I woke up again, still in the vehicle, as we entered the university gates. 4536 was driving this time and my friends were now resting near me. I sat up and dragged myself into the seat next to my machine. I watched the Pariah officials as they walked past us, moving away from the university and towards the city, most likely for patrol. We were headed towards the central part of campus and would soon find ourselves in front of the Dean. I knew we needed to figure out a story before they asked us what had happened at the facility.
I was sure they already knew something might be wrong. I turned my attention towards Carlos, and reached out to nudge him to wake up. I knew he would be tired after yesterday, but it was better that I spoke to him than 4536. I know my machine would not understand empathy. I needed to speak to someone who could understand. It would have been better that I had died than to kill those human contraptions. They deserved to live and if there was a way to save them, they should have been given that chance.
"Yes, Jared..?" Carlos, said as he rubbed sleep from his eyes and sat up.
"Sorry for waking you up from your sleep. I wanted to ask you something," I stated.
"I am guessing you wanted to talk about yesterday?" Carlos responded.
"Yes," I replied soberly.
"Jared! Do not blame yourself for what happened. It isn't your fault," Carlos said as he lay back down.
"Then whose fault is it?!" I whispered urgently.
"Jared..." Carlos replied softly as Maverick and Shaki began to stir.
"What's the problem now?" Shaki asked.
"I was having a cold sleep, hermano. Why wake me up?" Maverick said, confused.
"Sorry, mi amigos. I was not trying to wake you up. Just upset about something," I answered.
"The human is upset for killing all those scientists, the cyborg-humans that did not deserve such a horrible death and splitting the owl's wings. He won't fly again, that's for sure!" 4536 replied excitedly.
"I should have cut you in half, you stupid machine!" I yelled.
"Always with the violence. You humans and your fascination with killing and death!" 4536 replied as he pulled into the elevator shaft to head down towards our new home. "I will put this vehicle on auto-pilot to take us the rest of the way while I rest for the time being. Good night."
"Buenos noches, 4536," Maverick replied.
"Listen, guys!" I said. "I just feel guilty about what happened."
"I understand. But it was not completely your fault. You were not in complete control. We could not do anything about it either. We would have never thought all of that would be part of your power," Carlos replied.
"Hermano! No one is upset with you. Sometimes things happen when you do not have full control of your powers yet. And we understand that it is difficult for you. I just wish your powers were mine so I could kick some Behemoth butt," Maverick said with a smile.
"So just suck it up and stop complaining. We don't have time for that!" Shaki said as she lay back down and closed her eyes.
"You always keep it 100, Shaki," I responded.
"Someone has to," Shaki replied with a grin.
I just smiled and turned my face towards the road as we began to move slowly up towards the house, its gates slowly opening. The car parked in front of the house and everyone stepped out. My friends immediately went to their beds, but I decided to stay up. It was not late, but I could tell that they were tired. I looked out the window as 4536, or the part of his consciousness that was still awake, drove the purple hover-vehicle to wherever it was supposed to go behind the house. It would need time to charge again. It lasted today, but it would need a better energy unit.
The front yard of the house was beautiful. It was covered in blooming flowers and blossoming trees that would soon be covered in various fruits that one could easily go and pick. I looked down at my hands and found nothing to have changed. I still felt the same despite what these hands had done at the facility only a few hours earlier. I moved towards a mirror on the other side of the room. I could not see my reflection well. I moved gingerly closer to the mirror and looked at myself the way I would look at a stranger.
My gaze in my reflection was intense, but nothing had changed. I was still the same person, or at least I looked the same externally. But something was still troubling me. I did not know who that person was who had killed all those people. All those Pariahs. All those humans. I did not know that person who had killed Dredge. It was becoming overwhelming; I dropped to my knees and covered my face with my hands and wept. I wept bitterly knowing I had taken the lives of others. I was not sure if I could ever forgive myself for it. What would my father say? What would my mother say if she were still alive? All I knew is that I was ashamed of what had happened, and I was afraid my father would never speak to me again. It would be right if he ignored me all together. His son was now a murderer.
It was then that something happened. Again. Another flashback. A quick image in my mind of the children. Of the man in the bed. Of his head rolling. I fell to the floor and a fresh stream of tears fell from my face. I could not move. I would not budge. It hurt too much. All these emotions were beginning to kill me. When I opened my eyes again, I was in my room somehow. I looked up towards the door and realized it was locked. There was no way I could have gotten in unless I had...Yeah, the realization sunk in. That must have been it. I must have teleported again.
