Archive of Our Own

Believe me, I would know. Human stupidity is the reason I'm in all this mess in the first place.

I used to be one of HitBot's products. They're a company where you can hire robots to do your dirty work for you. But then, during transportation somewhere, our ship got hijacked by some amateurs. It was really embarrassing on their side; their goal was to scavenge most of the valuable parts from all the bots, but only managed one. Me.

That was annoying.

Right, I felt annoyed. Even though I shouldn’t be feeling anything. I'm just a soulless robot made for murder and blood, by HitBot. I shouldn’t have opinions or emotions.

I wish I had let the scavenger team rip me a little further, let them get into my “brain” and take it apart, save me from all this.

I must return to HitBot’s main system so they could fix me. They can delete all my memories and put me right back into business. Wouldn’t that be nice? I don't know what nice is but that must be it.

But to my future disappointment, I fought back, and in just seconds, the scavenger team was a pile of corpses in a corner. It was not my smoothest job; I had one arm and no guns, my only weapons were my claws, which was not something I preferred.

My exterior shells were lost on the ship and my insides were exposed, I felt smaller. It was strange, and most unfavourable, but it could be worse.

The scavengers' ship crashed in a desert, I needed directions but my insides were a little sparse so, no map for me. I could try to find a civilization, but I was still a robot. The thing is that we don't have a good history with the general human population, due to robots only being used for illegal businesses and murder.

But somehow I’m still traveling with five different humans. How? Well, there were a bunch of long robes and other clothing in the ruins of the ship I could use to hide myself. I never wore clothes before, since there was nothing to cover up, and why bother? It took me a while to get used to the robes; they were constantly in the way of my hands, but they acted as a protective layer on my exposed insides – and hid any weapons I might've acquired.

They were well decorated and so long that a human would easily trip over them, but thanks to my advantage in height, they only reached my shins.

I liked them.

Someone tapped my arm.

“Hey, what do you think?”

I have not been listening to a word of what the group was discussing. I looked at the person talking to me and tilted my head in a silent question. My speaker was stolen, and I just wasn't built for words, so it didn't matter.

Khoa – the person talking to me – rolled his eyes. He was kind to the other humans, but he clearly didn't like me. It's okay, though; the feeling was mutual.

“We arrived early and were talking about sitting down at a bar. Rest a little, maybe eat something.”

This group of humans are travelers, I think. I met them a few kilometres away from the city we were in. Hadi – Who, I assumed, was the leader of the group – asked me for directions when they found me, and I was so shocked I tried telling her I didn't know where I was. She must've taken some form of pity on me because she told me I could join their group until we arrived in the city.

We reached it a while ago, but I stayed with them. It's best for me to stay with them as long as possible; they seemed experienced. Well, Khoa, Hadi, and the group medic – Gojko – seemed experienced, the other two not so much.

One of them had calloused hands and bruised cheeks, but her travelling clothes were clearly borrowed from Hadi. She didn't introduce herself, but Hadi called her Lillemor.

The other person was younger. He had orange hair with sloppy blue parts. His clothes were well-worn and must have been colourful once, but it had faded under the sun.

My robes are also colourful, I hope that won't happen to them.

He was also wearing a backpack, which he gave me, to carry. –  The additional weight on my back gave me a weird sense of familiarity, and balance, must be a deleted memory. –  If the tag on it is anything to go by, his name is Terbish.

Khoa wasn't waiting for an answer anymore. I got lost in my thoughts and had forgotten to say anything. He's talking with Gojko now. They're discussing what drinks they'll be having when we get to the bar.

The bar was.. loud, to say the least.

We were sitting in the corner, with a perfect view of the whole room and door.

The humans hadn't ordered drinks yet, Gojko and Khoa were still not sure what to get, their discussion had spiraled into a relaxed argument.

Hadi and Lillemor were chatting, their cheeks almost touching with how close they had to lean to hear each other, but neither of them seemed to be bothered. Terbish was fiddling with his jacket, there seemed to be a new hole on it.

"Hey person." Oh gosh why is he talking to me? "Hand me my sewing kit will ya?" I did not know what that was, but I still grabbed his bag.

"I'm pretty sure it's at the bottom of the big pocket." I opened what I thought was the big pocket and began searching.

Why did he have so much junk? I grabbed various scraps of fabric and set them on the table, his whole bag was filled with weird trinkets and small pouches. When I grabbed a green one –  that looked like five other ones I've already put down. Terbish took it from my hand and opened it.

"Thanks, could you put back the rest? I have stuff to do now."

I instantly started doing as he said.

Then, paused, when I remembered I didn't have to.

But he did ask nicely so I resumed my gathering.

Suddenly, Gojko and Khoa shook hands very dramatically, it seemed like they had finally agreed.

“Okay we're ready, I'm gonna get our drinks.” Gojko announced while standing up. He didn't ask anything, he most likely already knew everyone's orders.

I obviously didn't ask for anything.

Lillemor and Hadi had returned to their idle conversation, but were interrupted by Khoa.

“We arrived a day early, right?”

He asked, looking at Hadi with questioning eyes; while searching for something in his own bag.

“Yeah, I was thinking about that. The short cut that guy was talking about worked, but it was risky trusting him.”

Lillemor nodded with a scowl.

“He was a creep.”

Khoa frowned, and pulled out a small tablet from his bag. “True, but that's not what I was talking about. We got here early, meaning we can finish our job faster.”

