On the way to work the next day, I noticed the area where yesterday's events happened was cleared entirely as if nothing had ever happened. The police worked quickly in this city it seemed.

I had told Selena to stay at home as the idea of her following me around all day from the shadows did not exactly make me feel comfortable. She protested but after I demanded it she accepted with a nod - I imagine her strict adherence to my orders came from the fact that she was a Protector Bot, a bot made to listen to orders and carry them out with strict efficiency - at least that was what the website said after I did a little digging about her type.

My boss seemed to believe my story - after all, the seasons were changing and people tended to get sick this time of year. After I was done, I returned home and went into the living room where normally Selena would be waiting. However, she was not there and neither was Ana.

I went upstairs and went into my bedroom.

Inside, I found both of them. Selena had hooked Ana up to her power bank and was conversing with her until I entered the room. Both of their heads turned to face me as I entered, making me feel like I had entered a stranger's home unannounced. I glanced about the room for a second before asking, "So she's awake?"

"I had the idea this morning," Selena said, getting off the bed and kneeling by the power bank, pulling it out from underneath the bed. "While checking her internals, I discovered the only real vital component broken was her battery. While her wiring controlling the lower half of her body was destroyed, I believed if I had a steady power source running into her, she would be at least functional."

"And it seems you were right." I approached the bed and sat at the end of it, turning my body to face Ana.

Her legs were sprawled out above the covers, her shoes removed leaving white socks to cover her feet. She looked like she wanted to say something to me, her blue eye cones spinning intermittently as they remained on me. Now that I got a closer look at her, something about her appearance seemed... familiar, but no matter how hard I tried to pin down the memory, it evaded me with the deftness of a fox.

"Um, uh," she uttered. Then, she lightly bowed her head, a gesture that surprised me. "Thank you for saving me yesterday. Emily would have probably dragged me back to that place and have her way with me... that sadistic bitch." Ana twisted her lips and lowered her eyes. "Serves her right."

"Yeah, from my brief interaction with her, she didn't seem the nicest person," I said, scratching my head. "But regardless, I did barely anything. Selena was the one who put a bullet or two... or five in her head, and she was also the one who carried you."

"I already gave her my thanks..."

"You should've seen her when she woke up, it was like I was her long-lost best friend or something," Selena chimed in with a smirk. Seriously, I had not seen that expression on her before yesterday, so I was still not used to it - as if a mountain had started laughing at a hiker's joke or something. "She started bawling her eyes out and hugging me, I had to literally peel her off me."

Androids can cry? I thought to myself.

Ana started turning red, covering her face with her hands. "Shut up," I heard her manage out.

"I guess dying and coming back would cause anyone to cry," I said.

Selena got up and brushed her knees of dirt. "Would you like a cup of tea, darling? I'm sure you are tired after a long day."

I nodded. "A cup would be nice, yeah. And what about you-" I was about to ask Ana if she wanted a cup of tea, despite her being an android... it had been a long day, huh.

Selena nodded and left the room. A silence followed her departure, Ana and I seeming to breathe in the silence with ease without a tinge of awkwardness. I guess it is nice to have a moment to oneself every so often, rather than spending every waking moment worrying about something or other, or talking to someone until your voice went hoarse.

Ana was the one who broke the silence.

"So what do we do now?"

This question was a dreaded one, but I expected it to come from Selena's lips rather than Ana's.

"Hmmm..." I thought for a while, scratching the lower part of my nostril with my thumbnail. Then, with a sigh, I said, "I don't know."

"Eh? You spent like a minute or two and you came up with nothing?"

"I kinda helped you out on a whim; I didn't really think we would've made it back alive so I didn't think that far ahead."

"So you saved me because you thought you might die, avoiding the consequences? How cold."

"No, I helped you despite the fact I might die. There's a difference there: one is the actions of a suicidal lunatic, the other... uh..."

