9.4 – Original Owner

E-UNIT · VOLUME 9 · GUESTS AND GHOSTS

CHAPTER 219

January hadn't quite decided to be January yet. The sky stayed the same blue ceiling it had been in December, watching everything from above and making the dark space behind it seem almost approachable. Metis's mechanical surveillance birds filled that blue, flying reporters with no concept of privacy, sets of eyes watching the city from every angle.

The same sky reflected in the concrete face of Omega.

She sat in the waiting lobby outside the main development lab, the hovering armchair turned toward the full glass wall overlooking Theria. Most of the buildings below were white with orange horizontal bands running down their faces. Many had no windows.

‘Robots don't require oxygen. Humans aren't particularly welcome.’

She had been counting the mechanical birds in the sky. The fact that she could see through this concrete body at all was its own kind of achievement. The scientists at Metro Robotics had taken as much data from her as she'd allow, a conscious walking statue wasn't something that came through the lab regularly, and they had treated the opportunity with appropriate enthusiasm. She had been patient with them.

‘I remember when organic life filled these streets. Humans, everywhere, every morning. Now everything that moves is a robot, the same as me. There's a strange comfort in that. I spent so long wondering how people would receive me, whether they'd accept what I was or treat it as something to be removed. I don't need to prove myself to anyone here. I see why brother arrived at this. I see the cost too.’

She turned and scanned the lobby. Two glass walls met at the corner to her left, the city visible through both of them. The ceiling was a single continuous light source, the whole surface a lamp that supplemented the daylight until the room had no shadows. Light grey tile floor, clean in the way of surfaces that get maintained before they need it.

At her feet, a white carpet extended below the hovering armchair and the matching one beside it. A small table stood between them with a very small plant on it, angled toward the window to catch the sun.

She picked up the plant.

"Why can't they be more like you?" She turned the pot gently in her concrete hands. "You exist to clean the air for them. You ask for nothing. And they cut you down and burn you the moment it's convenient, without thinking twice about it." She set it back carefully, running one finger along a leaf. "We know that experience from the inside."

She looked at the white door set into the dark wall opposite her.

"Brother. I can sense you on the other side of the door. Are you avoiding me?"

The door opened. Reaper came through it, barely fitting, and crossed to the armchair beside her, adjusting it until it faced her directly.

"I was enjoying watching you arrive at my conclusion on your own." He settled in. "They'll use a modified version of Shelly's proxy frame for your new body. She's already redesigned it to fit your crystal specifically."

"She's that capable?" Omega tilted her head. A small amount of cement fell from her neck joint onto the armrest. She looked at the dust and tried to clean it. Reaper reached over and moved her hand back.

"We have people here who take pride in their work. Don't worry about it." He leaned back. "Yes. Shelly is the one who built my operating system. The one who built… me, in that sense."

"I thought father was your creator. He always spoke about you as his."

"He built the hardware you're talking to." Reaper turned toward the view outside, the city small and orderly from this height. "It makes sense that building me required two geniuses. One for what I run on, one for what I run. I'm a single original instance of myself." He paused. "Remarkable, when you think about it."

Omega held the laugh in her voice, even without a face to show it. "Since when do you speak about yourself like that? When I see a robot praising their own hardware, I think of the newly wealthy human who buys the most expensive car on the market, not because it's the best, but because they need someone to notice. The one worth impressing me is whoever did the building."

"I build things too." He gestured at the city below. "What do you think? One year, starting from the day you were declared dead. I claimed a country for our kind and built an idea around it. Somewhere safe, like…"

"—an Elysium?" She tried to smile. She hadn't found the mouth yet. "Perfect name."

"I know."

"Your sense of humor is irritating." She shook her head, more dust settling. "But if it had been my decision, I would have called it something different. Something that points toward the feeling rather than the destination. The thing robots in this world are willing to give everything to reach."

Reaper waited.

"Ávaton."

"Terrible."

"Why?"

"The A has an accent." He looked at the plant, which had been sitting quietly through the whole conversation. "People will spend ten seconds searching for the right character, give up, and spell it wrong. I know how they think."

"So you care about humans."

"Not the way you mean." His voice held its usual register without adjustment. "I'm opening the country to human tourists in the near future. I want them to see what we've built here. To see what the fallen Altea, the one that imprisoned its own people and consumed the countries around it, could have been, in the right hands."

"And with money."

"And with money."

Omega laughed, quiet and genuine, looking at the city to her right. "I see why Ávaton doesn't fit. You're building something to be seen."

"Elysium's first anniversary is next month." Reaper moved the chair beside him closer and put his arm around her concrete shoulders. “The anniversary comes first. Then Remidica.”

Omega looked at him. “You say that like one is a celebration and the other is weather.”

“Both require preparation.” Reaper said. "Would you want to—"

"Yes!" She caught herself immediately. "Sorry, I raised my voice. I mean of course. I've never been to anything that qualified as fun. It was always a mission here, someone needs saving there, father needs to study the Omega crystal again, an E-Medic needs help moving a heavy container of my spare parts…"

Reaper looked at her face, the plastic halo above it catching the light for a moment.

"Do you want the Omega crystal back?"

She stood up and started moving through the room, concrete dust following her footsteps in a thin trail. "First, let's stop calling it the Omega crystal. I am the Omega crystal." She jumped lightly, testing the body. The leg joint shattered. "Second, that crystal is a large-scale destruction weapon wearing a cute android's face, and I think you agree with that assessment."

"Completely."

"Third, 02 will give it up the moment she can guarantee her sisters are safe. She's using it as protection for them, not for herself. That crystal is exhausting to carry, and she knows it." She made a small rotation in place. "I'm at peace with the current arrangement."

"I understand. You've never wanted to be treated as a weapon. And this crystal—the cyan one, is everything the other isn't."

"Yes! That's exactly it, brother." She opened her arms wide. "Here is your reward for getting it right, a hug from the cold concrete sister. Picture yourself embracing a museum exhibit."

Reaper raised a hand. "I appreciate the gesture—"

She kept her arms open, fingers opening and closing, beckoning.

He exhaled, a low, deliberate hum through his vents. He stood and crossed to her and held her, carefully, the way you hold something you're not entirely sure won't leave marks.

"There. Thank you for the reward."

Her voice dropped to a whisper. She kept hold of him. "Don't overthink it. You're doing the right thing."

"What?"

"I know you're carrying the weight of what you're about to do to Shelly." She turned her face up toward him, the concrete features finding no expression but the words carrying everything they needed to. "Don't hold back. You need to put the anger somewhere real, even if it hurts her. She'll keep going until she faces something with actual weight behind it."

Reaper stepped back and looked at her for a moment. "How did you access my memory? I have secured Super Memory Chips installed."

"I didn't need to access anything." She turned toward the door. "I just know you." She paused. "Someone's coming."

The door opened. Kuantum came through it with high energy, he had been waiting to deliver good news.

"Lord Reaper! The frame is ready, the printing process is complete. Omega has a real body waiting for her. Would you like us to add anything specific? The new fashion company sent over custom parts designed to fit the new frame."

Reaper looked at the plastic halo floating above Omega's concrete head. The light caught it at the angle it always did, the same way it had every time he'd looked at her since they'd found her.

"I have an idea."