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[The Nexus] Chapter 4 - Androids (II)
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Chapter 4 - Androids (II)
It was evening. The desert viewed from the top of the tallest pyramid in Giza made for beautiful but desolate scenery.
‘It’s different.’
He had seen photos from Ron’s trip to Egypt in the summer before their third year of school. Although it was against the law to climb on the pyramids, it was not difficult whatsoever for wizards and witches to avoid muggles’ eyes. The Weasleys had scaled the pyramids too and taken quite a few pictures. In those pictures, he could see the capital of Egypt spreading in the distance. But the city he saw on the horizon in the present was much smaller than the one in the pictures, and it was half buried in sand. It was deserted.
Inwardly, he had envied Ron for being able to go on a holiday together with his family. In contrast, that summer, he had been stuck with the Dursleys and his aunt, Marge, whom he had almost killed by accident.
‘I did wish to see the pyramids, but not alone. . . And to think that when I finally get to see them, it’s nearly 10,000 years in the future. . .’
Leaving aside how impressive it was that the Pyramids of Giza were still standing 14,000 years after their creation, Harry’s mind was on something entirely different.
‘It’s 11,939 AD. My god, ten thousand years in the future.’
He could not easily get over the revelations brought by the transmission from the Council of Humanity. He cut a lonely figure as he sat down and rested his elbows on his knees, watching the barren scenery vacantly.
“I’m never going back, am I?” he muttered in a resigned voice.
He had arrived in this post-apocalyptic world one year and three months ago. Deep down, he had always suspected that going back to his timeline might be forever out of his reach. Still, it was only now, after hearing the transmission from the Council of Humanity, that he had finally accepted the truth.
“Hey, man! Scaling the pyramids is not allowed! Get down right away!” a loud shout startled Harry, breaking him out of his brooding.
Glancing down, he saw what looked like a man wearing military clothes.
Harry groaned. Climbing down the pyramid on foot was going to be such a pain!
‘Should I just Disapparate? He’ll probably think that he was imagining seeing things.’
He shook his head.
‘No. . . I don't want any rumours to start circulating about me.’
He had already revealed his identity to the androids he had fought alongside two months ago. He did not want a repeat of that scenario. The memory of the androids’ worshipping, almost fanatic eyes as they put their hands all over him was freaking him out every time he thought of it, even now, months after the incident.
It took Harry nearly 20 minutes of careful descent to climb down from the pyramid.
“What were you thinking?!” the android shouted at him. He had been waiting the entire time to make sure that Harry got down and to give him an earful. “You know it’s not allowed to scale the pyramids! They are among the last vestiges left from humanity!”
“Sorry, mate,” said Harry, not trying to make up any excuses. “I just needed some time on my own to think.”
The android scratched his brown hair and let out a sigh.
“Normally, I should inform the Proctors about your transgression. . . Good grief. . . it’s because of the broadcast, isn’t it?”
At Harry’s surprised face, the android shrugged his shoulders. “Don’t give me that look. You aren’t the only one who was shaken by the news. I’m no different.”
The android started walking towards the hidden, underground android city, and Harry followed along.
“We’ve been fighting this war for thousands of years, with no end in sight to it,” said the android. “I was made well over 600 years ago, but I’ve never seen or heard of any humans. Now, suddenly, we got a transmission from the humans on the Moon, out of nowhere.”
“Whoa! 600 years?!” Harry said in disbelief.
“Heh. I take it you’re a newer model?”
“I think so,” Harry answered. “I don’t remember much. All I remember was that our resistance camp was wiped out by the machines. I’m probably the only survivor.”
At his words, a sympathetic look surfaced on the man’s face.
“Ah, that’s nasty. You should get yourself looked at as soon as possible. Maybe they can recover some of your memories. If you lose an arm or a leg, you can change them easily, but when something like the memory chip gets damaged, that's terrible. It's the worst.”
