DAY 61

XV ran. He ran for the first time in his life and was terrified out of his mind. He didn’t know if he could produce adrenaline, but something was rushing through his veins, boiling the oil in his blood and shrinking his vision into a narrow, never ending tunnel.

 He escaped through the skylight and looked down just in time for the cops to burst through the door. He meant to lean over and call out for Leo to try and make a jump towards his arms, but all he got was a front row seat to Leo’s execution. It was horrible. He saw the life drain from Leo’s eyes, and wanted to scream. Nothing could prepare him for that vacancy, for the void in a motionless face that once had moved. XV knew the human equivalent to it, it was death. Now he knew the loss Leo had felt with the passing of Hongbin, and with that thought he turned around and leapt from the rooftop onto another, wishing he had tears to cry.

He had never done more than hurriedly walk, and now he was hurdling himself across tin roofs and high fences, sprinting on tiles and concrete alike, focusing on the steady pace of his thud, thud, thud. Androids didn’t learn to walk like humans do, they got thrown into life and commanded to live. XV had no time for baby steps.

He didn’t even notice, but he eventually his autopilot and ran nonstop for what might have been hours upon hours. He was meanwhile drowning in an ocean of guilt, dragged down by his anchor heart and choking on regret. It could have been him, it should have been him. He should have pulled Leo along, should have been deactivated right along with him, but instead he was alive and his creator was not, continuing some sort of vicious cycle that Hongbin had started so long ago. He suddenly wished that Hongbin had never been born and that all of this would never have happened. That, of course, would have meant that neither he nor Leo would ever have been made, but he figured that perhaps it would be better than going through everything they had.

XV then found that he… hated Hongbin, and that it was the strongest emotion he had ever felt; stronger than his hatred for those officers, stronger than his terror as he ran for his life, and it was the worst feeling in the world.

He wasn’t even running from the officers anymore. XV ran so fast and so far that they couldn’t have possibly kept up; he was now running from that horrendous memory of Leo’s vacant eyes staring up at the skylight, and the way the officer let his body drop to the ground as if he were just a… machine. He is, he was, XV would remind himself, but he was so much more than that. Leo was kind, and caring, and lonely, but all the officers saw was the illegal software that created all those qualities, those unique qualities that made Leo into everything XV cherished about him.

XV managed to escape before the cops had a chance to look at his face, and kept his pace until the streets were completely empty. He wasn’t entirely conspicuous, because an android sprinting across the city skyline wasn’t a common sight, but he didn’t seem to attract too much unwanted attention. He arrived at small poorly lit neighborhood where the only sound the echoed in the darkness was his steps bouncing off yet another rooftop. Only then he decided to descend onto the street and slow down to a walk.

He returned his setting to Manual Operation and trudged heavily across the stranded slum, self aware again. He looked down to find that his shoes were torn almost completely apart, revealing the fabric of his light colored socks through the gaping holes. XV discarded the useless sneakers with a swift kick, concluding that his skin was thick enough to stand the crude asphalt under his toes.

His brain alerted him that he was now running low on energy, and needed to recharge soon. XV hadn’t even considered that while he was running away, and fought the urge to let out a bitter laugh. So that’s how it ends either way, he mused, and considered that perhaps he had it coming, that he could end it all in a matter of minutes. He could take off into another sprint again, and soon enough his power would run out and he’d collapse on the ground in a heap of metal scraps, possibly to never awaken again. The thought was almost to compelling to ignore. But then another image floated before his eyes, the one that had been haunting him ever since he’d began his self destructive journey, but it held a different meaning now. Leo had sacrificed his life so that XV could live, he stayed behind to offer him a chance, an opportunity… and he was now planning on wasting it away.

 No, he concluded. I owe this to him.

He knew that it was meaningless, that Leo wouldn’t be aware of either choice he makes, but the gratitude he felt towards his creator was greater than the pain of his loss. In a way, he was honoring Leo’s dying wish, and despite it being an entirely human concept, it was still so incredibly comforting. Because XV might have not wanted to live anymore, but someone else did, and that someone was more important to him than anything or anyone else in the world.

His lethargic mind suddenly became alert. I need a charging booth. Now.

 He remembered seeing during his several outings with Leo various conveniently placed, money-operated public rechargers, but that was downtown, and the chances of finding one now were borderline zero. He picked up his pace, the urgency to power up dragging him through allies and roundabouts in a frenzied search.

Twenty percent, the warning echoed inside XV’s system like an emergency light flickering in an imploding nuclear plant. It was a difficult situation, because on one hand he needed to hurry but on the other he needed to conserve his energy. Fifteen percent. He had already scouted the entire street- length and width wise. Should I broaden the search to include the rest of the block? He didn’t have time, but he also didn’t have a choice. Ten percent. He could feel himself slowing down involuntarily, as if his muscles were turning on his brain, quitting the hopeless rescue mission and leaving XV to fend on his own. He felt like he was submerged in honey, every motion becoming excruciatingly elongated in the sticky, dense mass that the air seemed to become. He had made it into a different block, but he didn’t know how long he could last if he kept up his pace. He decided to save up his physical energy and stop in the middle of the street, choosing a vantage point that could grant him a view of the surrounding roads without needing to walk over to them. He kept completely still, an action which granted him an inaudible sigh of relief from his shutting down body. The only thing that moved was his eyes, darting from street corner to corner and forcing him to turn his neck ever so slightly to overcome his blind spots.

