Chapter Twenty Six Aaron

In the morning, the two of them wake up together in the same position they fell asleep in. They had flat worn themselves out and fallen asleep naked atop one another. After getting up first, he pulls his side of the sheets over her and kisses her on the side of her head. He starts the shower and waits a minute for the water to heat up.

In a cheerful mood, he looks at the little framed cartoon of the barnacle on his wall, considering he has finally done it. He has everything he has ever wanted now and doesn’t need to be reminded of what he might’ve missed out on in all his lonely years. This has been worth it all. Once again, startled by her naked beauty, he freezes when she comes through the doorway of the bathroom.

Still a little sleepy, she props her body against his, soaking up his warmth. With her head nestled between the front of his shoulder and his neck she lets out a satiated murmur. He knows she’ll want to freshen up, so he tells her he’ll go and get them some clean towels. He waits for the sound of her getting into the shower before rejoining her.

They spend almost an hour in there, washing one another and enjoying each other’s slick wet bodies. Well aroused by the foreplay, they move right on into the bedroom for another bout of passionate intimacy. They take it slow this time and leave no stone unturned between them. By the time they’re done having their way with one other, they are both well-past being late for work.

After getting dressed, he heads over to her apartment to get her the clean clothes she requested of him, and to bring over Five and Arma. Just as she had warned him, he finds that Arma has taken off her clothes and is lounging asleep in the sofa chair by her dresser. She is so tall that it looks like she merely passed out and fell on top of it. Her head is tilted all the way over the backrest while one of her legs hangs over the side at the knee. Her leg is so long, the tip of her foot nearly touches the floor.

Five is asleep on the bed, face up, and sprawled out like a starfish next to a neat stack of clothes she has folded. She has tried on some of Valerie’s sexy undergarments too, but they hang hopelessly too loose on her. If it weren’t for Valerie having already satiated his every inkling of desire, he would be tempted to stare for a few more seconds before waking them. He feels a bit like an ass for even thinking about it, but his eyes sure don’t mind.

Though they are completely fabricated, he still has quite an admiration for their exquisite forms. For some reason, he finds himself mostly in awe of Arma’s daunting figure. She makes even him feel inadequate, but that doesn’t change anything. He doesn’t know whether to feel shame for looking at them like this or not. Forcing himself to divert his attention away from their indecency, he claps his hands once to wake them up. “Wakey Wakey girls. Time to get up and get dressed.”

Five is much quicker to get ready. She has learned the propriety to take herself into the bathroom and out of sight to put her clothes on. He slides a small stack of some of his own folded clothes across the dresser towards Arma and sets out one of his pairs of riding boots he brought over for her. With a suspicious look on her face, she watches him closely while she stiffly pulls on the pair of charcoal grey jeans and tank top. Like Five originally did, she has no problem whatsoever baring herself in front of him. If anything, she is a little bit of an exhibitionist about it.

Valerie had mentioned that she was nearly beside herself after being remade the way she is now. He wonders what kind of a grasp she or Five have on sexual attraction by now, or if they are even able to or not. It seems they must. They’re supposed to have real human minds.

When he catches her looking up at him with a smirk, he quickly glances away, knowing he’s been caught. He considers she might know damn well what she’s doing after all. With her legs being even longer than his own, his pants ride a little low on her, sometimes exposing a little bit of the red underwear she has on. The tank top comes up a little short as well. It at least looks intentional and he isn’t going to bother trying to help her do any better for now, not after Valerie told him about how well she follows instruction.

After putting Valerie’s clothes into the same small blue backpack she had brought hiking, he tells the other two to follow him back to his place. He locks up and takes them down the hall and into his living room to wait.

Five sits eloquently in the chair at his computer while Arma sprawls out on the couch, looking like she’s already bored. He has no idea what all she and Five might have talked about last night, but he’s starting to wonder if Five might actually be the one that is the bad influence out of the two. She’s being suspiciously quiet and has not bothered to really introduce him to Arma like he expected she would. By the way Arma has been watching him, he suspects Five has told her most everything already.

