19. Chapter 19
Brad and Sheldon both sought help from several doctors only to receive useless advice when they realized that they were actually helping Jenny. It was basically an indirect rejection. They gave advice because they couldn't just refuse to help, but it wasn't very helpful.
After trying repeatedly for three days, they were just about to give up hope when…
"Please doc, Jenny's our friend. We really need your help. We've already tried a lot of the other doctors in the area and all of them gave us pointless advi…" Sheldon pleaded.
"I understand already. Please, not so loud. Let me get to the point. Honestly, I don't really like her either. However, I would never use that as an excuse not to help somebody in need, unlike the other so-called doctors you just described. And no, please don't give me their names. I don't want to start anything with them. Now are you really convinced that she is considering committing suicide?" the doctor asked.
"We're not absolutely certain if she's considered it yet, but so far, the signs seem to be pointing towards it," Brad answered.
"What exactly are these signs?" the doctor asked.
"She's becoming more and more miserable by the day. She keeps mumbling to herself about how everybody hates her and why does she even bother trying anymore. She's even started to push everybody away from her, including her family and her few friends every time we try to talk to her. Plus, she keeps having horrible nightmares about being killed in impossible to escape situations as if her subconscious is giving her ideas on how to kill herself," Sheldon explained.
After thinking about Sheldon's explanation for a moment, he finally said "What you're telling me isn't quite solid enough, but if she keeps getting worse, it could eventually lead to suicide. I've already dealt with two other cases similar to this one throughout my career. Would I be correct in saying that even though she is a robot, her mind operates basically the same as a human's?" the doctor asked.
"Yes. Well…her processing power is many times that of a human's, but her decision making abilities are only about zero point twelve percent different from a human's, which is barely noticeable," Sheldon explained.
"If that's the case, then it probably is something to be concerned about. I'm pretty sure that if Ms. Wakeman was going to erase her depression, she would've done that already, am I correct?" the doctor asked.
"Yeah, she said she wanted Jenny to overcome it on her own. Erasing it would be too convenient," Brad explained,
"I guess that makes sense. Well, that throws that suggestion out the window. This is never a very easy problem to solve. What's going to have to happen is that someone needs to get her to either look for another purpose in life besides trying to be popular and fit in or find another approach to fitting in. I can imagine that convincing her that fitting in isn't the most worthwhile goal will be tough, but you might just have to do that. If she tries to push you away, you should try that much more. Whatever you do to try to calm her down, you'll have to be persistent in your efforts. She thinks everybody hates her, so try to show her that there are those that really do care about her. Her problem is that she seems to want too much too quickly. Her goal at this point is kind of unrealistic, and she needs to realize it, accept it, and learn to be happy with what little she can get in life. We all have to do it to some degree ourselves, wouldn't you agree?" the doctor asked.
"Yeah, but she tends to have a real listening problem. Your suggestion sounds good, but you're suggesting that we attempt something that's nearly impossible," Brad said.
"True, but the alternative is actually telling her that you're trying to prevent her from committing suicide, and believe it or not, sometimes that makes them want to do it even more. It's most likely going to be a difficult and risky process no matter which way you look at it. Even as a doctor, I can't just wave a magic wand and make these kinds of problems disappear. It would be difficult even for me to try to help her directly. In fact, it would probably be even more difficult for me since I'm not as close to her as you two are. At this point, you'd have a better chance of succeeding than me," the doctor explained.
"Okay then, thanks for the advice. We'll do what we can, and if we need more advice, we'll ask you then," Sheldon said.
"Yeah, thanks," Brad said.
"You're welcome, and don't hesitate to come see me should you need help," the doctor said.
"You're treating us mighty nicely for someone who doesn't really like Jenny," Brad said.
"I figured that she can't possibly be all bad if there is somebody out there like you two who doesn't think so. I guess a lot of us old dogs really do need to learn some new tricks. We should learn to be a little more tolerant," the doctor said.
Vexus was frustrated with some things that she was starting to realize; things about humans, and things about herself.
It was a strange little situation that happened about a week before. It all started when she was in town in the middle of the night looking for supplies. By looking for supplies, I mean she was preparing to steal them. She was on her way to the town's only auto supply store, which luckily for her, didn't have a very good security system.
About three blocks away from the store, she heard some footsteps and heavy breathing running in her direction from behind. Humans may not be a match for her, but she didn't take the chance of trying to find out whether the humans were heavily armed or not. Looking back on it, she realized that the chances that they would have been heavily armed were very low.
The first thing she did was run for about a block then slipped into an ally hoping that they didn't see her go in because it was so dark. She couldn't figure out why she was so afraid at that moment. They were only humans after all.
Sure enough, they followed her into the alley.
"Shit," she whispered loudly as she continued running from them.
After turning three corners, she ended up in the worst place imaginable, a dead end. She turned preparing to fight. The first thing she saw was a teenage girl being chased after by a group of four men. She realized then that she wasn't being chased after at all, this young girl was being chased.
The young girl stopped, realizing that she was also at a dead end, and that there was someone else there already. She turned to face her pursuers alongside Vexus terrified.
None of the humans could recognize Vexus under the cloak she was wearing, but they could tell that she was a woman.
"Well, what do we have here? We were after one girl, but I see that we're getting two for the price of one," one of the men said.
"Don't worry lady; we don't plan on raping you. You see, we need to pay that little bitch back for ruining one of Gary's eyes," another man said as he pointed to a larger man with an eye patch over his right eye.
"However, since you happen to be a witness to what we're about to do to that bitch, we can't exactly let you live," Gary said angrily.
"Why the hell did you do that to his eye anyway?" Vexus asked the girl.
"They…they tried to rape me before…and I…" the girl explained.
