The rain had gotten heavier. Where it used to beat the ground, each droplet seemed determined to impale the surface with vengeful hatred. The wind roared like an untamed beast, spurring on its cloud companions as its children pummelled relentlessly. Falling just short of a typhoon, the storm was enough to chase most people into shelter, but the man didn’t flinch no matter how the menacingly thunder cackled.

The security had thrown Dimitri out of the building and there he laid, unmoving. They hadn’t handled him so roughly as to break his bones, but the man remained listless on the ground, desolation in a shell.

Dimitri understood that the main reason why he was being shunned among his own people was because of the green skin. Most of them surmised he was probably not quite right in the head. The green on the outside must have spread to the inside, and green was not supposed to be on the outside, nor inside. And even if that was not the case and he was indeed, still sane, it would be a reasonable assumption to think that the man had probably been too stupid to contain the safety of his experiments, which meant that his words could probably held little weight.

It was clear from their eyes that they resented even a moment of his lingering. After all he had done for his company, they had decided to throw him away on the grounds that he had ‘caused a lot of trouble’ for them when he had decided to leave. That confused him greatly, but he saw plainly that it was too late for him to ever go back. They had found new, shiny replacements, eager to please. The new guys probably had the same or even better qualifications than him, but without a history of disappearing or charging into the building unwashed after five days and sporting bits of moss peeking out from their shirts.

Dimitri sunk into despair. He felt for the first time what it was like to be discarded, to be treated like trash. After a few minutes, he reached into the inner pocket of his coat and took out a small knife, a piece of fine silver that twinkled in the wet darkness. He held out his arm, the hideous one with the sleeve still rolled up, and let out a guttural roar as he shut his eyes and plunged the knife down.

The rain on the concrete remained transparent and untainted. The sudden jerk had startled the man into sobriety. He stared in surprise at the young lady that stood before him, just as unfazed by the rain as him. How she had gotten so close without him noticing?

The girl held the knife between her thumb and index finger. He let her pry it out of his grasp. She stood in silence, waiting for him to speak first.

“What are you doing?” The man broke the silence, his voice almost drowned by the ever-protesting rain.

“Saving you from yourself,” she replied, moving her lips slowly so he could read her lips even if he couldn’t hear her over the pounding rain..

“What makes you think I want to be saved?”

“Do you not?”

“No.”

“And there’s my answer. Most people who need saving often don’t think they do.” Then the girl continued with the only words that she knew would win him over. “I believe you.” She gave him a look that said she expected him to know what she was referring to.

“What?”

“I heard you, and I believe you.”

“You were there?”

“Yes.”

The man was unable to hide his pleasure at having discovered that his truth had not fallen only on deaf ears, but his smile fell away when he noted that it was only one rational mind which he had managed to convince, and one was far from enough to incite the required action, not to mention that the probability became even more miniscule by the fact that his only supporter was a girl who looked barely old enough to go to college.

It was as if the girl read his mind. She narrowed her eyes and refuted his internal remark. “You think it’s not enough that I believe you. You think that just because I’m young, I can’t help you broadcast the message to the world. and even if we managed to get it out, no one would believe us. But I can help you.”

The girl could not be more than a quarter of a century old. Worn by the bitterness and disappointment of his recent endeavour, the man was sceptical of her statement, but he bit his lip before something rude came out and chided himself. It hadn’t been five years since he had experienced the same lens of underestimation through which senior members of the research community had gazed upon him. He should know better than to judge one’s capabilities based on something as frivolous as age. Instead, he let out a wry chuckle and tried to ask his next question without sounding rude. “Really? What can you do?”

“The people in there are only willing to listen to people who look like them. If you want to get them to listen, you need to get rid of it. You want to get rid of the green skin, don’t you? I can help you.”

“How?”

Seeing that she caught his interest with that statement, the girl continued. “There’s a doctor in my village. She has yet to encounter an illness or injury that she has not found a solution to.” That was a bold statement to make. The man folded his arms in contempt. Surely, the girl didn’t think he was so naive as to buy that.