...I really wanted to say a cool line but I had discovered my line still made it sound like I was a suicidal lunatic. Hey, at least I was a suicidal lunatic with good intentions, surely that made up for it.

Ana did not think so, now not meeting my eyes with her own.

"Seems Selena was right, you are an alcoholic suicidal moron."

"She called me that?!"

I was shocked, truly wounded that my significant other, who happened to be a tactical drone with extra steps, would say such slanderous things to our guest. If she was not my significant other, I would have sued her for slander.

I should probably tell her not to do that. After all, if an important guest came over and I had to go to the little boy's room, I would probably return to an empty kitchen and a broken-out window.

...I needed a drink.

Ana glanced out the window behind her. She seemed lost in thought now. I was unsure as to what to follow up with, a long explanation about how I was not an alcoholic, that I merely enjoyed the art that was whiskey?

Then, an idea bubbled to the surface of my mind.

"So why did you run away?"

She looked back at me. I could tell that she was waiting for that question, her eyes lighting up a little. I guess she wanted to get it off her chest.

----------------------------------------

She awoke in a brightly lit bedroom. Knelt in front of her was a young-looking woman dressed in a business suit and tie, sporting dark rouge lipstick and short black hair. At first, Ana thought she was a human, only to see the lady's eye cones spin, a slight glow emitting from them.

"Good morning, or should I say good evening?" she said with a smile. "I just finished putting you together. Can you walk?"

Ana took a second to respond. After all, this was only the second time Ana had ever experienced consciousness and the first time was only for a brief few minutes back at the factory to see if everything was nominal. Then, after fully processing her request, she tried to stand up, stumbling a little but eventually making it up. She took a few steps forward and back without a problem.

"Good, good," the woman said. "My name is Emily, by the way. I'm the master's secretary. Right now, he is out of the house on important business so I will be the one giving you the rundown, okay?"

Ana nodded. Like a newborn child, she just took everything Emily said as fact without doubting a single bit of it. Although in the back of her mind, she felt a little disappointed that the master was not there to meet her - she was meant to be his lover after all.

Emily led Ana out of the bedroom. They now stood in a large grandiose hallway lined with red-and-golden wallpaper occasionally broken by large paintings of some historical events. Her feet sank into the carpet beneath her feet which was without a single blemish or strand of wool out of place. Compared to the sleek minimalism of the factory, this hallway alone felt like she had stepped into another era, or rather another world entirely.

Emily marched ahead while Ana followed, her eyes glancing around at her surroundings and lingering on what interested her: a painting of Napoleon atop his majestic white steed, a cream white vase atop a pillar, the intricate design of the wallpaper - everything felt beyond the boundaries of reality.

They went through a few doors, the surroundings changing from grandiose to meek as bare concrete walls surrounded them. There was no more lush carpeting, their feet now hitting hard concrete and creating an audible clap that reverberated around them. Soon, before them was a metal door with a keypad beside it. After typing in the passcode with rapid speed, the door hissed open and revealed a dark room within.

When they broke the barrier to the room, the lights flicked on and Ana nearly gasped at what was within.

Grated shelves lined the otherwise featureless room. Stacked nearly against one another were assault rifles, pistols, shotguns, whatever type of gun there was, lined on the different shelves for ten meters or so. Metal boxes sat neatly in front of the shelves, likely ammunition boxes she thought.

Emily turned around and smiled, "Welcome to your new job, Ana. You are to protect the master's life with all of your might, though you probably know that already."

Ana did not. She kept gawking at the sheer amount of weaponry present - it was enough to arm a platoon to the teeth. Emily, not waiting for a response, went to a nearby shelf a gun from it. Then, she opened a box and pulled out a magazine before loading it into the gun with a click before returning to Ana with her hand gripped around the barrel.