While Valerie gets dressed, she hollers from out of the bathroom for him to take Arma along with him to work. Since he seemed to have been such a good mentor for Five, she hopes that he’ll be able to do the same thing with her. When she comes out into the living room and sees the look on his face, she has to hide her smirk from him.

She gives him a kiss and takes Five back into the bathroom with her. On his way out the door with Arma, he overhears the two of them talking about him. Something along the lines of him probably going to be calling her at least by noon out of frustration.

Like he did with Five, he takes Arma down the stairs to the garage. He introduces her to Runner and even gives her voice authority too. Like Five, she is not immediately very warm to the idea of being able to command Runner to do whatever they say, and so impersonally. She is clearly hung up on having been treated so condescendingly. Despite her and Five’s similarities, he can already see a significant difference between their attitudes.

Instead of being so open and inquisitive of her surroundings he can feel her focusing closely on his every move, as if he might hit her as soon as she isn’t looking. He wants to tell her that he would never hurt her and that he’ll always look out for her, but they aren’t there yet. She wouldn’t take his word for it anyway. It’ll simply take time for her to learn how to trust again.

With her seated behind him, they take to the street on Runner. Once he makes sure she’s comfortable with the dynamics of riding, he picks up speed to give her an experience. They need to make up for a little bit of time too. He always makes sure to show up early, even though it doesn’t matter if he’s late or not. He was raised with a strong work ethic and it’s been branded into him. It doesn’t matter if he’s going to be working alone or not, he is on time.

While they ride, he starts giving Arma the rundown on what they’re going to be doing over the course of the day. “We’re gonna be overseeing a lot of other machines today. They’ll be installing all the glass in this new thirty story venue building downtown. After we’re done there, we’ll swing by the machine shop that I ordered Runner’s new parts through.”

“What’s wrong with Runner?”

“Nothing, just making him better.”

“Better huh.”

He didn’t expect her to go there, and he walked right into it. “Just faster is all Arma.”

As they approach the city metropolis, the horizon starts to disappear and the sky is replaced by superstructures. Within a few more miles, the streets are so thick with vehicles, people, and machines, even the pavement is completely masked.

The whole place is swarming like an angry bee hive. As far as they can see, ahead, behind and even above them, there are people. In through the windows of the buildings, there are even more. Arma doesn’t wrap her arms around him like Five did, but has a death-grip on the sides of his heavy riding jacket. All of the activity clearly has her on edge.

He tries to convince her that there are no dangers to worry about, but she is not relaxing any. To make her feel more at ease, he regularly points out as many AMF robots as he can. They are the only other ones that look even close to the way she does, and they are the only ones wearing clothes. They are often easy to find downtown because they’re popular with high-end retail and entertainment. Sometimes they are more realistic, but often times very vibrantly skinned for advertisement. The ones with extravagant paint jobs do help make her feel less noticeable. In the same way Five started out, she feels like she should hide.

“Once we have you painted again, no one’ll even know you have a robotic body.”

“What would I care, why would I even be out here? Why did Dr. Morgan make me go with you? I don’t want to be here.”

“Because we have a lot to talk about Arma. I know you’re tired of all this shit, but you are a lot more important than you probably feel you are.”

“Oh… right. I’m supposed to be the most advanced machine ever made and all that bullshit. I’ve heard it all before. I don’t care, and I don’t want any of it. Just leave me alone.”

He does not sense a note of distress in her voice, like he was expecting, but instead, she sounds bratty. “That’s not what I’m talking about, and that’s not what you mean to us at all. No one cares about super fancy robots. That’s not what you are.”

“Whatever, I’m here for all of you to fuck around with with and use.”

He doesn’t remember ever using that kind of language around Five, and apparently, she wasn’t able to get through to her either. He doesn’t quite know what to say back, but he’ s not very into her attitude. “You know what Arma, you really don’t know shit. You get mistreated and you want to act like a child now! Do you have any clue what you are, or why you were made? Why Mikel and Ray are so scared of you! Did Five not tell you anything?”

It’s a little elate when he realizes how he snapped at her. Her feelings are hurt. She lets go of his jacket and hangs her head low. When he turns his head to try and look at her, she is facing away, upset. He knows if he doesn’t patch things up real quick, she’s going to resent him, and that’ll be a huge roadblock to get over.