“Why should I believe you?”

“You don’t have to.” She turned to leave. “But I don’t see anyone else making you a better offer.”

After a few moments, the man asked, “Where are you going?”

The girl stopped and turned to look at him. “Home. I’d advise you to follow me if you know what’s good for you.”

“You’d be crazy to think I’d go with you,” said the man. For all he knew, she could be working with a serial killer, or she might be one. It was always the most unsuspicious ones who turned out to be the culprit. The lady was crazy if she thought he would follow her with what little credibility she offered.

“Suit yourself.” She shrugged, then started to turn away. As her long skirt shifted, the man saw a glimpse of something glinting in the moonlight.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“What …” He was at a loss for words.

The girl followed his gaze and lifted her skirt slightly to reveal mechanical calves. As one of the world’s top mechanics, Dimitri could not deny the workmanship was by far one of the most exquisite he had ever laid his eyes upon. The metal glistened with droplets of new rain. Water streaks seductively traced the contours down her achilles tendons. The surface was smooth and reflective, but withheld a signature marble swirl of space-grade alloy. The joints at the ankles were made of a sorry imitation of dull gold, but so expertly assembled that the man did not need to observe them in motion to know the components were perfectly aligned and that they would always be. Each piece was simple, yet utterly flawless. Such a marvel could only be born from the hands of a true master of the craft. The man would have missed this wonder if he had not noticed her feet, for her motions had been perfectly natural, as a human’s should be. Her dress covered up to her ankles. Those prosthetics were the most magnificent ones he had ever seen.

Dimitri wouldn’t follow the girl in high hopes of obtaining a cure. The poison was formulated by some of the world’s greatest minds. It would take a lot more than the average scientist to find a cure, let alone a young girl practising medicine at her local village. But being a mechanical engineer—one of the best in the field—the curiosity about the exquisite prosthetic captivated him. After laying his eyes on one of the most fascinating pieces of work he had ever encountered, Dimitri just had to meet the creator.

“Who gave you those?” he asked, still staring at the mechanical limbs. It was rude to stare at a lady’s naked calves for so long, but those were a mere imitation of human calves and she was not just a lady.

The girl’s cheeks were tinted pink, but if she felt any shyness, it did not translate in her voice. “You’re not a very good listener, are you? I just told you about the village doctor.”

“You’re telling me she’s an engineer and a doctor?”

The girl nodded. “These were her very first project,” she said, following Dimitri’s gaze. “She takes care of all of us at the village. Now, are you going to continue staring or do you want to let the poison continue to fester in your skin?”

Dimitri looked into her eyes and contemplated the unshakable peace he found in them. If the doctor’s expertise in medicine was anything like her abilities in mechanical engineering, there might be hope for him yet. Besides, it wasn’t like he had any other option available.

“How far away is your village?” The man collected himself and got to his feet.

“A few hours away on foot.”

Just moments before he had made up his mind not to go with the girl. But this new discovery had changed his outlook completely. Sure, for all he knew, the girl might be a serial killer, but then again, what did he have to lose? He would consider himself as good as dead if he had to live the rest of his life as a mutant, and he could think of nothing else to improve his situation. The girl was offering him a solution and he was compelled to believe her after seeing the sublime prosthetic.

“It would have been easier to convince me to go with you if you showed them to me as evidence of the doctor’s abilities,” he remarked.

“Or, you would have argued that it would be presumptuous of you to assume that her prowess in mechanical solutions could serve as a testament of her knowledge of biochemistry.” The girl had a point.

The man’s face broke into an amused grin. “I must be out of my mind,” he said. Then he held out his hand. “Dimitri.”

Wynonna smiled, unabashed to show that she was pleased with herself. She shook Dimitri’s hand more firmly than he had anticipated from the fragile-looking girl.

“Ilya,” she introduced herself. Wynonna, she said inwardly, for her name was not to be spoken aloud by anyone apart from her maker.

