Disclaimer: I do not own 'The Zeta Project'. I do not own any of its characters. It's just a fanfic.

As English isn't my native language, I want to thank Purple-Rosie for her editing help on this chapter.

Unique

by Iglika

Chapter 2

Ro's point of view

It was dark in the car. I rose a little bit, as I was lying on the back seat, and I leaned on one elbow in order to look at Zee. He was sitting behind the wheel, but he didn't drive, the magway was absolutely straight and he had turned on the autopilot.

The silhouette of his perfect profile was beautifully outlined against the radiance of the head-lights of our car.

Black hair, cute forelock, straight nose, tense lips and square chin…

Hurriedly I fixed my short blonde hair, very quietly, trying to not make any noise, I kneeled on the back seat and I put my hands on his eyes. The skin of his eyelids was warm and quite real, as the skin of his face and his hands, but still, I was fascinated of this sensation as every time, when I touched him.

It was completely foolish for me to ask: 'Guess who this is?' as we were alone in the car. I merely wanted to surprise him.

He smiled, carefully putting his hands on mine and he said softly, with his deep-toned, madly beautiful male voice, which I loved so much, "Why don't you sleep, Ro?", but he wasn't surprised, even slightly and that disappointed me, very.

"Your over-sharp hearing, right?" I pouted.

"I'm sorry." He said even more softly and gently he led my hands from his face, but…he did this with so much unhidden unwillingness, that it made me breathless for a second.

He turned his head to look at me over his shoulder. He was anxious about me, as I had woke up too early than usual, but my joke to cover his eyes had assured him that I was in a good mood, so he didn't voice his concern and he offered me his hand in order to help me to sit in the seat next to him.

The magway passed through a plain. There were no trees all around, there was even no sky-glare of lights from some city. It was the night sky with its thousand stars above and all around us.

"It's like we are in a spaceship, isn't it?" I said looking to the stars.

"Yes, it is." Zee nodded somehow thoughtfully.

Every beautiful view had a great impression over him, always, but not now. I hoped to understand the reason of his sadness, so I said, "I wish I could visit one of those planets, there, Zee" and I pointed the sky. "Just imagine – only you and me till we reach this unknown world!"

"Such traveling could take years. You would become bored to be in a spaceship with just me."

"Nah" I shook my head, "I'm never bored with you. We are together five years so far and you had never made me bored, ever, even for one single moment."

"Really?" He asked quietly, looking at me.

"Yes, Zee. Remember what I told you once? 'With you? Never a dull moment!'"

"I remember." He smiled and he avoided my eyes, although his hand gently squeezed mine.

It was a gesture of thanking, but it made me breathless again…

Of course that wasn't the first time I sensed the touch of his hand, but still…I liked to feel how heavy, firm and gentle at the same time his hand was, just as it was in my dream. I tried to retain this sensation, but it was just for a second - he drew back his hand.

"You're not too far away from the truth, Ro, I'm afraid." Zee said even more despondently, "Bucky called me while you were sleeping. He said he had found some new information about me. The NSA had decided when they would catch me, if the erasing of my memory wouldn't work again, then they will use me for long travels in the Cosmos, which any human could endure. It will take years, many years."

"They captured you just once, they wouldn't catch you again till we'll find Dr. Selig!"

"Probably not." He said still quietly, but then he added with an unexpectedly stern tone of voice, "We can't be sure though." And clenching his jaw, he turned off the autopilot.

Then he took the wheel and he began to drive the car faster and faster.

"Bennet?" I asked and I turned around to look back at the sky.

The vehicle of the feds was behind us.

Since the time when Zee had threw back the EMP spider on their vehicle, they didn't dare to use it again while we were in a car. They merely shot on us, as it was now.

There were no other cars in our line and Zee began to drive in a zigzag, avoiding the fire.

After these five years of the endless persecution, I had got used to the feds, so I kept talking, "Your sharp hearing was useful this time."

Fully concentrated in the escaping of the shots, Zee didn't answer.

But that wasn't a cause for me to not continue, "If Bennet would catch you and NSA would use you for space travels, then I'll become an android! Don't look at me that way! I'm serious! I'll exchange my body with an artificial one and I'll become like you! That way I'll be able to come to these space travels with you!"