After that, they continued walking in silence. Seemingly unable to bear with it, the android spoke again.
“Don’t be so down, man. At least you’re alive. And we finally got news from humans too! If anything, this should be an occasion for us to celebrate! My patrol shift is over, and I’m about to meet my friends. We’re going out for a drink. How about you come with us?”
“We don’t even know each other’s names, and you almost reported me to the Proctors,” Harry said with a deadpan.
“Don’t sweat the small stuff. I’m Reiner, by the way.”
“I’m James,” Harry said, giving him a fake name.
They shook hands briefly.
Sensing that Harry seemed to be down still, Reiner said:
“Take it from someone who lived for 600 years: you can’t go on through life alone. In times like these, especially, you need friends. You need some comrades. Fighting together, laughing together, partying together, and drinking your sorrows together. That’s what keeps us going.”
Moved by Reiner’s impassionate speech, and due to not having had any meaningful interactions with other people in more than one year, Harry opened himself up to him.
“I was just wondering, what is my role in this world? I’ve lost everything I had. What am I to do now?”
As soon as he spoke those words, Harry looked away, feeling like a fool for talking about something like that with a robot. The androids were acting so human-like that he was starting to forget sometimes that they weren’t actual humans.
Reiner became thoughtful for a few seconds.
“You know, I’ve lost many comrades too, many good men and women. But you can’t dwell on the past. In the end, we are androids. We were created to fight the machines. We were born to kill; we were born to die. That’s just how life is, so you ought to make the best of it. You never know the day when you will breathe your last.”
Reiner’s upbeat voice did not fool Harry because the words he spoke revealed just how bleak the androids’ outlook on life was.
“Maybe you’re right,” he said, sighing. “I guess it wouldn’t hurt to spend some time with other people. Will your friends be okay with bringing a stranger into your group?”
Reiner grinned.
“I knew you’d come around!”
⁂
Several weeks passed, and Harry was surprised to find himself enjoying the androids’ company. Pretending to be an android who had lost his memories after a fight against machines served as a good excuse as to why he appeared to be unfamiliar with the androids’ common sense, values, and skills.
Reiner’s group consisted of 2 women and 3 men, Reiner included. A total of 5 people, now 6, together with Harry.
Nadia, a female android with long blonde hair and brown eyes, let out a burp of satisfaction and laughed.
“Booze and a good fight! What more could you ask for?”
Reiner snatched the canteen from her hand and took a big gulp from it too.
“Hey! I was still drinking that!”
She snatched her canteen back, but it was already empty.
“Ugh, you drank it all?! You’re such a pig!”
“Oh man, these two are back at it again. Just get a room already,” said Malik, a dark-skinned android with a sharp face and a short, trimmed black beard.
“Jealous much?” Joanna asked teasingly. She was a pretty, Caucasian girl with short brown hair and a busty figure.
Before Malik could retort, a tall man with ginger hair interrupted them.
“Guys, the new fight’s about to start. Pipe down a little, will you?”
“Shut up, Jim.”
“Yeah, shut up!”
All four of them ganged up on him and Jim let out a suffering groan.
“Swines, the whole lot of them!”
Harry snickered at him. It looked like even ten thousand years in the future, bullying gingers was still trendy.
The second fight in the arena began, and it wasn’t only Reirner and his friends who got rowdier but the rest of the coliseum too.
When the machines started crying and begging for mercy, the spectators burst into loud boos, asking for their deaths.
Although it was already his third time coming to the arena since he had become friends with Reiner, Harry could still not get used to it; watching the machines crying and acting as though they had emotions and feelings while they were being slaughtered unsettled him every time.
‘I can’t be the only one who finds this repulsive.’
Calling them fights was a stretch. They were more like public executions because regardless of whether the android who was facing them won or lost the battle, the machines would still be killed at the end of the match.
⁂
Due to Earth being tidally locked, the sky was as bright as ever despite that it was evening.
