6.
I'm conflicted.
I am happy 9S is here and yet unhappy he is perhaps going to kill me.
I do not understand. I cannot process it.
Why is he pointing his spear at me? How is he even controlling it without touching it? What did I do that is so bad he wants to kill me?
Wait. Why am I surprised?
He is an android. Enemy of the machines. Maybe he has figured out I am a machine after all.
But why the hostility towards me and not the other machines in the village?
"Oh, um, hello." I take a step back from the spear, because distancing myself from it sounds like a good survival tactic and all, but yelp when I bump into 9S. He is right behind me.
He catches my shoulders and holds me in place. "Ribbon. What a coincidence!"
But it isn't a coincidence, is it?
Is it?
I swallow. "How have you been?" Small talk. Really, Ribbon?
"Why is a human, who is apparently on an espionage mission, living with machine life forms?" 9S asks.
So, he has been watching me in his spare time. I am both very pleased and very aware of what that means now.
I take it back. This android is scary. 9S is really scary. I don't want enemies like this. I want to go back to the machine village and play with the children and pretend they are androids because at least when they mimic androids they are about as scary as a piece of lint.
"I am very bad at my job?" I try.
9S says nothing.
"Then . . . I meant 'undercover,' not 'espionage.' I get those mixed up sometimes?"
9S lets go of my shoulders and steps in front of me. His boots dig into the ground, purposeful but quiet. The smooth way androids move is jarring compared to the awkward jerking movements of the machines. It's like watching the difference between water flowing and rocks disrupting it.
The spear circles me now which makes it more unnerving because I can imagine it poking me in the back, in the shoulder, in the side of the face—anywhere. It whistles as it soars through the air.
How is this the same android from before?
The one who took me by the wrist and happily rambled away. Who took each of my fingers with meticulous curiosity. That is an android who would be fun to play with.
This one?
Maybe not?
"I do not understand your actions, Ribbon. From what I've gathered, you live there and you've been there for a long time." He nods his head behind me, indicating towards the village. "Habituating with the enemy like this. The enemy that has driven your kind to near extinction. You're familial with them. Are you betraying your own kind?"
"No, no."
"What's the matter with you? Why are you shaking?"
"Huh?" I waver. "I mean, I'm scared. Aren't you going to kill me?"
He frowns. "What?"
He's pointing a spear at me and acting antagonistic and he says, "What?" in an innocent way?
I don't understand him.
9S leans back. "Have you never had a weapon pointed at you? I'm only doing this in case you attack me."
I look down at myself. "With what?"
"Your hidden weapon."
"I don't have a hidden weapon."
He shakes his head, slow from side to side, as if he can't fathom this. "I've found out about you, so logically, you will try and kill me. How long are you going to keep acting?"
"I'm not acting! I am not armed. I don't kill."
He sighs. "You 'don't kill'? That is impossible. There is no way a human will be wandering around Earth without any sort of weapon in a war zone like this. It doesn't make sense."
"I swear, I don't have a weapon! Even if I did, I wouldn't know how to hide it."
9S cocks his head. "We'll get nowhere if you keep lying."
"I'm not. I'm really not."
"Then I'll make you show it."
How's he gonna—?
He lifts his hand and the spear slices through the air, straight for me. I'm sure it's going to kill me—straight through my eye and to the circuitry that makes up my brain—but it goes off course at the last second and whizzes past my ear and a sting erupts there.
I swat a hand over my ear with a hiss. The spear has gone and lodged itself in the dirt beside me.
9S steps back. "What? Why didn't you pull your weapon out?"
I sink to the damp grass. "Um, please don't do that again. I don't want to die."
He moved it at the last second. He was going to kill me, or at least scare me, but he stopped.
He stares down at me.
"Ah, this hurts. It's like when I trip when the children chase me and my knees bleed. It's so unpleasant." My chest is tight and there's a dizziness I can't stop.
He doesn't move.
I take my hand away. There isn't a lot of blood, but my ear is stinging a lot.
"Aren't you a traitor?" His voice is paper thin. "Why won't you fight back?"
"I don't fight. I'm from Pascal's village and I don't want to hurt anyone."
"From Pascal's village?"
"I didn't mean to lie." I think I might hyperventilate. "I even told you the truth but you did not believe me."
He kneels in front of me. "When you said you are a machine life form?"
I nod.
"You haven't betrayed the humans?"
"I don't know any humans to betray."
He takes in a huge breath, and then lets it out in a sigh. "Ribbon, what are you?"
"I am a machine life form, built to look and act like a human in order to confuse enemy androids." I flinch. "I did not do this on purpose, though. I promise. I did not mean to confuse you."
He pokes me in the side of the head. "Wow."
Um. I go still. What does that mean?
He falls back, sitting on his butt in front of me. "You're not a traitor." He drops his head and stares at the sky. "I am so relieved."
I blink.
He clamps a hand over his blindfold and grits his teeth. "I don't want to do that again."
"Erh, well, I don't want you to either, if you can help it."
"I was so excited to meet a human." He sways from side to side. "After all this time, wanting to meet one, to touch one, to learn about one in the flesh. When I saw you last week I wanted to never let you go."
My ears go hot. Why do they do that?
I know this, though. Androids won't let humans just amble away, like they seemed to do when I—well, ambled away.
Their attachment is too strong. Especially if they are emotional, like 2B says 9S is.
Pascal's teachings are accurate. I was afraid of this, at first. Afraid they would not let me go. I get the feeling if I told 9S to leave me alone, he would not listen.
But I want them around, too.
Why?
9S grabs a fist full of grass and tosses it with a smile. "I had to know what you were up to. What humans were up to. I spied on you and—and I thought you were conspiring with the enemy. Protocol would suggest I kill you, but I don't think I could've even if you . . ."
The pleasant feeling snaps. "Is that, uh, so?"
"Yeah, but I can't kill a human. The concept is absurd."
He really does seem relieved.
"Being betrayed." He flops onto his back. "It's . . . exhausting."
"I, um, can imagine." I can't. I've never been betrayed.
He stares offside, expression placid. A slight breeze stirs his hair. Machine life forms don't have hair. They don't move like 9S or myself. 9S is uncanny to watch, but I can't look away.
I sit and watch, transfixed and not knowing why. We're just sitting together in silence. Like friends, maybe. Although he just tried to kill me—or bluff at killing me—so maybe not.
"I am so happy you are just massively confused." He laughs into the back of his hand, into the glove. "Humans really do need to be protected. I'm glad YoHRa is needed."
I'm not sure what he's rambling about, but he seems to have reached a wonderful realisation so I should be happy for him, too, right?
We sit in more silence. Is it my turn to speak, or—? I am not good with social cues sometimes.
"Um, so just to clarify, am I safe now?" I ask.
He sits up straight. I hold myself as still as I can in case a sudden movement will provoke him to send his spear at me again.
He shifts closer and I tense. He shifts again and reaches for me.
He touches my ear, brushing a thumb over the cut. It hurts.
"Ribbon," 9S says, "I'm sorry I cut you. I think you and I are similar."
Similar? In what way? He's a violent soldier who is sometimes a nonviolent soldier and I'm a clueless machine. I think.
9S drops his hand. "Ribbon, listen. You are a human, and you have been deceived."
"Huh?"
"The one who has been deceiving you is Pascal."
AN: Big bad Pascal.
I had someone ask how often I update but I can't reply to guest reviews, so I'll just say here: I aim to update every 1-2 weeks, but it depends on how motivated I am! I had a bit of a rough week but I got so many great reviews that it really got my inspiration back up and going - so thanks everyone!