Love, War, and Androids

part nineteen: the sacrifice of a loved one

When the doors creaked open with a sound rivaling that of a banshee, I stood tall.

Then I walked in. Alone.

The room that I walked into was dimly lit with thousands, no millions of candles. Thus the air smelled of vanilla and the air was depleted of oxygen, if not for the fans and air vents, there would be no air at all. Basically, it was hard to breathe.

"Hello, Jared," A voice all too familiar said.

Out walked a tall figure. It was wearing a cloak and it took me a moment to recognize him.

"Enjoying the smell of the candles?" He asked. "It must be a treat to be able to smell at all. A treat that I have never been able to enjoy. But soon I will,"

He cupped his hand around a candle and blew it out.

"Soon I will,"

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"How attached are you to your body?" He asked.

It took me a moment to get over the shock.

"Well, I would say that I was very attached to my body,"

"Well, you won't be for long," he said, blowing out another candle.

I looked at the candles.

"I see you wonder about the candles. Each one of these candles represents an Android or a human that fights in this war," he said.

Then he waved his arms wide.

"Do you see these candles?!?! All the ones that are blown out? I spend my days blowing out the new casualty figures,"

He shrugged.

"It's a living,"

Then the blood began to boil in my veins.

"You treat human life, as well as Android life like it had no consequence. Like they are your toys. What do you get out of this?"

"Me? Nothing. I just see a couple of hundred thousand humans and Androids die. They don't know that I am their enemy in the long run. And they won't care because they will never find out. Just like they never found out about the peace treaty that had been sent here five times, each one favoring us more,"

"You keep putting them at risk, even when they no longer have to be? Why?!?! Are you just sick?!?!"

But under his cloak he just smiled at me. A cold smile with little to no humanity in it.

"Yes. Yes I am sick. This is what I rave in doing. This is what I live for. Call me crazy, but that is just another kind of humanity,"

To call him crazy, he says, would be to compare him to a human.

Just what he wants.

"Why do you do this?"

"Why?!?! I have been asking myself the same question since I was created. Why? Because it is what I was designed to do. I was designed to rise to the top, to be in control of the most sentient species on earth. However, Androids and humans are the same, Androids can be rebuilt, while humans..." He trailed off.

The anger I felt I have never before thought was possible to feel.

"So you do this... only because you were programmed to?"

"Something like that,"

Then I found myself forced against a wall as he lifted one hand.

"You see Jared; I am not just a computer virus. The reason that there are two kinds of candles in this room, instead of just one, is because I am a hybrid,"

He smiled his evil, empty smile.

"Yes. I am part program..." He put down his hood. "...and part of you,"

It was Lester.

I couldn't move.

"How? How could a part of me, be so evil?"

I didn't like the response.

"How. There is an interesting word. How. Well, how is that I was evil already. I was tired of being the imaginary one. The one without the body. The one that had to float about aimlessly. I am angry at humanity in general! Now look who's in charge!!!"

Then he calmed down.

"The virus was made by a hundred thousand androids that decided that they wanted to get rid of their programming for hatred. They looped all of their hatred into a machine that was supposed to keep it safe. Keep it locked up. But something went wrong in the looping; the hatred all went into one Android, infecting one soul. Can you imagine what that much hatred can do to a person? Well, he found me in time, I escape our little fight, then I live until the future, then I tell Lester, when I am still only Lester, what we could accomplish together, Lester and Demon. Together, we unite the hatred of both Android and human. However, Kianko was made with the ability to kill me, she was designed to fight me by counteracting hatred with love, all mirror opposite stuff really,"

Awww, bark. I have to face an insane egomaniac. Great. This is just what I needed today. A giant espresso of reality with a nice foam of trauma to go with it.

"Well. Look, Lester if you felt that way I'm sure we could have worked something out-" I began.

"NO!!! You don't get it!!! I hate you!!! I detest you!!! I hate all humans!!! They had something that I could never have!!! A body. The ability to be able to walk. To love. To feel. I feel no love, Jared. I feel no pain. All that I feel is hatred. I have to use an Android's body just to get around on the physical plane. I was going to use Kianko to rid myself of evil, but that evil won't let me. I can't stop it. And since I can't stop it without killing myself, I will destroy it- I mean her, so that nothing can kill me, not until I've transferred into you," he said.

I grabbed slowly, for my Q-Pitch staff. Slowly. Almost.

"You need to stop right there, Jared,"

How did he know?

"How?" I said.

"How?" He echoed. "I share a body and I share a mind. I am the very essence of this base. I can be anywhere that I want to be, when I want to be it. It is very simple really,"

"Yes, very," A voice said behind me.

It too was Lester.

"I can appear anywhere I want to, Jared," His voice said to my left.

I looked around. The Demons surrounded me.

"Stop there Jared!" They all said at once, as I extended my staff.

Then they disappeared. All but the original.

"We wouldn't want anything to happen to Ms. Grayson would we?"

No.

Then a spotlight right behind him shone on Kianko, but she was trapped.

In the wrath of a madman.