Gary cut her off by saying "And you stabbed me in the eye with a fucking screwdriver. I'm going to kill you first, then that other lady. Time go to sleep."
Gary pulled a handgun with a silencer on it out of his pocket and pointed it at the young girl. Without thinking about what she was doing, Vexus pushed the young girl out of the way as the trigger was being pulled. Bullets from an ordinary handgun were usually never anything to worry about unless…
"_What are the chances? The bullet is lodged directly into the weakest point of my shoulder joint_," Vexus thought to herself as she started holding the right shoulder of the now mostly useless right arm with her left hand.
"I really gotta hand it to ya. You somehow managed to save that girl's life for a few more moments. Not only that, you must be made of something tough if you took a bullet and didn't start crying out in pain," Gary said as he prepared to fire again.
"Oh trust me, you're the one who's going to be crying out in pain," Vexus yelled.
Using her left arm, Vexus knocked the gun out Gary's hand then punched him in the stomach, all in less than a second. Gary fell to his knees in horrible agony.
"Oh I see, you're in so much pain right now that you can't cry out," Vexus said.
She kicked Gary in the face knocking him out. For a moment, everyone stared at her in shock. The other three men then pulled out there gun's ready to fire. One by one, the other three men met a similar fate as Gary. In the end, Vexus rendered all of the men unconscious.
"They won't be getting up for quite some time," Vexus declared.
"Thank you so much," the young girl yelled.
Vexus turned to face the young girl with a very shocked expression her face. She wanted to find a way of saying that she wasn't trying to save her, that she wasn't trying to save a human, but she couldn't think of a convincing way to deny it.
"Wait, what are you doing?" Vexus asked the girl puzzled as the girl was pulling something out of a large bag that she was carrying on her back.
"You're a robot right?" the girl asked.
Vexus tried to think of a way to deny that too, but she was unable to think of anything to get around that fact because she wasn't really prepared for that kind of question.
"You don't have to worry; I'm not going to tell anybody if you're worried about being discovered. I could hear your arm grinding against the bullet, so I assumed that you are a robot. I know that you're arm is damaged, and I think I might be able to fix it," the girl said as she pulled some tools out of her bag.
"Well, I guess the tools needed to pull the bullet out are pretty expensive. If I get it done here, I won't have to worry about the expenses. Seriously though, can you really do that, a girl your age?" Vexus asked.
"Hey, I might only be thirteen, but I'm already able to build and repair certain types of robots. Besides, I'm only doing this for free because you saved me," the girl said.
After getting the tools she thought she needed out of the bag, she grabbed a few and walked over to Vexus.
"Let me see the damaged area," the girl said.
Vexus pulled back her cloak just enough to reveal her arm. After only a moment of inspecting her arm, the girl back away frightened.
"You're…you're Vexus," the girl said in a surprised tone.
"You could actually tell from only seeing my arm and in this dim light. You're good," Vexus commented.
Before the girl had a chance to scream for help, Vexus was already behind the girl with one hand over the girl's mouth.
"Seriously, I'm begging you, please don't scream. I realize I'm in no position to be trusted, but I need you not to reveal my location to anyone, especially not to XJ9. I don't have an army to command anymore, so I couldn't launch an attack on you humans even if I wanted to. I've been hiding for months now just trying to survive. I basically have nothing now. I'm no longer a threat. So please, I'm really begging you, don't scream," Vexus pleaded.
The girl finally calmed down some and Vexus slowly let her go.
The girl then angrily said "Why should I try to protect you? After all the horrible things you've done to us, I should let the whole world know where you are right now. You don't deserve any favors."
"I'm aware of that. I wouldn't want to show you any mercy either if you were the one that tried to enslave my race," Vexus said.
"Under your command, over three hundred thousand people were murdered during the first intergalactic war. Over four hundred thousand were enslaved. If it weren't for the fact that Armagedroid was used so soon after the start of the war, we would've lost more, probably billions more. Do you have any idea how devastated all those families were? I find it really fucking amazing that you actually have the nerve to ask for mercy right now. What did you say to those people…all those people who begged for their lives in vain?" the girl asked.
"I said many things, but nothing that even closely resembled showing any mercy. I'll be honest, that's what I did. I'm guilty of every charge. I can't deny any of it. I realize that asking for your help will probably be fruitless, but I'm trying anyway," Vexus pleaded.
The girl sighed and asked "If you're so evil, why did you save my life?"
Vexus paused for a moment then said "I…I really don't know."
"I must admit, that is strange. You never showed even the slightest bit of mercy for any human before, but you showed me mercy. If it weren't for you, I'd most likely be dead," the girl said.
Vexus stared at the girl with a shocked and confused expression speechless.
"Wow, the time you've spent here has really done something to you," the girl said.
"Done what? What are you talking about?" Vexus asked.
"_If she hasn't figured it out already, that means that something in her mind refuses to admit it to her, or she's having trouble recognizing it_," the girl thought to herself.
"I'm not really sure, but that's not the most important thing right now. I don't know why, but you do seem sincere about not being a threat. I'm about to do something that I'll probably regret. All right, I'll help you this time. As long as you don't try anything, I won't give away your location either. You saved me, and I'll return the favor. It's only fair," the girl said.
"Really, you're actually going to help me?" Vexus said surprised.
"This doesn't mean that I forgive you. I'm really only doing this because you saved my life. By the way, my name is Charlotte," Charlotte said.
After fixing Vexus's arm, Charlotte left the area and headed for home. Vexus also headed for home, after taking the oil that she came to town for. Luckily for her, Charlotte didn't know why she was out that night. Since then, Vexus couldn't get that night out of her mind.
"Why, why did I decide to save her life? I don't understand this at all. First I spare Hugo, then Charlotte, a human no less. What exactly is happening to me?" Vexus said.