Sigma/Star

Chapter 85: Air

Sigma's arm crackled, little bolts of electricity jumping between his fingertips. He shifted his shoulder a bit, rotating it to see how it moved. Doctor Roth was crouched in front of the cyborg, examining his body. "That's quite a beating you took Sigma."

"Couldn't tell." Sigma stared past the doctor, gazing out over the ocean. Allyson was in the forest behind him, scavenging for wood and food for Roth. Neither android needed anything external to survive and merely tended to Roth's necessities. "It's tough to gauge how much damage you sustained when you can hardly feel anything."

Roth continued to work on Sigma in silence, recognizing the cyborg was not in any mood for a friendly chat or for a lecture on the state of his body. Much of it repaired itself over time, using what little biological blood was still flowing through the body, regenerating with the assistance of the machinery. It was a miracle what those scientists had built, yet also an abomination. It was unnatural to fuse a human with a machine, as proven prior with the Jahari. Why they had thought they could do it differently Roth did not know.

The doctor remembered when he had first been put in charge of the project, or for at least overseeing Allyson. That had been an exciting day for him, with a chance to bring his daughter back to life, to give her a second chance and save her from her death sentence. But each passing day his conscious had weighed upon him and his guilt had grown. What if she didn't want to be brought back? She had always hated the government and the military and now he was to build her into a tool for them to use at their disposal. How could they not have seen the rebellions coming?

"I love her too you know." Roth snapped a metallic component back into place as he spoke. "Not like you do, of course, but how a father loves a daughter."

"Then why did you make her like this?" Allyson stepped back into the clearing, staring at the two with curiosity. She could not understand what they were talking about, only comprehending forms of orders and commands and she otherwise watched the pair converse as though she were desperately trying to decipher a coded language.

Roth sighed. "I love her Leif, that's why." Roth shook his head and stood back up, admiring his daughter as best he could without choking up. He could never stare at her too long. "I saw a chance to keep her alive, at least partially. If I hadn't intervened, she would be a body in a prison cemetery right now."

"What if that's what she wanted." Sigma didn't phrase it as a question. It was a blank and blunt statement, driven into Roth's heart with malicious intent. The android wanted to make the man hurt for what he had done. "Fighting for your cause sometimes means dying for your cause. She was mine..." Sigma examined his hand, clenching it and twiddling his fingers slowly to make sure everything was properly functioning. "I chose to die for my cause when I went in after her. She chose to die for hers when she signed up to a life in the Red Scarf gang. Don't you think you've nullified everything she lived for by making her have to exist under their rule?"

"Yes," Roth whispered, tears in his eyes. "But by the time I figured that out it was too late. I chose to push forward with my cause and, if you see to it, I will die for that cause. Ishiyama knows I deserve it."

Sigma raised up his palm, the centre glowing purple as it charged to fire a beam. He levelled the weapon at the doctor's head, his mechanical brain calculating distance, speed, splatter radius, everything. "Letting you live with what you did is what Ishiyama chose for you. It seems a greater punishment." The weapon fizzled out, the hole closing.

"It seems you still have an affinity for your religion, even in your next life." Sigma's eyes narrowed at the doctor. The two had never met prior to the laboratory, and Sigma detested the idea of Roth talking to him like he knew him. "Or so I read in your file," Roth said, quickly backtracking out of the awkward situation.