“I think I’ve had one too many drinks,” Reiner said while Nadia was carrying him on her back.
“You think? You can’t even walk on your own!” she retorted.
“Come on, it’s not that bad-”
“Stop talking! If you throw up on me, I’ll throw you into the sewer.”
The fights in the arena came to an end, and now the androids were all leaving, returning home.
“Ah, I’m beat,” Joanna said while stretching her arms above her head. The way her tank top stretched around her chest area made Malik have trouble tearing his eyes away.
“Luckily, we’re off for the rest of the week,” said Jim, the ginger. “I don’t know what’s going on, but the machines haven’t attacked in weeks. Not that I’m complaining, mind you. But it’s strange.”
“You mean you haven’t heard the rumours?” Joanna said. "It's because of the human who appeared three months ago."
“A human?” Reiner asked, looking as though he became sober all of a sudden at the mention of it.
“Come on, guys, am I really the only one who heard about it? Word goes that almost 3 months ago, a human appeared and saved the squad that was protecting the pyramids. He also killed a few hundred robots with his magic spells. He conjured a river and then froze it all up, transforming all the machines into ice sculptures.”
“Magic? And a human?” Malik said in doubt.
“Come with me; I want to show you something.”
Joanna walked ahead and led her friends off the main boulevard of the underground city into the side alleys. A few minutes later, they stopped behind a factory.
“That’s him,” she said, pointing towards the wall.
A large, 4-meter-tall and 3-meter-wide graffiti portrait of a young man had been painted on the wall of the building. Considering the graffiti style used by the artist, the portrait was painted in bright, colourful tones that greatly contrasted with the person they were depicting.
It was the portrait of a young Caucasian man, but his face lacked the innocence and happy-go-lucky attitude of someone his age. His messy black hair stood up in all directions, his eyebrows were unkempt, and he had scruff on his face, making him look rather mature. What stood out the most, however, was the piercing, emerald-green colour of his eyes; the artist had put a lot of emphasis on that.
“Captain Aine and her squad were the ones who encountered him,” Joanna explained.
At her friends' sceptical looks, she said defensively:
“Look, I know how crazy it sounds. We’ve never seen a human on Earth in thousands of years, right? But it’s Captain Aine we’re talking about. Someone like her would never make up this kind of story. And it’s backed by the rest of her squadmates. I also went to see the site of the battle. Although the ice had melted away and the water had evaporated, there still is a large pile of machines stacked on top of each other. It’s like a scrapyard over there.”
“Captain Aine, huh? You’re right, that woman is too no-nonsense to start this sort of gossip,” Malik said in agreement.
“That’s what a human looks like?” Jim said in wonder. “He seems no different than us. We really were built in the image of our creators, weren’t we?”
“He’s kinda cute. In a rugged sort of way,” Nadia said.
When her friends turned their heads and looked at her scandalised, she grinned.
“What? Am I wrong?”
“Say one more word and I’ll puke on you,” Reiner threatened jokingly.
While the androids started exchanging barbs with each other, Harry remained silent. He had expected rumours to spread about him, but he had not expected to see such a large portrait of him in the city.
“He could be walking among us, and we wouldn’t know a thing,” Joanna said, and the androids involuntarily started looking at each other.
Eventually, their eyes fell on Harry. The five of them had known each other for many years, but Harry was a new addition to their group.
He chuckled nervously.
“You got me, guys. I’m the human,” he said, raising his hands up in surrender.
“You little shit!” Malik grabbed him with his arm by the neck and gave him a noogie.
Everyone thought he was joking because his appearance was clearly different. When Reiner met him on the pyramid, Harry happened to still be in disguise, wearing the same looks that he had when the broadcast from the Council of Humanity took place. He looked the same now too.
Although his hair was still messy, it was brown and shorter than in the painting. He was cleanly shaven; his forehead was smooth, without any scars, and his eyes were blue, not the vibrant, emerald green of the man in the graffiti painting. He looked like a different man, one that was 4 or 5 years younger than the one in the portrait.
