Usu (10 page)

Rain was frozen, whatever will had kept her going for that long had cracked as if it was merely a brittle little biscuit all along. She would not wake again, Usu knew this, he’d heard it a dozen times before coming here, but he wouldn’t let her be devoured no matter how far she fell. Ignoring the cackling apparitions, he pulled her limp arm once more, tumbling them both into the muck below. He pulled her from every angle, uncaring for the rips his own body suffered in response. The movement was slow, it was almost futile, but they moved.

Slowly, each body was being brought closer to the entrance as the Catherines commented amongst one another. “It’s the wipe isn’t it?” “Oh yes, should be a nice blank slate again in no time now.” “Ah, those are the best.” They somehow allowed a warm smile to breach the cold expanse between them. Their malice was almost as benevolent as it was selfish. They could never see themselves as the cruel monsters others did because they deemed life itself the real monster and everyone else cattle for their scythe. They thought little of Usu’s struggle or Rain’s demise; thinking of others would hurt too much, thinking of others would remind them of their Olive, and neither had the strength of will for that.

A distance away from Usu’s struggle, Mercury and Modbot searched for a way to save Rain on their own, though neither with completely clear motivations. Mercury herself was starting to wonder why she didn’t just 'piss the whole thing off' (to put it politely) in the first place, why she felt drawn to their silly little struggle, and perhaps most of all, why Modbot was walking around with only his knees raised above the ground, the rest of his body parallel to the ground in proper limbo fashion.

Feeling the sting of societal judgment as he had come to know so very well, Modbot habitually responded to the awkward silence. “T-This is rather normal you see, or, or certainly more normal than it seems! Due to… a series of unfortunate non-accidental mechanical destructions, I ended up with a pair of barely functioning visual sensors between each knee joint. So while I may be blindfolded from triggering a kill-switch normally, my fogged up knee-eyes can still navigate through most obstacles with pip pip accuracy!”

Mercury was left speechless; disgust and admiration had formed together all at once and the English language along with the art of portmanteau itself wasn’t quite prepared to have a word for that feeling just yet. She motioned him to carry on with suspicious eyes and a chromatic hand turn, which his makeshift visual sensors saw as a buffalo eating rice pudding. Thankfully that misinterpretation elicited much the same response, knowing how very un-British of him it would be to disrupt a wild animal’s pudding excursion.

Carrying on their own paths, Modbot stumbled across an assortment of spilled paper-clips, a chair, another chair, and then a deviously placed wall. Mercury on the other―somewhat less inept―side of things, was scouring any terminal with power, ripping out drawers and generally having a highly physical debate against office furniture.

“Why not try this office? Looks fancy, dedicated to a chef it is!” Modbot put forth, once again exceeding his own aptitude for helpfulness in times of crisis. The room he’d pointed out was a rather good find, if only for it belonging to a department chief. As he scanned the floor, presumably for more paper-clips, Mercury was brute-forcing her way into the system. Not quite as easy as the others, or one could presume so from her angelic―and frequent―usage of such niceties as “Pig-shit son of a bitch” and “Codflopper!” No one will ever truly know what exactly a 'Codflopper' is, but it evidently lacked positive qualities. Nonetheless, she broke through, if a bit strangely sweatier for the wear.

Everything was there; emails arranging a 'part exchange', a system of some kind between the cybernetics department and the android development wing, instructions to leave a certain bulkhead door sealed at all times, and, while not perfect, a series of blueprints detailing numerous 'failures'. The lacking traits of the latter drew suspicion, as most wouldn’t consider 'Looks at me' as grounds for disposal, but then again most people never got close to the technology born between those walls.

It was enough, it had to be. Mercury was running out of time herself, without even being aware of Usu’s predicament. Black liquid leaking from underneath her cloak had begun pooling around her feet, the result of over-exerting her efficient yet still fragile construction. Modbot, still currently gifted only in the ways of floor-sight took a quiet note of the liquid, and while he didn’t fully understand its meaning, he understood the gravity of the situation. He immediately stood up, ripped off his blindfold and swung Mercury over his shoulder. She told him off for it, maybe half a dozen times, maybe more, but it wasn’t nearly enough to phase him at this point.