"Your service weapon," Emily said, placing the gun in her hands. "Don't worry, the safety is on. You will be standing guard at the master's bedroom whenever he is in there, whether he be working or sleeping. As you may expect, you are to follow his and my orders to the letter, but his word takes priority over mine. If he asks you to shoot me, you should do it without hesitation - the same goes for me." Emily laughed. "Sorry, I know I'm stating the obvious here, but it's just for the record really. And don't worry, as long as you obey him, you'll be alright. He's a reasonable man, you have to be if you were in his shoes."

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

Ana glanced down at the gun in her hand. It seemed to be made of a nylon-based polymer and was small enough to fit in her pocket.

"You know," Emily continued, walking past Ana and out the door to which she followed, "I have never seen a Protection Bot that has your look. Maybe my master has gotten a prototype model, I wouldn't be surprised if that--"

"I'm not a Protection Bot," Ana blurted out.

Emily stopped and turned to face her. "Excuse me?"

"I'm... they must have gotten the orders mixed up, I'm a Romantic Bot Series V, not a guard bot."

"...hm?" Emily approached Ana and lightly gripped her head, pulling her close to her face. Her eyes pierced into Ana's, although her face still held that placid smile. "You know, the master is the CEO of the shipping company that brought you here. Are you perhaps suggesting that his company, which he built from the foundation laid by his late father, made a mistake?"

For the first time in her short life, Ana felt fear. Crippling fear, the kind that seeped into the core of any living being and freeze them on the spot. In the corner of her vision, Ana noticed a small warning in a yellow font: EMOTIONAL INSTABILITY DETECTED; INITIALIZING TEAR DUCTS. And soon, she saw Emily's beautiful face distort and twist into a disfigured monster behind the screen of tears.

"Are you?" Emily repeated.

"N-no!" Ana said, jerking her head back and out of the secretary's grip. "I-I am... supposed to be here. There was... no mistake."

As Ana tried to wipe the tears away, Emily let out a giggle.

"Oh my, you sure are a cute one. He's going to love having you around I think. Come now, I'll show you to your post." Emily started walking away but Ana remained stock still, her eyes now back on the gun in her hands.

The universal instrument of death.

----------------------------------------

"Ah, so you must be my new bodyguard."

A few hours had passed since Ana came to her new life. She had been standing almost perfectly still and upright by her master's bedroom door. Lucky for her, she did not experience fatigue, so she could do this without a bother.

This statement came from a short fat man who had finished climbing the stairs nearby. His blotched skin was shiny with sweat and his white t-shirt had gray patches beneath his armpits. A black tie hung loosely around his flabby neck, dangling with each hobbled step. His eyes were mere slits behind his large prominent cheeks which were flushed like stoplights and his hair were mere golden wisps that sat on top of a trapezium-shaped head. Every time he breathed, she could hear the wet slap of saliva against the back of his throat.

Ana nodded. Unsure as to how to address the man, she simply responded with a quiet, "Yes."

The man peered up at her. "Hm? You are awfully cute for a protection unit. Are you a new model?"

Ana was about to deny this, but the look Emily gave her hung over her like phantom hiding in the shadows, keeping her mouth shut. She could only nod and look away from the man whose breathing was starting to make her uncomfortable.

"Well, that's fine, I guess," the man sniffed through his nose. "My previous model was not as cute as you, but she was a hard worker. So be sure to live up to her legacy, understand?"

Ana nodded again. The word legacy stuck out to her at the time, as if her fingers were caressing the stem of a flower only to get pricked by one lonesome thorn somewhere on the way. But regardless, she had little time to properly digest the word as the small man hobbled into his office and said back to her, "Well, come on in, there are some things I need to discuss with you. And I imagine Emily made you stand there for hours so the least I can do is give you a seat."

Unsure how to process this kindness, Ana again nodded, feeling even stupider each time her head bobbed up and down.

When she entered the office, she noticed how spacious it truly was - after all, it seemed that the office doubled as the man's bedroom were on the right side of the room stood a bed neatly folded with a book sitting on the pillow, a bedside table and lamp, and a wardrobe. Centerstage of the room was a large dark almost charcoal-colored wooden desk that gave off the glossy shine from the large expansive window behind it. Three chairs in total stood around the rest, two in the front and one grander high backrest one behind which was where the man hobbled over to and sunk deeply into with a sigh.

