Chapter Text
Coughs. Coughs. Coughs. The heavy smoke and dust seemed to burn through his lungs and when he opened his eyes, an immediate need to exhale filled his senses. His arms grabbed immediately nearby trying to reach for what seemed to be an oxygen mask.
Deep breaths. Aether inhaled and exhaled vigorously once he felt the mask filtering in the polluted air. His eyes surveyed the surroundings. Locked windows, smell of blood and splashes of it on the wall, and the sound of gunshots from below.
The man slowly stood up and leaned on the walls as he descended down the stairs.
“Initialize system.” He ordered and soon, a holographic screen appeared in his mind.
“System Paimon online!” A high pitched mechanical sound spoke.
The blond hesitantly gave a command. “Report and synthesize what happened after Kuni and I got caught by enemy cyborgs.”
“Reporting….. synthesized….three hours ago, CB21Aether and CB44Kuni were on a surveillance mission when rouge cyborgs launched a surprise attack that led to the capture of you two. CB21Aether was thrown in this room but CB44Kuni managed to escape and terminated other cyborgs before being caught and reprogrammed.”
Aether's eyes widened. Reprogrammed.. that'd mean…,“Where is he now?”
“Initializing search….. CB44kuni matched…He is located just below this floor..however..the system cannot sense any consciousness present from his database, there is no synchronicity present with CB44kuni and his system..”
Aether walked quietly down the halls, vigilant and careful to avoid any form of danger that might compromise his safety. Piles of dead people and cyborgs lay on the corridors and he could guess that Kuni probably did it before he was captured. Perhaps..that man did a last stand. As expected of him...never the type to just surrender. Somehow he could imagine Kuni holding his gun and blasting everyone..
“You're always so foolish, Kuni.” Aether spoke as his eyes seemed to moisten.
“Emotions flunctuating. Would you like me to neutralize your nervous system database?”
“No.” anything but this.
The sound of gunshots became louder and finally, he saw three more cyborgs falling down, bullets piercing through their bodies. Immediately, he became alert and pulled out his gun. Slowly…he neared the edge of the door and inside the room, tied and bound sat CB44kuni.
Aether observed the blood and wounds from the man and his face quickly became concerned.
“Kuni-”
BANG!
A bullet grazed his cheeks before he reflexively dodged and went out of the room again just standing closely to the entrance. A red line formed and blood immediately seeped out of Aether's face. His breath caught to his chest.
“What's happening?”
“The system seems to identify that CB44kuni has gone on auto-terminate mode.”
So that's how he reprogrammed.
Aether looked at the pile of dead people and realized that Kuni must have caused this. He sighed heavily in his heart. They were just talking last night…he could still remember the man's hazy eyes..
‘I filed a leave for two weeks, twerp, after our mission, let's get out of this hell hole.” The man evaded his gaze but Aether could see the tint of red threatening to rise from his cheeks.
Aether smiled sarcastically. “In this apocalyptic land?”
However, Kuni wasn't easily swayed. “There must be a fucking safe place somewhere out there ”
He did not respond to Kuni. They both knew that hope is a dangerous thing to have.
“I'm taking you with me, twerp.”
“System, can CB44kuni still recognize me if he conducts a scan?”
“Chances are below 70%”
“That's enough.”
With a sigh, Aether carefully looked at the man again who immediately sensed a movement and pointed his gun to the entrance shooting six bullets consecutively. Rolling his eyes, he let the man waste the bullets of his pistol. Once there were no more signs of ammunition, the blond slowly crawled towards the man.
Looking at the state of the man, Aether thought that he might not have much time left before he…shuts down. Permanently. A heavy feeling filled his chest.
“Warning! Emotions are critically unstable! Initialize neutralization?”
“No. Fuck no.”
Once he's in front of Kuni, he looked at the wavy hair, his dark eyes looking at him emptily. Devoid of any tenderness that was there last night.
“That's not how you looked at me last night.” He snickered caressing the cyborg's cheek..and then delivered a sucker punch to his face. He almost fell down with the chair he's bound to before Aether grabbed to stabilize its balance.
“That's for recklessly doing this.” His voice broke a little.
“You're so stupid.” Another punch…just weaker this time.
“You should've woke me up so we could terminate them together.” He held the man's wrist and squeezed it tightly.
The cyborg's head dropped down and Aether knelt down to look at the man's empty expression as if looking in the air.
“Hey, Kuni, say something, call me twerp.”
Nothing.
“System, initialize synchronized scan.”
“Affirmative.”