They were stumbling towards where they had parted with Usu and Rain until finally coming to a scene which washed away any shame Mercury might have accumulated from being carried like a doll. There before them was an open bulkhead door, Usu tugging at Rain’s limp body with everything he could muster. Without a word or whisper, suddenly both were suspended in the air by a one-handed raise from Modbot, who couldn’t help give a cheeky grin despite circumstances so grim.

“We’re getting out of here fluffletuffle, enough time on the floor for both of us I’d say.” Those words were almost enough to dull the ache that had overcome Usu’s heart, a heart frozen in terror so deeply that the next thing he knew he was back in the bubble and heading out the same tunnel that had drawn them in.

Mercury set the remaining device to give them the directional jolt they needed, though she was coughing badly, her cloak stained from the inside out. Yet she could do more, she could do… something. She looked at Modbot and Usu with deathly sincerity. “Listen, I’ll be fine once we reach the top, just need a bit of a recharge, but the girl, she’s losing everything right now. Every second is another day she’ll never get back. There’s something I can do… I didn’t want to, but you just better hope Shitbeard doesn’t wimp out on you okay? Kick his ass if he gives you trouble, I’ll kick it twice for ya myself.” She was obviously not well and had passed every limit she’d ever known, but her determination was steadfast as she ripped open the back of Rain’s dress and folded her own cloak to shoulder height. “This won’t save her, but it will protect whatever she has left, keep it safe you two.”

With a few more curse words that felt akin to an ancient spell at this point, she slid her hand inside of Rain’s back. Deeper and deeper still, until the top of her right arm fell off and crawled to join its kin. Patterns of grey began appearing and disappearing across Rain’s skin until a metal star began rising out of the center of her chest, a single strange gem socketed within. With a comatose breath, Mercury told them, “Take it, and do me a solid by not screwing up this time?” before falling flat herself, her body warping with pain. It was clear now that her cloak was far from simple clothing, it was a prison. The only prison that could keep her whole, and the same one she escaped momentarily to give Usu this final fragment of hope.

He grabbed the gem with no hesitation, holding it tightly to his chest as Rain’s body turned cold, brittle and, in one cruel instant, departed his world as dust.

I did something horrible Dee.

Something I can’t take back, no matter how hard I cry.

I found Snow, in a strange glass thing, holding Usu tightly as he dreamed. The men who took him away said it was a 'cryogenic chamber' and he would sleep a really, really long time, that it’s what he wanted. That, if he slept long enough he might be able to help me, but… but that isn’t what I wanted! I just wanted him to stay, to stay with me, I don’t care how much I forget if we make new memories every day! So I... I hit the glass and… it cracked.

Snow’s eyes opened just enough to see me, he was crying just as much as me but for some reason he was smiling. Red lights and bad noises, men were pulling me away but he kept smiling until he fell back to sleep.

They said he might not ever wake up because of what I did, but did you know Dee?

Snow doesn’t lie.

I’ll wait for him, even if the whole world won’t wait with me.

The amount of times something as simple as a jewel has held more value than that of a life runs almost innumerable throughout human history. Peasantry and nobility walked fine lines, dotted by mere rocks polished to a sheen. Marriages and life-long bonds formed around the price tag of a controlled commodity, a simple ore in truth. Yet, in this strange city built by directionless slaves in honour of their own begotten masters, a small feverish doll in the form of a rabbit held one such mineral, one that truly did carry the weight of a life.

Heavier still by the importance of his charge, Usu held the fragment with both care and terror. He could not lose her, his heart was not built for such woe and with each returning memory he was punishing himself for burdening Rain’s heart with just that. What right did he have to make her wait for him? What right did he have to hold everything she was so closely to him?

He didn’t, but then again, he didn’t need to either.

Love is a devious thing, taking residence in all whilst paying not a single deposit upfront. Though, try as we might to evict, it remains a creature with no boundaries, no borders and most of all, no master. Usu could no more stop Rain’s feelings for him than he could stop his for her. Perhaps there was something beautiful about the maddened pair he had just abandoned on the sea floor, after all.

One thing mattered now; he needed to get Rain help. Modbot and Usu were still drenched from their rather unexpected return landing, something largely considered a design flaw in the previously perfected suicide assistance diving bubbles. It was a situation made all the more unusual by it being two in the morning, a time when any decent automation was pretending to be asleep and few doors found themselves open without the use of a particularly violent talent one of them happened to have.