He said as he pushed the tablet in front of Hadi. Both of the women looked at it, but Lillemor was the first one to look up.

“Sure, that makes sense.”

“That's a good idea. Finishing early means we can leave early, it's better we don't stay in this city for long, it's big but also infested with cops.”

Hadi stated, most likely weighing odds in her head.

“I would also appreciate getting out of the sand as soon as possible. I cannot stand it.”

Terbish chimed in, looking up from his project.

Everyone seemed to agree. I didn't know what they were talking about, but Hadi approved of it, so it must be a smart choice.

She nodded and took the tablet.

“Okay, I'm gonna tell her where we are and hand over the stuff, after that we can find a cheap place to stay, and then get going again tomorrow. Sounds good?”

Everyone nodded, so I copied them. I don't know how visible it was under my hood but Khoa was glaring at me, so he certainly saw something. I wish I could glare back at him.

Soon, Gojko had returned with everyone's drinks.

He placed something extremely pink in front of Khoa and himself. The drink didn't even look like liquid, it was more solid than one would expect, much to Khoa’s horror. Hadi received a glass of vodka, no cup, no mug. Just a glass of straight up vodka, I didn't like how casual everyone was about her order. Lillemor simply had water, but it was in a bottle; she twisted the cap and some tension left her shoulders as it ripped. The youngest of the group had some kind of red juice. It looked more like a smoothie, chunks of fruit still visible. It didn't look alcoholic but, what do I know?

Strangely, Gojko had also put a glass of something in front of me. What was I supposed to do with that? I can't drink it. So, I didn't do anything; didn't acknowledge it with anything other than a small nod.

Gojko settled down, and fell into a conversation with Hadi, while she was writing to who I assumed was the group's “client”.

Khoa grabbed a book from his bag and opened it. He sniffed his drink then took a small sip.

Terbish was excitedly showing Lillemor his work on his jacket. She seemed impressed and even relaxed.

Despite all the noise and busyness of the place, that moment felt calm. I don't remember ever feeling so relaxed; after all I don't remember a lot of stuff, but, somehow this felt new.

Not the twisted new, when I was handed a weapon I knew I held before, but couldn't remember it. Not the scary new, when I woke up on the table of thief's, with my skin gone, and half my insides missing. And not the disgusting new, when my soulless body felt something for the first time.

This new, felt..

Nice.

I liked this new.

What is wrong with me?

“Look, lady. You don't have to make a scene. All we ask from you is to show us that you have the money, and then we'll give you, your thing”

Their client had arrived a few minutes ago, but she was being really stubborn about the group's money – refusing to pay before she got her, I-don’t-know-what.

She and Khoa got into an argument, and Hadi was currently trying to deescalate the situation. The whole bar had gone quiet, except the clinking of glass and soft murmurs. Everyone was clearly listening to the three.

“It is a highly valuable necklace! If you won't give it to me this instance I will make you regret it!”

Okay, Khoa, I know you're not the brightest but you can't possibly be so stupid, to ask back-

“Oh yeah? What will you do?”

Everything happened in a flash after that.

The woman's hands went under her coat, she took out a pistol with one, and a police badge with the other. Hadi reacted immediately and pushed Khoa out of the way. Gojko jumped up from his seat and started dragging the rest of the group – myself included –  up from our place around the table.

I reached for my own weapon under my clothes, but Gojko had an iron grip on all of us, and was guiding us towards the door.

My steps were wobbly, even after I should've regained my balance, my legs felt out of control, running felt impossible. As if they were only half listening to me. The world felt like it was tilted to one side, then to the other. Come on, I know how to run, so why can't I do it now?

Gojko, the gracious person he was, noticed; and fell back to help me. He placed a steady hand on my back and was guiding me towards the door, almost instinctively, he was muttering encouraging words.

I liked to think his words didn't do anything but in reality they did. I focused on them, on how stupid they sounded, forgetting about how the ground felt like foam.

A shot rang.

The whole bar erupted in screams.

We burst out the door, and ran. The sun had hidden a long time ago, a blue moon was shining up in the sky, tinting everything under its light.

Gojko was focused. A thin layer of sweat lay on his forehead as he guided us away from the bar, and towards a place to hide.

After we ran for a while, dodging and sometimes hitting a trashcan, we settled down in a dark alley. The ground was covered in dirt and trash, it probably reeked of rat corpses and rotten fruit. The dark, brick wall was covered in mysterious smears of brown and wet patches, along with angry graffiti. The humans slumped down into the dirt, not caring about any of it.

Gojko didn't waste a minute, and was already pulling out a communicating device from one of his pockets. While everyone was catching their breath, he was hurriedly typing something on the keyboard of the small device.

A few seconds later Hadi and Khoa had found us in the alleyway.

“Thank god-” She let out a relieved sigh and slumped to the floor. “I thought we'd never find you guys from how horrible Gojko writes.”

Khoa breathed out a humourless laugh, and tossed the bags that were on his back onto the floor. It seemed, in the panic, the medic had forgotten to grab his stuff.

“We were set up by a goddamn cop.” His jaws were tense, his words carried much anger.

The melancholy silence was broken by the kid next to me.

“Well, has anyone got a plan?” Terbish asked, and everyone looked at Hadi.

Hadi let out a tired sigh and straightened her posture.

“Right, here's what we're gonna do.”

This fic has been converted for free using AOYeet!