8 Trials Deep

CHAPTER 8: RELATIONSHIPS NURTURE A STRENGTH OR A WEAKNESS

“So what was it you traded for the Coder?” Leta asked softly as she sat beside the coffee colored leather armchair on the young man’s right. He was seating on a club chair, facing the glass wall that overlooked the city’s night scenery. He had not even turned the lighting, opting to seat in the dark.

RF-13, who had his eyes closed, allowed a half-moon smile on his lips. “Information. In this digital age, information could also be a currency. It is now, whether people admit it or not, the most valuable commodity.” RF-13 smile widened, as if remembering a fond memory. “I uncovered it after chasing a sulking lady in the virtual dimension.”

Leta fidgeted on her seat, no doubt the sulking lady was her. In one of their rare quarrels, she had resorted to hiding from him and ignored all his communication requests. He had given her almost a month before finally getting tired of being snubbed and had traced her all over the network.

Of course, Leta thought, he would have never found me if I had not wanted him to. But she was tired too. She didn’t know why or how it came to be, but she missed him. As a compromise, they had agreed that whenever they had a squabble she would never go into hiding again and he, in turn, would tell her everything she wanted to know.

He looked at the projection seating beside him and sighed, “But you are distracting me aren’t you? Come now, tell me how long he has?”

Leta was now on visible mode. The rooms’ projection system allowed others to see and interact with her. When the doctor came he had carried his sister to the other room and let Leta receive the diagnosis.

Once he had tucked the twin sister, he walked into the adjacent room. He called his older sister and informed her that the two were already with him. But he had kept mum on his brother’s case. The relief he felt on having retrieved them was swept away by the gravity of C-37’s condition.

It was like swimming out of a suffocating darkness then being plunged again, mercilessly. This time, he was in so deep he did not know where was up and where was down.

Leta was at lost on how to say it gently, she wondered whether it was even something that could be stated lightly.

So she dished it as it was, “At most a month. Dr. Medens said that the longest he had known a patient with Degulos lived was barely more than a year. But in your brother’s case the disease had progressed to the extent that the affected cells had already spread throughout his body.”

RF-13 could hear the humming of Leta’s voice in the background. He had stopped listening after the word ‘month’. He seemed to have lost the ability to. His breathing hitched and his mind had geared again to find a way out of this darkness, only to realize that he was spiraling towards a black hole. Then he caught a movement on the corner of his eyes, Leta moved her hand over his.

Of course, he could not feel the warmth of being touched. But when he curved his fingers through hers just right, it created the illusion of intertwined hands.

He regarded it contemplatively. He was about to address something they had been putting off for a while when sounds of approaching footsteps interrupted his train of thought.

A teenage girl walked into the room and upon seeing the man seating on the club chair lunged herself at him with a cry, “Papa, papa!”

RF-13 was just in time to brace himself as he opened his arms to receive his younger sister. “Everything’s fine now. I’m here, I’m here,” he whispered as he stroked the girl’s hair.

Watching this, Leta was taken a back for a moment. However, as she was watching them she realized one thing. She had seen several sides of him - cold, kind, honest, calculative, merciless, just. But he had never appeared to her more human than he did now, when it comes to his siblings. Watching them, she felt-envious. Somehow, she sensed familial love or the bond that came with it was something she had never had.

It took some time to coax the girl to calm down. It was only then that she seemed to have noticed the avatar seating beside her brother. Noting her curious glances, RF-13 introduced the two.

C-521 eyed the two skeptically, her sight constantly shifting from her brother to the avatar by his side. When the lady avatar interrupted her brother and introduced herself as his friend, C-521 could not hide the obvious doubt from her expression.

Her brother had no friends. Even when he was still going to the institute he never brought a friend home. He did not laugh with the older boys as she had seen the others do. As kids, she and her twin had often wondered at this. After all, they would occasionally hear the neighbor’s son or some others invite their brother. He would always refuse them indifferently.

When their mother died and their father was rarely at home, their brother had stopped going to the career preparatory institute. But he would still come pick them up. If a mentor happened to be outside, they would either look at him regretfully or disparagingly. But they would say one thing, “What a waste of talent.”

