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Chapter 21: When it all comes crashing down
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"Oh, look at all these berries! Alex, over here, don't they look tasty?"
The last human glanced over at his close friend and raised an eyebrow.
"Blue, you can't eat them. How do you know they're delicious?" Alex asked. Still, he walked over to the side of the larger machine with the personality of a young girl where she stared at a patch of blueberry bushes.
"Well, why don't you try one for me, and tell me what they taste like?" she requested. Alex smiled at the antics of his dear friend.
"Of course, Blue." He checked the plump blue berries for poison with a spell before plucking one, though. Could never be too safe.
Once he was satisfied that it wouldn't kill him, he popped one into his mouth and chewed.
"Mmm! Not bad, I'll have to ask mom for more later," Alexander declared, licking his lips thoughtfully.
"What did it taste like, Alex? Huh? Huh? Like what?"
"Kind of tart, but with a sweet aftertaste?" Alexander replied slowly. "There was a kind of wet crunchiness to it thanks to the skin, and I could detect the seeds when I bit down. They were small, though, like grains of sand. And, I guess the experience of eating the berry was… wet, I guess? No, well, maybe more damp, then wet…"
He trailed off. "Did that help?"
"Yup!" Blue declared happily. Alex knew his friend better than that, though, and folded his arms.
"Blue, remember what I asked of you?"
"No lies," the larger machine said, her head bowed. "I'm sorry. It's just… I really wanted to try one, too."
"It's okay, Blue! Sure, you might not be able to taste anything, but you're able to see the world with your sensors in a way I can never hope to! Remember when you tried to describe what magic looked like?"
"It was a stunning kaleidoscope of folded energy waves merging with endless rays of mathematical impossibility," Blue said dreamily.
She was broken out of her thoughts by a loud, wet cough, courtesy of Alex.
"You really should get that looked at. First sneezing, now coughing? I'm worried you might be sick," Blue commented.
"I don't want to! I'm not sick!" Alex protested.
"Alex…"
"NO! Blue, you know how smothering mom can get! Last time I got a cold, she locked me up in my room for a month and babied me! If I get sick again, she'll do that to me all over! Maybe never letting me out of the house again!" he cried.
"If I get sick, I won't be able to spend time with you, either," Alex added, before coughing.
"Alex…" Blue began, but trailed off. He looked up at her with pleading eyes and she sighed. "Okay. But we go home right after this, alright? A2 doesn't like it when I keep you out past dinnertime."
"Thanks, Blue!" Alex cheered. He then pointed towards the woods. "Come on, I want to check out the waterfall again! Last time, there were so many birds!"
"Alright!" Blue cheered, and she raced off after the human.
What the pair refered to as 'the woods' was really just the outskirts of the Forest Kingdom, mainly the area where Pascal's old village used to be.
Blue disliked getting too close to it because of all the memories she had of it, so Alex was always kind enough to go the long way around. There was a beautiful waterfall nearby in a region untouched by the conflict between android and machine. Here, a vast community of animals gathered. Sometimes they spotted Shepherd, the Machine who tended to the various animals in the forest, and he'd greet them.
Today he wasn't here, so Alex and Blue sat down by the edge of the pool, dipping the feet in the water. He took off his shoes so he could enjoy the coolness. Blue just liked to follow along and do what he did, mimicking his actions.
It was hot, the month known to Alex as 'August' thanks to his android family bringing the heat of summer to the fore. It wasn't all that bad, though. The temperatures were slowly cooling, proof that autumn was right around the corner.
"Look! Alex, there's the bird again!" Blue exclaimed, pointing.
"Aw, look at all the little babies! They're so yellow!" Alex gushed, staring at the creatures. According to Uncle 9S, it was called a 'duck,' and its extremely adorable babies were known as 'ducklings.'
"Geez, they are so cute!" Blue declared as the tiny fluffy yellow chicks splashed around in the waterfall's pool. A few even swam over to Alex and Blue, curious as to what these strange beings were.
The mother duck quacked warningly at the duo, and they wisely restrained themselves from trying to pick up the ducklings. Said baby birds soon scattered as Alex doubled over, coughing loudly.
His wracking cough filled the clearing and other animals soon bolted, leaving man and machine alone.
"You're scaring away the cute animals, Alex. Maybe you should get checked over by Jaqueline," the Machine girl suggested, disappointed all the friendly animals ran off.
"No! I can handle it," he protested.
"You could ask her to do it discreetly. Maybe in her other lab, not at the house? Pay in her blood, or teeth, or whatever it is she's interested in," the pink bow wearing Machine offered.
"Well, she does seem weirdly interested in my blood these days," he mused. Then he coughed again. "No, can't risk mom finding out. And she will."
"What about Popula and Devolva? Maybe they'd know something about how to stop your cough."
"That's not a bad idea, actually," he mused. "They do seem like they aren't that afraid of mom, either."
"I don't know why everyone is so scared of A2. She's actually really nice!" Blue protested. Alex just rolled his eyes at her.
"Of course, you think that, Blue! She's always polite around you, and never tries to threaten any of the Machine kids, either."