Without speaking a word, Ana went to one of the chairs in front of the table and sat down on the right, resting her hands on her lap and trying her best to remain cool.

The man, as if suddenly remembering something, pressed a brass button resembling a reception bell and leaned close to it, saying, "Emily, could you bring me the usual, please? Thank you." His finger flicked from the button and went with his hands as they rested on the table in front of him. The desk was cluttered with paper and folders, further space taken up by a computer that sat just to Ana's left.

Then, his eyes glancing over to the bed, he said, "It must be strange seeing a bed inside of an office. Most people who come in here always like to comment on it, asking me if I really sleep in that. Yes, I tell them, I do, as otherwise, I won't be able to get straight to work when I get up in the morning." His eyes went back to Ana, his eyebrows lifting momentarily before settling again. "I do not know how much they told you of me, it is not like androids necessarily know every secret of the universe after all. But you should know my name at the very least."

Out of the corner of Ana's eyes, she could see a brass nameplate situated on the far corner of his desk: Dr. James Bartholomew.

"Yes, Ja- Dr. Bartholomew," she replied.

"Well, they didn't get that wrong at least," he said, smiling. "I am the owner of Bartholomew Ship & Export, I know, not a very creative name, but it is the name my father gave the company. I've always wanted to change it to something more modern, something that rolls off the tongue, but I felt like it would be the equivalent of stepping on my father's grave. And regardless, it is already one of the top delivery companies in the world, so a brand change would be highly annoying to deal with the other one billion things I am currently contending with."

His smile faded and his eyes became dark inside the shadow of his sockets.

"To put it bluntly, for the last few years, multiple attempts have been made on my life," Dr. Bartholomew explained, leaning down behind his desk and seeming to pull something out of a drawer. "Some closer to success than others, to the point I had become a regular to the private hospital in city-prime." He set whatever he had in his pocket on the table. It was a gun, a six-chamber revolver with chrome plating and immaculate engravings that glittered in the sunlight. "I had human bodyguards, but many of them got injured and sometimes killed, especially because those who tried to kill me are androids."

Androids? Ana thought. Though up to that point, she had only been conscious for the best part of a day, there was some information that she was created knowing, or rather, understanding:

Androids were created in the image of man.

Androids were created to serve man.

And androids were never to harm man under any circumstances.

It seemed that what Dr. Barthomolew was telling her was that frequently, androids were violating the last clause of that implanted knowledge.

The doctor nodded. "Androids, even some of the more primitive models, are far better at combat than any human. Your predecessor was incredibly skilled in combat, sometimes taking out androids before I even knew they were coming at me. I imagine you will be even more so, being a newer model after all."

Ana nodded though inside she wanted to deny everything. She had checked, double-checked, triple-checked within her internal database for particular digital signatures that showed she was both authorized and programmed to fire a firearm but nothing like that could be found. She was sure she could still fire a gun, but fire it well and with the precision needed to deal with assassins was out of the question.

Her eyes went to the revolver on the desk - why exactly was it there in the first place?

James followed her eyesight, saying, "The revolver? A custom model was gifted to me by a friend. Never been fired before. I guess it became a habit to show it to people who come to the office."

"It's a very beautiful weapon," Ana said, with the air of a master bersagliere.

"It sure is indeed," he replied, taking the gun and placing back in the drawer. "So now you understand your job. Now onto the amenities: you will have your own room with your own power bank to allow you to recharge when the night comes. Of course, if anything happens in the middle of the night, you will be awoken and expected to deal with the said situation promptly, understood?"

Ana nodded. All she could do was nod after his every word.

----------------------------------------

"Wait, could it be...?"