Without any desire to do so, my powers had gone off on their own and done what I had not asked. I realized I was not in any way controlling my own body. I was a thing that my powers seemed to use. I was the puppet, my emotions the strings, my powers my master. I stopped myself from crying and stared up at the ceiling. I was unsure of what to do. I did not want to continue like this. I was a monster. And to think at that moment, I did not even care if my friends had died. But I could not tell them that. I decided that day that I would gain control of my powers and they would no longer control me. I would control them. It needed to be done.
I woke up a few hours later with my machine hovering over me. I could tell that he was scanning my body for something for some reason, but I did not bother to ask him why. I was not in the mood to have a conversation with him, and I felt too weak to get up. I still needed to get something to eat as I knew there would be breakfast and light refreshments downstairs. I did still need to go into the basement. There were a few things I wanted to check out in the library before I started my day and we still had to report to the Dean and the officials. Most likely the latter would have to come first before the former. I saw a bright blue light again and attempted to brush 4536 away but only brushed thin air.
"What do you want?" I said annoyed.
"I was just trying to figure out why your ether was so high earlier, human. Yesterday it was beyond recorded levels, but now it is low. I may need to find a much stronger reader. Not just for you, but for Shaki as well," 4536 responded as he began scanning my legs.
"I can order the part for you if you need me to. Then you can leave me alone, right?" I asked as calmly as I possibly could at that time.
"No need for that. I have been downloading the program since this morning. It is almost complete. You must understand that your powers tend to hide themselves. Normally I am unaware of such a spike in your power except for yesterday when you used the powers of others. When we were first in the triangle forest, I detected a power far greater than any I have noticed before and thought it to be one of the officials, but it turns out it might be you. Your power, or an underlying power, makes it seem that ether is coming from another direction or not existing at all. It may be that a power of yours is to mask your ether. I am curious to know why that is. Like I said before, I would love to cut you open and figure out your inner workings, but it would not be beneficial in the long run."
"Again, with cutting me open," I replied as I rolled my eyes.
"You are truly a remarkable piece for science, and I may have to wait until the day of your demise to study you," 4536 responded thoughtfully.
I decided to ignore my robot companion and threw myself out of my bed, showered, brushed my teeth, got dressed and then headed downstairs for breakfast, ignoring my machine as I went. 4536 continued to speak on the anatomy of the Pariah even after I had left my room.
When I finally made my way downstairs, I found my amigos downstairs sitting on the couches. Maverick was first to acknowledge my presence by throwing up his hands with a grin from ear to ear. Carlos also waved and Shaki nodded her head then took a sip of fresh lemonade. I could not let them know how I was feeling. I did not want them to feel sorry for me. I jumped onto the second couch next to Shaki, rubbing my hands together as I marveled at all the food we had before us. There were drinks of course, fruits, sausages, eggs, pancakes, and some other foods I did not recognize. It was because of the latter that I intuitively knew our machine maidens had not made breakfast, only Maverick or even Shaki would have been able to make this. Carlos could have, or even I, but our traditional food was a little bit different.
"Aye, this is a feast," Maverick cried as the machines began to clean up the rooms.
"Yes. Thank you for this," Carlos replied as he dug into some sort of pastry.
"What's that over there?" I asked
"I don't really have a name for it. Just call it fried dough," Maverick responded with a shrug.
"Oh! My father always called them bakes even though they are fried. Always confused me," I said with a laugh as I picked up two and a glass of lemonade.
"I guess we might have similar things in common but just with different names. I wonder why that is?" Maverick asked, perplexed.
"As humans you were all from the same place and spread out at certain times which changed many of you over time. Remarkably simple, really. You are all a human species that became Pariah," 4536 interrupted.
"What do you know?" I whispered with a mouth full of dough.
"It is common knowledge, human, that your species was incredibly violent towards each other, groups formed against one another and created false science. Your species created tales and mistruths to oust those who they were not comfortable with or decided to steal from them. Human wars were complete and utter foolishness. Therefore, a great king was needed to rule over you. And it is why most of the human species has been wiped out," 4536 said matter of factly.
"Don't you think that was a little harsh, 4536?" Maverick asked.
"In no way do I believe any government is perfect or even a people. For all the mistakes the Pariah make at times, I can see the Pariah species need help as well. They are not perfect, but humans are a plague and a disease that need to be annihilated. If it were not for certain protocols that have been placed within my system, I would have very much liked to dispose of the human species by any means! Genocide in these cases are not all evil!" 4536 exclaimed as it flew off to another room.