Modbot carried Mercury, or at least tried to do something resembling that, when in reality it was more a deal of her leaning against him, slumping forward and elbowing him across the face every time he tried to make a comment, pun, or take up more of the burden than was offered. Black ooze was still leaking from both her lips and missing arm but it did little good for her attitude. “Sheesh, you guys move slower than c―” allowing a bit more bile to make its escape, “―congress.” An insult that hardly bothered Modbot, who’d long since abandoned his American origins. Now, if she’d mentioned Parliament, then he might have a word or two! Those words would be with himself though; both honour and fear prevented him from standing up to her, even when standing itself was the last thing she seemed to be able to do.

Usu looked worried, more worried than by default at least, but his fears were firmly on the little life in his hands. His feelings to Mercury were only that of gratitude. It didn’t take much to see that whatever she had done for Rain hurt herself far more than she would ever admit.

After what seemed like hours, they at last arrived at Manchester's abode, making an entrance even his false sleep state couldn’t ignore. Mercury collapsed the moment they arrived, pushing Modbot to the side and with her one remaining hand slammed the ground with enough force to crack its entirety. Not one for simple physical abuse, she took the opportunity to engage in some father-daughter bonding by yelling, “S-Shitbeard,” interrupted by a whimsical bit of passing vomit. “Shitbeard! I brought them back with, with the only information we could find. The girl and I are missing a few pieces though, so could you stop pretending to snore through your ass and do something? Don’t make me tell them about what you do with portable air conditioning units, cause you know I wi―”

The last comment had the awkward creature springing immediately to face them, raising as many of his chin-hands to cover Mercury’s mouth as he could.

“Hush hush, mah dear, let's have a peek at ye! Missing arm, black stuff that was just laying aroond when ah made ye. Nae good at all!” His eyes surveyed the rest of the room. “Haggisballs looks wrong 'n proper as he ever did, though th' wee rabbit doesn't seem so good, 'n I'd swear thar was yin more o' ye...”

Mercury lashed out, “Bloody hell there was! The girl! The whole reason we went there! I had to preserve her personality and memories in that fragment, and I got a bit of the design data you need. So how about you be less of an ass for once and do something about her, would you? We both know how long those things last.”

One of his appendages connected to the back of his daughter's neck, the schematics passing over to him in a single heartbeat. He retracted immediately, backing as far up as he could. There wasn't only schematic data in there, but a brutal breakdown of the bodyshop of horrors that made each piece of the puzzle fit. “Gods, well no wonder ah couldnae make ye if ah tried, them bits dinnae grow on trees, and... well actually trees dinnae grow anymore either.” Shaking his head for a moment he zipped back down, this time directly in front of Usu. Usu looked at Manchester with broken eyes that spoke of loss. Yet even then, he summoned all of his courage as he handed Rain's fragment over, Manchester delicately taking it through a gloved beard-hand. “Yer a good laddie ye know, well, a good whatever ye are.” Usu found little relief in his praise. “Ah will be straight wi' ye rabbit, ah cannae make her th’ same. But ah kin save her, mayhap if th' ghost in th' machine blesses us.”

Usu walked closer, nervous and terrified about any possible outcome, until Modbot kneeled down and scuffed up his head. He found strength in that, a strange, perverse head-scruffing fetish sort of strength, but at this point no one's being picky. Manchester stopped fiddling with some idle calculations and looked at Usu firmly. “In a hundred 'n thirteen years.”

Modbot spoke up first. “For what?! For you to twiddle every thumb you've got on that chin of yours?”

Manchester let out another exaggerated sigh, covering the room in a light smog. “Nah, ye blunderbuss. T'save th' lassie. If he kin hold his horses that long, ah kin do something aboot it sure as a catholic's guilt! But...” He leaned ever more forward. “Kin ye hold on that long laddie? Even when ye dinnae ken how for long ye have ta bide? Ah could implant her in a stock model 'n you'd be t'gether fer days at best afore she'd shatter, but if ye take me offer, 'n―more importantly―if it works, th' lassie will be free o' all that wishes ta bind her.”