"That's unreasonable, Ro." Zee said without to glance at me this time.

"Why? If we wouldn't find Dr. Selig…" but I cut my words and I asked, "What are you doing?"

He had pulled out from the compartments of his chest Dr. Edmond's bracelet. The car was on autopilot again. Zee inserted his wrist's cable in the bracelet and reprogrammed it.

"There is a little forest nearby. The road will cross it. We have to jump of the car while passing through the forest, but the car must keep going as far as it's possible." He explained. "That's the only way we can mislead Bennet."

Zee hung the bracelet of the wheel, then he inserted his wrist's cable in the car's computer, the roof opened and when we entered the forest, he grabbed me around my waist and jump out of the car. The last thing I saw was how the hologram bracelet imitated us as if we were still on our seats.

I didn't see anything else. Zee had hugged me, completely surrounding me with his body. When we fell to the ground, I was sheltered in his arms. His back took the greatest hit and then, while we rolled on the grass, Zee's strong body was still covering me, entirely protecting me from any harm.

When we stopped rolling, Zee didn't waste even a second. He took hold of me again with one arm, while with his other arm he caught the branch of a tree and he made a large fly, almost crossing half of the little forest. I hugged him around the neck and I pressed my face against his for support while he made one more fly among the trees.

After a while we went out of the forest, but instead of going ahead, we actually returned back. Zee was incredible of inventing ways to escape the agents! They would follow our car for miles, until they would realize that the car is empty and we are holograms. As soon as the magway is still straight, the autopilot would work perfectly, unless some shots damages it. But one way or another, the feds would lose time until they would land to stop our car. They would search for us somewhere in the plain, while we were back on the opposite direction.

There was a farm in the distance. We saw some abandoned old buildings as well, but Zee didn't want us to go there. It was better if we would hide in the farm. If Bennet would come here, he would search the abandon buildings first and Zee would hear the vehicle in time and we would have enough time to escape.

Zee didn't let go of me, as he still held me, he began to run. I was a good runner, but yet I was human and I would become tired very quickly. He was able to run faster than me and naturally without being tired at all, so it was the better way for us to reach the farm.

When we entered behind the fence, Zee carefully let me step on the ground and holding my hand he led me toward the hayloft.

It was about two or three o'clock in the morning. We didn't have to wake up the owners, but to sneak without being noticed in the hayloft without to be seeing by some guards or dogs as well, we had to wait one hour or two in order to be sure that the NSA had lost our tracks again and then we had to keep going.

I continued my interrupted sentence, whispering, "If we wouldn't find Dr. Selig and there will be no chance for you to become human, then I'll really become a synthoid like you, Zee! Don't pretend that you don't hear me! Maybe I wouldn't be exactly a synthoid, but some semi-organic machine, which would be immortal like you! I can't see anything unreasonable here!"

"To waste your life in a space travel with me is unreasonable." Zee answered stubbornly.

"No, it's not, Zee. And you know the reason."

"I do?" He lifted one brow, glancing at me.

"Yes, you do." I answered quietly.

But Zee said nothing and we sank into silence again.

I knew I had confused him with my words, but sooner or later we had to talk about our relationship.

Noiselessly we entered the hayloft. Zee checked every inch of it in order to be sure that it was a safe place and then he sat on the bales of hay next to me.

"Did you have a nightmare while you were sleeping in the car?" He asked softly.

"No. It was a beautiful dream. Very beautiful." I said and I fell on my back on the hay, pretending to be carefree.

"But you woke up." He blinked with his childish naïve expression.

"Yes, I did." I shrugged my shoulders, "Sometimes your dream is so beautiful that you want to wake up and to see that it's true. But usually when you wake up, you're realizing that nothing of what you had dreamed is true."

"You mean that your dream was better than the reality?"

"Yes, it was."

Zee gave me a long and even more perplexed look and he silenced again. I had confused him again. Just a few minutes ago I made a hint that he is everything to me and now I had said that my dream was better than the reality. As he was my reality that meant that something or someone in my dream was better than him. Apparently he didn't dare even to imagine that his own actions in my dream could be better than his actions in the reality.