One time she and C-37 were playing in the simulated playground of the institute after the regular skill development session when their one of the boys who belonged on the same unit level as they did had sneaked on their back and pushed her brother on the ground. The boy always seemed to pick on her twin. She had tried to interfere, but every time she did, the nastier he was. If she stood quietly on the sideline he would call of his gang and leave after throwing a few dull derisive lines.

“I heard your mummy died and now you don’t have a father,” the boy taunted.

Her twin, who seemed to have inherited her brother’s calm nature, looked at the bully apathetically. He picked himself up from the ground and turned to the boy, “What exactly is a father?”

Back then that question had also appeared rational to C-521. After all, their biological father did not want them calling him father. So it was either ‘him’, ‘you’ or C-8579.

The aggressor seemed have been stumped for second before laughing raucously. “See, you don’t even know what a father is! My father brings me to the Simian Games in the virtual dimension, I bet you don’t even know where that is. He bought me the latest release of the Ivas Flying Dragon model. He even taught me how to operate his electric gun.”

C-37 had listened to the boy’s babble patiently, he appeared thoughtful. After a moment he asked, “Do fathers also teach you how to solve the obstacles during simulation trainings?”

The boy was confused, “That would be cheating, but they would. I don’t listen to mine when it comes to passing the training simulations. That always gets me stuck on the infiltration defense level.”

“Then I have a father,” C-37 cut in.

“What?” the boy mumbled, muddled.

C-37 pointed at a young man standing outside the gate, “He’s my father.” He had said this in a matter-of-factly manner.

C-521 had turned her head to look at who he was pointing at when she found that RF-13 was already at the gate to pick them up. Her twin brother was pointing at RF-13.

“That’s not your father, that’s your brother!” the tyrant yelled.

C-37 had already turned his back at him, but he still responded as he casually walked towards the waiting figure, “No, he is my father.”

C-521 had already caught on to him and they strolled side by side to the RF-13. RF-13 had reached his hands to him but C-37 just walked past him, ignoring the extended hand. C-521, however, grabbed on to RF-13 hands. One short figure walked ahead while two held hands as they followed him.

“Do you want a Dragon model?” C-521 heard her older brother direct it towards C-37 who was barely two meters ahead.

A few seconds passed before her twin brother answered, “No. They’re uninteresting once you take them apart. I can build one if I wanted to.” C-37, as young as he was, was already clear on their financial situation. There was a long pause, “Teach me again how to get past the Intruder Detection level in Mr. Oraculi’s class. He’s said we would be proceeding to the initial graduate stage next week.”

“Hmm,” her brother hummed in assent. He had been to her memory, a man of few words. Then he turned to her, “How about you, do you want a Dragon model?”

Others would have asked her if she wanted a dress up doll, but her brother had asked her if she wanted a dragon model. He probably had no clue what the difference was. After all, he had also bought the two of them identical clothes before. This had persisted until her twin brother had pointed it out to him and remarked he should at least choose a few lighter colored, frilled or floral pattered clothes for her. She didn’t really mind. To her, what her twin could wear, she could wear. But after that, RF-13 had taken pains to bring her when he shopped for clothes or asked her opinion when he ordered online.

“No,” C-521 also gave the same answer. “She looked towards the adolescent and asked unsure, “Can I call you Papa instead. C-9383 calls her father Papa.”

For a fleeting moment she saw RF-13’s usually poker face reveal a surprised expression. Then it was wiped clean returning once again to that eternal serene mirror. He replied in his usual modulated quiet voice, “You can call me anything you want.”

From that time on, her brother had become a surrogate father to two kids just half a decade younger than him. Her twin brother had also ceased walking ahead of them. Most of the time he walked by her side, sometimes he walked by RF-13’s side.

RF-13 had never returned to the development institute and would come home late and tired. He would check on their school works, sometimes help, then go straight to bed. The only times they saw him interact with others were when they would coincidentally meet with older men on the streets. They would briefly talk about something she could not understand.

Later on she had wandered into his room and found blueprints of complicated looking gears on his table. She had riffled through his files and discovered that her brother was working as a weapon’s designer in one of the weaponry industrial plants. At that time he was not yet of an age to be legally employed. So he was probably working under an assumed identity or tampered documents.

