I had been writing for 3 hours and just wanted to finish so badly! Anyway here's the much better ending. Stay tuned for the epilogue. Everything I said about comments still applies. Etc, etc.
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Chapter 17
The next 10 days were hectic for Rolland first having to go over every square inch of his apartment with Freya to remove any evidence that connected him with the Extractor and then he had to give statements to various representatives from his own government to explain why he had called in an alert on the same night the nearest police station that exploded. The story that Freya had worked out with Anne was that a yet to be identified rogue Sister had tried to contact Rolland to obtain his assistance in fixing the Extractor and other stolen technology. Rolland tried to go to the authorities, but was discovered by the rogue who then tried to kill him. Fortunately Freya, working under cover, had been there to save both his life and Anne's. It made Rolland sick to death to have to repeat the fabricated story over and over again, but Freya was always there to lend him her strength and make sure he stayed on message. As his part was a minor one and nothing he said contradicted the "real" heroes who "stopped" the rogue Sister, Rolland was quickly sent back into the wild to continue his increasingly unimportant existence.
Without the Extractor or Jasmine Rolland found himself with little to occupy his time. His android body was remarkably devoid of features, such as a network connection or an integrated co-processor, which meant that he experienced life pretty much the same way he had before except that he wasn't hungry as often and alcohol no longer help him to forget his troubles. Rolland was also reluctant to tinker with his new because after his experiences he was understandably worried about accidentally turning himself into a mindless killing machine. Time began to drag on and following a week without hearing anything from Freya or Anna, Rolland was feeling decidedly abandoned. However Rolland was quickly snapped out of his boredom when he heard someone knocking at his front door. Opening it he was greeted by the smiling redhead that brought back two conflicting sets of memories.
"Hey there Robo-Rolland, how you doing?" said Freya as she pushed past the surprised Rolland and flopped down on his couch.
"I'm fine. Have you finished covering everything up yet?"
"Well that sounded snide. What's wrong?"
"I'll tell you what's wrong. Nine people are dead and all you seem to care about it hiding it so you don't get demoted or put in a VR jail or whatever might happen to you!"
"Listen hewman, if all I cared about was getting away with this I would have killed you and blamed it on the rogue. And let me tell you another thing," Freya stopped herself short and sighed. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to say that. This whole situation has been very hard on me as well. Do you have anything to drink?"
"Nothing that works on this stupid body."
"I didn't think so, which is why I brought my own," said Freya taking out a heavy flask and setting it on the table. "Care for some Glow and Tonic? I brought all the fixings."
"You know I'm starting to get sick of fembots always knowing exactly what I need," teased Rolland, as he went to pull some frozen glasses out of the fridge.
"I'm not here strictly for pleasure Rolland. I'm going to need your choice on what you want to do to resolve the situation."
"I thought the situation was already resolved," replied Rolland as he poured the drinks and cut the limes, plunking the wedges down into the bubbly blue glowing liquid.
"Well in one sense it was resolved a little too well. For finding all of the lost technology and stopping the rogue the want me back at headquarters to take command of a larger unit."
Rolland sat down at the table and put Freya's drink in front of her chair. "Great, what does that have to do with me."
"Well I can't leave you running around unsupervised with that body Rolland, but I pulled some strings and I think I found you a pretty good job back on my world. So you need to choose if you want to just go back to your old life here or if you want to come with me and start a new one."
"Wait, you can't be serious," exclaimed Rolland looking down at his drink and wondering if it was already making him hear things. "You want me, to come to a whole other reality with you."
"Yes."
"Where I'd have some sort of job."
"Correct."
"Working with fembots like yourself."
Well not exactly like me, but basically yes."
"I...I don't know," sighed Rolland, "I just don't know if I could just pack up everything and move to a completely new world."
"Come on, its a world full of hot sexy robot girls."
"Shut up Freya! I'm done chasing that dragon. What exactly would I be doing in this job?"
"There's an open billet for an NI researcher in the Special Services Tactical Research group."
"So like tactical military research, gotcha." Rolland thought about it for a moment then sighed again. "Listen Freya that's really great, but I just don't know if I can do it after everything that happened between me and synthetic lifeforms."
"Don't tell me Jasmine succeeded in killing off the real Rolland," said Freya giving him an inquisitive look. "Can you honestly tell me you would prefer going back to your fat old organic body?"
"I can fix that with diet and exercise. I don't need shortcuts to change my life around."
"Rolland, I don't mean to be harsh, but there's nothing here for you. I saw you file, you're going to have trouble getting a job with that attitude of yours. You live in a cave, you have no friends and only distant family. The only thing keeping you going was the "alien technology" you pilfered and then an AI girlfriend you created. Let me tell you something Rolland, even if you do manage to find another girlfriend you'll always be comparing to Jasmine and they're never going to live up."
"What the hell Freya. Why do you care so much if I come to your world or choose to stay here?"
"Because I'll be dammed if I let you become the last casualty from my gross lapse in judgement. When its late at night and the memories come flooding back who are you going to be able to confide in? You remember what I told you would happen if you blabbed the details to ANYONE? If you stay here you'll either end up in Area 51 jail if you talk to someone or end up hurting yourself if you don't. I cannot allow that to happen!"