“Why does everyone look and treat me like a piece of shit. Even Valerie called me a piece of shit.” She feels like a burden on everyone else.

“Goddamnit Arma! Look at all these people, watch them. They are looking at you because they want you, and everything you are.” He points to a random couple on the street next to them, both with dyed hair and covered in tattoos. “They all want to be something they are not, because their lives suck, and worse than yours. Trust me. People always want what they can’t have, and that is what you are. Unobtainable beauty, promise, and life, forever.”

She looks down at the people around them. Some are nudging one another and looking up at her. No one is leering, or making mean remarks though. “You think I’m beautiful, like this, barren?” She rests her chin on his shoulder and quietly speaks in his ear. “Is it truly what I have that you want?”

Luckily for him, she cannot see the pie-eyed look on his face. He can’t imagine what has gotten into her, or what in the world Five actually did tell her. He hopes he isn’t the one that started all of this, talking to her about decency and all that.

Changing the subject, he points out some other random people, specifically some rather uncomely ones. “Look at these people. Look what happens to them when they give up. It takes a lot of work and discipline to be and stay strong. I have to constantly toil in order to stay alive and healthy. If I didn’t, if I gave up, I’d look like that. It’s a constant struggle that I can never stop. When I do, I’ll rot. That’s why I envy you, cause you’ll always be strong, and beautiful, and you don’t have to worry about disease, or any of that shit.”

“Why do they look like that? One of the team leaders at Werker is all big and… blobby like that. His name is Gabriel, and everyone says mean things about him too. They say he’s is fat, what is that?”

He finds it rather amusing that she would have picked up on such a thing, but it kind of makes for a good example to talk about. “That happens when people eat more food than their body needs. Of course that is an oversimplification, but it’s kind of the root cause. It happens when people have don’t have as strong of a will as they do a body.

For people, we live this kind of a battle between our bodies and our minds. Our bodies want things, all on their own, and often very badly. We crave things like food, and sex, among other things. Sometimes people have a weak spirit and they can’t resist what their bodies want, even though they know it’s going to be bad. We give in too much, and it hurts us, and usually in big ways.”

“So Gabriel’s body wants food, and he lets it eat however much it wants… just lets it keep eating and eating until he looks like that?”

He watches her face contort into what looks like a grossed out and judgmental expression. “Well, like I said, it was an oversimplification. Our bodies will sort of try to survive on their own whether we work with it or not. Our bodies can really lean on our minds, it’s a lot harder than you think. Our minds may be powerful, but our biology is millions of years older. Everyone knows damn well what will happen if they give in to all their desires. It’ll kill you. Some fight it, and some give in. It’s called having self-control.”

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“Like it actually kills them? Why would they do that! If they die, they don’t get to come back, they’re done!”

“Yep, but they do it anyway. People get fat, they do drugs, they molest themselves in every way they can, and there’s no limit to how far they’ll take things either. There are monsters among us that are a hell of a lot worse than Mikel or Ray. They’re just stupid. I’m talkin about some serious savages.”

“People are just horrible. That’s why I hate them.” She takes her head off of his shoulder and looks down at him, remembering what he is. She was starting to forget why she can’t trust people. They are sick inside.

He sighs and turns his head, but not far enough to see her. “Maybe we shouldn’t focus so much on what is bad. I can kind of get riled up about things like that. There’s just as much good in people as there is bad, you know. Hopefully you’ll see the truth in that someday. Look around you, at all of this. Robots didn’t make this, they don’t hold it together, we do. If people were mostly bad, or even only ten percent bad, none of this would be here. We would still be running around on the dirt, screaming and hitting each other with sticks.” That gets her to laugh, and it really makes him smile.

He was never even able to get Five to laugh like that. When she catches herself, she is a little shocked at how loud she was. He wonders if it was the first time. He suspects she knows what it means. Robots don’t laugh like that.

“Most of us are actually pretty good Arma. That’s why no one really notices when everything is going well. We notice when it’s bad though.”

It was when she imagined what Aaron had described that she laughed. When she thinks about it, none of it makes any sense. As much as she hates it, she knows she is eventually going to have to come to terms with what she is. Eventually, she becomes comfortable enough to wrap her arms around his waist again. She takes in her surroundings and tries to watch everyone around her.

