Release Me From Heaven (Release Me From Hell Series)

Chapter 1: (System 107: Number 89/Vaeshi) Broken Hearts *Six Weeks Ago*

          Strange. The word defined itself, but it wasn't an unusual one. In fact, it was a common word that Elites often held from their prissy tongues, but Askin was a little different. He used he word more often than I liked to describe even the normal things, and I brushed it off. Until he wasn't saying it to warm the frosted speech between us, he was describing a video that had been sent. I had gotten the video too, but I pretended to bury the evidence by acting as stupid as I possibly could. By creating the scenario that I actually was a servant with no emotion in my soul.
           And he showed me, eyes lighting up at the sight of a System 11 experiencing life. They were memories that looked as if they were created with an orange-like filter from the post-WoE days. Some of them were. Others, well, they seemed to be dark and full of shadows, but I could hear the audio. Immediately, Askin breathed in resentment. He suggested a discussion with the Elite board tomorrow night to me (mind you, the Elite board were snobby machines). A party.
I had to cater to that.
           Tomorrow.
         "Strange," Askin whispered to himself. He turned to me while raising his voice. "You may be dismissed until morning where I expect you to prepare from the party."
           "Understood," I said. "May I go into town?"
          "You may. Be careful, however. I hear the Fluctuates are growing stronger everyday."
         A gang. I bowed one last time, walking stiffly to the exit until I cornered the front entrance. My ponytail stressed my nylon hair, and it bounced against the plush of my skin-colored metal. When the cameras of Askin's estate finally disappeared, I pulled the ponytail loose, turned my preposterous human skin to the true grey it was meant to be, and I put my nose ring back in. Askin never knew, and he never would if he had any sense. Strange, he would say, and he would mean it. Because the nose ring, well...
          It symbolized my allegiance to the Fluctuates.
         And I walked down the public street through robot neighborhoods. I wouldn't dare risk the chance of being caught near humans. Though breathless creatures that held their fragile tongues, they were impossible to get near. Only machines like Askin and the human servants could ever do that, and I would rather not lose my life by openly admitting I was in a gang.
I walked casually until I came up to Sashys's. A bar for the lowly. My... secret, so to speak. Askin always told me he had a secret place of his own that he would never share, and I admitted that I I had one too. He never did attempt to inject his feelings into my body, so I had to pretend that this place was "good" or "dull". It was neither of those things, but Askin wasn't smart enough to come looking.
         "Vaeshi!"
         The greeting came from a bartender. System 19, Number 23. He was definitely an old and battered type made just after Matum was settled, but his crooked smile meant more than anyone's.
           "Rodiel!" I bowed. Shit. I immediately lifted my head, coils going red with embarrassment.             Rodiel didn't mention the bow as I sat down and snatched a drink of alcohol meant for humans, and I was grateful.
           "What's happening in Vaeshi Town?" he asked.
          I shrugged my shoulders. "I'm not dismantled yet. Almost seven hundred years, and I'm kicking it."
         "You're young."
           I shrugged my shoulders again. "Young but smart."
         The door slammed open against the wall as a group of at least five machines cackled their way to a table. Rodiel tried to keep his eyes from rolling to the back of his head, so he picked up a glass and started rubbing its interior with a rag. I glared at the table, and I saw... gauges. In their ears. What the fuck were the Brandweights doing here on our turf without a scratch on their skin? My hand went to my nose ring, and I pulled it from my nose. I did not want to be sent to the Factory today.
            "Yeah, um, five of your finest and most alcohol-concentrated drinks," one of the douche-bags said.
            The waiter, poor soul, came running to Rodiel with a panic, and Rodiel whipped up the drinks quickly. I began to eavesdrop on their conversation.
            "It's The Iskil Madoeken. In the metal. Has to be."
            "No duh on that, I agree, but why would he send everyone his memories?"
           "Why is he alive?"
           Iskil? Never heard of him. It did seem to drag Rodiel's attention away all of a sudden, but I just kept on sipping on my drink. Beer, humans called it. It honestly held no value in my eyes, but I wasn't here to judge alcohol. I was here to listen in.
            "Suppose he can't die. He mentions that he's been alive long enough to want to die."