There it is! XV thought he was going to collapse with alleviation. The booth stood half hidden in the shadows near a closed convenience store, illuminated dully by a distant street light- a sight for sore eyes. XV calculated his remaining stamina, and decided to use wider strides to reach the recharger. Slow and steady was better than quick and reckless.

He didn’t have any money on him, as he escaped the lab with nothing but his clothes on his back, and knew that he would probably have to break the glass case open in order enter the booth. He tried to remember back to the times Leo had to repair their rechargers at home, to recall which wire had to be tugged or reinserted in order to power up the machine again, and hoped his photographic memory would be of aid.

Eight percent. XV couldn’t experience physical pain, but if anything came close to it, it was the enormous fatigue sinking upon him as his energy levels plummeted. He clenched his teeth and used his elbow to smash the glass, immediately triggering a deafening siren that broke the silence like a wailing banshee. He figured the machine might have an alarm system, and knew that it was a matter of time before someone comes to investigate the scene. If he’s lucky: a civilian, if not so much: an officer.

He pulled open whatever was left of the glass casing and used one of the shards to pry open a panel on the apparatus. He took a brief look at the wiring and began crossing it with every related memory he could salvage. It was harder than he thought because the rechargers at the lab were built differently than this public one, but he had watched Leo enough to be able to decipher the meaning of each colored cable. He plucked the yellow one out of its hole and reinserted it shortly, causing the machine to come to life with the ever so familiar sound of its inner pump, though slightly drowned under the louder-than-life alarm system. He wasted no time and climbed inside, minding the jagged glass shards on the ground, and leaned back into the machine.

If he thought keeping conscious before was beyond unmanageable, then now it was outright impossible. The apparatus worked in a way that insured a complete lack of energy exertion during the session, creating a sedating effect that was bound to knock out the recharging android within half a minute, but XV couldn’t afford to be vulnerable now. And so he flickered in and out of consciousness, slipping between the clutches of the mechanical lullaby of the recharger to maintain a clear mind, gritting his teeth as his energy levels rose and fell in no particular rhythm. His mere consciousness interfered with the restoration of his battery and he found his eyes rolling in their sockets as he tried to keep a firm grasp on his awareness. The wailing siren pounded against his eardrums as a reminder of reality and proved to be an ally as much as an enemy, because without it XV would have definitely slipped away into blissful darkness.

His energy levels rose to a measly fifteen percent when he heard a set of hesitant footsteps coming from his left. His eyes flew open in an instant and he sprung out from the apparatus into a crouched position on the ground, preparing himself for the confrontation.

He still needed to conserve his battery, and chose to focus his remaining power on his eyesight and hearing, draining it temporarily from his muscles and joints. He immediately felt his irises grow in the darkness, adjusting to the dim environment as he listened intently to the steps that had meanwhile managed to cease.

What is he doing? XV questioned. The only sound resonating in the vacant neighborhood was the pesky alarm going off uninterrupted, and the distant, almost unnoticeable sound of the human’s breathing.

XV’s night vision outlined the silhouette of a male standing slightly hunched in the shadows, mimicking XV’s defensive pose as he began to inch closer. He was still too obscured for XV to map out his facial features and he couldn’t decide whether he posed a threat. He took a step back just in case.

“I’m not going to hurt you,” The man then said. XV halted. He could have recognized that voice anywhere.

 “Leo?” XV squinted in the darkness.

The man seemed to stiffen. “Who are you?” He asked after a short silence. His voice wasn’t as hostile as it was curious, and XV didn’t know what to make of it. Had he made a mistake? He could have sworn it was Leo reaching out to him from what might as well had been another realm, but it couldn’t be.

Run, XV’s instincts instructed. He was just about to turn around and bolt towards the opposite direction, ignoring the other part of his brain that warned him of his perpetually plummeting energy levels, when the stranger called out, “Wait! Please!” and stepped out into the light.

Whatever had told XV to run was now screaming it at him, but XV couldn’t move. What was he supposed to do when his dead creator was standing before him, alive and well and… human?

The living oxymoron seemed to share XV’s stupor because he stood still and gaped at XV with saucer-wide streetlight-bright eyes. If he could dream, XV mused, this was probably what it would have felt like. What is happening?

“Oh my god,” He saw Leo’s clone mouth, or perhaps he had whispered it, XV’s acute hearing and sight began to fade as he slowly resumed to run out of power. The siren meanwhile maintained its screeching indefinitely, mocking and snide as the staring contest continued, but not for long.

Five percent. XV could feel himself keeling over like a wilting flower, losing his balance as his systems shut down one by one. His legs were the first to go.

It was down to an internal fight. XV’s mechanical body was heaving, sobbing for relief, literally exhausted from this traumatic day, but his overheating mind wasn’t done. I can’t go yet! XV protested dully as he knelt on his knees in involuntary surrender. He was going down fast, he knew it; his head was heavier than life itself and it felt like it was about to free fall straight from his neck onto the pavement below him. But suddenly he felt something, someone, touching him, supporting his weight and grunting as he hauled him back to his feet.