An android’s physical strength was no joke. Malik was rubbing his head with his knuckles, but to Harry, it felt like he was scraping his head with a hammer. By the time Malik finally let go of him, Harry thought he had been scalped.
“What was that for?” he complained while rubbing his head tenderly to soothe his pain.
“Y’know, maybe Captain Aine was actually not wrong,” said Jim with a thoughtful look on his face. “She claims her squad met a human. Then the attacks of the machines stopped. And then we got a transmission from the Council of Humanity. Things seem to line up.”
⁂
Days passed. Harry and the androids continued their life as before. The androids formed squads and were sent on patrol around the pyramids, or they made incursions into the city, where they battled the machines. But Harry never tagged along with them.
Fortunately, it seemed as though Harry’s stunt from three months ago had punched a significant hole in the machines’ numbers in Cairo, so the androids were having an easier time than usual. Nobody in their little group of friends had died.
“James, my guy, you seriously need to do some maintenance on yourself,” Reiner said. “You can’t be sitting on the sidelines forever. Sooner or later, the mayor will get wind of it and send the Proctors after you.”
“Don’t worry, mate, I’m getting better with each day,” Harry replied.
“No, you’re not,” Nadia said, rolling her eyes. “I saw you at the shooting range a few days ago. Not even half of the bullets you shot meet their mark.”
Harry rubbed the back of his head.
“Haha, sorry. I haven’t been in the best shape since the machines razed my resistance camp.”
It was not that Harry was that bad at aiming. He was just unable to control the recoil of his weapon. Although he had learnt how to use a gun from other androids, his body was still that of a human. He didn’t have their physical strength.
“We know; you told us about it. That’s why I’m asking you to get yourself looked at. It can’t be good to stay untreated for so long,” Reiner insisted.
Knowing that Reiner had his best intentions at heart, Harry wasn’t annoyed by his nagging.
“I understand why you may be reticent about changing your parts,” said Jim. “I also had to have both my arms and one of my legs replaced over the years. Half of my torso is different from my original parts too. . . Sometimes, I’m wondering: would I still be me if I were to change all my parts? Or would I become someone else? It’s such a philosophical question-”
“God, Jim, don’t start that shit again!”
“This nerd!”
“Of course, Jim is talking about feelings again.”
And, just like that, the four androids started bullying Jim once more, forgetting about Harry.
⁂
Eventually, the androids arrived at their accommodation. It was a 5-story-tall and over 40-meter-wide building with numerous rooms and a common bathroom on each floor. The underground city, Memory Hold, was not spacious enough to allow the androids the luxury of owning personal houses. Most of them lived in barracks like this one.
Reiner, Nadia, Joanna, and Malik said their goodbyes and went inside to rest, but Jim stayed behind with Harry.
As the two of them walked together towards the bazaar, they began talking.
“These guys have been teasing you again today.”
“They’re not bad people. It’s all in good spirit,” Jim said, chuckling uncaringly. “They’ve saved my life more times than I can count. And I saved theirs too. We’ve been friends for over 100 years.”
Considering that the androids had to be ready to repel attacks from the machines 24/7, the city was never asleep. The local society was structured in a way that split the population into three. While two-thirds of them were asleep, resting, or relaxing, one-third were on duty. Therefore, public spaces such as the bazaar and the arena were always crowded, no matter the time of the day.
First, the two of them stopped by a maintenance shop where Jim bought oil and various lubricants for himself. Then, they headed towards the stall owner with whom Harry had business.
“Hey, Larry.”
“James! Just the person I was looking for!” the stall owner said as a greeting and raised his hand for a handshake.
“Have you finished sorting through the materials I’ve brought you?” he asked after shaking his hand.
In order to live in the society of the androids and blend in perfectly, Harry needed their currency. That being said, the only way for him to obtain money was to exchange various goods for them.
