The Inevitable
Storyline
Everyone knew it was gonna come someday. They just didn't want to think about it. A new threat is attack Metro City. Who would've guessed? Again, Astro appears to save the day... But after the threat is taken care of, Astro begins to feel strange. He is always tired and sometimes can find it hard to move... and then O'Sheay explains the problem.
Chapter 2
Words of Play
His eyes slowly opened, revealing warm, chocolate brown iris's. His eyes searched the room quietly, then he leaned up. It took much strength to lean up, but he managed. He realized he wasn't wearing the clothes he was wearing before, but rather what he perfered to wear most of the time: black briefs, a pine green belt, and a pair of crimson boots.
He recognized the room. It was his room. To his right was a large window with bedding below it. To his left, a door leading out. Before him, a dresser and a desk.
He turned and let himself slowly off the bed and stumbled to the window. He glared outside, where a large, silver, full moon glared back without eyes of it's own. It was a clear night, so stars were clearly visable. Lights from the city were dim enough for a full starry night to be seen.
He sat with his back against the wall and brought his knees up to his chest. He wrapped his arms lightly around his red boots he was currently equiped with and stared out the window in silence.
He had a strange feeling in his chest. He didn't know what it was, or what he was experiencing. He had never felt this way before. It wasn't disappointment or hopeless or anger or depression... It was something else...
He heard the door open and close. His listened to the step pattern and the breathing to know who it was. "Atlas." He called.
"Yeah?" The eighteen-year-old responded. Astro continued to stare out the window.
"What is this feeling in my chest?" He asked. "It feels... it's not deprssion or disappointment. I don't know what it is."
Atlas sat on the bedding, his back facing the window. "I think you feel fear." He said without looking up... but the word cause Astro to look at Atlas suddenly.
"Fear?" He repeated. Atlas nodded.
"It's a feeling of when you feel unsafe or in danger." He explained. "Fear is a common feeling for humans. But I don't think you have ever experianced fear. Maybe adrenilane, but not fear."
Astro looked back out the window. "No, I have felt it before. Rarely, but I have." He blinked slowly. "In fact, I am experiancing it right now." Atlas looked at Astro with interest. "It's not you, Atlas. It is a fear of... being unable to beat Itami and Kousen."
"So that's their names, huh?" Atlas said. Astro nodded. Atlas softened up. "Astro... You don't have to worry about them anymore."
Astro felt a tear slip. Atlas could slowly see what was truely wrong. "That's not it, is it?" Astro looked at Atlas, salt water rolling down his cheeks.
"Promise me one thing." Astro began, his voice cracking from sorrow. Atlas nodded. "That if anything happens to me, that you'll take care of Zoran for me?" Atlas gasped quietly... then tried to nod casually.
"Now, you promise me... that you will stop trying to take down bad guys?" Atlas returned.
Astro turned to Atlas, shocked. "Why!"
"I just... need you to." Atlas sighed, getting up from the seat. "I'll see you downstaires. Me, you, O'Sheay, and Tawashi have to talk."
Astro stumbled down the stairs, still weak from the battle. O'Sheay stood up from the table Atlas and Tawashi were sitting in at the time. "Astro." He addressed. "You're awake." Astro nodded tirely, his eyes drooping.
"I need an energy cassette..." He mumbled almost incoheriently. Zoran bursted into the room and bequeath an energy cassette to her elder brother, asking questions a mile a minute.
Astro injected the energy cassette into the proper place, yet still felt drained. Not as tired as before, but still unenergiezed. "Doctor." He softly began. "I don't feel right..." He grabbed onto the edge of a table to set himself straight.
Zoran was suddenly quiet, watching her brother in worry, before turning to O'Sheay and continuing her questions. O'Sheay walked over to Zoran and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Why don't you go out and play with Houdinie and Pluto?" He suggested quietly, saving himself and Astro a headache.
"But I want Astro to play, too." She whined. Astro let out a small gasp, leaving only Zoran unable to hear it. "Why can't he come out and play?"
"Astro is very tired and we need to talk to him privatly." He explained slowly, being cautious with his words. "He'll be out to play soon." Zoran turned on her heel to face her brother.
"Do you promise?" She said unexpectedly. Astro didn't know how to answer. His heart was broken. He knew he wasn't going to be okay, that something was wrong with him on the inside. He was probably still in repair, but he didn't want to let Zoran down.
He let out a fake smile, one that had pain and sadness behind it. He couldn't believe he was allowing fake emotions and lies to control his life in his current state, but he knew that letting Zoran down would be so much more painful. "Yes." He said. "I promise."
Zoran smiled and skipped out the door. "See you outside!" She called happily over her shoulder as she left. When the door closed, Astro had lost his remaining strength and collasped into O'Sheay's arms.
"Thanks." He chuckled and stumbled to the fourth chair closest to him. O'Sheay in front of him, Atlas to his left, Tawashi to his right.
Tawashi folded his hands on the table. "While you were unconscious, Pluto and Atlas requested help from the Blue Knight and Robotonia to defeat Itami and Kousen, which had gone successfully." Astro leaned back and sighed with relief, glad the threat was over.
A look on O'Sheay's face told Astro that something was terribley wrong. "But...?" Astro urged, getting the feeling that something was missing, something they found importent.
"T-that's it." O'Sheay insisting, getting up from the table and leaving. Astro blinked and looked at Atlas who refused to meet his eyes. Tawashi got up and left without goodbye.
"Well, in that case." Astro muttered, getting up from the table. "I'm gonna go outside with Zoran." He stumbled to the door and left, leaving Atlas alone with his thoughts.