            Brandweights were skeptics, but they weren't smart enough to act upon their theories. But I was curious. I never had a chance to review the weird video I was sent, but maybe that's exactly what they were talking about. I gave Rodiel a look before putting my nose ring back in and approaching the table with my eyes staring in any direction. When I hovered the table, they all stared upwards at me.
            "I heard you were talking about memories," I said casually. I pulled up a chair, and I leaned on the table. "I was also sent the same video."
             They all exchanged glances back and forth before... letting me join the conversation.            Strange...
             Great, I was sounding like Askin.
            "One question, though," I started. "Is Iskil famous or something?"
            Their mindless chatter came to a sudden halt as they turned to me with vacant stares. At this point, Rodiel left his past to hover the table, and he heard my question. He, too, had stared in awe. I wanted to say that Askin never told me anything, but that was a lie. Maybe I just never paid attention. Maybe I just ignored the things in my pre-loaded codex.
            "Name's Askorf," the large System 82 said with a smile. "Iskil is a System 11 that belonged to Iskilla Madoeken. She was the woman that founded Matum."
             Right. Soldiers that went AWOL had hid around here with their machines, and they made a colony after the WoE. Iskilla founded Matum, and she was the reason humans were around.
           "Then, shouldn't he be dead?" I asked. "A machine from pre-WoE days sounds impossible."
           "Iskil wasn't made in the Factory," Rodiel chipped in. "He was made by hand by Iskilla."
            "How does that make him different?"
            Askorf shrugged his shoulders. "Don't know. But there's got to be a reason he has his memories swimming around in Matum."
           All of a sudden, the lights flickered above, but no one thought anything of it. Except me. Everyone kept theorizing why there was a machine over six thousand years old still kicking like he was only a year old. I kept my fingers tense and voice low, and I scoped out the exit where I was certain something would happen. The Factory? God, I hoped those bots didn't burst in and arrest all of us for having emotions without powers. Fucking Elite rules. I tried not to scrunch up my face too much at the whole exchange, but I felt something... off.
              And then the door opened.
             The machine that entered stood erect with the human facade still attached to his metal skin. A bot. It wasn't a Factory enforcer, and it didn't have a label on it saying it belonged to anyone. A rogue? No one at the table seemed to pay him any mind, but I was making sure to take my precautions. My precautions?
              Well, I approached the System 136 with as much as a smile as I could muster.
             "Hiya!" I greeted with all smiles. "Are you a fresh make?"
              His head turn was calculated and screechy. It was as if his body didn't belong to him, and I was starting to think that maybe it didn't.
             "Are you System 107, Number 89?" he asked.
             I gulped. "Y-yes?"
            "My name is Nomedd. I exist in the land Lord Askin wishes to travel to."
               Japan? A part of me wanted to forget that I would be permanently removed from Askin's care in a few short weeks, but a machine I never met had known. How? At that point, everyone noticed I had slunk back to the bar. They stared at me, but they soon went back to their own exchange.
             "This is not my body," Nomedd said. "I am borrowing it for a time to meet with you, to tell you that danger approaches."
              I leaned in on the bar. "You want me to stop it, then?"
            "That is an impossible task to do under Matum's watchful eye. I suggest that you appear in Kikai as soon as you can."
            I pulled myself up. "But I'm not going to Japan with Askin. He told me American models couldn't go unless they were Elites."
            His eyes changed colors. From yellow to blue as a sympathy card. And I knew what he meant.
             I turned away. "I don't have powers."
            "You do. They only come in specific situations. Which, by the way, will happen sooner than you think."
            "What's this... danger, anyway?" I asked him.
           "All I can say is that it starts with the release of Iskil's memories." His eyes went back to yellow. "I came to you to let you know that the theorizing will end up killing them. You too, if you're not careful."
            I had a line of trust that wasn't handed out lightly. But he knew my numbers. He knew about Japan. Somehow, his words spoke more truth than anything Askin's ever told me. Nomedd stood, and he turned to me once last time.
           "Will you be here tomorrow?" he asked.
           "I can be."
           "Then come. I will discuss the danger."
            And he waltzed out of the door without another sound.
           I was going to get in so much trouble.