Release Me From Heaven (Release Me From Hell Series)

Chapter 20: (System 86: Number 5/Askin) Leaving Home

        "Why are you helpING THEM?"
     A machine leaped onto me and pinned me to the roof with my hands above my head where I couldn't even attempt to touch him. He was too close to Vaeshi. I didn't have to give him an answer, a reason to my madness that I could not express with my actions.
     "Don't you fucking touch her!" I screamed. I was losing strength in y arms, but I was going to succeed. I overthrew his weight and ripped away at his chest to reveal his core. It was ceasing to beat slowly, which meant these were going to be his last moments regardless. I held him by his neck and held his core in my other hand.
     "You belong to the other," it said. "And you belong so, so, perfectly with him."
     How can you describe the taste of yourself? What does your skin, your muscles, organs, vitals, all taste like? Have you ever thought what the blood of someone else felt like as it went into your throat? This was the same. The electrifying taste of wires and oil and metal against metal. IT was merely the same feeling, except I was passed the feeling of wanting flesh and wanting myself. To taste what I was than what they were. I was beyond these broken ones. I was beyond myself.
     "Remember your objective."
     My OS chimed in, much slower and normal than it happened to be, and it snapped me back to reality. I had stood from the body, and I saw Viania and Vaeshi struggling against a System 13. His hands glowed, large lasers exploding from each end as his eyes sickened to a dark black. These machines were dying quickly, and maybe that was the point. They were the catalyst to kill the humans, and they were on the way to succeed.
     "Hey!" I shouted.
     The machine turned to me, face turning in a stutter. "Y-you're NOt imPOrTANt."
     "What makes you say so?"
     "You BeloNg to HIm."
     I grabbed him by his wrist and crushed my hand around his neck. "I don't know what the fuck you mean, but I'll-"
     Suddenly, electricity, and he began to scream in my wrist from the pain. Iskil approached me, and he watched as the robot disintegrated into black ash.
     "It should be here," Iskil grunted.
     "It is." Yentira walked up the stairs, and Alieka ran right into Vaeshi's arms. "It will land in two minutes so make some space. The five of us will be boarding shortly."
     "Six," Vaeshi mentioned.
     "No. Five." She glared at me, through me to the back wall. "I'm not bringing a monster into my home country."
     "What?"
     "I said-"
     "I know what the fuck you said, you failed sex robot!" Vaeshi approached Yentira with her hands outstretched. Her palms closed tightly, and a shield surrounded Yen. Yen, who had yet to see Vaeshi's shield, immediately began to panic "Listen here, Yentira. You told me he could be saved. You told me that Askin could be fixed."
     "Yeah, well he can't. You saw him just now. You saw him eat his own, so why are you still defending him?"
     Vaeshi looked at me, really looked at me. Her eyes looked me up and down, and in her eyes was a flood of memories that we had together. There were times we held onto each other, time we had protected each other however quiet. That's what she saw and she was trying to figure out why no one else was thinking the same.
     The plane landed roughly, causing the roof to shake and Alieka to stutter out a cry.
     "We need to go," Yen said. "We're running out of time."
     Iskil took a step forward. "The Six of us will go on."
     "W-what?"
     "Askin is under control. I have a leash on him, and if you don't believe me-" Iskil snapped his fingers, which came a pulse of electricity.
     K-KILL I-ISKIL MADOEKEN <ERROR>.
     I leaped for Iskil, but he snapped his fingers again and I stopped in my tracks.
     Protect Vaeshi.
     Fuck. My head. I leaned down on my knees and held, my head in my hands. Vaeshi let go of her shield to pick me up from the ground, and Yentira looked almost terrified of her. But in that moment of silence, screams began to rise up from the streets, and the house began to shake. Yentira was right. We were running out of time.
     "We need to go. Askin, Viania, help the others to get on," Iskil commanded. "I'm going to do... something irrational."
     Viania and I helped the others on the plane without looking at Iskil, mostly because I suspected that he was going to do that. Viania instructed Yentira to close the door regardless of the fact that Iskil wasn't on. She did so in her daze, but Yen clearly had a lot to process in her brain chip. So did I. Me, under control to someone else, put on a leash that allowed me to act the way I was before? Iskilla shouldn't have been able to design something like that. Two somethings for that matter. Strange.