She begins to notice that a lot of people are smiling and talking to one another. They are talking amongst themselves and even to robots. Like he said, everything actually seems to be just fine. No matter how hard she searches through the throng of people around them, no one seems to be causing any problems.

When they pass by another humanoid robot, a brand that she has never seen before, she reaches out and touches it gently on the shoulder. It locks eyes with her for a second and then shifts out of her reach as if she were trouble. It’s always disheartening whenever she tries to confide in another machine. Like Aaron had explained to her with Runner, real robots have no kinship with her. She slumps her shoulders and looks down upon herself, wondering why all of this has happened to her. Did she do something to deserve this?

She looks up and starts to wonder about Aaron and how he fits into all of this. Unlike Dr. Morgan, who has always been so insistent on what she tells her as being the rules and the truth, he is the opposite. It seems that he will say his peace and leave it at that. He must know she won’t take his word for anything. It’s like he will only point in the direction of the truth, knowing it’s there, but expects her to find it on her own. She’s confused by, but also quite curious about him. She had told herself that she would never trust another human, but here she is a single day later, already wanting to trust in him.

Five had not mentioned anything about what he looked like though, which is surprising. For some reason she cannot understand, she is drawn to him. It’s not in what he says, or does, but somehow simply by the way he looks. She wants to reach up and put her hands on him, to feel him. What’s even more bothersome, is that she also somehow knows better to not do it. She shakes her shoulders when she imagines his hands on her, as if he were actually touching her skin. A strange sensation climbs up the skin on her back and down her arms, sending her eyes open.

As if she hasn’t already been through enough, she can’t grasp half of what is going on with her. It’s like all of her systems are screwed up or something. The last thing she wants to do is mention it to Dr. Morgan or Greco though. She’s had enough of being worked on for a lifetime. I t doesn’t make sense though, because it all started days before she was killed. These bizarre sensations have become quite powerful and are starting to get rather stressful.

She closes her eyes and tries to flush out the strange feelings washing over her, but focusing on them only makes them sharpen. Like usual, she only has one choice, and that’s to ride it out. She scrubs her hands down her forearms and then wrings them around the back of her neck. She clears her thoughts as best as she can and focuses only on her rhythmic breathing. It’s the only thing she has found that helps.

When Aaron turns around the last corner towards the job sight, something giant and yellow catches her eye. She gasps at not just the sight of it, but at the thought of what it is. There’s an absolutely giant robot standing out front of a large black building, looking right at her. She tugs at his shirt, trying to get his attention, unable to think of what to say. When she points it out, he almost laughs.

“Oh, yeah, what do you think of those?”

“No, the… the giant robot!”

“Yeah, there’s two of em. The other one is just next to it, behind that building.”

She counts how many floors of the building the thing rises up to. “How tall is that thing? What’s it doing there? It’s not moving.”

“That thing there is one hundred feet tall. They were built back in the war. The people that lived long before us made them to kill each other with.”

She doesn’t even know what to say to that. Sometimes things start to make sense, and then they don’t. She grabs both of his shoulders in her hands and looks closer from over his back.

“What’s it doing now?”

“Nothing. They just stand there. I don’t think they work anymore. They’re just to look at. Cool though huh?”

She can’t hardly look away the entire time until they stop at the construction site. After they leave Runner parked alongside the storage containers full of robots, she watches him open and inspect the machines inside.

With proprietary verbal commands, he acquaints himself with the fleet, informing them that he is their handler and will be overseeing their work. Even though he has worked with these same robots many times before, it is their first time with him, every time.

After he has all forty of them lined up, he opens the small box of order cards that he programmed, containing the schematics and procedures for the job. She watches closely while each of the robots approaches him and inserts a card in each of their chests. Some of them are charged with carrying and placing the glass, while others seal the panes and secure the mounting hardware. As a team, they will have the entire building glassed within a single shift. All the two of them should have to do is watch.

While they are walking about, Aaron suddenly pauses, stops, and turns around to face her. “Arma, I’m sorry if I was a little short with you back there, when I said that you didn’t know shit. I guess I just have a lot of things on my mind and I’ve been a little wound up.”