Almost two years passed and it got found out. Because the firm didn’t want to be pressed for exploitation, they had settled the issue quietly. Her brother was relieved from his job and they found themselves at a dilemma. By this time, their biological father had not shown himself for years.

It was when the same firm recommended his brother to the military academy. She knew RF-13 was reluctant when he considered the offer. However, no other firms or establishment would hire him again after the debacle. And the two of them, she and C-37, were then entering the higher levels of the development institute. It was costly.

When C-37 approached their brother saying he was not going to continue attending the development institute his brother had, for the first and only time, cut him off coldly. The next day, Papa had his bags packed and his room cleared.

He had introduced them to that scary older sister and told her to check on them every now and then. He had also left them instruction on almost everything. If she had written down every one of these instructions, it would be as thick as their training manual in the institute.

He told her twin brother to send him his quarterly progress report from the institute. To her surprise, C-37 obediently answered a meek ‘Yes’ without any following.

For the first year, they were not able to visit him in the academy. But he always seemed to find a way to send funds, call them briefly or meet them discreetly. Most of these meetings, if it was not during their furlough, were done in secret.

It had not taken long for her to realize that this man seemed to live only for them. She had known him to have connections, but not friends.

To have someone introduce herself as his friend and him remain quite, neither affirming or denying, was strange.

Now that she looked at them more closely, the two of them gave her the peculiar feeling as if she was staring at two puzzle pieces that flawlessly clicked together.

Her brother had this kind of open lighter atmosphere towards this Leta. It oddly gave her the feeling of relief. Having him live only for them, though it gave them a sense of security, was also too heavy for the two of them. It was probably also the reason why her twin hid his sickness from even her.

At the thought, she wondered where her twin was and planned to check on him. However, she first recounted what happened. C-8571 suddenly came home and told them he was taking them to meet RF-13. He had confiscated the two’s communication devices saying they would no longer be needing them. However, the person they met was not him, but a merchant who told them he was going to find them better homes. They were led into a building where there were children older and younger than her. It was at this time that C-37 had shown signs of falling sick, he got worse by the hour. And when the merchant could no longer endure hearing his whimpering, he had sedated him with a drug that kept him in a stupor.

C-521 had attempted to escape to try and contact RF-13 but she was caught every time. When her twin had started to loss his hair at an alarming rate, she had obediently followed the merchant into the auction. He had promised her he would get her brother to a medical institute. When the auction failed and they got back, she discovered the man had deceived her. C-37’s condition had rapidly deteriorated and he had been sleeping longer. On the rare occasions that he woke, there were times he could not even recognize her. He would call for their mom sometimes, RF-13 most of the time.

It was the only time C-521 had heard her twin brother call RF-13 ‘Papa’.

RF-13 listened to her narrative with a brooding look. It seemed he really needed to visit his step-father. But that could be left some other time.

He turned to his sister and tried to put on a neutral expression. How do you tell your sister she was going to lose her twin in no more than a month, he agonized.

RF-13 struggled for some time, then finally had to sigh in defeat. He couldn’t. He patted the apprehensive girl and said softly, “Go check on C-37, he might wake anytime now. He’s on the room the second to the right.”

C-521 nodded. As her figure disappeared on the corner, RF-13 slumped onto the chair. He had his eyes closed yet again. Leta remained as silent as a church mouse, quietly observing him. He had long fan-like lashes, probably the longest she had seen on a male.

It was almost half an hour when he finally opened his eyes and sighed. Today he had sighed more than usual. Then he gave her a side glance.

“What?” Leta asked when she caught that sneak peak. RF-13 appeared to have pushed the melancholy mood out of his expression as the familiar almost sardonic mask dawned on his face.

“Let me get this straight, I did not cheat on you,” there was that hint of teasing in his voice again. Still, she was astounded by how fast he changed gears. Maybe, this was also one of his masks. So Leta decided to just indulge him on this time.

“They look just like you and you have the impertinence to imply they’re not yours?” Leta cringed. She did it so well, she sounded like a domineering matriarch.

There was a quiet laughter.

“Alright, I give up,” RF-13 raised his hands above his head in mock surrender. “I had them when I was 5. Will you adapt them?”

“They’re cute, I might just,” the avatar responded in a thoughtful mood. Then her gaze shifted to him, “But does that mean, I’ll have to take you too?” Leta had a skeptical air.

