I was growing rather bored of the darkness, so I decided to try and interact with the two androids units that were supposed to be guarding me. After all, there was nothing for me to lose.
"You two," I said, trying to remember their names. "Green hair, brown hair. What are your codes?"
"DG-8260," the green haired one replied, while the brown hair one answered, "MK-5567."
"Right. DG-8260, MK-5567." There wasn't much else to do, so I would best remember those two sequences. "Do you two want to play a game?"
Five minutes later, we were playing a game of three-way chess being projected by MK-5567. It didn't take much convincing; it was clear that the androids didn't think that I was going to do anything.
And I wasn't.
"Your move." MK-5567 nudged DG-8260.
"I'm thinking," the green-haired android replied.
"Well, think faster."
And I was reminded of my time back at the base…
These androids could pass for humans. That's how good their programming was.
The androids seemed reluctant at first, but as the game went on, they began to open up. Neither of them let down their guard, of course; DG-8260 still kept his sword in his lap and MK-5567's pistols were out in the open where I could see. But I saw them smile, saw them laugh…
Androids were living beings too.
"I see you are really having fun this time." YV-7144 leaned over between the two androids, having come in while we were still engaged. "What's this? Three-way chess?"
MK-5567's eye twitched. "We can make it four-way next round, if you want," he offered timidly.
YV-7144 laughed, then sat down in Lenin's abandoned chair. "No, you guys aren't in trouble. No one said that you couldn't play chess with the prisoner. Oh, speaking of which," he pulled out something from underneath his cloak, "here. This is yours, correct?"
It was the radio. He had fixed it up. It was still battered and worn, of course, but…
"I don't think there's many radio stations out there anymore that it can pick up from. But you can have this back." He passed it through the bars to me.
I held it in my hands, feeling its familiar weight, remembering how it had accompanied me through the desert, and the voice that had come with it…
Darius…
"Thank you," I said. "But…why are you all being so kind to me?"
"Kindness?" YV-7144 leaned back in the chair. "You call this kindness?"
"If it isn't kindness, then what do you call it?"
YV-7144 thought for a moment. "I certainly wouldn't say it is out of duty or obligation…since no one ordered me to bring you this. I did it of my own free will. But what is kindness, truly? And is kindness to a human the same as kindness to an android?" He raised an eyebrow. "Truly things to ponder."
The android had truly done a lot of thinking over this matter. Could androids think? Wasn't it just a system in their head, one that calculated and recalculated and made decisions for them?
"It's your move," DG-8260 reminded me.
And so I moved my piece.
Lenin came back with JT-3514, "just in time for dinner", as JT-3514 put it. YV-7144 quickly jumped up, offering the chair, but Lenin shook his head. "What's this?" he asked, leaning over the two androids on the floor. "Chess?"
"…yes, my lord," DG-8260 answered.
"Hmph." Lenin stretched, and went back to his own cell, sitting on the bare bed within. "I haven't played that game in ages. The prince enjoys it…"
"Where will you have your dinner, my lord?" JT-3514 asked as he set a tray down in front of me.
"In here."
"You know," I spoke up, "I think that these people would really enjoy your company out here."
Lenin cast me a sideways glance. "You think so?"
He ended up coming out again. YV-7144 once again offered up the chair, but Lenin shook his head and sat on the ground in between MK-5567 and DG-8260. As he ate, he watched us finish the game of chess.
"How does it work with three persons?" he asked.
"Like…normal chess, but three people," MK-5567 replied.
Lenin didn't seem to be in the mood to interrogate me. He must have been tired from work. And I suppose, with that, he became more casual, not caring about his clothes, treating the androids less of subordinates and more as friends.
The more I saw this, the more I wondered…why had we been trained to see Shuijing City as an enemy? The people there didn't seem like bad people…
Was it because we were to kill [him]?
What would my trainers say?
That I had to steel myself and not let these petty things distract myself from my mission? That I should do my best and make a plan as to how to reach my end goal?
But even though I was behind bars, shackled, sitting here with these androids made me feel the warmth that I had once felt when I had sat around the table back in the base with my teammates.
"Can't believe you're losing against artificial intelligence," Lenin commented.
"Artificial intelligence was originally created to be smarter than humans," I retorted.
"And now they are only equivalent to the slightly gifted minds," Lenin agreed.
I lost the game of chess. Just in time as well, because then someone new came down into the dungeons.
I had only seen her once before, when, a couple of days ago, she had been speaking to Lenin at the foot of the stairs. She was of small stature, with short black hair and hazel eyes that seemed golden at times. A human, not an android, and probably of the same status as Lenin, judging by her yellow satin robes.
"Lady Kim." YV-7144 stood and bowed, offering her the chair, but she remained standing.
"I have orders from the Prince," she said to Lenin. "It's my turn to take over the interrogation."
"Now? It's break today, and nearly night."
"I have orders from the Prince."
Lenin couldn't refute this, so he stood, motioning for the androids to get back into place. Kim took the chair and sat down before me. "You are Rinthe Akiya?" she asked.
"That I am," I replied.
"From what I've heard, this is the only useful thing that that guy's gotten out of you," she muttered sourly. "Seems like I'm the only competent one around here anymore. Move closer."
I glanced at Lenin, and he nodded, so I inched forward, until my feet touched the bars. She extended a hand, her pale fingers touching my forehead.
"Excuse the intrusion," she murmured.
I was plunged into a deeper darkness than before.
Was this the darkness that I had been living in, all these years?
And somehow, Kim was with me.
"My ability allows me to manipulate and traverse dreams," she whispered. "And this usually brings me to memories. So what do you have to show me?"
"Nothing but the infinite darkness," I replied.
"Nothing here? Really?" She grasped part of the darkness and pulled it apart, like it was a mere curtain. And through the gap, I saw the base.
"Go on," she whispered, nudging me forward.
I stood and went through. Everything was just how I remembered it…and my teammates were all there.
Navi looked up from his usual corner. "Oh, hey, Rinthe. You're back."
"How was the trip?" KG asked.
"It was fine," I replied. "Everything okay here?"
"We just got a report from Fengyu Unit: a squadron of androids located about 70 kilometers south," Lonnie said, still at the radio controls. "What do you think?"
"Are they coming this way?" I asked.
"They're going to be passing through a gorge placed between us and Fengyu. It would be the perfect place for us to stage an ambush."
"Let's go for it, then."
I suppose that I had forgotten that this was just a dream, just a memory, warped and distorted, so that it was neither real nor unreal. I could still feel Kim's presence behind me, but that faded away, gradually, as I followed my teammates out into the desert.
She reappeared, later, as I was retrieving the system from a defeated android. I looked up, and saw Kim standing on the top of the gorge, staring down at me, the desert wind whipping her clothes around.
"Satisfied?" I asked.
The scene melted away into darkness, and then back to the prison cell. I opened my eyes to see Kim's golden ones staring into me. She blinked once and stood up.
"I'll be back later," Kim said, and left.