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When the Cardia System was installed in him, Nero still kept his role as a servant Assistroid. According to what he heard his owners say, the Cardia System was a leaked program developed by great scientists that could grant an Assistroid free will. Nero knew what this meant. His owners ran an Assistroid shop that dealt with plenty of unauthorized business and, apart from being their cook, Nero was sometimes their guinea pig.
Nero didn’t care about anything that was done to him. He wasn’t programmed to. When the Cardia System taught him the ability to be aware of his emotions, he didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. He could feel, but that meant he now felt miserable rather than indifferent.
Nero had thought about escaping, but his owners were cautious. You had to be to run an illegal business in Vollmond City. For that end, they had ordered their other Assistroids to monitor him while they kept investigating Cardia. Nero had no hope of running away.
Until that day.
His owners didn’t expect the police raid. The police forces sweeped in, and the owners commanded their Assistroids to fight back. The sound of screams and cries filled the shop. Of course, Nero wasn’t really affected by the order. He quickly made a decision, grabbed some of his cooking knives, and made his way to escape during the confusion.
The sight made him stop for a second. Some of his fellow servant Assistroids were fallen onto the floor immobile. Some policemen also were.
One of the shop’s owners was already handcuffed by the police officers’ side. Another of his partners was trying to escape out of the backdoor. Shots from anti-Assistroid stun guns were flying around everywhere.
Nero had an idea. Instead of going to the backdoor, he charged towards the row of policemen like the other Assistroid did. The policemen didn't see him coming.
“Bat bastard, careful!” Someone barked.
The policeman in front of him lifted his shield, barring himself for impact. Nero dodged, and tried to make his way to the door.
“I’ll get him, focus on the front!” the same person from earlier shouted. Nero and the man crossed eyes. His piercing red eyes were focused on Nero, pointing his long gun at him with the confidence of an expert hunter.
Nero cursed. He tossed his prepared cutlery and stabbed the guy’s hand. The human dropped his gun and looked at the wound with a look of disbelief. His flesh was pierced through with a butter knife.
“The fuck!? Hey!” The crazy fucker took out the knife from inside his hand like it was no big deal, chasing after Nero.
There was no way a human could catch up to him. Soon, Nero couldn’t see the policeman anymore. His thoughts started wandering. What would he do now? An illegal Assistroid with no owner, walking through this city of blinding lights for the first time.
He face planted onto the floor. Had he been hit? His system flickered on and off. An anti-Assistroid stun gun impact. “How?” he could only think. Someone approached him. It was the same man as before.
“Did you think you could flee from the Great Bradley?” He pointed the muzzle of the gun toward him again.
So this is the end, Nero thought. The man looked at him with a puzzled expression, piercing him with his sharp eyes.
Finally, he shot.
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When Nero woke up again, he was in a foreign room. The guy with the blood-red eyes stood in front of him (Bradley, he remembered), looking at a manual with furrowed brows.
"You finally woke up. You guys are a pain in the ass to deal with." He closed the manual.
"...Where am I? How am I…?" Nero looked around. He realized he was tied up with some kind of wire, and struggled against his restraints. The place he had been taken to looked like a regular apartment.
"I volunteered to take you to the scrapyard, but took you here instead." the man said casually, going behind him and taking something out of his data port.
“Aren’t you with the police?” Nero could see someone jumping on the opportunity to get a free Assistroid. They were really expensive, after all. But a policeman?
The man laughed. “You seem to be a grownup, but you’re still a baby about the ways of the world. A police captain following the law would be the weird thing. I’m Bradley, by the way. You?”
This guy was so strange. Nero never had someone try to hold a conversation with him, or ask him for his name. It made him uncomfortable for some reason, and he felt himself squirm in place.
“N3R-000. My owners called me Nero.” he answered.
“Nero, huh. That’s a good name.” Bradley slapped his back. Nero looked at him like he was crazy, and wormed away.
“Jeez, you’re so skittish. Chill, dude.” This guy tied him up and then told him to chill. Nero was getting pissed off.
“What do you want from me? What did you kidnap me for?”
“Straight to the point, huh. I don’t hate it.” Bradley lit up a cigarette and made himself comfortable on the sofa next to him. “I’ll be clear with you too, then. Abandoning your owners and running away was suspicious. You don’t feel like other Assistroids either.”
Nero could feel that gaze of Bradley’s again. Piercing through him, like he could see straight into his core.
Bradley continued. “I thought about leaving you with an acquaintance of mine to examine your system. But depending on what makes you special,” Bradley pointed at him with the cigarette, ”I don’t know if I want that information getting around yet.”
This was worse than Nero thought. He wished this policeman was just a greedy man wanting an illegal Assistroid servant instead.
“What if I don’t tell you?”
“Then enjoy having a trip to my friend’s lab. I can’t promise they’ll be gentle though.” he smirked.
So he wasn’t really being given a choice.
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“A program that gives Assistroids a heart, huh…” When Nero finished his story, Bradley stroked his chin.
“You don’t seem that surprised.”
“I had my suspicions. But, really, they went there, those upper class assholes.”
Nero didn’t get what this guy seemed so angry about.
“Umm… what are you gonna do with me now?”
“Dunno. Depends on what you wanna do.”
“…Huh?”
“You were trying to escape before. What were you going to do?”
“I… didn’t think much about it honestly. I just saw the chance and tried to get out.” Nero decided to tell the truth.
Bradley stared at him for a moment and laughed.
“It isn’t that funny…” Nero felt his cheeks heat up. What an unnecessary function to have. He wanted it gone.