As Dimitri trailed behind the girl, he thought she looked almost ethereal as the rain fell on her shoulders, creating an illusion of a halo outlining her silhouette. The water made it seem like her skin was coated with a brilliant sheen of copper. If it wasn’t already obvious from her strange accent that she wasn’t from the metropolis, the looks of wonder she directed at the skyscrapers as they travelled out of the city made it palpable that the girl had never been in one.

On the first day, Wynonna led them through hills and forests unpaved by any traveller and stopped for fewer breaks than Dimitri would have liked, which made him wonder if she thought their destination was closer than he had estimated.

In the complete wilderness, the girl was agile and free. It was a wonder how she never tripped over her ankle-length dress along a trail even he found challenging. At first, she moved at an astonishing speed, but then she slowed down. As the breaks grew more frequent with the subtle sidelong glances at him, Dimitri realised with embarrassment that he was the bottleneck of the pace of their journey. Those prosthetics worked magnificently. He was mesmerised.

The girl led him out of the city and through plains and forests until they reached her village. She must have been keen to return home, for she didn’t stop to rest even when he did. Whenever Dimitri’s calves protested so much he had to prop himself against a tree, the girl would always leave for a time thankfully not long enough for the unsettling feeling that he had been abandoned in the wilderness to creep upon him. She disappeared and reappeared just as mysteriously with fruit and water from a nearby stream. It never ceased to astonish him how she managed to discover these things. Dimitri never heard even the slightest trickle of a rivulet nearby, but his pride kept him from asking about the water source. He offered her some of the refreshments she had fetched for him, but she politely declined. Dimitri assumed she already had her fill before her return.

As Ilya waited in silence for him to finish his food, Dimitri noted that she was dressed in a strange garb mostly because of the sheet of metal she wore around her chest. It was a pity that the hem of her long dress had been soaked in mud. No amount of washing would be able to get those stains out. Even her bulky boots were not spared. But the girl didn’t seem to care for the dirt and was almost oblivious to the unruliness of her hair. Despite all that, anyone could see that she was a beautiful girl.

“Aren’t you going to ask me why I was lying in the middle of the street?”

“And crying? That helped, didn’t it. It’s always good to cry it out. Well, as long as you don’t ask me what I was doing in that building.” Dimitri was slightly amused that she had found it necessary to bring up his effeminate display. The girl continued, “You don’t have to tell me. Troubled hearts should only open up when they’re ready.” A warmth spread across Dimitri’s chest. It had been a while since he had heard something so comforting.

He wasn’t sure whether it was just because they were in the sun, but for some reason, the girl before him seemed to radiate a subtle glow. She had a petite frame and a heart-shaped face with a dash of freckles across her cheeks and her lilac waves that were tousled by the wind as she worked her way through the forest shone brilliantly in the sunlight. The more they talked, the more charms Dimitri discovered about the girl, especially when Ilya expressed her eagerness to talk to him about science and experiments he was involved in when he was still welcomed at facilities as prestigious as the one which had tossed him out. Back in her village, there wasn’t anybody who shared the same passion as her with as much intensity as she liked. Dimitri smiled and replied that he enjoyed talking to like-minded people just as much as she did and would be more than willing to oblige her requests for an intellectual conversation whenever she desired. He had accomplished an unusually high number of academic accolades for his age credited to his extensive repository of engineering projects. There were countless topics they could dwell on.

When the girl wasn’t asking questions and making insightful comments from time to time, she listened attentively with an unwavering gaze and showed no sign that she was beginning to get tired of listening to him. And after every experiment Dimitri explained to her, she sought to corroborate her understanding with proposals of her own. He couldn’t help noticing how the girl learned at an incredible pace.

After a few hours of walking, Dimitri found that he was in a considerably better mood. By some magic, the girl had pulled him out of the depths of disappointment. In the bounce of her light steps as she led them through the forest, he found hope. In that infectious smile of hers, he found himself wondering just how many hearts she had sown the seeds of love in, and how many she might have broken.