Rolland drained his drink and shook his head. "You know you're starting to sound like Jasmine there. Both of you really have that "let's protect the human" mode down pat."
"Well duh I sound like her. Her personality was seeded from my own...at least the part you didn't manage to ruin," Freya shot back before sliding her own empty glass across the table. "While you're up give me a refill...and don't skimp on the glow."
"Did you ever stop to think that what I did to Jasmine is a reason I probably shouldn't get a job working on crazy advanced military projects?"
"Rolland, you're an exceptionally talented individual who did more to understand technology that was beyond his comprehension that I ever would have thought possible. You problem is that you've isolated yourself. You've opened yourself up to making bad decisions. You need a family that can give you a support structure."
Rolland sat down and passed Freya her second round.
"If I didn't know better I'd have to think you actually care about me."
"Rolland, I've always cared about you. Although for a while it was sort of like the way I care about a pet," said Freya making obvious shifty eyes. "But I'm over that! I swear!"
"If I fucking end up in a cage like that guy in the Twilight Zone..." laughed Rolland.
"Nah, we need you to be free range so you can bring a better price when we bring you to market."
"Alright, you win Freya. I'll come. Why do I get the feeling that I won't be needing to find my own housing unit?"
"Because they're expensive and I need a roommate?"
"What, you going to have me live in your closet?"
Freya snorted. "Fuh-ney. Anyway now that that's decided we need to get your new body fixed before you suffer a fatal cascade failure."
"Wait WHAT!?!?!?"
Freya chuckled. "Did you actually think that Jasmine would know how to programme nanno-machines from her repair system to give you a top quality inorganic body?"
"Shit shit shit! I need to change back!," cried Rolland as he jumped up from the table. Unfortunately Rolland quickly discovered that his body no longer had any idea how to walk causing him to fall flat on his ass.
Freya pounded on the table and laughed so hard that she herself nearly fell out of her chair.
"What's so funny!?"
"Aw you're fine. I just wanted to test your tolerance for glow."
"Shut up! It's my first time," said Rolland, his speech ever so slightly slurred. "Dammit I'm not some geek you can push around any more. I mean look at me. I've got bulging robot muscles. Don't make me kick you ass," he continued as he clawed his way back into the chair.
"Kick my ass? Yeah right. You can't even stand up straight," said Freya, taking a nice swig directly from the bottle before sliding it across to Rolland.
"I really shouldn't have any more," said Rolland.
"That's alright Rolland, I can walk for both of us," replied Freya, getting up.
Rolland took a swig and made a face. "Ugh, that stuff is revolting."
"Your organic derived taste system is weak!" chuckled Freya as she grabbed Rolland from behind and lifted him easily over her shoulder.
"Hey! What gives," cried Rolland as he tried not to throw up.
"Remember when I asked you what you would do when the painful memories came back? Well given the choice between drinking then away and having some positive interactions with another sentient I choose the later," said Freya as she dropped Rolland down on his bed.
"What sort of interaction did you have in mind?"
Freya shrugged. " Back rub?"
"You really want a back rub?"
"Just shut up, I just don't want to be alone with a bottle of glow."
"You know I think the real reason you need a "back rub" is because my body got all rip and muscular," said Rolland with a big smile on his face.
"Rolland you were a train wreck. Big surprise, being a pale fat ass and having poor hygiene makes a difference even with gynoids from another dimension. Now get undressed and use those muscles of yours to relieve my stress."
Freya stripped down to her metallic form fitting body armour and lay face down on the bed followed by Rolland who took off slightly more clothing. He knelt down over her and began to massage the tight muscles in her back.
"Wow,who'd have thought that a super advanced android from another reality would need help from a lowly barbarian human to relieve the tension in her back."
"Synthetic muscles are still muscles," said Freya, her voice muffled by the bed.
"And who would have thought that the stoic warrior Freya would need help from another individual to come to terms with her daemons.
"Hey! "protested Freya, turning her head to speak. "You know I had a really shitty vacation. This is all the personal time I get off and all I wanted was to have as much human fetish sex as I could, but no. First you wanted bot sex. Then I had my memories wiped. Then that drug dealer guy just wanted to rape me. Then was busy getting my body back and trying to clean up the mess you made. Now that finally it's all over you went and got yourself turned into some sort of guy bot. I mean human sex was the whole point of my coming to your stupid little planet in the first place! So excuse me if I am just a little bit strung out and depressed."
"Hey, at least you didn't have your perfect fantasy mate turn crazy, try to kill a friend in your house, brutally murder 8 people in front of you, blow up a police station and then try to replace you with a doppelganger while leaving you to die in an empty void!"
"You're right Rolland...you deserve a back rub too."
"I'm thinking we both need a little something more," said Rolland as he stopped massaging and lay down next to Freya prompting her to immediately cling to him tightly. "What is your mind calculating now Freya?"
"I don't really want to know," she replied.
"You know this kind of reminds me of some song lyrics."
"Which lyrics are those? Everybody needs somebody?"
"Love the one you're with."
"Just as long as its not create the one you love."
The End (Pending Epilogue)