“Yes, I’ve extracted the machine cores. You’ve brought me 5 machines, but, unfortunately, only one of the cores is still usable. You can take the rest back, by the way,” said the stall owner as he gestured towards the piles of machine parts at his side.
“You can keep them,” Harry said easily. The world had no shortage of machines, and if he took that pile of metal scrap with him, he would just Vanish it. In the hands of the shopkeeper, it might find a better use. “So, how much is the core worth it?”
“I can give you 10,000 G for it.”
Before Harry could say anything, Jim, who was next to him, cut in with a sharp voice.
“Hey, are you trying to scam him? Machine cores go for 20 thousand at the lowest! Depending on their size and quality, they could go up to 30 or even 40 thousand!”
Harry was surprised to see the normally affable ginger speaking up so vehemently for him.
“Look, pal, I don’t want any trouble,” the shopkeeper said, shrugging his shoulders. “Normally, it’s as you said. But prices have been going down over the last three months because of an overabundance of machine parts. You should know how it goes: supply and demand.”
Harry patted Jim on the shoulder.
“It’s alright, mate, 10k G is fine too. I can always get more.”
“No, James, it’s not!” said Jim seriously. “Machine cores are hard to come by. Most machines explode when they die, and even if you kill them carefully, keeping them in one piece, their machine cores still get fried usually.”
Sensing that the deal was about to slip out of his hands, the shopkeeper relented.
“12,000 G. I could part with that.”
Jim turned his attention to him and said:
“19,000. I only needed one look to see that’s the core from a giant machine lifeform.”
The shopkeeper crossed his arms in front of his chest and narrowed his eyes.
“You do know your way around machines, huh? Fine, 14,000 G. Don’t you dare ask for more!”
By now, Harry was quite amused as he watched the two androids haggling acerbly.
In the end, Jim managed to bring up the price from 10k to 16k G. That money was enough for Harry to rent a room for two weeks.
⁂
One year and five months passed since Harry ended up in the future. Four months since he encountered the first androids and fought together with them against the machines. Two months since the Council of Humanity’s transmission. One month since he had made friends with Reiner, Jim, and the rest.
It was Friday, around 6 pm when the ‘morning’ squad returned from the battlefield, and Harry was waiting for them in front of the elevator. He did not hang out with the androids every single day but, the deeper their friendship grew, the more often he found himself in their company.
“Welcome back, everyone!” Harry said, smiling in a great mood as he waved his hand at them.
That smile of his paled when he saw that Nadia, the blonde-haired android, had a rather gnarly wound on her left arm and that her desert camo coat was soaked and red with her blood.
“What happened? Nadia, are you alright?” he asked, rushing to them.
“We fought a Goliath-class machine,” said Reiner with a grimace. “It looks like our moment of respite is over. The machines are starting to fight back again.”
Despite her wound, the young woman smiled at him.
“Its laser beam punched through our cover. We didn’t see it coming,” she explained. “Luckily, it only grazed my shoulder.”
“It’s only a flesh wound; she’ll live, so stop worrying,” Malik said, punching Harry lightly in the shoulder.
It was only a light punch from an android’s perspective, but Harry felt his arm become numb. He almost dropped the plastic bag that he was holding.
“Yep, the twins will patch me up in seconds,” Nadia confirmed.
“Who?” asked Harry.
“It’s a pair of Healing-type Androids. They are amazing when it comes to healing all sorts of external wounds,” Joanna said. “Come to think of it, this is a good chance. How about you come with us? You can finally get a medical check-up and some maintenance. God knows you need it.”
“Nah, I’m good,” Harry instantly refused.
Unfortunately for him, as if they could read each other’s minds, Malik and Jim suddenly grabbed him by one of his arms.
“Oy, what are you doing?”
“You’re not escaping this time,” Malik said.
