I try to hold back my laughing to avoid making Kai feel bad. As I brush some dust off of a certain picture on the wall, I respond, "I'm kind of bored. I mean, I also think we should set up a time with Tyler to get my memory back, but I also wanted to update you on what's happened so far."
I walk back to the fridge to see little drawings held up with magnets. One is clearly drawn by a kid, with the crappy crayon and random stick figures. As I look closer, I notice the stick figure that I assume to be Roger is fully human. There's another pencil sketch next to it, one of much more detail and talent, depicting Roger, but as a cyborg.
"Fuck yeah," I whisper, getting giddy about the thought of having my memory back.
"Oh, did something happen? Where are you right now?" he says in worry.
I laugh, "Chill, I'm fine. The boys and I did a job, you know, but I got caught and I met this interesting cyborg named Roger. Can you believe we have cyborgs? Anyways, it seems like he wasn't always a cyborg. I'm chilling at his house right now. He's, like, really sweet and kind of shady for a cop? I'm still scared he'll randomly arrest me or something. Oh, lemme know what time and where we should meet. Hopefully Roger can lend me his car or something."
Kaiholo exhales and listens closely to you as you give him the details.
"Okay, I'll let you know what Tyler and I decide on. You're at a cyborg's house? I didn't know cyborgs had houses, but if he's harmless, I'm glad you found another place to stay. Is he home right now?"
Cyborgs don't normally have houses?
I circled back and forth between the living room and the kitchen area, occasionally opening random cupboards or drawers. "I have no clue, I haven't checked. Oh god, I hope I haven't been loud, if he is home that is."
Kaiholo sounded distracted, as if someone was talking to him, but you didn't hear another voice. He returns to the phone and utters, "I actually have to go, maybe I'll let you go to check?"
He says his goodbyes before hanging up, leaving you to wander around the house.
I turn off my phone and sigh. What now?
I head down the hallway to where I haven't looked through before. There are three closed doors. He could just be asleep. I knock on one of the doors loud enough to hear through all the rooms. There's no reply in either, so I assume he left. I open the first door and reveal a messy bedroom with a desk in the corner. The desk has several pencils and papers, which leads me to believe the artist made the drawings here. Clothes litter the floor, and there was also a mattress and dirty sheets.
I approach the desk. There are drawings of several people that I pieced together are Roger's brother? Or something? I look through the rest of the pile and see more pieces of cyborgs like Roger. Interesting. The last drawing is out of the ordinary. It depicts a street at around autumn.
I leave the room to explore more. I open the next door, which has to be Roger's room. The bed is made, the floor is immaculate, everything is in order. On his desk are more cute family pictures. I head out and check out the last room, which is a bathroom. Like Roger's room, it's quite clean.
Well, what now?
You hear the front door open, along with yelling and yelps of pain. You turn your head at the sound, the voice of whoever groaned painfully seemed familiar. Quickly, you rush down the hall into the main room to see two people at the front door. As your eyes fall upon him, you process it in pieces. A strange man in a similar suit to Roger's stepped in, dragging Roger by the back of his shirt collar. Roger himself was barely holding himself up, and only managed to lift himself off the floor with his elbows for a few seconds. His human eye was swollen shut, his robot one wasn't glowing. Blood ran down his nose and out of his mouth, in fact blood dripped from his head, hands, neck, chest, anywhere with skin. His robot half contained dents, scrapes, and other various damages.
The strange man spoke.
"Looks like your special boy over here can't control himself like a normal fucking android. Had to teach him a lesson yet again."
Roger's broken eyes gaze up at you for a moment as he falls back onto the floor, coughing out blood.
"Lucky for you, he destroyed all the evidence against you. Not like we had enough to arrest you anyway, dumbass risked his ass for nothing."
The man throws Roger against the floor leaving Roger choking and coughing as the man glares at you.
"I'd say you can have him, but he's barely functional at this point. No one would want that piece of junk anyway; he can't do anything right."
I rush over to Roger in a panic, but there is no way I could help carry him in. My eyes flicker to the man who's eyes pierce into mine.
