Release Me From Heaven (Release Me From Hell Series)

Chapter 11: (System 107: Number 89/Vaeshi) We Have No Right To

        We stepped inside the bar, the emptiness both uncanny yet comforting. I expected it to be like this, but maybe I expected the presence of Nomedd, too. That was a horrid want. Rodiel was cleaning a glass, his eyes half-shut as if he was genuinely tired. He said nothing to me as we sat at the table in the corner, eyes out of the window, our hands locked together in a tight hold. Alieka seemed to soften as the slight kick of music set in on the speaker, a soft piano's melody. We waited. Maybe it was for Rodiel to wait on us. Maybe it was for Yentira to walk through that door. I expected this nervousness at the bottom of my gut, but I didn't expect my mind to go in so many directions. Of course, Yen said this would happen as soon as it was getting closer to leave. We really had a plan.
     It started here in this bar, and I would travel all the way to Latum and she would go to Atum. All we had to do was press the buttons, convince the System 46s to allow us to do it, and then we escaped to Japan. I hoped at that point Askin had come to his senses and came home happy and healthy. I hoped.
    The door opened, the bells jingling, and Yentira stepped in. There was blood, a machine's oil, staining her figure, but she was attractive nonetheless. Rodiel stared at her for a moment before finally bowing respectively, and then he seemed to freeze.
     "I'm not here to pummel you into trinkets," Yen glared. "There are bigger problems."
    "W-would you like a drink, then?" Rodiel asked.
     "No."
     She was a JSystem, which meant she had these elf-like ears and large eyes and ridiculously large body that seemed to be an anatomical nightmare. But, it worked for her. Anyone would say she was one of the most beautiful machines to exist, and as she sat across from me I saw everything those rumors had spoke of.
     "The places you robots hide," she commented wistfully.
     Rodiel cleared his throat. "This was where Evitol planned his greatest fight against Factory rule. And you all paid the price."
     "Will you shut up?" The grace of her voice was lost in her shout. "As far as you should be concerned, Vaeshi and I are meeting here without a single wire to listen in."
     Rodiel shut his mouth, disturbed by the fact the one in rule of the whole of the Factory was sitting right across from me. And I wondered about that. We managed to get here by the will of destruction, and now we were planning on turning everyone off. How long would I be shut down? That question harmed me some, but there was a sense of reassurance that this would work. It had to.
     "Rysh and Ilikan are dead," she told me. "I made a mess of it, and I was nearly caught by Iskil himself. Regardless, I made our path clear."
     Alieka smiled at the thought of the dangers being triumphed, holding onto me tighter as I answered. "Will you be fine in Atum? What about that one machine you told me of?"
     "Ah, System 67, Number 803?" Her large ears flicked back and forth almost teasingly. "Iskil is going to kill him tonight, so says Nomedd."
     Nomedd? "Right."
     "Oh, Vaeshi. I know I told you not to trust him, but he isn't wrong about this. Bavarn has personally asked that Iskil be his killer, along with Viania. Who, by no means is of any importance to us."
     Latum... The city of reincarnated souls. That was where I had to go, and it was going to be tough because I had this child latched at my hip.
     "Chances are that Nomedd will attempt conversation," Yen told me. "He will try to confront you, and you must be ready. He is... a terrible being."
      I heard Yentira's piece on Nomedd, and maybe I expected more of him, but then maybe it was better I didn't. He was just a machine like the rest of us here. A victim. A toy. Yen had some... emotional attachment to him, but all she was willing to say was that he was infected and an impulsive liar.
     "We should get going," Yen said plainly, dropping Nomedd from her tongue all together.    "Carry Alieka through the tunnels."
     And we exited the booth, and I waved to Rodiel for what felt like the last time.

     Yen thrusted the wooden entrance aside carelessly, the scent of oil and blood wafting through almost immediately, and Alieka held on tighter as Yen guided us in the dark of the subway train. There were the Firadae bodies scattered and dismantled, some of them twitching out their last breaths. The seats were rusted all to hell and everything about this place was frightening to Alieka. She dared to look only to stuff her nose back into my metal.
     "Latum will be easy, you know," Yen said. "There is no machine inside that Factory."
     I knew. I studied. In the wake of both Askin's downfall and the whole of the plan coming to life, I studied every single metal panel of the place in hopes it would lead me to fix Askin even faster.
     Askin wasn't only off, he was dismal. I could not even look at him now without expecting the tears to come from my eyes, and it felt like my silicon heart would be torn from within my chest and buried in the dirt. I had been with Askin since my beginning, so I felt that this was coming. This sadness. He would die first, and I would have to deal with that when the time was here. Now was not that time. I walked through the subway determined to do this.

     Yen and I split almost immediately after appearing in the empty field of grass. My HUD worried me I was out of city limits, but Yen had given me a map of the outskirts of Atum and Latum. I placed Alieka down, and I pulled her along through the forest of these large trees that hadn't been touched by time. I knew we were crunching time, but the way the world was out here was  hard not to ogle at.
     Soon, we walked into a completely different kind of woods where mechanical things were strewn in piles all rusted to hell. My pace began to slow almost unwillingly as my eyes focused on one projection in particular.
    "We're going to make it."
     I turned my head away only for it to snap back without my want to.
     "Vaeshi."
     I could hear the voice, but my head wouldn't turn. "I... was told you would be around."
     "What? Did Yentira tell you not to trust me because I'm an impulsive liar and... infected?"
     My head finally moved, and I held my neck as I looked at Nomedd. My eyes widened as I saw him. Alieka clutched my leg tightly. Nomedd was no longer confined to a body, his eyes popping out from his head and mixing together in all of the exposed wires. This look was intentional, and while I had a frightened stance and look, I was unaffected by him besides my initial reaction.
     "She didn't tell you everything," Nomedd said. "Typical of her, really. She is so afraid of me that she wouldn't dare let anyone know about me."
     I had to get going. I turned to start walking, but my feet seemed glued to the floor.
     "Sit down," Nomedd demanded.
     Almost without my own consent, no it felt almost forced, I sat down with Alieka in my arms.  Alieka was uncomfortable, but it seemed as if we both were aware that listening was the best option.
     "You are a powerless robot that lives off of following a leader at all times. You are guided by orders, by control. So, even if I explained this to you, you would be powerless without guidance."
     "What are you getting at?" I spat.
     "Let's start from the beginning, shall we? Six weeks ago, my elder brother, Iskil Madoeken, released his memories so that the machines outside of the city would feel and be like him. Blah, blah, blah, you get the idea. And Viania released those Firadaes."
     "The infected ones that fucked up Askin and everyone else?"
     Nomedd approached me, loose wires wrapping around my chin. "I infected them. I made the hacker make you all see Iskil as a distraction, and I made the city decay."
     "W-why would you do that?" I asked, panicked.
     "You will go to Latum, but it won't work. Askin is a hopeless cause, my pawn. And you ask why, but it's more complicated than you know."
     He pulled away from me and turned away towards the piles.
     "I will save Askin!" I declared, jumping to my feet. "That is my fucking job, and I don't give a shit if you get to destroy everyone else!"
     Nomedd began to walk away. "Then I wish you the best of luck. This is only my beginning."
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