Assault Chapter Part 8

2 Months Later

I was pretty sure I was dreaming, but there was something about it that just seemed so real.

"I've almost run out of patience."

I looked up slowly to see a woman lounging gracefully in a chair. She had long pink hair which she tangled her fingers into as her icy eyes glared at the man she spoke to.

"I'm sorry," the man said. He had long purple hair tied so that it tumbled down his back and he was kneeling before the woman, "We still haven't found the Resistance. They are very... elusive."

"Unacceptable," the woman snapped. She stood up, making the man flinch, "I want Exeria to be crushed: utterly destroyed. I want that Resistance gone."

What was going on? Who were these people? I tried to move but my body wasn't my own any longer. It must be a dream...right?

The man looked frightened as the woman slowly paced around him. She stopped and gripped his shoulder, her painted nails flashing.

"Lucky for you, Gakupo, I have come up with a solution." She turned towards me while she said it, a smile spreading on her face.

My eyes snapped open as I quickly sat up. I was in the robotics lab, tangled up in the blankets of the room we had claimed as a bedroom. Meiko was still there, sleeping with Iroha curled up beside her.

"So, it was a dream..." I sighed. I still wasn't sure what to make of it. Who were those people? I was sure that I had never seen them before... Slowly, I got up, trying to be quiet and not wake up Meiko and Iroha. It'd been a couple months since our first mission and we'd been diligently trying to make life hell for the intruders. It almost explained my dream. I had been so worried about why this was happening that now I was constructing these wild fantasies. At least we were still fighting back and finding other survivors.

I dressed in a haze, still thinking through the dream. Deciding that there was no point in worrying about it, I headed for the door to go find a mirror to fix my hair in. The door opened before I could get to it, revealing a girl with short bright green hair.

"Hey, Rin! I was just coming to get you!" Gumi said cheerfully before I shushed her and pointed at the two still sleeping, "Oops!" she said quietly as she lightly hit herself on the head. I smiled and shook my head as we both walked out of the room, Gumi shutting the door softly.

"Sorry about that!" she exclaimed, looking a bit embarassed.

"It's all right. Did you need me for something?" I asked. Gumi was one of the survivors we picked up after we had gotten Meiko and Kaito. Len and I had been scouting around when we ran into Gumi. She had been armed with a shotgun and an assortment of kitchen knives, trying to find people and attacking soldiers along the way. It wasn't a surprise that she joined up with us.

"Yeah, Len and Miku wanted me to get you. They're in the weapons room," Gumi answered, pointing down the hallway. We had started naming rooms in order to actually be able to find each other in this huge place.

"Thanks Gumi! I'll go see them now," I said as I started off down the hallway, wondering how long I had been sleeping.

"Might be a new mission!" Gumi called after me. I just smiled and waved at her. It was nice having friends again, almost like we weren't in a state of war. There was now twenty-three of us hiding out in the lab, but we knew of many other groups around the city. They didn't join up with us but we still helped each other when we could. Mostly it was just teenagers and kids at the lab but I didn't mind. I kind of liked the way we lived.

In a distracted effort to forget about the dream, I wondered what kind of mission Miku and Len had this time. Hopefully, it was another food run. With all of the new people living here our food supplies always seemed to be low. I was beginning to get worried about how far we had to start looking for groceries and other food stores. And with the other groups of survivors taking what they need as well...

"Ugh, more things to worry about..." I sighed. The longer we lived like this the more scared people got that it was going to be long-term. Miku and Len were still trying to get in contact with anyone outside of the city, but nothing worked. We were still alone.

I was almost to the weapons room when I remembered that my hair was probably a mess; I had left my ribbon in because I was so exhausted last night. Thankfully there was a bathroom nearby. I slipped in and shut the door before looking up at my reflection. My eyes widened in shock as I looked in the mirror.

The face in the mirror wasn't mine. It was a boy with short white hair with two different colored eyes. One was blue and the other was green. He stared blankly back at me.

"What is going on!?" I yelled at the face, but he said nothing and I descended into the dream again. I could feel my body falling as my vision went black and continued the scene that I had left.

"A solution?" questioned Gakupo. The woman just smiled and nodded.

"From the reports I've been receiving, our main worry seems to be a bunch of kids," she started, making Gakupo cringe at her obvious displeasure, "but it seems as though the real reason they are...surviving, is they are being helped by some sort of robot."

"But a robot shouldn't be that much of a problem or have those kinds of functions!" exclaimed Gakupo indignantly.

"It's no normal robot. It seems that Exeria has perfected the Kokoro System," she said simply as Gakupo gaped at her.

"The Kokoro System! You think that robot has-?" started Gakupo before she cut him off.

"Yes, but don't worry," she continued in a fake sweet voice as she walked toward me. I wanted to get away but the dream-was it really a dream?-held me there, "I've tried out my own Kokoro System; although it's not up to par with Exeria's, it'll do for now."

Gakupo just watched her, still confused. She walked over to me, placing a hand under my chin.

"You'll do it for me, won't you Piko?" the woman asked, sending a shiver down my spine. The white haired boy's face was reflected in the woman's eyes.

"Of course, Luka."

Suddenly I was back in my own body, lying on the bathroom floor. I couldn't move for a second. My mind was racing and I was completely terrified. Slowly, I sat up, wrapping my arms around me. I felt weird. Did robots even have dreams? That thought scared me even more. Now that I thought back, I hadn't had a dream since I became a robot. It had just felt so natural to call it a dream...

Quickly I jumped up and started running to the weapons room. I had to tell Len. He would know what to do. He'd be able to fix this. Finally I reached the room and tried to open the door but my left hand completely missed it. I didn't have time to think about it as I hurriedly opened it with my right hand. Len and Miku were inside perusing a map of the city.

"Rin! Where've you been, sleepy-head?" asked Len smiling at me but he quickly became serious once he saw my face.

"What's wrong?" he asked, walking over to me. Miku also looked up, concerned.

"I...um, something..." I started, unsure how to say it now, "something is wrong with me!" I half yelled at them.

"Why? What happened?" asked Len, grabbing my arm.

"What is it, Rin?" Miku said almost at the same time as Len, the map still clutched in her hands.

"I blacked out and...I was having these weird visions, or like a dream..." I tried to explain, feeling extremely flustered and confused.

"Are you sure you weren't just tired? Have you been getting enough sleep?" asked Miku, but I just shook my head.

"It wasn't like that...I don't know what it is, but something is definitely wrong..." I trailed off, hoping they would understand why I was so panicked.

"Let's go check it out," Len said, taking my hand and pulling me out the door. I smiled at him with relief as Miku abandoned the map and followed us out.