RF-13 acted out a horrified expression so well Leta thought it was almost believable. He protested, “No, no, no, no, no! Don’t even think about it. You can’t have them without taking me.” He was shaking his head. “We come in set, you take them, you take me too. It’s a bargain.”

At this point Leta could no longer hold her laughter. She sighed exaggeratedly and said, “Well, I guess I’ll just have to make do with you.”

The two of them fell silent, looking at each other. There was an identical half-moon smile on their lips.

RF-13 stretched out his hands this time towards Leta’s hands that lay on her chair’s crook arm. He was careful that their hands did not overlap.

There was a hint of despondency when he said, “Sometimes I hate it when I can’t touch you.”

“I never thought you had this sentimental side,” Leta side-stepped the subject.

RF-13 chuckled self-deprecatingly, as if he was expecting her to. He silently positioned his fingers in between hers. He did this with the same focus an artist had as he painted his Mona Lisa.

He was looking at their hands when he whispered, “Now you know, be careful not to break me.”

Leta had no comeback to that. She had never seen him vulnerable. Usually he was this cold impenetrable wall. And when she was about to believe that he was, he revealed the c****s on his armor.

She was already regretting what she was about to say. But she turned her head towards the view overlooking the night scenery and said it anyway, “You could vie for the princess hand.”

The young man’s eyebrows rose without him meaning to. “You want me to vie for the princess’ hand?”

“You received an invitation, didn’t you?” Leta continued, still looking away.

“You are not answering my question, Leta.” His voice turned colder by a few degrees. “Is that-,” he paused finding it difficult to continue. After gritting his teeth he was finally able to spit it out, “Is that a rejection?”

“You didn’t ask, did you?” Leta imitated the action of flicking her finger on his forehead. She didn’t know if she should be glad or dejected, one thing for sure, she was exasperated.

You just had to say this when I just had to say that, Leta thought. Yet she did not give it a voice.

“Then what did you mean?” RF-13 asked, his eyebrows scrunched in confusion.

“I had once heard that the Regiis private medical facility was conducting experiments on Degulos cure. When I found out about your brother’s case, I had immediately sent my AI scouts to snoop around it. It seems that they have now progressed into the human trial. The latest success rate was at 85%. That’s already hopeful.” The avatar now looked at RF-13, willing him to understand. “The experiments had shown increasingly positive results. But the fact that they’re keeping it top secret even now must mean something. Either they want to commercialize it exclusively or they’re planning to weaponize Degulos. I am not sure.” This matter did not appear pressing to her at the moment. Right now, she wanted to tackle what was in front of her. Tackle it with the person in front of her.

“When I dug out information on the Trials, I found out that the third stage could get you an audience with the king. If you get there, we’ll think about how to have him include your brother in the clinical trials. It’s better this than nothing,” Leta stated hopefully. She hated seeing RF-13’s defeated look all this time.

RF-13 had been unmoving for some time, stunned. He was speechless for a while, looking at her.

“Thank you,” he finally whispered. This was the most sincere he had ever been. He had thought he would be losing C-37 without even a fight. He had thought he was rejected without even being able to ask.

“Leta, about-“

Leta had placed her index finger on his lips. She smiled at him and said, “Ask me again when the trials are over.”

RF-13 nodded and scheduled it on his mental calendar.

A lot of things can happen during the trials, Leta thought uneasily. Circumstances could change, and circumstances could change people.

She knew RF-13 was not a fickle person, but letting him go was a gamble enough for her.

Was it ‘Don’t pin all your hopes in one basket?’ That didn’t sound right, thought Leta.

“I almost forgot,” RF-13’s voice nudged her out of her internal self-dialogue, “how did you know I received an invitation for the 8 Trials?”

“I hacked your mail,” the avatar said with a hint of remorse. “I got curious when a mail bearing the royal seal registered in your MA right after you quit the academy.”

“You could have asked me,” RF-13 had once again regained that teasing tone. This was the second time he said that.

“Sorry, next time I’ll tell you beforehand when I intend to hack your account,” Leta herself was not sure whether she should say it as a joke or mean it.

“Forget it, you can do as you wish,” RF-13 responded in a whisper, his eyes on her while his chin rested on his hand