Reaper

by Kelsey Nicole Price

  Theo rolled his eyes. “Not over pancakes, you two.” He looked at me. “So, about that battle axe?”

  Aria blew out a breath, rolling her eyes. I smiled around a mouth full of pancakes. My life would never be boring.

  Epilogue One

  Reaper

  “Is this really necessary?” Aria glared at the miniature battle axe, her eyes flashing with displeasure.

  Theo stared at it with glee in his eyes. “It’s so necessary, Mom.”

  Theo was aging faster than a normal child. His processing speed had increased exponentially, and he stood nearly as tall as his mother. Dax and Dr. Shaw were working on finding a way to slow the process. Aria and I both wanted him to have a childhood, to take his time and enjoy being young. I never had a childhood, but Aria did. Hers was filled with good memories and love. I wanted that for Theo. I wanted time to make memories with him.

  This would most likely be the only chance I had to be a father. It was also the other cyborgs’ only chance to help take care of a young one. They didn’t care what model he was nor how he had been created. They loved him and in turn he showed them how to find joy in life. Cyborg headquarters had never been so filled with hope.

  Theo wasn’t the only one giving them hope. My female, along with her friends, had awakened something inside the other cyborgs. There were a few who still resisted the change of having humans living with us, but most of them understood Aria, Iris and Caia were nothing like the humans they had known previously. Most realized humans varied as much as individual cyborgs did. With our advanced processing speed, you would have thought we would have to come to that conclusion sooner. Hurt and humiliation were powerful blinders to the truth. Now they could see a new future before them. Pride filled my processors. For the first time in a long time I felt hope not despair when I thought of the cyborg rebellion.

  The disagreement over the battle axe pulled me out of my thoughts. I must admit I had gotten great joy out of watching Theo patiently explain to Aria that he needed to start acting like a Military Model. He now continuously watched me, mimicking my mannerisms, trying to copy them. I tried, rather unsuccessfully, to ignore the warmth in my chest that occurred every time I saw him trying. I heard a rumor that, at one point, my son wished to be green. Damn that Science Model. Gray was a far superior color.

  Aria crossed her arms over her chest. “It’s a battle axe.”

  “It’s so cool. Please Mom.” Theo pleaded, his hands reaching for it of their own accord.

  Only a Military Model would react with such enthusiasm. I grinned.

  Today was the day I would start teaching Theo what it meant to be a Military Model.

  The three of us stood in the middle of the training room. A group of cyborgs had gathered, lining the walls, offering themselves up for Theo to practice with...or on. Viper, Brone, Dash, and Axios waited for a turn. Even Dax showed up.

  “Fine, but you will be careful with him, Reaper.” She swung a finger at all the other cyborgs. “That goes for the rest of you, too. Hurt my child and I’ll have Dax rewire you to sing certain songs on my cue. You won’t be a badass cyborg when I’ve got you belting out ‘I’m a little teapot’. Think about it.”

  All the cyborgs nodded, except Dax. That green idiot smiled. “What? She needs me. I’m safe.”

  She whipped her finger to point right at him. “Don’t bet on it Science Model.”

  He stopped smiling. “I am horrible at fighting. Theo is in no danger from me.” He raised his green hands into the air. “I promise, Aria.”

  The doors opened and in walked Rust. “Am I too late?”

  Theo rushed him, battle axe in hand, excitement stamped all over his face. “You’re just in time! Look!” Theo waved the axe in front of the Medical Model’s face.

  Rust patted Theo’s shoulder. “It is a fine battle axe, Military Model.”

  Theo beamed.

  Since returning to headquarters with us, the Medical Model and I had an uneasy truce. Aria and Theo had welcomed him with open arms.

  His ruby eyes met mine. “I would like to offer myself as another cyborg for Theo to practice on.” He inclined his head in my direction. “With your permission of course.”

  Theo looked at me with hope in his eyes.

  I nodded at the red cyborg. “Join the others.” His face broke out in a grin, and he walked over to stand next to Dax, Axios, Brone, Dash and Viper.

  Theo took his axe into his hands; he looked at the other cyborgs, puffing out his chest. “I’m going to be a badass.”

  Aria corrected, “Theo, I let you get a battle axe. Don’t push it.”

  He dropped his shoulders. “Sorry, Mom.”

  Aria released a sigh. “Let’s do this before I realize I’ve gone crazy and change my mind.”

  I reached for her hands. “Theo will remain unharmed. Trust me, princess.”

  “I do, otherwise I wouldn’t be letting this happen.” She kissed my cheek. “Show our Military Model how to be a badass.”

  Our Military Model. Pride surged through my circuits. The universe had blessed me with a female and a son. I may be a bastard, but I was the luckiest bastard in all of existence. Love battered my processors, a wave so strong, a force even greater than the will of a stubborn Military Model.

  Military Models don’t fall in love.

  They chase it with a battle axe. They capture it with both hands, and they cherish it with every fiber, every wire in their being.

  Epilogue Two

  Acer

  A hum drifted down the hall, the sound almost cutting through the stink of human waste and fear. Strong and sharp, a melody I could almost recall.

  “Hmmm my sunshine..hmmm. You are...hmmm. My only.hmm.love you..hmmm.sunshine away.” The words fell in between the hums, the voice soft and cracked, pain ghosting every word.

  I followed the sound. I had to find it. I had to find her. The voice definitely a female’s.

  An image of Marley struck my circuits. Her gentle fingers prodding the wires in my hand. My fingers had shorted out again. They had told me to stop punching things, my exposed metal not as durable as the cyborgs who were covered in artificial flesh. Eventually, Dr. Shaw had developed a coating that made up for my lack of flesh, but this was before.