XV tried to look at his savior but his vision seemed to be glazed by a disorienting shimmering veil, and all he could make out was a familiar silhouette dragging him about the stranded street, away from the commotion.

“I—“ XV didn’t even know what he wanted to say. Thank you? Put me down? What was the appropriate response to a rescue that bordered on abduction?

“Don’t worry,” XV managed to make out from the gurgled static buzzing in his ears. “I’m here to help, I promise.”

And even if he didn’t want to trust him, XV had no choice. From what it seemed, Not Leo wasn’t a cop (nor was he Leo), but XV could barely hear that alarm system from the recharger, which either meant that they were supposedly out of harm’s way, or that he was about to lose his hearing completely.

The world grew darker and darker, and for a moment XV thought that they had entered a tunnel, but soon realized that his own eyes were shutting down slowly and that he might as well close them. His limbs went limp and the only vague feeling XV still had was the human’s warm hand around his waist, and his own arm slung laxly around his shoulders. Here goes nothing, XV thought, and drifted off into nothingness, hoping that this wouldn’t be the last thing he ever does.

Beep.

XV opened his eyes.

I’m awake? I’m awake!

He could feel the comforting shell of the recharger enveloping his body, the low hum of the electricity still powering it up filling up his functioning ears, and he wanted to laugh. So he did.

Only then he looked down from the apparatus and for a moment thought that everything that happened was some sort of strange robotic hallucination, because Leo was looking up at him with his soft smile and it was just another normal day at the lab… but then he remembered, and his own smile faded instantly.

He let himself focus on Not Leo’s face. Upon closer look he could tell that it was outlined by tiny, almost microscopic creases, mostly around his eyes and on his lips. Leo’s face (XV’s Leo) was completely smooth, unless he was smiling or frowning, and only then his skin would stretch and wrinkle accordingly. This Leo seemed to have permanent little imperfections that only humans had. And the hair color was off. Way off. His Leo had black hair; this one had mahogany, almost auburn, colored strands growing from a small dark patch at the top of his head. Who was this man?

“Hello,” Not Leo then greeted, and XV finally allowed himself to relax because there it was- a similarity. This Leo was just as soft spoken as XV’s Leo had been, though Not Leo’s voice sounded much more tender in XV’s ears, as most human voices do. He was always fond of the sound that non artificial vocal cords create, fascinated by the way vibrations in the pharynx could create something so smooth, so velvety sounding. Even the more croaky human voices seemed pleasant to him because they lacked the mechanical resonance that echoed off his own speech. But luckily both Leos had a low breathy voice, and XV couldn’t help but feel slightly at home.

“I’m Taekwoon, what’s your name?”

Taekwoon?

“I’m XV,” He managed to utter. Taekwoon’s face fell slightly, as if he was expecting a different answer as well. XV took advantage of the brief silence to look around the vicinity.

 He appeared to be in a room at least four times bigger than the lab, filled with rechargers from wall to wall, some inhabited by slumbering androids, some empty. Beneath them, small groups of humans scurried around holding clipboards and pens. Some stopped by an occupied recharger and scribbled something down on the paper, some were even accompanied by other androids that followed them around and conversed with them in a hushed tone. It was quiet except for the constant hum in the air and the broken rhythm of different pumps working heterogeneously, the sound of energy being restored.

“Where am I?” XV asked. None of the humans around wore anything resembling the special-corps-grey uniforms, which was already a relief, but their clothes held no other indication of what this place might be. Some were wearing stained overalls and others light colored lab coats, XV could also have sworn that he saw a pastor- black robe, white collar and all, passing hurriedly through the hall.

Taekwoon’s kind smile didn’t leave his lips, even when XV’s did. It was a shy little smile, a mere crook of his lips that reached his eyes more than his mouth. It was so very Leo that it hurt.

“Welcome to Heiligtum,” Taekwoon replied.

“As in… sanctuary?” XV translated from German, earning a nod from the latter. “Am I in trouble?”

“Not as long as you’re here,” He chuckled. “Would you like to take a look around?”

XV stared down at Taekwoon’s outstretched hand, inviting him to use it and aid himself out of the recharger. His eyes flickered to Taekwoon’s face again, and saw nothing but sincerity in his familiar features. He might have been biased, obviously, but if Hongbin had gone through the trouble of creating a bionic replica of Taekwoon, he must be someone worth replicating. After all, the first time he trusted Taekwoon he found himself waking up in recharger, so what was another “here goes nothing” for him?

He leaned down to take his hand.

A/N: Hi everyone! I just wanted to thank you all for taking the time to read the story, subscribe and comment on it. To be honest I was very hesitant about posting this fic at first, but the positive response from you all (especially from someone very specific... you know who you are!) definitely encouraged me to continue and finish, and I'm actually proud of the outcome! I'm also considering writing a oneshot sequel sometime soon, so let me know if it's something y'all would be interested in reading! (:

And again, thank you all so very much!