Automatons ✔

Chapter XXII

                                               His hand invited her skin to react like it usually did under his touch, but she spurned his invitation with a glare. They both felt the snap of their love's thread between them, and there was noway to sew with a needle what was cut with the sword of betrayal. When Yoel realized that his attempts were futile, he quietly turned around and followed Blade inside the prison.

"He still loves you." Nerezza stated with a calm voice.

"How do you know that? Did he tell you that while your tongues were waltzing to the beats of your heart?" Éloa got out of the car.

"Because his kisses lacked of love. He does not kiss me because he does not love you anymore, he kisses me because he misses the touch of a human."

"Exactly! That is the whole issue I have always been merely a caravanserai for him until he found a human lover!"

"There is always someone in this world for each one of us, and he would've eventually found a human lover. But he chose you because he connected with you. I am sorry that you are too blind to see his love." Nerezza turned on her heel, and followed Yoel.

The gray walls of the prison created a lonely aura around the cells which were protected by a laser security system. Although most of the cells' electronic signage plates showed that they were vacant, some of them held hostages who begged Nerezza to free them as she passed by them. Loud EDM music played around the prison and it got louder as they walked towards the prison officer's base. Once Blade swiped his key card and the door opened, cigarette smoke bothered her nostrils while her ears suffered from the high volume of the song.

A man with a long black beard and dark tousled hair sat comfortably on a big white cushion that was floating in the air due to its magnet base. With his chin resting on the palm of his hand, he looked bored as fire-breathing exotic dancers danced for him. Multiple men with the same masks that Blade and his men wore surrounded him, ready to fight anyone who dares to get too close to their Tsar.

Blade ran up to him and whispered in his ear, announcing Nerezza and Yoel's presence. The Tsar confusingly stared at them as Blade continued to whisper in his ear, and his deep set, cold, blue eyes made Nerezza nervous. The Tsar finally nodded and jumped from the cushion, making the DJ stop playing the music. Everyone went quiet as he approached Nerezza, uninterested in Yoel. His eyes continued to make her nervous as a strange feeling flowed around her body, and filled her mind with unhurried foreboding thoughts. When he stood before her, his dominant power made her body freeze even as his pale fingers traced over her lips before hungrily kissing them. Nerezza kept her eyes open in awe of this man's strange behaviour, but her eyes slowly became blurry and she fainted in his arms.

"What the hell?!" Yoel cursed at him as he stared at the Tsar who revealed a needle in his hand.

"It's easier to inject your enemy with Rohypnol when they are in a state of shock. I can definitely help her out if you tell me the truth as to why you're here." The Tsar demanded as he carried the semi-conscious Nerezza in his arms.

"You didn't have to drug her to get the truth out of me, I have already told Blade that we are here to join your Pro-Automaton team!" Yoel yelled, angry that he couldn't protect her.

"Do you think I am gullible? If you wanted to join us you wouldn't have hurt our Rocco!"

"He attacked Nerezza first, I had every right to shoot him." Yoel stood his ground.

The Tsar didn't respond and looked behind him at Blade who nodded, confirming Yoel's story.

"Well," he handed Nerezza to Yoel, "I apologize for hurting your woman, our Rocco should've never attacked her without any perceivable threat."

"Wake her up." Yoel gritted his teeth.

"Let's take her upstairs, we will discuss your plan while she recovers from the come down. My name is Rodion, what's yours mate?"

"Yoel."

Nerezza slowly opened her eyes, and the first thing she saw was Yoel's eager eyes lick at her like flames. Her flushed cheeks were comforted by his gentle hands, and it reminded her of when clouds show mercy in the sky when the blazing sun is scorching everywhere. Yet there was no room in his heart for another lover. He was still too consumed by the robotic version of her and it annoyed her.

"How do you feel?" His voice sounded concerned.

"How long have I been out?" She stretched on the sofa, the stiffness of her neck bothered her but she had no time to focus on her pain.

"Eight hours."

"What? Where's Éloa? Did her siblings arrive?"

Yoel chuckled, "don't worry, she's still mad at me but she still protected me from Demetrius's wrath."

"He's here?" She swallowed and took a deep breath.

"Yes, they're all with Rodion, the man who likes being called the Tsar. I decided to stay with you to make sure that you're okay." He smiled.

"If Demetrius is here, he will definitely manage to convince Rodion to lend us his soldiers to fight the anti-Automaton regime. How many fighters does he have?"

"Twenty thousand across the US. Éloa is negotiating how many we can take to Washington."

"Good. Does Demetrius still hold the President hostage?"

"Nerezza, how did you know that Demetrius kidnapped our President?!" He raised one eyebrow.

She didn't reply. His question was a prison in which she spent hours looking out of its bars, trying to find rays of a good lie to tell. But all she saw was the blinding darkness of a bitter truth that she could not tell him.

"I heard it on the news."

"Bullshit, they did not announce it in the news. I will ask you one last time, how in the world did you know that Demetrius had kidnapped the President when you weren't even in the USA?"

"Yoel, I am still dizzy. Questioning me will only cause me more headache." She begged him.

"No, you will give me an answer now!" He shook her shoulders violently.

"Or what?" She pushed him, "I may have been submissive under the power of your kisses but I will never allow you to order me around."

"I am not ordering you around, I am asking to tell me the truth."

"And I refuse to tell you the truth because it's my business." She got off the sofa.

"Fine! But remember that if I find out the truth and I don't like it, I will torture you endlessly."

"Do not threaten me again, Yoel. You have no idea what I've been through nor what I am capable of." She drew her gun.

"Shoot me." He grabbed her hand that held the gun and pointed it on his forehead. "I dare you, you wouldn't be the first woman I liked who shot me."

"She's not a woman," she dropped her gun, "she is a complex machine, yes, and we have to defend her rights against the tyrants who belittle her kind's value, but you should never compare her to being a real woman. Nothing compares to the authentic touch of a human female. She will never beat her sorry breasts if you ever leave her, she will merely experience a virtual sequence of sadness that never compares to our grief. Her eyes will never dry like burnt logs from the tears that she shed over you, she can stop crying when she decides to. She will never grow old with you like a real, human woman. But I can."

Suddenly, he noticed the perfection of her face. Her honest words opened his eyes to acknowledge the beauty of both her body and mind.  Her eyes, irritated from the drugs, resembled red diamonds that he wanted to steal and appreciate. The musk of her sweat, her skin gleaming with fever, her voice cracking like a storm with sadness... All of these imperfections made her beautiful and real. Something Éloa lacked, and it made him realize that even technology can never replicate the perfect imperfections of a real, human woman.