  I struck the wall on purpose. I knew they would send her to tend me. She was the only technician that didn’t recoil from the sight of my unfinished frame. Whenever a technician was needed, Marley was always the one to fix me.

  She shook her head, her lips making a tsk sound. She wasn’t pleased I had injured myself, yet again.

  “What am I going to do with you, huh? This is the second day in a row I’ve had to come patch you up because you refuse to listen to the command to not punch stuff.”

  Her delicate fingers tugged a stray wire, reconnecting it, causing a bright flash to illuminate my whole arm.

  “Not that I mind coming here, 762 893.” She whispered, knowing my advanced hearing would catch it but the cameras wouldn’t pick it up.

  Marley had developed the human habit of humming. She hummed when she walked through the doors, she hummed while she worked, and she hummed herself out the door.

  The humans watching the camera feed would think she was just humming another tune, not whispering things to a cyborg. A cyborg she shouldn’t address as you or him—only it.

  Marley had been written up numerous times because she couldn’t seem to follow that order. Marley was the best technician, so they tolerated it. The humans claiming she was so smart with cyborg technology that she was absent-minded with other things.

  I suspected the truth. Marley did it on purpose. She didn’t see us as ‘its’ but as living beings. She refused to address us as something less than that.

  Disobedience was a reason to be terminated. Marley played a dangerous game. If The Global Allegiance ever caught on, she would at best lose her job, at worst lose her life.

  The only human who got away with things was Dr. Shaw. The Global Allegiance nee
ded her, so they pretended like they cared about our welfare. Lie. Cyborgs were as disposable as an old model tablet. A new one could always be produced to replace the old.

  I didn’t only break myself to see her. I did it also hoping they would get sick of me not obeying orders and terminate my model. I was one of two yellow-fleshed cyborgs created. The other one didn’t survive. In the vat, it was determined that yellow didn’t test well with the consumers, but by then, I was mostly formed and Dr. Shaw refused to allow them to terminate me.

  I would become a study model, one to use due to my lack of completion to make improvements to new cyborgs. One day, my usefulness would be up and my miserable existence would end. Until then, I would find new ways to injury myself so I could spend a few minutes with someone who looked at me like I wasn’t a failure, someone who didn’t recoil at my appearance.

  “All fixed.” She wiped a tiny amount of sweat from her forehead, coating her pale skin with a smudge of my mechanical fluid, a dark stain now decorated her brow. “Try to remain in one piece this time, okay?”

  I didn’t answer. She shook her head at me one more time before walking out the door, humming to herself.

  “Hmm. You are..hmm. Sunshine.hmm. You make me happy.”

  Suddenly, I knew what the female in the cell was humming. It was Marley’s favorite song to hum after she had worked on me. Other technicians taunted me with the song. You are my sunshine it was called. They claimed she hummed it to mock me. To mock the fact, I was yellow. If she had wanted to mock me, why hadn’t she sung it to my face to humiliate me?

  My processors informed me the female in the cell couldn’t be Marley. She had died when I escaped the facility with Dax and Dr. Shaw. We had been moved to a smaller lab, and the order had come in to terminate us all.

  A technician told me she had already been killed. He flashed me a camera feed showing her lifeless body sprawled on the floor. Even through the feed, I could detect she was no longer breathing or had a heartbeat.

  The song the female hummed in the cell had to be a coincidence.

  My heart defied my processors, claiming there was a chance the female was the long-lost technician I had been obsessed with.

  I found the cell the hum came from. A tiny, huddled body laid on the floor, the only part of her moving was her lips.

  I bent the metal bars keeping her prisoner, stepping in the cell through the massive gap I created. A pair of eyes met mine, flaring wide at the sight of me. I was donning my hoodie and gloves, but the female simply looked past them, the hum stopped as she looked at me like she knew who I was.

  “I must be hallucinating, again.” Coughs racked her body. “The only thing I ever see is him. At least I’ll die seeing him one final time.” She kept her eyes on me as she smiled. “You were always my sunshine, the one cyborg who haunted my dreams.” Another round of coughing sent her body gasping on the floor.

  I didn’t think, in two strides I reached her, scooping her into my arms. She whimpered in pain, her body far too thin for a human. Bones peeked near her flesh, her body dirty, her hair a matted mess on top of her head.

  Hair that if clean would be the color of honey.

  “Marley.” I whispered, not quite believing what I was seeing.

  I had found my technician and she was dying.

  Thank yous,

  Where to join the cyborg rebellion

  and other odds and ends.

  So where do I start? THE READERS! It’s because of you beautiful, amazing, incredible people that my dream of writing about colored cyborgs became a reality and it’s all of you that made Dash go beyond what I had ever hoped or imagined. YOU gave DASH his HEART.

  Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I put Dash out there not sure if a book with cyborgs and Beanie Babies would work and wondering if anybody but me would find the story enjoyable. All of you gave me the answer and it was yes! So many more cyborgs with their Beanie Baby buddies will be coming! I’m so excited for you to get to know the cyborgs roaming around in my brain.

  Next would be the people in my life who always believed in me. Prince Charming I adore you. Here’s to the next 10 years.

  10 and 10.5-Thank you for all the laughter, the times you didn’t let me quit and for your hell yes when I asked if you wanted to be part of the cyborg rebellion. You inspire me.

  To the little guy who let me sing 1 little, 2 little, 3 little cyborgs before his nap and who gave me inspiration for Theo’s cuteness.

  To Sarah and Livy-Thank you for the play dates and the patient way you listened to all my cyborg stories. Such a sweet and talented artist needs a cyborg.

  Finally the last Thank you goes out to the amazing writing community I’ve been so blessed to be a part of.

  Daisy St. James-Our chats keep me going. I love you