     Iskil was out there, standing in front of the plane entrance with his eyes closed. He was not shaken by killing other machines, which was to be expected. The most of us were heartless when it came to ourselves, not even batting an eye when our few thousand years finally came to an end, and Iskil almost seemed... happy. He was thrilled by the thought. Then they came crawling up the roof, and I heard him through the thick glass muttering.
     "Idiots," he spat.
     And they were idiots, because now that we were safely inside the plane. Iskil could electrocute the whole city on a whim. And he outstretched his hands to do just that. The currents were fierce as they pierced the hearts of many, and they cascaded from the roof to the streets below.
     "He won't make it."
     Yentira coughed, and some thick ooze came from her throat. At first, I thought it was her becoming infected, but it seemed to be all lodged in the gears. I returned my gaze back to the window and ignored the robot that tried to kill me.
     "It's Iskil Madoeken," Viania pointed out. "He is beyond dying."
     "No, you don't-" She was cut off by her own cough, which made me turn again.
     "Yen?" Vaeshi and I called.
     Yentira put a hand up. "Get the hell away from me! He- he has-" A gear fell from her mouth, one that was probably loose and not important, yet it was enough for me to grab her by the shoulders and look her in the eyes. Vaeshi took a few steps back with Alieka in her arms.
     "Yen, are you okay?" I asked. Her eyes were shaking, changing color from green to a dark red.
     "He- he promised," she stuttered. "Nomedd, y-you promised." Her mouth crept into a smile. "I did that, I know, but this is urgent. You're the one that needs to tell them the ugly truth."
     Nomedd. I pulled myself away out of fear and pushed Vaeshi and the others back. "That's not Yentira anymore! Get back!"
     "Yikes!" he spoke wistfully. It was so out of character for him to speak so jokingly that it took me off guard. "I'll only be here for a moment."
     The plane door opened, and Iskil glared. "Brother?"
     "Ah, he can sense it! Good! I'll be incredibly quick," he smiled. "Before that-" He pressed something, a button that Yentira had, and the plane began to lift off.
     "What do you want from us?" Vaeshi yelled.
     "A reaction, mostly. A reason." He stood tall and faced Iskil. "And to see you, Iskil Madoeken."
    "Well, you see me," Iskil spat.
     "Oh, well, yes." He scratched his head. "Well, I wanted to tell you something as well. You shouldn't trust Yentira. You want to know the reason I'm out here giving the robots the mentality to kill humans and eat them? Yentira knows the answers, knows the solutions, and she's keeping that all from you guys."
     Yentira... How long had she been withholding the truth?
     "Yen said you were a liar," Vaeshi commented. "Are you-"
     "Now, Vaeshi, lying is convenient, no? We lie when we need to, like when our lives are on the line." Yentira began gasping. "Oh... My... time..."
     Yentira immediately balled up in her own metal and began to cry. Iskil turned to the exit, looking at Matum below. I assumed it was chaos.
     "Good grief," he grunted. "My mother really programmed him to have the mentality of a nutcase."
     Yentira sat up, still crying over something she didn't want to tell us. I noticed Viania and Vaeshi consulting Alieka in the dark, Iskil pacing back and forth at the exit, and then there was Yen who could barely keep her bolts together.
     "He promised me," Yen cried. "Even... Even-"
     "Even what, Yen?" Vaeshi yelled. "How long are you going to keep us all in the fucking dark over the greatest threat to machine-kind?"
     "Vaeshi's right," Iskil said, turning his head. "Nomedd Madoeken could kill us all, and you're not giving us the whole truth. What promise did he make? What's your relationship to him?"
     Yen shut her eyes. "Nomedd... You guys have no idea what we're up against."
     "Try me," Iskil grunted. "I'm even older than him."
     "If he wanted to, he could control us all with one blink. But, no, he plays with us like rats in a cage."
     Tch. That was-
     "His first mistake."
     Iskil and I locked eyes for a second, and then it hit me. Iskil was Nomedd's brother, so that meant they did the same things. I belonged to Iskil, a dog on a leash, and he and I could hear our thoughts as long as we didn't merge the way Nomedd did to his machines. So he and I... Our thoughts were together, and that was how I was keeping a sane head.
     "You want the truth?" Yen started. "I'll tell you everything. But... bear with me." She stood up. "I never meant for him to go this far."