"Jared, please ignore that thing," Carlos said sympathetically.
"Oh, I do!" I replied as I picked up some strawberries with a blue and purple tinge and began to munch on them.
"I do understand what he means," Shaki interjected.
"What?!" Maverick exclaimed as Carlos placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Us Pariah. We are not perfect in any sense. I do not agree with a lot of what was done and our class system at times. I do not believe neither human or Pariah should be mistreated in any way. Nevertheless, the human species has brought misery to the earth, the creatures of the earth, plants and to themselves all because of greed. Even though selfishness still exists today because of the egocentricity of the human and Pariah heart, there is more stability now then when humans ruled. If the world were run by the human species, there would be chaos and us Pariah would no longer exist. We would still be called The Cazado," Shaki responded as she placed a piece of fried dough in her mouth, chewed and smiled.
"I can't lie to you. Even though I have seen much evil done to your people, Jared. I do agree with Shaki. If the Pariah were not in power, we would be extinct or would still be hunted. Yes, there are still people who attack you but it is not on the scale of when people with unique abilities had to hide in underground caves for fear of being killed," Carlos said calmly.
"No, you are right." I responded in a flat voice, "Humans get to live on top of the world where all the poisons are supposed to be. They are at times charged ridiculous amounts of dinero for food and water unless they can hunt and fish which my village is capable of. And even then, they are still persecuted. Oh, and we always get justice except for the times where Pariah officials murder and steal from our people and there is no justice. You are right! Humans have it great, Carlos!" I looked him in the eye as I spoke and then continued eating.
"I never said we were perfect!" Carlos raised his voice.
"Listen Carlos, Shaki and Maverick," I looked again at each one. "Our histories are very much the same. We do evil toward one another based on differences. It just so happens that human historical trauma was not just for thirty years like what the Pariah experienced, but for centuries. You cannot compare that with what is going on with us. So, please do not even pretend to try. Why don't you three just eat your food and stop talking about things you do not understand?" I finished the last of my food and then stood up and left the room, leaving with the three still sitting there.
I soon found myself by the stairs feeling exhausted, looking down into the passageway towards the dojo. It would have been nice to train but I wanted to go into the library and study a little more. The walls of the passageway were dry and warmer than I would have expected. Once I finally reached the dojo, I looked around. The machines were still there, attached to the walls. I found myself smiling at the thought of taking on a whole room of machines on my own. I know I would lose just using martial arts, but I wondered what other powers would reveal themselves. And if I could possibly win. I could be a one-man army. My grin soon faded.
If I did that, I knew there was a chance that I might also kill my friends and any others who might pass by if the wrong power were to reveal itself. I knew I could be a danger to others. I continued my journey into the basement where I found the library. I began looking through the shelves for anything that I could read that might not be common knowledge. Anything that was not taught in our schools. But as I searched, I realized it was all the same information. The only thing we did not know much about were the pills we took, and we had all we needed to know now.
I finally found a bench where I had sat once before and noticed a pile of books on top that I did not recognize. I picked one up, opening it to find that a few pages were missing. It was odd. I searched through some of the other books and found the same thing. Why would the King give us these books with pages ripped out of them? Or perhaps there was something else going on. I left the bench and was about to leave the room when I heard a noise from the far end of the room. I crept slowly towards whatever it was, hoping it was only some sort of small mammal, looking for food. I turned the corner and jumped back a little, startled.
"Is anything the matter, sir?" one of the house machines asked.
"No! I just heard a noise and wasn't sure if it was an intruder," I replied anxiously.
"No need to worry, sir. This place is quite safe. It would be difficult for any intruder to enter the grounds without disturbing the alarm system."
"Thank you. Continue with your cleaning," I replied as I moved out of the way.
The machine sped past me towards the stairs and I watched it go. I decided I would just read another time and headed towards the stairs as well. When I finally reached the bottom of the staircase, I found a folded letter that I had not noticed on my way into the library before. I picked it up and noticed the paper was made from an unrecognizable material. I tried to open it, but it was glued shut. I turned it over but there was no writing on it. The back was blank. I turned myself around and sat down on a nearby bench, wondering if I should open the letter or give it to the robot who had most likely dropped it while cleaning. Curiosity got the better of me and I decided to open it anyways. It took a while to pry the pieces apart from the glue. I then had to reform the pieces to read what was inside...