You coward! He cursed to himself in his head. Why are you waiting for someone else to tell him! He looked out the window, where Zoran was hugging Astro for keeping his promise. Who else is going to tell him about the new threat?
He wasn't sure why he was so worried.
Astro held onto Zoran with one arm around her shoulders, pulling her close, telling her about the first time he had ever met the Blue Knight and how the Blue Knight had saved his life. Zoran was pulled into the story very quickly.
After the story, the two was sitting under the apple blossom tree just outside Metro City, down in the Vallies. They were quiet, silently bonding with each other. "You know." Zoran mused in a quiet voice. "O'Sheay told me that I should spend a lot of time with you now."
Astro's deep, chocolate brown eyes opened and he looked at Zoran in curiousity. "Really? Why?"
"That's what I asked, but he wouldn't tell me." She said. "Maybe it has something to do with the new threat I heard O'Sheay talking about. But I got dragged away from Nora before I could hear him say what it was."
"I'm going to ask him." Astro said, more with decision then with determination. "I can't be in this condition when... if it comes."
Zoran nodded, then added quickly, "You didn't hear it from me." Astro nodded, leaned back, closed his eyes, and sighed, then opened his eyes halfway to protect them from the sun.
What could you be hiding from me...?
Astro knocked on the door quietly, then entered. Sitting in his desk was Doctor O'Sheay, who stood up. "Astro!" He addressed in surprise. "What are you doing here!"
Astro walked up to O'Sheay's desk. "What is the new threat that's coming?" He quizzed. "What's wrong with me? Why am I weak, even with a fresh energy cassette?"
"How do you know about the... the 'new threat'!" O'Sheay said.
"I have my resources." Astro shot back.
O'Sheay remained quiet, looking for his voice. "Astro... It's a little more complicated then it sounds-"
"Tell me, Doctor!" Astro demanded, slamming his hands on the desk. "What is it! I have to know if I'm going to beat it!"
O'Sheay shook his head sadly. "Even with you're strength..." He said. "...you cannot beat death."
Astro stepped back a stride. "W-what do you mean?" He choked with aghast. "I... I...!"
O'Sheay sighed, and turned to face the window. He seemed to have been in deep thought, but Astro knew better then to disturb the doctor while he was thinking, cause when he was at a loss for words, it had to have been something big. "Astro, when you were attacked by Itami, the second attack he performed against you had broken more then just wires, bolts, screws, but also you're data processer. It had been damaged during the battle."
"It was more of a beating..." Astro grumbled.
O'Sheay ignored the comment and continued. "If you're data process fails, then you can't learn, you can't continue to function correctly. Unfortunetly, it has been damaged beyond repair.
"You are tired because your data processer is taking up all your energy. To learn something, you have to sleep like a human, but if your data processer is damaged, data is processed incorrectly or not at all.
"Also, you're electronic brain had been damaged, in such a way that it would be too dangerous to repair. If we were to try to repair it, we would only cause you more pain. But, without you're data processer, your electronic brain can't see that it has been damaged and it's trying to function normal, which causes more and more damage to your electronic brain by the place it has been damaged.
"I labeled it a new threat because, well, it is. One that no one, not even you, can defeat: yourself."
Astro's head bowed, his eyes closed. O'Sheay turned and saw this, which had broken his heart to watch someone he veiwed not only as a friend, but as a son, look so hopeless. "How long?" Astro whispered.
"What?" O'Sheay gasped.
"How long do I have to live?" He repeated.
"Only a few days." Said a voice by the door. Astro and O'Sheay looked at the door to see a boy and a girl, the boy with nice, deer-red hair and blue eyes, the girl resembling Astro so amazingly. The girl had tears in her eyes and the boy didn't look any better.
"Zoran..." Was the first thing to escape Astro's mouth. Zoran only stared at him, tears rolling down her cheeks. She quickly turned and ran out the door. "Zoran!" Astro raced after his sister, rushing past Reno faster then he could notice Zoran had run away.
O'Sheay and Reno looked at each other before racing after Astro and Zoran.
Only a few seconds ahead, Zoran bounded down the stairs, sobbing into her arm. Astro bolted down the first flight of staires not long after Zoran, and slid to race down the next flight Zoran was in the middle of.
His foot landed down on the first step... and slipped to the side. Astro yelped and fell foreward, Zoran clearing the last step and charging out the door. Astro tumbled down the staires, knocked his head on the last step, and landed on his back, arms and legs spread out. He moaned and leaned up, fixing himself onto his knees.
Zoran had long gone. He had no energy nor chance to catch her now. He tried to stand up, and stood with an incorrect posture: knees half bent, torso weak and hanging by his waist with only little strength, head bowed, arms dangling almost uselessly by his side.
Astro stumbled foreward, and famillier hands caught him by the shoulders and laid him on the ground gentally. "I guess I should've made you promise not to waste all you're energy in playing tag with you're sister." Said the person.
"Atlas..." Astro agknowledged. Atlas nodded and picked him up cradle style. "Do you know...?"
Atlas remained quiet and watched Astro's eyes close, resting peacefully in his arms. The eighteen-year-old carried the young hero to his room and placed him on the bed. "You lie here and rest for a while." He whispered. He leaned down to Astro and watched for any signs of movement... then placed his lips gentally against Astro's cheek. "Don't die yet..."
"I won't." Came a soft reply. Atlas shot up, staring at chocolate-brown eyes. There was a small smile on the little boy's lips. Atlas smiled mischiviously and left the room, leaving Astro in wonder if that just really happened...