“You’re going to the doctor this time, whether you want it or not,” the ginger also said.
“You too, Jim?!”
“I don’t often agree with this brute, but he’s right. You can’t put it off indefinitely.”
“Who are you calling a brute, you damn carrot-head?!”
“Come on, guys, let me go,” Harry said, his voice betraying his rising anxiety.
“No.”
“No!”
Although they were arguing with each other, the two of them quickly shot down his proposal.
It looked as though it started as a joke, but Harry was starting to become worried for real. Try as he might, he couldn’t free himself from the arms of his android friends.
‘Should I Disapparate?’
He was seriously starting to consider that option.
‘No, I can’t. . . with how tight they’re holding onto me, they’d be pulled along with me.’
‘Damn it, why now of all times?’
He was starting to enjoy his life for a change. It was the first time since he arrived in the future that he was beginning to feel like life was worth living again.
‘The moment they find out I’m human, not android, it’s all going to be over.’
“Guys, seriously, let me go. I’m not joking!” he said in an aggravated voice, and, for a second there, Malik and Jim looked like they were going to let him walk free.
“Don’t listen to him,” Reiner said with a frown. “Look, James, we’re doing this for your own good. Sooner or later, the Proctors will come for you. Do you want to end up as a deserter? Is being executed a better alternative than having the twins do some maintenance on you?”
It was as Reiner said. There were no “civilians” among the Androids. Sure, not all the androids were tasked with direct combat on the front line, but each and every single one of them played a part in the fight against the machine lifeforms, be it logistics, communications, or first aid. There were no exceptions. Deserters were pursued and executed by the militia of Memory Hold, the Proctors. And if they made it out of the city somehow, the Headhunters would be sent after them. Extremely few deserters managed to escape with their lives.
In the end, Harry could do nothing but resign himself to his fate. Soon, they reached the building that served as the hospital of Memory Hold.
‘It was nice while it lasted,’ Harry thought morosely.
The moment that his friends were going to take their hands off him, he would Disapparate. His cover would be blown, but he had no other choice.
‘Guess I’ll have to make a new identity. . . and new friends.’
The first part wasn’t difficult, but the second part hurt him. He had gotten quite attached to Reiner, Jim, and the rest.
Alas, even after entering through the doors of the hospital, Jim and Malik still didn’t let go of him.
“That’s quite the queue,” Reiner said, sighing.
“It makes sense. Many of us were injured on the battlefield today,” said Joanna.
While they were waiting in the queue, sitting on a metallic bench, despite knowing that this was most likely going to be his last day together with them, Harry decided to make the most of their remaining time.
“Hey, Joanna, could you take this bag from my hand and take out what’s inside?”
“Yeah, sure. . . What’s this?” she asked when she opened the bag and saw its contents.
“I’ve been thinking of ways to spend our time when we’re not in battle. I mean something other than just going to the arena and watching machine bits flying,” Harry said.
“You really don’t like it over there, huh?” Reiner muttered more to himself than to Harry.
“What’s wrong with the arena? What’s not to like about seeing machines blow up? Humans used to like that sort of thing too. Apparently, the pleasant feeling you get when you see machine bits exploding is called elation.”
Harry sighed. “You’re blowing machines up every day, for hours. Isn’t that enough to satiate your lust for violence? There are other, better ways to spend your free time, you know? I’ve checked some human records and I found some interesting alternatives.”
“Human records?!” Jim exclaimed.
The others were no less surprised than the ginger either.
“Is this something that belonged to humans?” Joanna asked with a tinge of awe in her voice.
‘I knew they’d be far more receptive to it once they heard it was from humans,’ Harry thought inwardly.
“Mhm. It’s a game called chess. That square board is called a chessboard. Come, take the pieces out of the bag too. It’s a game for two players. See? There are 16 white pieces and 16 black ones. Each piece has a special name.”
“What’s this one called?”
