meddle in the affairs of the Copper Eye."

Cyborg looked stunned. "Surely you can't be serious! He's a threat and we have him where we want him!"

Ditto narrowed his eyes. A truce, or an elaborate plot to finish me off another way? There was no significant reason he could summon that would explain why the rogue soldier would let him go only to kill him later. If they were worried about Team Rocket, which they likely knew nothing about, it would simply disband in Ditto's absence, or reform under Diesel's leadership once more. As much as he hated to admit it, his gang didn't provide Spook Eye with much of a threat.

"Then how will you save your compatriots without the device?" Ditto said. "It's the entire reason you're a fugitive."

"What kind of thorn in the Empire's side would we be if we relied on a single device?" the rogue soldier said, hauling himself into a bent sitting position. "I've been gone for some time. We have duplicates."

Ditto looked into the molten blue energy thrumming inside Cyborg's arm cannon. "There must be strings attached."

"There is. Leave the Copper Eye alone, forever. That's it. If you break your promise, I will be forced to hunt you myself."

It was too good to be true. But what choice did he have?

"Put your weapon down, Ray," the soldier said, motioning with his hand. "Come here, Ditto."

Ditto plodded over to the downed soldier, caution reinvigorating his drained and aching body. He attempted to grind sparks from his cheeks, but it was useless. He was a puppet to them.

"Here." The soldier held out a hand held device, sleek and black. Its front face was covered in glass, and a lens glinted at the top centre of the device. "You just push this button here," he said, running his thumb over a concave indentation at the base of the device, "and stare into the camera. It takes a while, but it will absorb you into the Dataverse physically. Anything else in the view of the camera within a small radius will also come with you. As will the device."

Ditto took his prize gingerly in his paws. It was so light.

He shuffled backwards. Cyborg had lowered his arm cannon, the blue glow slowly fizzling out, but his furious glare stayed on him. "You better keep your word."

Ditto hugged the device to his chest and turned around. He stayed silent for a time while he tried to gather the words. "Best of luck against the Empire. You'll need it."

He ran off down the street, not even glancing over his shoulder once.