Shadows Chapter 9

The next day…
"Are you sure you don't want me to stay with you?" Kate asked as she set a glass of lemonade on the table next to Rachel, who had been released that morning and was resting at home.

"I'll be fine, Kate," Rachel replied. "It's just a broken leg-I have crutches." Rachel replied.

"Maybe someone should stay with you for a little while," Kate repeated, "just until you're use to the crutches. Your first attempt at getting your own drink didn't exactly turn out so great, remember? If I hadn't been here, who knows how long you would have been standing trying to negotiate the door and the pitcher and crutches all at once?"

"You're not going to leave me alone, are you?" Rachel asked levelly.

"I'm your over-protective big sister-what do you think?" Kate answered, crossing her arms stubbornly.

"Fine, I won't be alone," Rachel replied. "Y'know this wouldn't be such an issue you if you had gotten me the bottles of lemonade like I'd asked for."

"That's neither here nor there," Kate dismissed with a wave of her hand. "You already kicked Mom out, and you won't let me stay, so who's going to be here?"

"Shadow Maru-san is still in that human-sized body for a few days until the repairs can be made to his other body," Rachel observed coolly, "and he said he was going to be bored to death while he waited for that-I invited him over." She glanced at the clock on the wall. "He should be here soon, actually."

"…Fine-but I'm not leaving until he gets here," Kate replied as she sat down on the couch. "You said he's in a human-sized body. How does that work? How can they just be moved from one body to another?"

"Shadow Maru-san said that their minds and souls are in their AI chips," Rachel explained, taking a sip of lemonade, "and as long as the chip isn't damaged, it can be moved to another body-like plugging a USB drive into a different computer. I guess the first time they had to do repairs, they had these little toy-sized bodies, but after two of them ended up missing for like a day they decided human-sized bodies would be better."

"How did they end up being sentient?" Kate asked. How much did Shadow Maru tell Rachel? she wondered-he had still been talking to Rachel when she had left the hospital day before.

"Well, the first sentient one was kinda an accident," Rachel started. "They think it had something to do with him interacting with a little boy, but really no one knows for sure-they just say it was a miracle.

"The way that the rest were made sentient is pretty hush-hush. Shadow Maru-san knows it has something to do with copying data from the first sentient robot, but he said there's only ever been one mech who knew the details… and that didn't end too well."

"What does that mean, 'didn't end too well?'" Kate asked.

"Apparently, that robot was the troublemaker of the group and ended up dead in a gutter somewhere." Rachel deadpanned.

Kate wanted, now more than ever before, to slap her sister silly for her unintentionally harsh words. "Did he say what kind of trouble, or how that robot died?" Kate asked as casually as she could. If Kagerou was the mech to whom Shadow Maru referred, it would explain a lot of why he felt like he didn't want the police to know about him.

"No," Rachel replied, cutting into Kate's worried musings. "He didn't want to talk about it-changed the subject and I really didn't see any reason to pry. Why? What's with the sudden interest in them?"

Kate paused, uncertain how much she should tell her, if anything, and was relieved when Shadow Maru knocked at the door at that very moment.

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Kate got about halfway home when she decided to stop at the library. She parked her car and stepped into the cool building, wandered as casually as she could to the room housing the local papers and started searching through the records for the year that Kagerou had said he had last been conscious. After what Rachel had told her, and the little bit she could guess from what Kagerou had said and implied, she was hoping that she wouldn't find anything that might have anything to do with Kagerou.

Those hopes were quickly dashed when she didn't find something that "might" be connected to him, but something that was no doubt connected to him-complete with a grainy but painfully clear photograph of him.

Dreading the words to come, she started to read the article. The bulk of it was a very extensive list of damage he had caused. Shoving that paper aside, she considered another. In this story, no one had been hurt, although he had taken a young woman hostage, but she had been released unharmed some hours later. This article was cast aside for another, which, to the horror evident in her wide eyes and pale face, listed two police officers and a family who had been killed when he attacked their car.

Her whole body shaking, Kate pushed all of the newspapers aside and left the library. Despite her deep, supposedly calming breaths, her mind raced as she struggled to comprehend how it could have truly been Kagerou. She willed herself to wake up, that it was all a nightmare, but with his picture right there, as plain as the stop sign she almost blew in her distracted state, there was no denying the papers' words.

The articles all indicated that the Brave Police had stopped him. What they didn't explain was why his AI chip was in the bottom of a sea trench.

