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CHAPTER SEVEN:
WHEN YOU DIE
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Number Five was having a hard time pretending that the silly little robot following him around was completely fine. Knowing what he did about the future, her presence was steadily becoming more eerie.
He hadn't wanted to believe it at first, all those years ago when he stood in the burning rubble. It didn't take him long to find is family's remains scattered amongst the destruction. One after the other lost underneath masses of stone, dirt, and ash.
Shortly after he had taken the prosthetic eye from Luther's limp hand, he had spotted something flickering in the distance, a blue light. He then realized the flickering wasn't at random, it held a pattern of five flashes before it would pause and begin again.
He moved as fast as his legs could carry him to the source of the light, an ever stronger sense of dread pulled at his stomach, but also just a sliver of hope that the five flashes weren't just a coincidence, that they were meant for him. As he drew closer, it became clear that the light source was stuck under fallen brick that formed a small cave.
He dropped to his hands and knees and began to crawl inside, ignoring the cuts and scrapes opening on his bare skin from the mess of debris. The light was practically blinding him now, making it difficult to see what it was, his eyes then focused on a small hand sprawled out on the ground, it twitched ever so slightly.
Five squinted against the flashing light, "Hello?"
It suddenly stopped.
He blinked rapidly, his retinas were strained from the sudden change and as the bright spots from his vision finally faded, he could see a faint glow from above the hand, where what appeared to be an open panel sprouted from the shoulder. Then his eyes lifted further to see a face, one he recognized instantly.
"Harper?" He whispered in disbelief.
The state of her body was unsightly, mangled and dirty. A mixture of blood and blue liquid was smeared across most of her skin, mixing into a sickly purple. The open panel on her shoulder was the only light source, casting an eerie blue glow onto her already unsettling features. Her eyes were open but he wasn't sure if she could see him, or if she was even conscious of her surroundings.
"Harper. . .?" He repeated.
Her hand twitched again but she remained silent.
Five took a shaky breath in an attempt clear his head, "I-I'll fix you."
He lifted his hand slowly, hesitating before placing it gently onto her open palm.
Harper's hand slowly closed around his, holding it loosely.
He exhaled in relief, "Let's get you out of here."
Five had dragged her out of the rubble as carefully as possible, he spotted a building that was partially intact a few feet away that soon became their makeshift shelter.
He leaned her against what was left of a brick wall and her small frame slumped to the side, but barely remained balanced.
Five gave a sigh and sat down next to her, "Guess it's just us, huh?" He glanced over at her lifeless body, "What the hell happened?"
Harper was silent.
"Typical," Five replied, "You've always held back."
He moved to get a better look at her, "Look, I'm not a mechanic, so fixing you is probably gonna take. . . a while." He noticed the glow from her shoulder had substantially faded, "Charging you up will probably help, I don't know where to find that shit now, though."
"We'll look first thing tomorrow," He sighed, leaning back against the wall again, fatigue from spatial jumping combined with the soreness from moving rubble had finally hit him, "I'll fix you, trust me."
Trust me.
☂
Harper sat on the steps in front of a large building labeled with a sign that read, Meritech Prosthetics, where she waited for Klaus and Five to emerge once they had finished whatever it was that they were doing. It had been Harper's decision to remain outside, much to Klaus' disappointment, as he had tried to convince her by saying he'd buy her a new arm, but Harper had then reminded him of his lack of money to purchase anything in general.
So there she was, watching the world pass by as she remained unmoving on the warm concrete stairs. She didn't mind it really, if anything she was happy to stay out of it, as she had come to the conclusion that she trusted Five's judgement better than her own. It wasn't difficult to put the pieces together, whatever Five had seen in the future must've included her, otherwise there wouldn't be any reasoning for his behavior, which lead to the thought that something bad must have occurred in his future, which unfortunately only made Harper more curious.
Harper quite liked the feeling of curiosity, it was not often that she had the ability to not know something. With each passing minute it was as if Harper gained another thought, and she wondered if that was what it felt like to be human, thinking all the time.
Roughly half an hour had passed before the sound of Klaus' voice came from the front doors of the building, Harper turned her head to see Klaus and Five heading in her direction. Klaus was grinning from ear to ear, bright red blood and strange specks of glitter glistened in the sunlight on his forehead, while Five scowled with a cut lip, clenching his fists at his sides.
"Oh man Harper, you should've seen it," Klaus gestured to the large gash on his forehead, "This dude named- uh-"
"Lance." said Five dully.
Klaus nodded vigorously, "Yeah, Lance, he was all like, You don't have consent, and I was like, What about my consent, biiitch? Then I punched Five in the lip, which frankly felt nice to hit all that seriousness outta him, y'know?"
Harper didn't quite understand what he was saying, but gave a small nod anyway.
"You should've been there, you could've pretended to be my amputee daughter! Wouldn't that be precious?" He gestured to Five, "Then you could've freaked Lance out by throwing your arm at your dearest brother-"
Five pulled a disgusted face, "No-"
"Oh, it would've been absolute gold." Klaus sighed and turned back to Five, "Anyway, can I get that 20 bucks, like, now, or what?"
"Your 20 bucks?" Five replied incredulously.
"Yeah, my 20 bucks." Klaus shot back.