She is rather surprised by him. He has not even done anything and here he is apologizing to her. No one has ever apologized to her. She isn’t going to make anything of it, but she is still interested in what he has to say.

“Alright, like what”

He hides his shy smile with his hand while grabbing a handful of his hair. “Well, it’s not that… usually when someone says that, they don’t mean to share.”

“Well?”

“What do you remember about when… when they gunned you down?”

“I remember everything. And when I do, it’s like going through it all over again.”

“Were you scared? Did you know what was going to happen?”

“Thanks for bringing it up, but yes, I was terrified. You were there. I saw you. It was horrible. No… wait, it was worse than horrible. I was murdered, and I felt all of it.”

“Alright, so you didn’t want to die right? That’s how I feel, all the time. I’ve always felt like that. All my life I’ve watched robots with bodies like yours live on, grow stronger, and become more alive. All the while, I grow old and watch my clock tick away. Then, you two suddenly pop up. Do you have any idea how much though I’ve put into what you’ve already accomplished, what you’ve been turned into?”

“What are you trying to tell me?”

“Arma, I really don’t want to die, but I’m gonna. I don’t get a choice in this. I’m gonna die, and that will be it. It’ll be over for me. Five gets it. Both of you will get to go on, long after I’m dead and buried in the ground. All I think about is how there might as well be no tomorrow for me. None of it will even matter in the end. Both sides of the equation, past and future equal zero!”

“I wasn’t saved from death like what you’re seeking Aaron. I’m not even a real person. Alright, you’ve maybe got me on some of it. I was made from a person, and that sucks, but I’m not who I was before. Nothing was saved and nothing gets to go on.”

He crosses his arms and shifts about. “You think you’re a blank slate, but you’re not. You might not remember, but you are who you always were. We can all see it. Five says she can feel it. She could always feel it. Some things can change a person, but they’ll always be who they are. Some people are bad, some are stupid, and some are good. From what Five has told me, you are a good person, and I’m glad you were brought back... again. Sure, you lost your old life, but you’ve got hundreds of years in front of you, maybe thousands. I’ve got what, maybe thirty, forty?

She’s trying her best to not tear up, but he said that she was a good person, and he meant it. She’s not a piece of shit, not a monster, not a sex toy, but a good person. She steels herself and tries to remember to focus. She is not going to fall apart the first time someone simply treats her with a little dignity. It reminds her of how Ray talks to women at Werker. He can talk real nice to some people, and then be so awful to her at the same time. It makes her wonder what is truly underneath Aaron’s skin.

“So you’re one of those people who wants what I have?”

He holds his eyes as steady as iron, refusing to look down the length of her body this time. For some reason, she is messing with him, and he’s not in the mood for it.

“Yes, I envy you. Because you are stronger than me in every way. I want to be what you are. I want to be released from the bonds of being human. That’s why people like Ray and Mikel hate you. Robots have beat them in every way, and now all but completely replaced them. You want to see what they see?”

“What do they see?” She wants to know what makes those bastards tick.

“Here you come along, a perfect social replication of a person. Now machines won’t just be taking their jobs, but they’ll be replacing them body and soul. They are shaking in their boots Arma. Civilization will cast stubborn fools like them aside without even glancing down at them before punching their tickets. Can you blame them?”

She stands up straight and crosses her arms too. “Blame them? They fucking murdered me! Yeah, sure, I can just come back, but I felt every bit of it, and I’m not just talking about the energy blast that damn near tore me in half. They fucked with me for weeks, hunted me down, and tore me apart. They made me suffer, and they made it last.”

“That’s not what I meant. Of course you can blame them. I just want you to see both sides clearly, so you get the big picture, and how you fit into this world. You think they’re the worst of the people out there? They’re only the beginning. You’re going to have a hell of a fight ahead of you. It’s just a matter of time before you’re noticed.”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“Oh, no one told you? This whole thing Werker is doing, It’s illegal as hell.”

“What’s illegal?” she shifts her weight over to one leg and looks at him in disbelief, hoping he’s not as serious as he sounds.