"She just wants to protect you," Blue said softly. "Why won't you let her?"
"Because I'm not a baby anymore! I'm seven years old! I can make my own decisions!" Alex declared. "Sure, I might be small, but I'm smart! I can do magic! I don't want to be treated like an infant all the time!"
He coughed lightly after his impassioned speech. He then looked at the water with a frown.
"Mom doesn't see me as a person. All she sees is 'the last human,' like all the others at the house do. The only ones who treats me like me are you, Uncle Emil, and Cousin Sebastian!"
"I guess," Blue said, looking at the waterfall. She wasn't sure what she could say to that. The 'family' that had grown around Alex was protective. They rarely let him do anything without some manner of supervision, and they utterly hated letting him out of their sight.
A part of Blue sympathized with the androids. Alex was perhaps the most important being in all the world right now. If he got hurt, or worse, than what were all their plans for in the end?
But at the same time, Blue wanted to help Alex, and felt sorry for his loneliness. He was the only one of his kind, and he just wanted to be normal. What normal was exactly was anybody's guess.
She stared at Alex as he kicked the water numbly. Alex was wonderful. He made her laugh, and was really smart. Almost as smart as 9S! Whenever they learned magic together with the Great Skull Ghost, it was so much fun! She'd known him for several years, now, and it was like she was now trying to catch up to him, where before it had always been Alex learning from her.
And as she watched him, Blue couldn't help but feel odd inside. Not her metal or internal mechanisms, but deep in her software, beyond the coding and the data. She felt… things for him. Things she didn't really understand. At times, the emotion was like how she'd felt towards her sister. Other times, it seemed like something more.
Alexander was her friend. What that meant, though, she wasn't sure. The emotion she felt didn't feel like 'friendship.' She knew what that was supposed to feel like. Her companionship with the other Machine children was different from the way she felt about Alex.
Learning magic hadn't really helped much, either. Whenever that mysterious energy coursed through her, it felt like she was able to experience the world in a deeper, more intimate way. She could actually feel the world around her. The breeze, the sun, the grass and the rain all felt different to her when magic filled her up. And whenever the last human touched her hand, those feelings for Alex burned hotter and brighter within her.
'Is that what having a soul is like?' she wondered to herself.
Her musings were interrupted by a loud, violent coughing fit from Alex. He then slumped against her. She sighed and glanced over at him.
"You really need to go see someone about that…" she trailed off, unable to finish her sentence.
Why? Because Alex had passed out and was now leaning on her shoulder, blood trickling out of his mouth.
A scream of horror tore out of her, one that shook the trees around her, and Blue grabbed Alex up into her arms. She began to run out of the forest, desperately trying to contact one of Alex's family members. She cursed when her messages failed to connect. They were too far out, and the forest wasn't helping the signal get through, either.
"153! POD 153, do you read me?!" she asked, trying to get in touch with the advanced piece of YoRHa tech. It had a stronger receiver for incoming messages than the blindfold-visors or radio units the androids of Alex's family used.
"Aler… POD… ere. What… matter?" a crackling, static laced synthesized female voice greeted Blue's frantic calls.
"153! I need you to get Jaqueline and the twins! And maybe 9S and the Emil! And A2! It's Alex! He's sick!" the Machine girl cried out.
"Requ… wha… inform… alive?"
"Yes! Yes, he's alive, but very, very sick!" Blue said, a hysteric tone rising in her voice.
"Underst… at house in… utes." POD 153 disconnected after that, the signal no longer strong enough to connect.
Alex moaned something, but Blue couldn't make it out. He coughed once more, and a tiny bit of blood spattered onto her face. With a wail, Blue speed up, darting through the woods towards the secret home of the last human.
When she finally saw the walls of the refurbished mansion, she almost fell to her knees in relief, the energy she'd spent coming close to draining her reserves. She'd had to resort to boosting her speed and power limits using magic halfway back as her own running speed was not fast enough for her.
Blue spotted A2 running towards her as well, terror in her eyes that mimicked the fear the Machine girl felt for her friend.
"Alex… sick…" she garbled out. Why was her voice modulator broken? A quick check revealed the mana she'd pumped herself full of was slowly tearing her delicate circuitry apart!
She managed to pass Alex over to A2 just as the servo-motors in her legs squealed and began emitting smoke. Hatchet and 9S ran over as well to see what was happening.
"Oh shit! Alex!" Hatchet cried in shock seeing the pale boy in A2's arms. The fearsome gynoid warrior could only stare in horror as saw Alex's life slowly fading in front of her very eyes.
"Need… h-h-help him…" Blue sputtered out. 9S gasped.
"Blue! Hatchet, we need to help her!" the two androids grabbed the smoking Machine and carried her back to the house even as A2 rushed back as well to take Alex to his room.
"W-w-where…" Blue began, but 9S shushed her.
"Calm down, Blue. 2B went to fetch Jaqueline and Emil went for the twins. POD 153 managed to relay your message to us in time."
"R-r-really?" she uttered. Why was everything going dark? She didn't manage to hear the shota-bot's answer.