“That’s a pawn. Each player has 8 of them. The one with the cross on top is the king. That’s the most important piece on each player’s side.”
“Where did you get these from?” Nadia asked in amazement.
“I carved them myself. I’ve been working on them for a while,” Harry said. It was a lie. He had conjured the chessboard and the wooden pieces with his magic.
It took him nearly half an hour to explain the role of every piece and the rules of the game. However, seeing as they were stuck in the queue, it was not like they had anything better to do. Furthermore, hearing that it was a game that humans used to play, the androids were listening to his words with rapt attention.
In no time, Reiner and Joanna started a game of chess against each other.
Absorbed by the game, Malik and Jim forgot about keeping Harry restrained, but he didn’t take advantage of that to try slipping away because he knew that he could never hope to outrun an android. He would need to Disapparate; but once he did that, his cover would be blown. So whether he Disapparated now or one hour later, when they arrived in front of the so-called twins, it was all the same—his secret would be exposed.
Therefore, he decided to wait. He wanted to spend as much time as possible with his friends because it was going to be their last day together.
The first game finished rather quickly due to the androids’ inexperience, ending with Joanna checkmating Reiner. After that, Malik and Jim started playing too. This game was even shorter, with Jim beating Malik soundly.
Unknowingly, dozens of androids gathered around them to watch their game while they were waiting for their turn to be healed.
Inwardly, Harry couldn’t be any more pleased with the outcome.
‘I don’t know if it will ever become popular enough to replace the thrill they’re getting from watching machines die in the coliseum, but all I can do is try and hope for the best.’
Having become good friends with Reiner, Jim, Nadia, Joanna, and Malik, and after witnessing their lifestyle over the course of several weeks, a feeling of pity had arisen in him for them.
‘They were created to fight from the very moment they were born. That’s all they’ve been taught to do: killing the machines. . .’
Yet their behaviour proved that they were something more. They weren't mere robots, that much was as clear as day to Harry.
‘They are intelligent. They have desires. They have feelings. They have emotions. . .’
To him, they weren’t that different in behaviour from humans.
‘They deserve better. They deserve something more than just a life filled with war and killings.’
That's why he introduced them to the game of Chess. He wanted to introduce many other activities and games for relaxation and entertainment purposes, things that did not involve killing and destroying.
He couldn’t radically change the androids’ society by himself in a short period of time, but Harry was determined to do his best.
‘This is my life too now. It’s my world as well. And these are my friends.’
He had no idea how to get to the Moon to the surviving humans there.
Until he found a way to achieve that, he would do his best in the place where he lived now.
⁂
Eventually, Harry and his friends finally got their turn. There was only one person in front of them, a male android with a grievously injured right leg.
The twins that Harry’s friends had kept telling him about were two girls seemingly in their mid-twenties. Their faces were identical, down to the tiniest detail. They also had shoulder-length crimson-red hair and green eyes, and they were wearing flower ornaments in their hair that looked like white lilies.
The main way to tell apart one twin from another was their hair. Whereas one of them had messy, wavy hair, the other one’s hair was ruler-straight, and so was her fringe too.
The man lay on the bed and said in a snarky voice:
“Well? What are you waiting for? Get on with it already!”
Harry involuntarily frowned.
‘Who talks like that to a doctor?’
The two girls looked down, a difficult expression surfacing on their faces.
“I’m sorry, sir, but your leg is too far gone. We cannot heal it.”
The hole in the man’s right knee was as wide as the leg, with the lower part of the leg only holding onto the upper part from two wires.
“Haa? What do you mean you can’t heal it? Are you fucking with me right now?”
The girls flinched when he shouted at them, and they bowed deeply.
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. But there’s nothing we can do. Truly! I’m sorry.”
Seemingly deaf to their words, the man stood up on one leg and grabbed the messy-haired girl from the collar of her clothes.
“Listen here, you bitch! Do you think Gs grow in trees? How am I supposed to buy another leg? Huh? Tell me!”
