Alistair sat on the edge of the base's only table, running his scan for the fourth time since returning.
The miscalibrated Equalizer returned its slightly off readings, and he corrected for each one the way he had been doing since the crater.
Reach, adjust, and proceed. It was becoming a habit already.
His arms ached from the morning's fights. His ribs were worse, carrying the memory of every hit his armor hadn't fully absorbed.
The exhaustion was heavy behind his eyes, and he was doing his best to work around it.
He didn't mention any of it.
Due was across the base, seated in a chair. Alistair had moved closer to the wall without saying why. His hands worked their settling gestures at a pace that was noticeably slower than before.
The fifteen percent was gone now, and it showed in everything. Things his body used to handle automatically were being handled consciously, one thread at a time.
Three times in the first hour, he reached for a thread that wasn't there.
