Heaven's Door

Mercy

Raychel had no need for sleep, so she wandered every corner of the townhouse that night for something to do. Leilani slept in the master bedroom upstairs, that much Raychel knew. Mitch, however, apparently slept in a guest room downstairs. It didn't stop the robot from invading either room in boredom, the humans were so far gone in their subconscious that they weren't even aware that she was there.

Around midnight, Raychel had found Leilani's research notes. Not that the robot believed that they would be top secret or anything, but anyone could have stolen them and claim them as their own. Even if the human genius found out about it, she likely would have lost the case due to her being underage and without a robotic license. With this thought, Raychel let out a soft snicker as she read over Leilani's notes.

The feat was easier said than done, as Leilani wrote in near unintelligible shorthand. Mitch boasted that he could read it, not that Raychel cared. After studying the human for long enough, even Raychel could understand the text. It went a little something like this;

Reversal stage part nine complete, absolute xel absorption method about 69% decided

Able to replace near all right face – hella blue eyes are hard to replicate and clean – can't decide on ivory teeth or silver plated, I'll call Ms Iris at FF&D about sizes

Supra-Xels demand tons of their original counterparts, like little leeches pumping out 10,000+ W than usual – hope I don't end up throwing them, they seem rather unstable... Hell with it, one toss out the window, I have a good arm. What could happen? - I... I think I broke something. Oops... I'll check it out in the morning.

(There were a lot of doodles in this next part, apparently she had gotten stuck... or just felt like doodling. Most of them resembled clothes or small, feminine body details. Then came the introspective;)

She didn't even ask.

I never gave her the choice.

I knew she belonged to CherryDyn, but I couldn't just report her, to turn her in... She was broken. What if they intentionally threw her out? No... not what if, they did. They DID intentionally throw her out WITH full knowledge that she had a functioning cognitive circuit.

I didn't give her the choice.

If I hadn't removed her weapons first, I don't think I would have been alive right now. Not only do I think that she'd be able to get away with the murder, I think that she would be able to lie to herself about the blood on her hands. Having higher intelligence doesn't mean the ability to lie to others, but being able to lie to yourself and believing it as truth.

I wouldn't have given her the choice.

Because everyone deserves to live, even if they were forgotten, rejected, or broken. I've spent years on my life to help robots that seemed to have needed it, and she was no exception. Let this be something that goes in the books once I'm in jail because of this: I. Regret. Nothing.

Raychel raised an eyebrow at this as she carefully tucked the journal away. A nearby clock blared the numbers 3:45 AM in blood red letters- the humans were going to start the process of waking up soon. Knowing that Leilani would likely react negatively at her snooping, Raychel made her way downstairs and into the kitchen. That was where Raychel took notice of a large, rectangular tin on the counter. Admittedly, she knew it had been there before, but she didn't notice that it had something stuck to the top of it. With nothing else to do, Raychel got closer to the tin and looked at the top.

The tin, it seemed, had a yellow sticky note on it, and as Raychel peered closer she realized that it was her name scrawled on it. Scrawled, in Leilani's handwriting. Raising an eyebrow of interest, Raychel carefully removed the tin lid to reveal the container filled to the top with xels. No... they weren't normal xels... Supra-Xels, that's what they were, that's what Mitch decided to call them.

Taking one of the Supra-Xels, Raychel absorbed it and calmly found that it had a slight mint undertaste to it. Wait... that didn't seem right. It didn't seem possible. Sure, the girl was smart, but was she really so smart that she added flavor to the xels? Curious, and far more hungry than what she had thought, Raychel took each xel one by one, split them in half for comparisons (and demanding interrogations) later, and started to indulge in this odd new creation.

She eventually managed to go through nearly half the tin of Supra-Xels by the time Leilani made her way downstairs. Raychel didn't even register the human's presence until the little thing spoke up,

"So you like them, then?"

If the robot still had her weapons on her, Leilani would have been vaporized on the spot. But the initial desire to blast the girl into another dimension quickly deterred into the matter at hand.

"What are these?" Raychel questioned, holding the half portion of Supra-Xel in front of Leilani. The human blinked at it before carefully taking it away from the robot.

"A Supra-Xel, remember?" she calmly denoted, "Mitch dubbed 'em that. It took, like, a ton of normal xels to make and..."

"No not that." Raychel growled. "The flavor. How did you give each xel their own flavor? It's impossible! I don't even have taste receptors and yet I know it has flavor."

Leilani shrugged. "It wasn't that hard- just like adding artificial flavoring to licorice."

"It can't be that easy." Raychel distrustfully sneered.

"Not if you don't try." Leilani shrugged again. The robot's glare did not fade.

"How are my favorite girls doing this morning?!" Mitch cheerfully greeted from behind them, tickling Leilani at her ribs- scaring the human girl enough to scream. Appropriately, he was slapped away.

"Breakfast isn't ready yet." Leilani told him with a sour face. "It was your turn, remember?"

"Vaguely." the teenaged boy lulled with a roll of his shoulder. "Pancakes, eggs over easy, and hash browns, yeah?"

"Yes please." Leilani agreed. Mitch clicked his tongue at her and went right on it. Watching him with a shake of her head, Leilani then laid her head down on the counter.

"You can't still be tired." Raychel told the human girl tonelessly. "You slept for exactly eight hours, and demonstrated a stable transition into REM."

Leilani rolled her head over to look at the robot. "You watched me sleep?" she mused, unsure of whether to find it interesting or horrifying.

"Partially." the robot admitted without shame or thought. "I don't have a need to sleep, but I am under house arrest to keep you out of jail, as it were. As if I really want to watch you mumble mathematical formulas in your sleep."

Although Raychel had been serious, Leilani gave a small smile as she started to sit up again.

"Today we're going to try to reassemble your armor again." she decided to tell the robot. "With the Supra-Xels, you should have no problems losing power so often too. You'll feel like a new robot almost."

"Almost?" Raychel attested with a grimace. "All you've ever done since you've held me hostage is change everything about me- that's illegal."

Leilani let out a laughter and a grin. "Slight physical alternations and running defragmentation are not illegal." she boasted. "I know, I've checked. Besides, you wouldn't bite the hand that feeds you, would you?"

Raychel did not answer, instead recoiling a bit in thought and went silent. If she had the potential to lie to herself, did she also have the potential to bite the hand that feeds?

Leilani tilted her head at this behavior. She had noticed a change in the robot's behavior since they had started, but she hadn't said anything about it. It was... odd for her to say the least. Of course, she didn't even noticed the changes in her own behavior...

"You wanna know what I think?" Mitch then spoke up as he laid a plate of food in front of Leilani.

"What?" both females questioned at the same time.

"I think we need a break." he finished. "Let's go out on the town or something- maybe see if anyone good's fighting at the Colosseum. It's practically been a week since you've left the house Lei, it's time to get some fresh air."

"What did you have in mind?" Leilani asked as she started to eat her breakfast.

Her answer was greeted with a wide, playful smile.