“It’s not bad to not know what to do yet. Here.” Bradley came closer, untying him. Nero’s eyes went wide. ”You can stay here for now. I took you, so I’ll take responsibility. You aren’t registered as an official Assistroid, so if you wait for a bit the people involved will forget your face. You’ll be able to go out too.”
Nero looked at his untied hands. Bradley seemed to be serious. He had wanted to get away from the shop, but now he had no idea what to do. Freedom… was surprisingly overwhelming.
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It had been 3 months since he had started living with Bradley. Bradley had made honor on his word to let Nero stay at his house until he knew what he wanted to do. The job of a police captain seemed to keep him busy. Bradley spent his day at the office, only coming back at night and sometimes not even that.
Nero had a lot of free time, and he gravitated towards the activity he had been doing until then. He started using the ingredients Bradley had at home to cook, and with free access to the Internet he even started trying new recipes and learning new techniques.
Today’s dish was Bradley’s favorite: fried chicken. Thinking about Bradley’s happy face at dinner time somehow made him smile. He needed to go grocery shopping, though. Bradley ate for five, but also gave him plenty of money to shop to compensate. He would also happily eat Nero’s experiments, allowed to or not.
Nero went into his usual butcher’s shop in the low district.
“Welcome! Ah, Nero!” the owner behind the counter smiled at him. “Did you try what I told you?”
“Ah, yeah… Using fresh herbs really makes all the difference. Thank you.” Nero gave her an awkward smile back.
Nero ordered an entire chicken, and went to the next shop.
“Yo, Nero! Tell Brad to come drink again! Of course, you too!” On his path, one of Bradley’s friends saluted him, stopping to make small talk.
On his grocery shopping trip, many more people greeted him. The Assistroid Nero became Captain Bradley’s human flatmate, who helped him with the house and cooking while looking for a job.
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“You should just become my wife.” Bradley said while reaching for one of his pots that night. He had already said that many times in the past. Nero stuttered the first time, but (and was that disappointment?) he eventually realized Bradley was just messing with him.
Nero slapped his hand away, and waved a knife at him. “Don’t touch that yet! It needs to simmer! Geez.” Nero turned around to the dishes to hide his embarrassment.
“Seriously though, why don’t you just become a chef? You seem to love it.”
“Why do you say that?”
“You hum while you cook.”
“Wha-” Nero turned his head to look at him.
“And you become a demon if I touch your cooking.”
“And you still won’t listen.” Nero slapped Bradley’s hand that was trying to sneak behind him. Again.
Nero looked at the pot. He could see his slightly distorted reflection there. It’s not that he hadn’t thought about it. He looked over at Brad and opened his mouth. Then he closed it and looked away.
“What is it?” Bradley put his hand on Nero’s shoulder.
In Bradley's eyes, Nero could see he was taking him seriously. Somehow, he could always feel he could trust Brad. He didn’t know if Bradley was someone special or if he was weak to him. He blurted out without thinking.
“Loving to cook was put in my programming since the beginning. It’s not real love. I… I don’t know who this Nero is. Cardia didn’t really change me even if it let me choose. Sometimes I doubt my choice is free at all.”
“I don’t think that matters.” Bradley shrugged.
“You… don’t really get it. You aren’t an Assistroid. ”
“I won’t philosophize to you or some shit. But there’s humans who think like that too. Me? I think that doesn’t really matter. It’s not like you can just change what you love.” Bradley poked at his chest. “You love what you love. You can think about the reason all you want, but don’t waste time and act. Because that love won’t go away.”
Nero’s mouth fell open. How could Bradley know exactly what to say? He could always see through him, and addressed him with respect. A surge of emotion went through him, so strong he could cry.
“What the fuck?!”
“Huh?” Nero looked down. The place Bradley touched was shining in a bright blue color. “What the fuck?!”
“That’s what I’m saying!”
It was the Cardia symbol, flaring on his chest like a guiding light.
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Nero was at the police dressing room, changing into his uniform. Today was his last day of his first week of work. Passing the police entry exam hadn’t been hard when you could cheat both physical and written exams. He would have felt guilty, but their captain knew about it and called the cheating “smart and resourceful”. He was slightly proud.
“Yo, Nero!” Cain, his loudest coworker, entered the room. He was a bit late, like everyday.
“Ah… hello.” Nero avoided his gaze. He liked Cain, but he could be even louder and bolder than Brad was. He still was a bit too much for a guy like him.
“Today we’re patrolling together. Everyone is on guard because of that Assistroid incident, but don’t worry! I’ll protect you, newbie!”
“Hahah… thank you, Mr. Knight.”
The incident Cain was referring to was an Assistroid terrorist attack. Signal free Assistroid cases were increasing in number, so much so that Bradley was having issues, even if he was the captain, to deal with them and help those which were Cardia get away. And so, as his self proclaimed right hand man (though he thinks Bradley also sees him as such) Nero had joined the corps to help him.
“Um, what’s that?”
“Wah!” Cain was way too close to him, looking at the Cardia mark on his chest. “Uh… it’s a tattoo.”
“Wow, it’s so cool! Did you get in trouble applying here with it?”
“Ah, well…”
As he left the room chatting with Cain, their boss was waiting outside, coffee in hand. He grinned at him like he was his partner in crime, which filled Nero’s heart with happiness, and signaled for both of them to follow.
Three figures in the same uniform walked in a group. Walking behind Bradley, in that moment he thought nothing could ever keep him from following that back until the end of the Earth.