A moon-beam penetrated through the window of the hayloft and for a second, before Zee to bend his head, trying to overcome his disappointment, I managed to see the real deep blue color of his eyes. Then, in the darkness, they became dark grey again. On the pale light I saw that even the hologram on his throat swallowed as any human should do when he has to try to repress his feelings in the name of the person he does care about.

"You can tell me about your dream if you want to." Zee said quietly, still without to look at me.

"I dreamed that I was with my Mom and Dad. But the fact that I was with them was somehow natural for me, something else impressed me more. I had no idea that I had not enough self-confidence. That was a real surprise to me."

This time Zee didn't manage to hide his intrigued look. I knew that humans were still a big riddle for him – he had said that the more he learned about me, the more he was confused and it was the same now – he was perplexed again – I had said that my dream was something beautiful, but to discover that I have no enough self-confidence wasn't beautiful at all.

However he didn't ask anything. He has put all of his unanswered questions aside and he said, still as concerned about me, "Perhaps that's because you had experienced so many sorrows, while you were in those orphan's homes and foster families. I thought that during all these years while we are together, I had managed to inspire you with confidence, but clearly I had failed."

"No, Zee, you didn't." I wanted to add: 'It was you in my dream. You showed me who I am. We both are giving each other confidence, that's the incredible miracle of our relationship' but I almost whispered instead, "It's odd that I dreamed both of us in the middle Ages. I thought that I'm not a romantic person at all, but I dreamed that you were a prince and I was a princess, a real Lady. I'm really very surprised of my wish to be so…" I stuttered, trying to find the right word.

"Feminine?" He helped me.

It was weird. Normally it was Zee who didn't know what word to use and it was me who always tell him the answer. It was the opposite now. But he didn't pay attention to our exchanged roles. Still as concerned about me, he continued, "Our life like fugitives and the way Bennet treats you as a criminal made you insecure inside. You're craving for rehabilitation, Ro. The royalty of a princess is a symbol of acknowledgement. Everybody knows that a prince and a princess are people of honor. I think that that's the foundation of your dream. I'm so sorry for the troubles I'm involving you in…"

"Don't be sorry, Zee. You know it's okay. And besides, I love the way you always make conclusions. I love to hear you to meditate aloud. Tell me more. Tell me everything you think about me, Zee. Please."

He didn't answer immediately. He needed time to consider what to say. My words weren't an order, it was a sincere plea and he wanted to give me an equally sincere answer. I had challenged him to say things he had never told me so far, but I could sense that he didn't mind. It was exactly as in my dream. He wanted to break the chains of the unwritten rules. And I wanted it too.

Zee made a long pause, he even took a blade of the hay, his fingers began to play with it and after some more seconds of silence, he said carefully, "I know that in contradiction from all machines, every human is unique, but I realized what this really means when I met you. You are unique, Ro. You are the only one. You're risking your life because of me every day, you're fighting for my freedom, but even if you hadn't come with me the day we met, even if we had separated there and then, you should be the only one to me. The girl who saved my life, who helped me. The girl who believed me. I like everything in you, Ro, even your full name Rosalie. You are the most beautiful girl I had ever seen."

"No one has ever told me that before." I whispered.

"I was afraid that I'm helplessly old fashioned." He said quietly.

"That was your charm in my dream." I smiled at him and as I was lying on my back on the hay, I reached my hand and I did what I wanted to do from a long time - I gently removed his black forelock from his forehead and I weaved my fingers in the hair on his neck.

His eyelids fluttered from surprise, but his deep blue eyes didn't move away from mine – the same unhidden fire, the barely held yearning, was blazed up in them, as it was in my dream.

"You can kiss me, Zee." I whispered. "You really can."

"Ro, I'm a syn--

I put my fingers on his lips, "You are unique, Zee. You are the one I love."

He gently pressed my palm to his cheek, "I love you too, Ro", but still he didn't dare to lay his lips even on my hand.

"If you kiss me, the reality will become better for me than my dream." I whispered.

He looked at me again – long and silenced, then his dry, warm lips hardly noticeable touched my palm, his fingers interweaved in mine, he slowly bent over me and finally he kissed me, very lightly and tenderly at first, but then more and more fervently, exactly as it was in my dream.

Only this time everything was real.

The end

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