Harry could no longer bear sitting back and watching him harass them like that. He had never been one to stay silent when the weak were oppressed in front of him. This time too, his saving people thing, as Hermione had called it, once again urged him to act.
“Hey! What the hell do you think you are doing?”
“James, don’t get involved,” Reiner said in a low voice and tried to stop Harry from standing up, but he instinctively dodged his hand.
“What do you mean, ‘Don’t get involved'? Are you blind to what is going on? How can you just sit and watch that dirtbag treat them like that?” Harry snapped at Reiner incensed.
“Hey, arsehole! What is wrong with you?” Harry stood up and shouted at the crippled android.
“What’s it to you, kid? These two bitches deserve everything that’s coming to them and more!”
“Let go of her. Now.”
“Or what? What are you going to do about it?” the man shouted back.
Harry clenched his teeth. If he took out his wand then, he would teach that android a lesson that he would never forget for as long as he lived.
Malik and Jim stood up at that moment and walked to the twins as well.
“Dude, just stop this circus and be on your way. You’re making us all wait longer than we should,” Malik said.
“You should’ve realised too that your leg can’t be salvaged. I don’t know why you even wasted your time here,” Jim also added.
Harry noticed that, while they stood up to support him, Malik and Jim weren't saying a word about that man’s deplorable behaviour towards the doctors.
When Malik and Jim put it like that and he also saw a few dozen other androids glaring at him, the crippled man clicked his tongue and let go of the girl, shoving her back roughly.
“Worthless bitches. I don’t know why you’re still allowed to live among us.”
Despite his harsh insults and violent behaviour, the two girls just bowed their heads and apologised one more time as though they were the ones at fault.
The man was carried away by a friend of his, and Nadia stepped forward to get her arm looked at.
Once she sat at the edge of the bed, the twins came to her and brought their hands close to her injured arm.
What happened next made Harry momentarily forget about his anger at that arsehole from before.
A sphere of white light appeared between the hands of both twins, and wisps of light surged into Nadia’s injured arm, closing the wound at a speed visible to the naked eye.
‘No way!’
He couldn’t believe his eyes.
‘Is that magic?!’
He could not claim to be an expert at sensing magic, but he was already 17 years old so he was not exactly a novice in magic anymore. He could recognise a magic spell when he saw one.
‘That’s definitely magic! But. . . how? Are they, perhaps, human?’
He brought his arm discreetly to his waist, to the wand holster hanging from his belt.
‘Homenum Revelio,’ he chanted mentally.
It was the incantation for the Human Presence Revealing spell. However, his spell did not detect any humans in a radius of 30 metres around him.
The two girls were not human. They were androids.
![[The Nexus] Chapter 4 - Androids (II)](https://img5.leakoo.com/storage/6/va/ak/93d9f0-019e7c61-1b77-7cc6-b874-5d142a93af56.jpg)
![[The Nexus] Chapter 4 - Androids (II)](https://img10.leakoo.com/storage/3/am/ll/93d9f0-019e7c61-1b83-75a4-8ff8-20a1291ea079.png)
Comments
Jesus Duran
It's the twins! Oh man I wondered how Harry would react to their healing but damn he's so shocked he probably missed his best chance to disappear. Can't wait to see their reactions when they figure out he's human. At least I hope they figure it out and keep it secret.
Jack Blaze
Awesome man
Grumpy Wolf
No, one of the main reasons I'm writing this fic is to give the characters I liked a happy ending :)
Jack Blaze
Man, it really makes one feel for these twins after getting even just the gist of what happened to the originals and how all the subsequent ones got unjustly demonized for it. I really hope with Harry there, these models of Devola and Popola will be among those he manages to save - unless you're going for a tragic ending which...fair enough, given what I know about the franchise
Afterdark230
I will say I am intrigued with this story. It’s different from what I usually read. Looking forward to the next chapter
