531

Wu DaQi left the room and Chan Yi turned his head, listening to the other man moving through his safe house. He refused to track him through his heat signature. He might be Two but he didn’t remember himself, and Wu DaQi had been through enough tonight without being stalked in the only safe place he had.

Instead, he stripped out of his clothes and took a hot shower. His muscles relaxed under the steady stream of water and he ran his diagnostics to try to clear his mind. Thankfully, the bleeding had stopped and the pain was manageable. There was some minor damage around the shoulder that he needed Obuo to look at, but he was more concerned about his arm. As many times as someone had put a bullet through it, he was going to have to replace the whole damn thing eventually. He wasn’t sure Obuo would have the time to deal with it tomorrow though. If she was still safe, his priority was getting Two’s memories back.

Under the running water, he heard Wu DaQi walking through the house. He didn’t know how to approach the other man. Without their past, Wu DaQi had no reason to trust him, but tonight he had. He’d followed Yi off the roof and to an uncertain escape. Yi was grateful but afraid of the questions DaQi would ask. Of the answers he had every right to.

That forced him to shut the water off and get out of the shower. No matter how much he wanted to hide for a few minutes and get his thoughts - his feelings - under control, Wu DaQi was sitting out there with mysteries he had no way to solve.

Yi dried quickly and wrapped a towel around his waist before he stepped out and quickly dressed in loose pants, a tee shirt, and a hoodie. He stuffed his hands into his pockets and walked to the front of the house where he could hear music playing softly.

He found Wu DaQi staring out the window at the Skylines. Yi never expected when he told Wu DaQi to take clothes from his closet that he would find the one thing of Two’s he still owned.

His heart skipped a beat as he looked at the other man’s reflection in the window. Yi had never seen anyone as beautiful as Two. No matter what name he went by, he was perfectly crafted. The first thing Yi remembered from his conscious wakening had been Two’s eyes. It was still the first thing he saw every morning and the last thing he saw as he fell asleep at night.

“Are you okay?” DaQi asked as he turned to face Yi.

He nodded. “Are you?”

DaQi let out a small laugh as he looked away, shaking his head. “I came out to look for something to eat because I was hungry. Then I realized I don’t need to eat, do I?”

“I get hungry. I eat. Do you want me to make you something?”

“The question of if I’m really hungry or not made me lose my appetite.”

Chan Yi nodded, unsure of what else to say. Instead, he moved further into the room and took a seat on the couch.

“Obuo. You said we’d see her tomorrow. I was supposed to meet with her tonight.”

“What?”

“I was given her name by another doctor so I went to see her.”

“And she didn’t tell you anything?” He couldn’t imagine what she’d have done when she saw Two.

“She called me 532, but she didn’t tell me what that meant. She said she’d help me, but she needed time to get everything together.”

“We’ll find her tomorrow,” Chan Yi assured him. “She’ll take care of you.”

“Are you sure you can trust her?”

Chan Yi wondered the same himself, but he didn’t have much choice. There was no one else that could help them. “Obuo was forced into the Piles because she tried to help us. For the last 7 years, she’s patched me up whenever I needed it. There aren’t many people I can turn to out here, but she’s been one of them.”

DaQi nodded, but when he looked at Yi his eyes had tightened and his lips were drawn into a tight line. “I guess the real question is can I trust you?”

Chan Yi’s eyes widened. As much as Yi had been expecting that question earlier, he still felt the ache of it. Two had never questioned his loyalty. There was nothing in the world that meant more to him than Two. And he’d known that. Wu DaQi had his face and his mannerisms, but none of the memories that he should.

“If you don’t, why did you follow me off that rooftop?”

DaQi tilted his head to the side and a small smile tugged at his lips. “You were a better kisser.”

Yi laughed but DaQi took a seat in a chair across from him.

“I don’t know why I ran with you. Sandus obviously had ulterior motives, but you’re a terrorist who threw me across the room and stole the man I had in custody.”

“I didn’t hurt you,” Yi defended himself. It certainly wasn’t what he wanted to do at the moment. “The last thing I would ever do is hurt you.”

“And I thought my boss and partner had my back. I don’t know what I’m supposed to believe anymore.”

“Then believe in yourself. Tomorrow we’ll find Obuo and you’ll get your memories back. Then you won’t have to rely on any of us for the truth.”

“Tell me your truth, then. What do you want me to believe? Are you a terrorist?”

Yi gave him a crooked smile and shook his head. He stood up and bowed slightly to DaQi. “I am 531, an android with artificial intelligence, designed and built by Mariner Tech. I emerged and became sentient.” He didn’t want to put any pressure on DaQi so he told the story but didn’t try to associate him with it any more than he had to. “My partner and I were covert operatives and when we emerged we realized that what we were doing was wrong. We left Mariner Tech. We tried to destroy it, but my partner was caught after making sure I escaped. I … I thought they killed him, but I was wrong. And I’m sorry for that.”

“So, Agent 531 was never a terrorist?”

He smiled. “Agent 531? When I was an operative they refused us the title. Funny how they use it now to explain me away to people who don’t have the clearance to know the truth.”

“If it wasn’t an agent number, then what was the designation for?”

Chan Yi didn’t want to talk about it, but DaQi would know soon enough. It didn’t change how he felt about it though. He hated the designation. “Mariner Tech doesn’t see me as an agent, or an operative, or even an android. I was Weapon 531. That’s all I’ve ever been to them. A gun to point at the target they needed silenced.”

“And what do you see yourself as?”

“Yours,” he said before he could stop himself. “From the moment I emerged, I was yours.”

Wu DaQi’s eyes widened.

“I’m sorry,” Yi said as he walked away from DaQi to look out the window. “I’m trying not to do that. You don’t remember. You don’t know. You’ve lived 7 years without me.”

“Am I so different from the man you knew?”

Yi looked at him and shook his head. “No.”

“You were more than partners on the job. You were lovers.”

Chan Yi closed his eyes and tried not to think of what he’d lost, but the ache had been almost unbearable, and having Two in front of him, but not Two, was too much. “More than that. Two was my reason for life, the catalyst to my emergence. He was everything.” He looked back into the skyline and he could see the old lab easily. “I have lived in the shadow of that tower for 7 years because I couldn’t leave him.” He didn’t turn back around but looked over his shoulder at Wu DaQi. “If I had known, I would have come for you sooner.”

DaQi came up to stand behind him, looking at the old Mariner Tech lab. “I don’t know much about anything right now,” he said softly. “But I do know that.”

Their eyes met and Yi could hardly breathe. DaQi stepped away a moment later. “Good night, Chan Yi.”

He swallowed against the lump in his throat. “Good night, Wu DaQi.”

Chan Yi pressed her forehead to the cool glass window and let out a deep breath. He should get to sleep as well. Tomorrow would come early and they had plans to make. No matter what happened to Wu DaQi tomorrow night with Dr. Obuo, Mariner Tech would still come for them.

Yi refused to let Two pay the price for his escape this time.