"The apocalypse is coming," Five stepped closer to Klaus angrily, "and all you can think about is getting high?"
Apocalypse.
"Well, I'm also quite hungry." Klaus quaintly placed his hands on his stomach, "Tummy's a-rumblin'."
Five glared at him and shook his head, "You're useless." He muttered, "You're all useless!" He avoided, or maybe just ignored Harper's gaze and sat down on the steps next to her.
"Oh, come on. You need to lighten up, old man," Klaus followed after him, "Hey, y'know, I've just now realized why you're so uptight. You must be horny as hell!" He chuckled, "All those years by yourself. It's gotta screw your head, being alone."
"Well. . ." Five hesitated, "I wasn't alone."
"Oh?" Klaus' eyebrows rose, "Pray tell?"
Harper's interest peaked as well.
"Her name was Delores," Five started somewhat hesitantly, "We were together for over 30 years."
"Thirty years?" Klaus echoed in amazement, "oh, wow!"
Klaus paused to think for a moment, "God, the longest I've been with someone was. . . I don't know, three weeks? And that's only because I was so tired of looking for a place to sleep. . ."
Five was blatantly uninterested in Klaus' story, and Harper took notice of his gaze following a taxi down the street.
Analyze.
Analysis failure, battery low.
Without warning Five began to spatial jump and Harper immediately latched her hand around his wrist before he could vanish, pulling her through a blur of color and sound. As quickly as it had happened, it had ended, and both Harper and Five were now in the back of the taxi.
Five pulled out of her grip in disgust, "What the hell, Harper?"
Harper promptly fastened the seatbelt across her body, pulling it taught.
The taxi driver gasped, glancing in the rearview mirror at them in utter shock.
"Don't stop," Five said to him, "Just keep driving."
The car began to accelerate again and Five turned back to scowl at Harper, "You can't keep following me around! I don't want a damn robot tracking my every move, and now I have to pay double to bring you back home." He snapped.
"I want to help you."
Five's expression softened for a moment, but quickly turned back into a frown, "You can't help me, none of you can."
Help him.
Harper stared at him intently, "I am going to help you."
Five pinched the bridge of his nose and grumbled incoherently before heaving a sigh, "When's the last time you were charged? If you die, I can't haul you and Delores back home."
"Why are we hauling Delores?"
"We aren't hauling Delores, I am." He crossed his arms and turned away to look out the window, "Just stop asking questions and don't get in my way, okay?"
Harper watched his small figure hunch over in the seat of the car, "Put on your seatbelt."
He shot her a glare and yanked the seatbelt across himself and shoved it into the lock, turning away again.
Immature.
The drive was silent except for when Five hastily snapped directions at the taxi driver when he made a wrong turn. It was as if the driver didn't dare speak, and as if Five was simply pretending that Harper wasn't there. Being ignored was nothing new or profound to her, yet something along the lines of guilt crept through her.
The cab slowed to a stop in front of an empty department store, the sun had long since set but the bright red glowing letters plastered on the building weren't easy to miss, The Gimbel Brothers.
"This is a department store." Harper stated, glancing over at Five, who was already heading for the door. "Your companion is inside?"
"Uh-huh." He replied dismissively, grabbing Harper by the wrist and warping them inside.
His method of travel left Harper disoriented, and she stumbled slightly. Five caught her and gave a quiet scoff before trudging forward. Harper decided to stay a few places behind him, all the statistics left in her low battery head were telling her that this would be considered a personal moment for Five. Should she interrupt, he would most likely lash out again.
Harper discovered the struggle that darkness created for her vision, usually it was as simple as switching to her night programming, but with her battery on, what could only be minutes or even seconds of power left, everything started to feel different.
With each step, she could feel the way her shoes dug into her heel, and an ebbing pain became known. The cuts and bruises that scattered her arms and legs stung, and worst of all, the gash in her thigh from the scissors felt as though it would set her whole leg on fire.
She slowed to a stop.
Battery low.
"I know."
Five whirled around to glare at her, "What?" He frowned, "You're not glitching out, are you?"
Harper remained silent, she would've replied if she felt as though that were possible, but she was barely able to remain standing.
Five rolled his eyes and continued walking, "The wonders of technology." He muttered.
Am I dying?
This is death.
Harper twitched, something felt very strange on her face, as if something was touching it.
She then sneezed.
"Bless you." Five snapped, but then paused to turn back to her again with a look of confusion, "Was that you?"
"There's no one else here," She muttered back, "Besides Delores."
Every word felt strange to her, yet completely natural. As if she was choosing each phrase and feeling that she wanted to. She felt something within her settling, something calm and balanced.
Five's expression hinted at a slight fear, "Why are you talking like that?" He backed away, "And you've never sneezed before, either."
Harper attempted to analyze the situation but couldn't, all of her past functions simply weren't there. She was empty.
"My head hurts."
She wobbled and suddenly collapsed to the ground, smacking her head on the carpeted floor. Her vision went black and Five's voice was barely audible.
"For fucks sake–"
☂
(a/n)
hey. . .how y'all doing. . . look, it's been so long that idk if I edited everything well enough, so if there's some fuck shit here, I'll review it later, trust me (haha, get it?) . . . I was just super nervous lol