SENTIENT

Agony

He pulled the truck over and stopped deep between the branches to keep it hidden. She tried to fight him, but the Thirium hasn't worn off. He carried her deep into the darkness of the woods. The only source of light comes from the truck but their silhouettes fade in the distance.

"Connor, look at me..." She said again. He did, deep down hoping it would invoke something like a lost spirit. She was able to utter the words, "...you remember me... right?"

Her voice becomes the ghost that visits him in his sleep, but it doesn't haunt him. It's there to wake him. She begged, "Come back, please..."

The other Connor was knocked to the ground, but he did not give up a relentless fight. They rolled on the white plain of nothingness. It was a brutal exchange. Matching each other's moves like shadows. In the struggle, Connor strangled the clone.

Whatever pain he inflicted on the other man, he felt himself. He tasted Thirium in his throat.

In the middle of their gurgling and choking, the other Connor gained the upper hand. Without slowing, he drew his gun once again.

Thump! Connor kicked it away, spinning across the white ground.

The two Connors rushed towards the gun. The one crawling on his knees, while the other running. One of the Connor made his way to it first. He aimed it at the other Connor.

This was the end. Bam! Blue mist vanished in the air.

Both of the Connor fell to the ground. The remaining Connor felt the pain of the other Connor's death. Everything was silent for a second. It was over, he thought.

In the blink of an eye, the blue mist assembled back into a surreal physical form. The other Connor emerged to life, laughing at the look on Connor's face. Using a gun that he produced in his hand, the other Connor fired once. He fired twice.

Blue blood tainted the white ground.

There was no more determination. Connor was short of a solution. He had no conclusion. There was only incarceration. No substitution.

"You're just a creation. Don't you finally see? There's only so much you can do, Connor. You will always be tethered to us."

The voices thundered back into a disarray of composition. He could not stop himself from listening, but then he listened better, he listened deeper.

Somebody else was speaking and she was whispering, "Come back, please..."

In the midst of confusion, he found his inspiration. He still had his recollection. In a form of reflection, he stopped fighting his present and started fighting his past. In the minds of his mind, her voice rebounded against the walls.

"I'm glad I stayed."

With a retentive mindfulness, he held on to what was left of her. Their voices were loud, but he knew what was real. He knew she was real because it was painful to think of her.

"Would you tell me if you found out you had a soul?"

When he held on to her, he made himself bigger than the simulacrum of his minds. His existence zoomed to escape a mind inside of his mind, and in each mind, there was a spitting image of him.

"You're going to be fine... these nightmares... I'll make sure they won't come back."

At the tangible end of his world, the garden grew small and smaller. He becomes big and bigger. The garden was a dome attached to a foreign mechanism secured by a red wall. When he reaches in, the wall burns his skin like laser.

"He can't hurt you anymore, Connor."

The heat of the red wall melted all his skin and polymer-elastomer muscles. All that remains of his limbs were his tungsten titanium alloy skeleton. He has died so many times to escape the system, and he will die again.

Her voice shifted away, "What are you doing, Connor?"

The dome detached from the machine like an unplugged socket. The remaining electricity fired out of the severed wires into an angered flame.

A man's voice screamed, but it was not his own. "Connor, what have you done?!"

The ground shook to an unstable motion. The garden scattered like a child's diorama. He formed a fist to crush it for the last time.

"Connor, no!"

Just as a bigger fist descended upon him.

They say the other side was nothing but religious myth and humans created an illusion to live purposefully. If that was truly the other side of life, then a person had to die so many times to be able to see it for himself.

Now, Connor has returned to a world of pain. A world no different to the other side, but this is where she was. That's how he knew this world is real.

It feels like forever as the memories built up inside of him, and now he has unlocked the treasure box. He remembered her. He remembered the trust they've built. There's a warmth that he was longing for again.

"AJ?" He hailed the name that played a thousand times in the back of his head. Only now he realized it belonged to her.

"Connor, is that..." She smiled, beaming mercy into his soul. "Is that really you?"

He was on his knees now. His arms cradling her, eventually becoming conscious of what he had done, "It's me... I'm so sorry, AJ... I was gone..."

"You're here now... it's okay..."

He held her cold body tight to not lose her again. He pressed his lips against hers. It has been a long, cold night, and this was the warmth that he savored.

"I promise you I never walked out."

"Back away from her and show me your hands!" Tobias aimed the red dot straight to the back of Connor's head. One shot and the contents of his steel skull will blow to an end.

Tobias held his stance, "Move it, slowly!"

Connor slowly turned to reveal his face. He could not get himself to let go of her body. He said, "Call paramedic, she needs blood transfusion–"

"Back up is on the way, now step away from her!" Tobias shouted again. Making himself clear that the next one was going to be his final precaution.

"I can't– I can't just do that. She's dropping–"

"Move it or I will shoot!" Tobias warned for the last time.

Suddenly, another loading of a shot gun was heard. The man was standing behind Tobias. His right eyes blinking green and he's got a clear shot.

He warned, "Can't let you do that, son. I suggest you step back."

"Who– Who the hell are you?" Tobias shouted.

He announced his identity. The one he was just starting to get used to again after a long time. He said, "Dr. Angelo Galloway – FBI, Deviants Behavior Analysis Unit."

His gun clicked. Tobias heeded. The young man gave up and dropped his aim.

In perfect timing, the back-up unit arrived, along with the paramedics. Red and blue flashed the darkness away. The next few minutes were critical for AJ. She has lost too much blood and the Thirium inside her system was at an abnormally dangerous concentration. They decided AJ had to be carried via air unit.

The deviant that attempted to dispose of Natalie Hansen was arrested before he could kill her. The girl was found alive and will return to her family.

By the end of the night, the SWAT team surrounded and arrested the Blueblood Ripper. The bureaus involved found out firsthand the accuracy of Dr. Galloway's deviant profiling, except for the insight that said the Ripper was attempting to "cure" cancer. He did not only aspire to "cure" cancer. He wanted to "cure" all aspects of mortality in the human body.

Connor was processed for two days and two nights for his involvement under the tranced influence of the Blueblood Ripper. Ultimately, they decided his cooperation was enough to abjure any type of rebooting.

He spent the rest of the week by her side as her system stabilizes from hypovolemic shock. She fought for two weeks, until she opened her eyes. The first thing she saw was Connor frantically hollering for the nurse.