"No matter how difficult the world can get, no one should stop. If you do, what would we have in the end?"

*

"You broke him!"

Lightning flashed across the sky. Rory rushed into me. I felt his fingers dig into my skin. With rapid reflexes, I pushed my palm into his chin and forced his head back as he screamed, "You broke him!"

We crashed down onto the rooftop as thunder roared beyond the crowds. Grinding my teeth, I lifted my head, searching for Will. When my sensors found him huddled beside the door, I felt electricity spark under my skin. "Hide!" I ordered. I could see him move but not look at me. "Get somewhere and hide!"

Hide, because you can't leave me here.

"No!" Rory's hands grabbed my head and forced me to look at him. But when I pulled away, we rolled together. I felt his knees ram into my ribs, shifting the power in my system from courage to pain. "You did this! You fucking did this!"

My mind shifted back to the transfer, to Axe's confused thoughts. Of water. Of sight-seeing. Rory had given him hope, dreams of a proper life, but the second my data blended with his, he broke. It wasn't my fault...

His core is different... simple and incomplete.

"No." I rolled on top of Rory and pinned his shoulders down with my knees. His hands flung around like mad, trying to hit me. But I shook my head. "You did this. You forced my code into his system—"

"No, no, no!"

"—He wasn't designed to use my information, he's a military bot. A shell. But you... you broke him."

Rory's bright eyes turned black. His hands dropped to his side. Defeated. He made a sound... like a cry.

I didn't take the lack of movement as a victory. With my knees still pinning him down, I leaned back, rain sliding down my face. "Rory..." I caught the change in his emotions. A shift in his energy. "You had to have known that, didn't you?"

Rory's eyes closed.

"You knew he couldn't run the data... You know his model didn't support it. Yet, you—"

"You." Rory's eyes snapped open, making me flinch. "It's always about you, isn't it? That's how it is now, how it was then..."

Rory and I stared at each other as the storm blew gusts of wind against the rooftops. It pushed through our hair, making wet strands stick to my face. I dropped my hands to my legs, easing up just a bit, as Rory raised his to cover his face. The next sound he made was beyond.

I know that pain.

"You don't understand," Rory cried into his hands. "You never understood anything..."

I caught movement behind me. Will. Turning my head, I watched him move from the safety of the door over towards the roof ledge. For a moment, I wanted to yell at him to get back. But that faded as I hear what he moved to go over and observe.

There was another sound in the storm. Like marching.

I felt Rory's hands hit my legs. Quickly, I looked down at him.

"You're close-minded," he hissed through gritted teeth.

My lip twitched.

"You're just like them, you know... Don't you understand what the shadows can do to someone?"

The marching intensified. Hard feet meeting concrete. Turning my gaze away from Rory's cries, I stared at Will, watching him lean over the roof's ledge. His hood had fallen off from his head, blown back by the wind. His hair, too. Even in the heavy rain, I could see his fingers grip tight for support. The tips of his toes pressed down hard. "Javi..." He sounded terrified. "They're moving..."

"Moving?" A part of me wanted to jump up and look, but I knew the second I'd lift my legs, Rory would attack me. And I couldn't have that. "Where are they moving to?"

"Here." Rory almost laughed, and I looked down at him again. "They're coming back here. Back home."

My eyes widened. Was he still controlling them?

"It isn't fair to leave them out in the rain like that..." He spoke and I moved all the way back. I stumbled but stood a foot away from him. He struggled to get to his feet. "I just can't ignore them. Toss them aside... it isn't right. The upload was a fail... something was missing. But that's fine... I can fix it. I can fix anything."

My vision fizzled out of clarity. Shaking my head, I moved further back. My shoes hit Will's when I reached the edge. I felt his hands grab me as I touched my face, wiping water from my eyes. But they didn't return to normal. All I saw was static.

And I heard his voice. "What kind of man would I be if I didn't?" he asked.

Squeezing my eyes once cleared the darkness. And when I opened them, I saw the grey of the storm. And his red eyes. Rory stared at me as he took another step in my direction. Behind him, I saw Axe turn around slowly, a dead expression on his face.

"Rory..." I stood in front of Will, blocking him from Rory's view. "What does that matter? You aren't a man."

"Right," Rory sighed and glanced back at Axe. He watched him as I did, watch the life return to his eyes. But it was different. It was... dormant. He lacked the emotions he showed just hours before. "You're right about that, Javi," Rory said, finally looking back at me.

Gulping, I nodded.

"But you know what you're forgetting?" he whispered, head down.

"What's that?" I knew this wasn't just going to be a talk between two droids. The marching down below meant danger was approaching. The data in the corners of my eyes meant Mary knew it, too. The entire world had to know.

"That you, my friend..." Rory's head snapped up, teeth bared at me. "You aren't a man, either!"

Lightning crashed on top of the roof and Will yelled. I used the sound like a gunshot; like the start of a race. Will may have stumbled back, but I rushed forward. Because Rory did, too.

Our bodies crashed into each other, metal cracking under our skin on impact. I reached my arm back, fist closed, and pushed forward to hit him. He did the same. Each of the artificial tendons in my body worked at full capacity. I could hear the wires tug and pull. And when his fist met my jaw, I heard that too.

"Bionics frame taking critical damage."

He hit me three times, and I tried to move, to keep him away from Will. But I couldn't block his hits.

Fuck, he's fast.

Our bodies hit the wall. It dented on impact. We hit the ground next, the sound of crashing metal echoed in the space around us. And for the first time, my skin broke free from my frame. Underneath the brown skin, I saw wires, I saw sparks.

I felt fear. But I couldn't show it.

"Rory." I reached up to wrap my arm around his neck. I wanted him to stop. I need him to. Otherwise, I couldn't take the chance to break his core. "Stop, please. You can't do this!"

"Stop talking to me!" Rory's hand shot up to my face and pushed as hard as he could. I felt a pressure in the back of my head as I met concrete. "You can't talk me out of this! It is done! There is no going back!"

My computers sputtered for a moment. A pain shot up my head. I couldn't see, couldn't hear. Static covered my eyes and blanketed my ears. Yet, despite how he hindered me, I hadn't forgotten where he was, and I could feel.

With my hands, I pushed down until I felt his face. His nose slid between my fingers as he screamed into my palm. Heat and moisture hit my skin. He let go, and I rolled away.

Coughing, I rubbed my neck as I watched him stand. He didn't look at me, but at Axe. My replica had moved from his dormant state but hadn't taken a step towards us. His head simply dipped from one side to the other. His mouth parted, cheeks dropping, but no sound left him.

"You won't let him do this, right?" Rory asked him as he stood in front of him. "It's been you and me for so long, right? Who has your best interests at heart?"

I crawled back on my hands until I stood up. Will grabbed my arms, touching the blue liquid that spilled down from my open wounds. A quiet "shit" left him, but I ignored him. I kept my eyes on Rory.

What is he planning?

I looked at Axe.

What is he doing?

"Axe, look at me." Rory cupped Axe's face, pulling his attention from me to him. "He's trying to stop me. He's trying to turn you back. Are you going to let him do that?"

I gulped.

"Are you going to let him shut you down?"