\/\/\/
"Oh, crap! Hatchet, is she…?"
"No, the Machine's not dead. She's just badly damaged. She really pushed herself hard," the mechanic assured 9S. He winced as he brought her into his workshop for a closer look. "Sebastian, help me with her, will you? She seems to have blown out a lot of her systems when she overclocked herself with magic to get here faster."
The black-haired android nodded and hurried about the room, clearing a space off of a large workbench for the Machine to lie on. He then fussed over her with Hatchet, doing their best to repair her.
9S, being useless with mechanical matters, went to see if A2 needed any help with Alex. He found her on her knees, sobbing next to Alex as he lay shivering and pale in his bed.
"H-he's going to make it, right, 9S?" A2 asked, all but begging him for an answer. The S-type couldn't give her one. He didn't know.
The next twenty-five minutes were tense as 9S assisted A2 in wiping the sweat off of Alex, and keeping him hydrated. When the door to the room was thrown open and Jaqueline burst in carrying in doctor's bag, the two androids deflated in relief.
"First time I'm happy to see you," 9S joked. Jaqueline wasn't amused, though, and she shoved the smaller android out of her way.
She knelt by Alex and began to remove medical equipment out of her bag. "Give me space, you two," she demanded.
"I want to stay with him," A2 declared.
"And I want a sterile environment for my work, but we don't always get what we want," Jaqueline snipped back. A2 growled and made to manifest her sword, but 9S stopped her in the nick of time.
"No! A2, don't! Just… give her space. She knows what she's doing!"
His pleading somehow made it through her stubbornness, and she snarled but nodded sharply and stormed out of room.
The two ex-YoRHa androids made their way to the living room, where everyone else was gathered.
"How's Alexander?" 2B asked nervously, wringing her hands together.
"I don't know," 9S admitted softly. The secret E-type looked down, despondent.
"Does Jaqueline want our help? We know a bit about old human diseases," Devolva offered, but 9S shook his head.
"I think she needs to work alone for now. She didn't seem too worried, though," he offered. He then looked at Hatchet who had oil stains on his hands. "What about Blue? Is she alright?"
"Yeah. Thankfully her magic hadn't contaminated her core, or else we'd have a dead Machine on our hands. I gave her a full tune up and overhaul all the same after replacing the damaged parts. Her parts are brand new and should be able to resist her uses of magic better in the future. Emil was very helpful in that regard," the mechanic stated. "She's currently turned off for system updates, though. I've sent a message to Pascal informing her Blue is staying with us tonight, and why."
"How could this have happened?" Emil wondered. "His sneezing and coughing couldn't have progressed into an major condition this quickly, right?"
"I don't know. Diseases are insidious things," Popola mused. "Who knows what kind of illnesses have appeared, mutated, or died off since the fall of mankind? We don't really deal with that at all."
Uncomfortable silence descended on the group, and they waited nervously in the living room for news of Alexander's health.
Finally, close to midnight, the self-trained medic descended, a grim expression on her face.
"What happened to Alex, Jaqueline? What happened to my baby?" A2 demanded, grabbing the scientist by the front of her jacket.
"Alex's condition is stable, but not getting better," the Resistance android revealed to the group. "Worse, is that I have no idea what disease is infecting him. It matches none of the old world medical knowledge I or 9S have obtained. It acts like a severe flu but has elements of retro-virus-like activity in the cells. I just… I don't know how to treat him."
"A cure! You have to make a cure for him!" A2 shouted, shaking the scientist violently.
"I'd love to, but the gear I have with me isn't sophisticated enough for such a thing," Jaqueline stated, prying her clothes from A2's death grip. "Even my lab back at the Resistance base isn't equipped for this!"
"What do you mean? I've seen you whip up chemical cocktails out of a bootleg distiller!" Devolva declared.
"And what about the times you made those vaccines for Alex when he was younger?" Emil pointed out.
"Cheap and basic. The former was just some simple acids I was testing, and the latter was thanks to knowing what I already needed to about the diseases in question thanks to pre-existing medical data. This is a whole new one, and my lab is not equipped for discovering the secrets of a brand-new illness!" the scientist retorted.
"Can't you try?" 2B begged, and the eye-patch wearing gynoid shook her head.
"I could, but it might take weeks, maybe even months, and I have no idea how virulent or deadly this thing in Alex is. By the time I figure out how to treat him, he could already be dead," Jaqueline said angrily.
"If you had better equipment, could you do something?" Hatchet asked.
"Sweetie, I appreciate the offer, but building new equipment could take as much time as synthesizing a cure. And none of the other Resistance bases nearby would have the kind of medical tech I need. There's only one place in the world that has the advanced technology and equipment necessary to save Alexander," Jaqueline revealed, and everyone's eyes widened.
"You don't mean…" Sebastian began nervously, to which the mad scientist nodded grimly.
"Yup. Only place left in the world with human-centric medical facilities is the freaking YoRHa Bunker," Jaqueline stated. Everyone shared a look. Then, without hesitation, A2 summoned her sword to her hands.
"Let's do this."