Release Me From Heaven (Release Me From Hell Series)

Chapter 13: (System 107: Number 89/Vaeshi) Elitist

        When I walked into that house, I felt the house shift into an even darker shade of black, like a void my soul could not escape from. The Factory was on my mind, simply because I had just escaped the confines of an empty one, so when I entered the house I felt the air stiffen. Askin wasn't in the main hall, neither was Iskil or Viania, so I had some sort of relief in my eyes as I told Alieka to find a room to stay in until I would get to her later. She wouldn't object to it, and I shimmied around the house to find the commotion.
     I was afraid to meet Iskil. He was the machine of mystery, a man with a cold grip of something that I could not understand. I found them in the kitchen, Viania's body on the table in a gruesome state that seemed impossible to achieve while still living. Askin turned his head to me, his eyes covered in red dust from something that didn't belong to him. I didn't question it, but his eyes made me look at my own feet so I didn't have to remember that he was sick.
     "I have to go get the parts for her leg and whatnot," Askin said, continuing on with the conversation he was having. "You best stay here, so I would like to introduce my... maid that will be taking care of you."
     Me. I nodded towards Iskil. "System 107, Number 89. My name is Vaeshi."
     "System 11, Number 503. Iskil."
     I knew that. Askin stood, taking a slow walk towards me before placing a hand on my shoulder and getting close to my ear. I shut my eyes tight hoping he would leave. "Show him a room. Take Vaeshi to yours and make her comfortable."
     I nodded, and he left me. I stood there until I heard the door lock, and then I focused my eyes on Viania. My chest tightened, fear for a person who was on death's row that I could not save. I stared at her eyes. They were so vibrant even as they were stilled, and I felt as if they had held the world in them once.
     "Vaeshi, was it?" Iskil started. Iskil looked rough in the face. He had seen the world in those yellow eyes for a long time, and our encounter alone was strange.
     "Yes," I answered. "I've heard stories about Iskilla's machine. I never thought I'd meet him."
     "Hm. My mother was quite the inventor. I'm more curious about you. Your design is very robust and human, and you called yourself a System. Do you guys run on the old way?"
     "Well, the humans run the Factory along with an Elite known as Yentira. We're, uh, supposed to be heading to Japan to go to the main Factory."
     "I see." He closed his eyes for a moment before exiting his chair. "Would you mind taking me to my room? I would like to rest."
     I grabbed Viania's body like a bride I was carrying to salvation, and I guided him up the stairs to the spare bedroom. It was empty and guideless, a layer of dust on the dresser. We didn't need a dresser, but I never tried telling Askin that he didn't need some of the things he had. Iskil stared at the room with a sense of familiarity that I didn't understand, and he lied down on the bed.
     "Shutdown mode: activated."
     I wonder what he dreamed.
     I placed Viania on my bed, feeling my own sense of tiredness as I sat on the end. Yentira told me she would contact me soon, and Alieka was most likely asleep. She had a rough walk back, and so did I. But... did I feel tired? My bolts felt like they were coming out of my shoulder plates, and yet my physical being was unable to feel exhaust, so I had no reason to rest.
     "Shutdown mode: activated."
     Whatever.

     I had heard of lucid dreaming when I was younger when Askin had taken me to the human side of Matum. Children would whisper about how exciting it was, a revelation in something they had willpower over. I could dream. I heard that most machines were unable to do it, but I had the innate ability to dream. And I learned to lucid dream after those children enlightened me. So when I woke up in a large field of grass with my hands staring at the individual blades, I found my mind thinking and wondering.
     I thought about a thunderstorm. The sky darkened and the thunder groaned out in protest at my request. Rain came, but it felt more like static against the metal of my body than actual rain, so I sat there with clear displeasure.
     "Hello?"
     The voice startled me. I had never heard another voice before, let alone my own, so I immediately felt startled by it. I felt the brush of another machine as they sat down next to me, feeling the static rain lessen as my mind calmed. It was Viania there, but she was unbroken. Her eyes were vibrant blue, her body young but bubbly and alien to what a System looked like. My silicon heart panged against my chest.
     "Hi," I said meekly. My voice was never small in any situation before now, so it came as a shock. Even in my nervous moments, I was never so quiet.
     "What is this place? Do you know where we are?" Viania asked.
     It sounded genuine. "A dream. You're... a part of the dream, aren't you? I've never had a... piece so self-aware."
     "But... Machines don't dream."
     "I do," I said. "What, you've never done it?"
     "This would be the first time if I am. I just... I remember getting hurt," she grumbled, her arms together. "I remember... my leg."
     "That happened out there." I shut my eyes and held my temple. "This is just odd. Like, this never happened before."
     "What usually happens?" she asked me, dumbfounded. I looked at her, at those blue eyes of innocence.
     "I don't hear voices in my dreams, for one. And nothing this extensive," I explained. "It... feels real."
     Viania suggested something that I hadn't wanted to consider. "What if it is?"
     How would we have gotten here? How would I have be able to make the clouds grow into a grey mass and let it rain? This was not real. It couldn't be.
     "Viania," I said. "What are you feeling out there? Can you... feel anything? Are you awake?"
     She shut her eyes. "Are you next to me?"
     I nodded.
     "I feel you."
     This was odd. She was more than aware, she was actually Viania. "I... This is going to sound like a strange request, but if there is any way for you to move please try and touch me."
     Viania agreed to it and focused her attention on herself on the outside. Her head was weak against my leg, but I felt it.
     "Warning: unknown object against upper left leg."
     This wasn't a dream, but it wasn't reality. I was stumped on figuring it all out, and with my grumbling the storm disappeared into sunny skies. Viania looked at me, her face scrunched with worry at the idea of all of this. I couldn't imagine what she was thinking now, because my thoughts were rampant. This wasn't normal or real.
     "I wonder how long we have," Viania muttered.
     The sky digitalized for a moment into pixels.
     "Answer: Every hour in the dream is a minute out in the real world. Hypothetically, twenty-four hours here is only half an hour."
     "Who are you?" I asked. "Where are we?"
     The voice paused for so long, I thought that it had disappeared. Then, an answer. "I am the operating system of System 107: Number 89. I am only in operation fully during emergencies and when Elite machines their abilities."
     "Wait. Elite abilities? Do you mean-"
     "Yes, Vaeshi. This is your Elite power."