"Get the fuck out," I demand, breathing heavily in fear. He rolls his eyes and mutters out a 'whatever,' going back to his car to leave. I return my attention to Roger, who's on his side now, still coughing. "Oh my god, Roger, if you knew they'd do this to you why did you bother helping me in the first place?" I sigh, sitting back on my knees. What do I do? "Can you talk? Or move at all? Do you have a first aid kit somewhere?" I only vaguely remember how to tend wounds, but it shouldn't be too hard, right?
Roger gave you a shamed look as he listened to you question him. He finally nods and points to the kitchen, coughing again.
"Next to the fridge," He begins, his voice sounding off, as if it was through a low quality microphone. He manages to crawl inside enough to kick the door closed, but doing this used up a significant portion of his strength, so he fell back onto the floor, unable to move much.
I scamper into the kitchen and go where he directed, grabbing the kit and several other items, including a glass of water. I make my way back and place everything on the floor. I eye his clothes, spotting the places where blood seeps through. There are scrapes all over his face and blood soaks through places like his chest, his lower calf (haha), and several spots on his arm.
"I'm sorry. This is going to hurt. I'll start with the chest because it looks like that's the most bloodiest," I warn as I help him take off his jacket and unbutton his shirt. He winces at the movement. I start to clean off the blood, but notice dark bruises along his rib cage as well. I press a certain spot with a bit of a pressure. Roger inhales sharply, causing his rib bones moving abnormally. I start to pull out my phone. "Roger, this looks fucking bad. Like, bad bad, as in I can't fix this with bandages bad. I'm calling an ambulance."
Roger grabs your arm before you can get up to get your phone.
"No…" His hoarse voice chokes out. "They don't treat androids."
He uses his other arm to grip his wounds, wincing continuously.
"Do you know anyone that would help a robotic killer like me?"
His words are coated with pain, as if he's so sure of the answer to this question.
I furrow my brow.
"Wait," I say reaching back to grab my phone. "I know several people who could help. Or, hopefully they might know someone." Roger looks at me warily, but doesn't stop me this time.
I dial Anubis's number, grateful that he took the time to find my number, although I doubt it took much effort. He picks up rather quickly. "Yo?"
"Hey, uh, A? Do you happen to know anything about performing surgery or fixing a robot?"
I scratch my head, wondering if I'm under a time limit. "Could you just come over? You know where I am. And, are you telling me you can do both surgery and fixing a robot?"
"I'm not a doctor, but I know a thing or two about technological stuff and mechanics. You'll have to figure out the human part on your own, but I'll bring Jean since he's good at any outside wounds," he says knowingly, hanging up to head over. I purse my lips, wondering where I'm going to get a doctor. I only have Kai's number and he certainly can't help, but Tyler can.
I dial Kai's number next. Roger's groans grow worse and worse. I shove the phone between my ear and shoulder and decide to continue dressing whatever wounds I can, praying I'm not hurting Roger too much. Kai picks up, but before he can ask if I'm okay, I start talking. "Listen, I need you to get over to this address I'm about to send you. Please bring Tyler. Right fucking now, Kai."
Kaiholo stutters, but agrees, hanging up soon after receiving the text from you. As you returned to treating Roger, something was off. Even though his eye was swollen shut, it seemed like he was starting to lose consciousness. Could he do that? Should he be doing it right now?
By the time Anubis and Jean reached the house, Roger wasn't moving, and both of his eyes seemed vacant.
"What the hell, what happened to him?"
Jean exclaimed upon seeing him. He bent down to examine Roger's chest and leg as Anubis sat at Roger's other side. After a few moments of them working on Roger, someone knocked on the door.
"He got hella abused by his work people or some shit." I give Jean and Anubis some space, partly for my benefit because I am highly overwhelmed. I'm scared as hell that Roger will die or something. I barely knew the kid, but he seems to have a big heart, and I owe him a lot. I watch in anxiety as they attempt to help him, but I hear someone knock on the door.
I open to greet Tyler and Kai. Kai is looking at me worriedly, but I move to the side to reveal Roger. "Tyler, please tell me you can do something to help him. I think he broke his ribs? Or something? You're the only person I know who can help me."
As they enter the house, Jean eyes Kaiholo and Tyler suspiciously, but doesn't say anything. Tyler gives you a slight chuckle as if he's completely unbothered by the situation before leaning against a wall, crossing his arms.