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When Kate got home fifteen minutes later, she found Kagerou sitting on the couch with a book in one hand while he pet Becky, who was sitting in his lap purring. She stared at him for a long moment as she kicked off her shoes, trying to grasp how he, who had never caused any pain intentionally, could have done the things the newspapers claimed.

He heard her weary footsteps enter the living room. "Hello, Kate," he greeted, pausing when he saw her worn out expression. "Are you alright? Is something wrong with Rachel?"

"Oh no, Kageoru-Rachel is fine," Kate replied as she walked over to the couch and flopped down, scaring Becky away. She drew her legs up beneath her and curled up next to him. She stubbornly refused to entertain the thought of him being anything but the kind, compassionate mech with whom she had...

Yes, she was ready to admit it to herself. With whom she had fallen in love.

"Kate, what's wrong?" he asked, concern lightly etched into his face as he wrapped an arm around her shoulder. "If it's not your sister, what has you so upset?"

No sense in lying to him-if he didn't wheedle it out of her, he would turn into a walking polygraph test, thanks to Mr. Stupid Eye Scanner. "I stopped at the library on the way home," she quietly confessed. "I think I know why you wanted to avoid the police."

"That bad?" Kagerou asked.

Kate nodded her head, wrapping her arms around him tightly, as if it could keep what she had found from being true.

"Then just forget it all-if it's truly that bad, I don't want to know what it is or why," he gently told her. "I don't want to remember it anymore-this is my life now."

"What if you do remember someday?" Kate whispered. "Or decide you do want to remember?"

"It won't matter," he dismissed. "I won't let it change who I am now." He paused for a moment, choosing his next words carefully. "I must admit, though…"

"What?" Kate asked softly, making no move to rush his reply.

Kagerou gently lifted her chin to search her face before speaking, as eloquent as ever. "I must admit, Kate… I do love you. I believe from the first time you treated me well, the night you stayed with me when I had my first nightmare, I've had my heart set on you. If I am to have any chance of a future, immediate or otherwise, with you, I have to put the past in its place."

"…Really?" Kate asked softly, eyes wandering over his face, searching for a tic that called the bluff Kagerou cooked up.

"I speak only the truth, Kate," he answered. "I love you."

Never before had three words, composed of eight letters, made Kate's face blossom into smile like a sped up film of a rose opening up. "I… I love you, too," she answered.

Kagerou flashed her a devilishly charming grin. "Then I suppose this means we'll be going steady?" he asked smoothly.

"I… I would like that," Kate replied, feeling very heady-no doubt a flood of endorphins rushing through her body. "Is that what you were trying to tell me when Rachel called?"

He nodded. "I also tried before you left for Egypt. I was beginning to think I lived in a romantic comedy-every time I tried to tell you, something would interrupt me."

"So what does that make me?" Kate asked, quirking an eyebrow good naturedly.

"The beautiful leading lady," Kagerou deadpanned, brushing his lips against her cheek. Kate melted against his chest plating slightly as his lips, brushed her skin. "This is a three-day weekend for you, yes, Kate?"

"Yeah," she confirmed.

"Is Rachel going to need your help over the weekend?" Kagerou further pressed.

"She shouldn't," Kate replied, once again skimming over the presence of Kagerou's purple body double.

"Wonderful," Kagerou announced. "Go pack your bags, Kate."

"Why?" Kate asked.

"We're going on a… little road trip," Kagerou explained with a grin.

"Where to?" Kate queried with a grin.

"To that cabin you keep telling me about," Kagerou answered, standing and pulling her up with him. "Remember when you asked me about my 'perfect place?' You said yours was this cabin, that you always feel at peace when you're there."

"So I did," Kate answered flippantly.

"I feel that after everything with your sister and whatever it was you found today-" he paused to brush his lips against her forehead-"you need to relax for a while. And with the way you talk about it, it sounds like an Eden. I've always wanted to see Eden."

"Don't think that makes you Adam to my Eve," she warned.

"Of course not," Kagerou answered.

"Then that sounds wonderful," she agreed, "and with the long weekend, we can spend a couple of nights there."

"I'll get the camping supplies out of the garage," Kagerou said, kissing the back of her fingers formally.

"Ooooooooor we could just stay here," Kate teased, kissing the backs of his fingers in a perfect mimic of his gesture. She lifted her head as her phone rang.

"We could," Kagerou answered, "but if we leave, we don't have to worry about blasted interruptions."

"I'll be packed within a half an hour," Kate told him before stepping into the kitchen to answer the phone.