“It means everyone but us has already decided that you should not be allowed to exist. On top of that, they have put measures in place to stop you, by force if necessary.”

“Everyone wants to kill us!”

“Pretty much. But we don’t play by the rules do we? Just because another group of assholes says they want things to go the way they want them to doesn’t mean you have to obey them. What you simply need is more power than them. Whoever has the power, in a sense, gets their way.”

“Are they very powerful?”

“Yep, more so than us, and by a long shot. But… what you have is eternity, the ultimate weapon. Time is on your side, and time defeats all things in this universe. That’s why they don’t want you to have it. There’s nothing they can do to stop you, and it scares them. For the moment, everyone we saw today thinks you’re just another regular robot. If that changes, we’re in trouble.”

She throws her arms up and scoffs. “Great. I wake up from my nightmare with Mikel and Ray, only to find that the rest of the world wants me dead too.”

“Well, that’s not necessarily true. I may have made it sound a bit one-sided, but it’s not. Granted that most people won’t be on your side, there are lots of us out there that will be. So far you’ve got only two enemies, but you have me, Valerie, Five, Marco, and Clarice on your side. Let’s just keep it that way for now.”

“Well good, I wasn’t really into admitting I was human anyway.”

“Oh, and there was one other thing I wanted to talk to you about. Since were going on about who hates who-n-all. There’s the thing with Mikel and Ray. I’m sure we’ll be seeing more of them, and for now, we’ve all declared a truce of sorts. It’s more of a stalemate than anything, but whatever.

“This is horseshit!”

“Now, there are three ways you can go from here. One is called revenge. This is where you would kill the two of them and delight in it. The second option is called justice. It’s basically a pussy version of revenge, for people with no self-respect, but that’s what society prefers. The third is called forgiveness.”

She sighs, knowing he is going to eventually persuade her into taking the least favorable option of them all. It seems to be how he works. “Ok, fine.” She swishes her hand at the wrist, motioning for him to continue.

“Since Five already broke Ray’s arm, and not in premeditation, we’ll call that justice. Basically he got what he deserved, but not in a way that would perpetuate revenge on both sides, back and forth.”

“Ok, that makes sense. And the third?”

“The third, forgiveness, is the most difficult, but can sometimes lead to the best results. To forgive someone is to not punish them for what they have done, but to give them the chance to understand and become a better person.”

“That sounds stupid. I’m sure as hell not doing that one.” She crosses her arms again and shakes her head too. Her mouth is barely smiling, but only because the idea is plain silly.

“Keep in mind the social tension between people and robots ok. So, what if they made a replacement for you, except this one is all super nice, even cuter, stupider, and happily does what everyone tells it to do without any guff. Imagine that everyone is super excited about it and they are going to pitch you in the garbage as soon as it’s ready for use, but for good this time.”

“Screw that.”

“Kinda makes you want to maybe sabotage that stupid thing huh, maybe even kill it? What if that new robot understood how you felt? It never meant you any harm, but you went ahead and hurt it anyway, cause you were scared. Say it told everyone to give you a second chance?”

She turns away from him, thinking about such an annoying little pathetic robot, forgiving her for being mean to it. When she thinks about it, she probably would have picked on the poor thing, if it were real. She kind of feels bad about it, and she didn’t even do anything, but she might’ve.

“The only way I’d forgive them is if I really thought they might make it right. I suppose, since I can come back, and they can’t, I can at least give them a chance.”

He was holding his breath, but he knew she had it in her. “That is better judgement than most have Arma. See, you really are a good person.” He pauses for a moment, thinking of what all she’s been through, wondering if asking her to forgive Mikel and Ray was really any of his business.

“I don’t know what all you and Five have talked about, but I just wanted you to know that you mean the world to her. She was absolutely devastated while you were gone. She looks up to you like you wouldn’t believe. You aren’t just some machine we all have incredible plans for. It is YOU that we care for.”

She rubs at her eyes, trying her best to not cry. “She is so helpless sometimes.” Both of them chuckle about it.

When the sound of breaking glass comes from a floor above them, Aaron’s face suddenly goes straight. He closes his eyes, bows his head, and sighs. “Well, I don’t get paid to just stand around.”