"Sure, what do I get out of it?" He utters, shrugging his shoulders and earning an elbow to the side from Kaiholo.
I rub my nails together. "Well, I don't know. What do you want?"
I tilt my head at him. "What do you even get out of having my memories? How does that benefit you at all?"
I think about it, and I know saving Roger is more important than getting my memory back. After all, I can simply convince Kai to keep telling me things about myself and what I do and my family. If he's my friend, he'd know. If I have to stay with my amnesia, I will.
Tyler chuckles as Jean and Anubis continue working on Roger.
"It doesn't always work like that. Sometimes it's not what I'm gaining, it's what you're losing."
He saunters over to Roger, who Jean had finished treating his external wounds, but Anubis was still trying to figure out how to apply his mechanic knowledge to Roger's half-biological mechanics.
I bite my lip, peering at Roger's heart-breaking state. I want my memories, I really do, but…
I turn to him with a cold expression. "Fine. Keep my memories. Just help heal Roger, please?" I say, hoping I don't regret my decision.
Tyler nods with a mischievous smirk, bending over to place a hand on Roger. As he gazed his hand on Roger's chest, you could hear the bones in his chest mending themselves back together, along with the mechanisms working themselves back into place. Roger gasped, sharply inhaling a ton of air as if he had stopped breathing as he sits up quickly. Anubis and Jean back up, shocked by the miraculous recovery that Tyler somehow implemented as Roger processes everyone around him.
"Does it really take this many people to fix a robot?" He utters, his voice back to normal.
I raise an eyebrow. "I mean, we could always break your ribs again," I retaliate, but my tone is more filled with relief than actual anger. "You better be fucking glad you're alive because I just sacrificed a lot for you, bitch."
Jean and Anubis are both looking at each other with wide eyes, and I wonder if I should explain to them. And Roger. Oh, jeez, I suppose I haven't even told Jean the whole story.
Kaiholo furrows his brow at you as you joke with Roger.
"Why would you do such a thing?" He whispers as you continue.
Tyler looks up at Jean and Anubis and sighs heavily, explaining to them that he's a demon. Jean shakes his head in disbelief and looks over at Roger.
"So, what's your deal with Jenny? Did she do that to you?"
Roger shakes his head vividly.
"No, no, she's not at fault for this. I broke my undeserved trust with my authorities, so they merely did to me as they sought fit. This isn't the first time it's happened, but I suppose it's the worst."
I run my fingers through my hair, realizing no one really knew each other. It was kind of strange to have everybody I met in this universe in one room.
I clap my hands together. "Wow! Now that I've wasted all of your times, this is Roger, who's the cyborg we just saved with the Tyler the Creator ass voice yeah i see you aloe. That's Jean, then Anubis, who's friends with Jean and to his side, he's the snarky bitch, then Kaiholo, and Tyler. Great! You're all my friends in some way or another, ish."
All of the boys awkwardly introduce each other before sitting down at the table to chat. Roger still seems a bit uncomfortable with the fact that he nearly died in front of everyone, but he tries his best to be a good host.
"I deleted the evidence of Jenny in the garage that night, which I saw Tyler and Kaiholo there, too." Roger begins.
Anubis grins and eyes Jean, who does his best to keep a straight face. Kaiholo turns to you.
"I'm so sorry Tyler forced you to give up your memories, I'll talk him into changing his mind." He whispers, causing you to eye Tyler who's silently shaking his head with a smirk as if to indicate there's no chance.
Roger sighs and looks back at you.
"Speaking of the whole memory thing, I suppose it's time I explain why I could understand that." Roger continues to explain his story.
"Some of you might know the theory a few people have about the androids and how they used to be human. I'm the best proof that the theory is true. I was the second attempt they made at turning a human into a robot, but I was the first to show signs of survival after the conversion. Though I wasn't perfect, I begged for my life. That's why they don't care as much about me in the first place; I'm only still alive because I can perform almost as perfectly as a succeeded android."
i love all of u
I absentmindedly braid a piece of Kai's hair as Roger tells his life story. That explains why his arm band said 0002.
"So, wait, how did they pick you? Did they kidnap you?" I ask, intrigued. It's clear Roger had a family and a life, and there's no one anyone would give that up willingly, especially to become a slave to the government.