Soon, a holographic display appeared from Kuni as it scanned the male. His blooded hand gently moved to hold Aether's face in place.
A scan is usually used to confirm the identity of another entity. Aether initiated a synchronized scan for CB44kuni to not recognize him as a hostile being now that he has gone on autopilot.
Several icons appeared.
Skull.
Bullet.
Robot.
And then it stopped at one icon.
Heart.
A heart with a stupid comical arrow pierced through it.
Aether paused…his face complicated and his eyes reddened more before several tears dropped to the dusty floor.
This foolish man…he told him to stop installing unnecessary things in his database.
Stupid icon. Stupid heart.
He reached for the pocket knife strapped beside his boot and immediately untied the man.
“Come on, let's get you out of here. If we could get to the base, maybe they can still patch you u-”
“SYSTEM ALERT! BULLET INCOMING!”
BANG!
His eyes widened when he was immediately hugged by the man and aether immediately fired his gun at the rogue who dropped dead. Fucking hell.
“....twerp..”
He flinched when he saw the recently dead eyes turned into something mechanically warm.
“Why… are …you crying.heh..you're getting weak..?” CB44kuni asked tenderly despite its voice shaking and becoming more hoarse.
“Because you're stupid.and just stupidly grumpy...”
He could still remember their conversation last night.
“Why are you so nice to me?”
“You look like you're always about to cry. Why is that?”
“It seems like the world hates me, Kuni ”
“Then everything you hate, I'll hate it too. That way, you're not alone.”
CB44kuni smiled weakly before dropping to the ground.
“Go back to the base..”
Aether shakes his head. Stubbornly so.
Kuni weakly extended his hand and patted his head. The boy sniffled and straddled the man's lap as he rummaged through the man's pockets. He then felt the cigarettes and took one out feeling hopeless.
“Want a smoke before you kick the bucket?”
“Light it up for me, twerp.” Kuni smiled.
Aether grabbed the lighter with a shaking hand before lighting the cigarette and taking a big smoke from it before stuffing it inside Kuni's mouth.
The two stayed like that for a while, exchanging smokes with one cigarette, inside the rundown base of rouge enemies.
“On your scan, there was a heart icon.”
“Fuck off.”
Aether looked at the gushing blood forming a pool on the floor. He stared at the man who's now on slower breaths. He grabbed his arms and put them on his waist.
“The base was more pleasant with you there.” he admitted.
Kuni's eyes trembled softly and gave a weak squeeze on the boy's hips.
“Feels less shitty, you know?” Aether sniffled.
“....” Only a tender look amidst his fading eyes.
“Don't leave.” The cigarette immediately fell from his lips and landed on Kuni's shirt burning a small hole, smelling like smoke and mint.
Kuni's bloodied hand slowly made its way to Aether's face to caress his cheeks before traveling to his eyes and…gently…with immense tenderness…wiped away the tears cascading down and then Kuni's hand dropped.
There was only silence and the sound of the metal fan from the ceiling. Aether just looked at the man. Painting that black hair in his mind.
He grasped the now cold hands and a port appeared before inserting a flashdrive.
“Initializing database….. please confirm the sender and receiver’s identity.”
“CB21aether, CB44kuni”
“Please insert the password”
“1431<3U”
“Connecting and synchronizing interdatabase.”
“......18%”
“let's meet again tomorrow”
“......46%”
“I'm taking you with me.”
“......74%”
“Hey, I wore your cap, I still have your smell up my hair.”
“...89%”
Aether looked at Kuni's pistol before loading his last bullet. He brought his face down and kissed the cyborg's busted lips before pointing the gun to his head.
“......94%”
Heart icon.
“100% All data synchronized and transferred.”
A loud gunshot was heard in the hallway.
___
A scavenger who was exploring the place stumbled upon the piles of dead people and cyborgs. Her eyes ventured around looking for something useful when her eyes laid to two certain figures. Two cyborgs.
Upon closer inspection, her chest slightly trembled. The taller cyborg was laying on the floor, a dried pool of blood evident. On top of him was another cyborg, just smaller in height. Its head has an obvious hole, probably made from bullets. Her eyes wandered to the gun near the shorter cyborg's left hand, and in his right hand ... .there it was clasped along the taller man's.
“They look so peaceful..”
The scene there should've been grotesque and cold but the sight the two dead cyborgs left was warm.
The woman couldn't help but to moisten her eyes. Upon her better judgement, she pulled the two together near the window, each of them laying their head against the other. Hands still clasped, somehow the two looked alive and content.
She looked at the peaceful figure of the two before breaking out a smile and left.
TBC