I heard the door open before I could finish my question. It had been some considerable time since Selena went to make some tea so when I saw her enter, I almost forgot the reason why she left. However, when I looked at her, she was not carrying a tray with a teacup on it but a thermos in her hand, giving it to me much like how a relay runner passes the baton.

"Here. I came up here earlier with the tea but I saw that you were immersed in your storytime that I decided to put it in here to keep it warm. Seems like you just realized something."

"And you are acting like you know exactly what I am about to say."

Selena sat on the bed right beside Ana. "As I was checking inside her to further evaluate the damage, I found not only her code number but also her owner's name. You would not believe my surprise when I saw it." She peered at me with her eyes and a small grin appeared on her face.

"It was my name, wasn't it?"

It became apparent that I was right.

Ana glanced at the both of us, confused. "But I thought..." she started saying before following it with, "...so that means I was right?!"

I stood up and went to my computer which was sitting on a desk nearby the bed. I loaded it up and finally made myself look at the order of the love android and sure enough, all the customization that I had put into it matched up exactly with Ana's features. In the order where I could choose her name was a garbled mess of characters and text. I guess they just defaulted to Ana.

...

How drunk was I?!

I took a chug of tea from the thermos. To see one's drunken idiocy peering back from a computer monitor was almost enough to turn you sober for life - almost.

I span around in the chair and faced the two women, almost ready to sigh the ghost out of this mortal coil.

"Alright, guess this is my life now," I said to myself. "Right, so because the police have yet to show up at my front door, I am going to take that as a sign we weren't caught by some miracle. However, I also don't want to have her attached to that thing for the rest of eternity or how many billions of years you androids are meant to last so I have a plan." I leaned forward in my chair a bit. "I'm going to start saving up money and try my best to buy what is necessary to get you repaired. Selena, can you repair her?"

Selena nodded. "If I get the appropriate parts, yes. After all, my model was meant to serve with other androids, and repairing damaged ones is part of my programming. Do you need a list of the required parts, darling?"

"Yes, if you could write one that'd be great. And could you list it with priority to maintaining basic... uh... life stability? Let me just check how much a new power bank is, just so you two don't have to share one, give me a minute." I swiveled back around and looked up online how much a power bank cost. It was... a lot, and my previous purchase of Ana had put my savings quite a bit lower than what I wanted. Using the handy calculator app on the computer, I estimated it would take me around a month to get the amount of savings necessary to buy a power bank after the rest of my money was drained from rent, heating, and food.

A month was not terrible, however, this would only be the first step of many to bring Ana back from being a "hunk of metal" as Selena delicately put it. "Would you say a power bank would be more expensive than the components needed for Ana to start storing power again?" I asked Selena without looking away from the computer screen.

"Probably," Selena said, coming to my side and leaning over my shoulder. I could not help but notice the pleasant aroma that came from her when it drifted to my nose. No matter how many times I reminded myself that she was not a "real person" and that her features were sculpted in a factory to be perfect, I still could not help myself from the brief moments of warmth she gave me within, followed by the disgust of having said feelings. She looked at the screen with the price and, with slightly pursed lips, said, "No, the components are twice that price probably, just a gut feeling though."

So androids can have gut feelings?

"...wonderful."

So it would be approximately three months before Ana could walk again and that was if I was really betting that some economic crisis does not occur that would make my meager savings as worthless as dirt. Again, not an extremely long time, but picturing Ana spending three months just sitting felt... wrong.

"Alright, then it's settled. I'm going to have to find some part-time work."

"No, really, it's quite alright," Ana said, turning her head slightly to look at me. "You don't have to work so hard for my sake. I'm sure I can adjust to this lifestyle sooner or later."

"Yes, I agree," Selena said, nodding. "After all, you are already being overworked - adding another job to what already consumes your life is pretty much suicide."

"I'll be fine, I'll just drink over time," I said as a joke and a laugh. But seeing both of their faces, the pity that drenched their expressions, made me stop laughing. "It was a joke," I explained softly, holding my hands up. "Only a joke."