Chapter 14: The Scar

The majority of us spent the morning in the den. Magus and I tried to identify the blind man who attacked me while Tokyo, Kaguya, and Ayla built a program for Tokyo's new bike. The three Irishmen were upstairs cleaning and showing off their weapons, then they were going to fool around with Ayla's Mortal Kombat game. They didn't seem worried about my blind attacker at all.

"Jesus Christ!" I cried out in surprise, staring at Magus's computer. "How many camera systems do you have strung around town?!"

"Two for each bus stop." Magus answered casually. "There you are." He pointed at the screen. A black and white surveillance movie played on as the old man clicked on the play button with the mouse. Yeah, there I was, sitting down with my head back. After a while, I lifted my head and looked across the street.

"And here he comes." I warned.

He didn't show up on the screen. Just his hand, when he reached out to shake mine, then he pulled me off camera. Nothing else happened. Magus clicked on a rewind button on his movie player, and switched to another camera angle. Now the movie player showed the street and crosswalk. We could clearly see the man walking across the street, to me, and take off his hood.

"That's him." I pointed out, and Magus paused the footage.

"Oh my God." He gasped, practically jumping out of his seat. "Kaguya! Look at this!"

"What?" Kaguya wondered, jumping from the project. Tokyo and Ayla looked up from their work too. Kaguya walked to the computer, and looked at the man, and her eyes went wide. "Oh God. He's a Snake, isn't he?"

"He's wearing the outfit and eye cloth." Magus nodded. "But if he's one of the Snakes, then why would he attack someone on his side?"

"What's a Snake?" I wondered, clueless.

"Oh great." Ayla groaned. "Not the 'Blindfold Brigade…' "

"The Snakes," Magus began to answer my question, "were one of the European organizations that were dedicated to the dragonoid's destruction. The dragonoids attacked and killed the members until the Snakes were on the brink of extinction. I was a member until I fled to the United States. The Snakes have been recovering slowly, but they mostly kept to themselves. They don't openly go look for new members like they once had, those who want to join go find them."

"What are they doing here?" I asked.

"Apparently," Kaguya butted in, "one of them is here to kill you. Why is a good question. Magus, do the Snakes know about the Kid Series?"

"Yes." He nodded. "I let them know a long time ago. And I think they had a few run-ins with London. But, I don't see why they would want to kill Clara."

"Not just Paris." Tokyo spoke up, moving behind me. "Me too. Possibly London as well."

"What?" I gasped.

"You're kidding." Ayla snorted.

"When the man grabbed Paris, she screamed for help. I heard her and came running. As she escaped, the man confronted me. He said my name and pointed a rifle at me. I dodged his rounds and jumped into the alleyways. I lost him, found Paris, and we escaped."

"A rifle?" Ayla asked. "A Snake with an actual gun? But dragonoid slayers don't carry guns. You can't kill dragonoids with guns, no matter…"

"He knew what he was up against." Magus analyzed. "Enough fire power could kill an android…"

"A gun is a coward's weapon." Tokyo sneered. "Who do the Snakes think they are?!"

"Hey, I carry a gun!" Ayla protested.

"Coward." Tokyo smirked.

"I'll see if I can contact the Snakes later today." Magus offered. "Meanwhile, let's try to avoid any activities on the front lot. Training can commence on the beach. The garage door remains closed. Okay?"

"Alright." Ayla and I agreed.

"Understood." Tokyo and Kaguya nodded.

Well, I had the basic idea what I was up against. Now I needed full knowledge. There were only three guys left to turn to…

***

"London! Glynn! Corey!"

"Hoye!" all three boys greeted me from the kitchen as I came up the stairs from the den. They were raiding the fridge for something to eat, and were currently feasting on left over Thai. London sat at the table with a coffee mug in hand, drinking the steaming beverage.

"How ya doing?" I asked, sitting at the table by London.

"Doin guud, doin guud." Glynn answered, holding an Oriental take out box and digging into it with a fork.

"I got a question for you boys." I brought up. "Whadaya know about the Snakes organization?"

"Haa! I laaugh!" Corey snorted, stuffing orange colored rice into his mouth, then tossing his empty take out box in the trash. "Still hungry…"

"The Snakes," London began, "are the most respected Slayers in the world. Their skills are perfect and their strength is unimaginable. They are professionally trained hunters and swordsmen. All dragonoids feared them, for the Snakes were virtually unstoppable."

"Aye." Glynn agreed with his mouth full. "There were no 'snakes' in all Ireland till those blokes came to town." Corey laughed.

"Very punny, D-Daye." He congratulated, stealing a forkful of rice from Glynn's take out box.

"Hey!" Glynn objected to Corey's thievery. "Get ya own!"

"I aate it all." Corey argued, taking another forkful of rice.

"You guys met the Snakes before?" I wondered, attempting to keep the boy's minds from wandering to their stomachs.

"Not just met em." London answered with a laugh. "We'd have cockfights every Friday and Saturday night."

"The three of us were on the fringe of Slayer society." Glynn explained, shoving Corey out of stealing distance. "Soma the younger Snakes usta pick faights wid London and make bets n hard money. London usually won; n we got lots of money. We used thaat money to come here and meet you."

"Would the Snakes want to kill us for any reason?" I inquired. Corey and Glynn gave me surprised looks.

"Even if they wanted to," London answered, "they wouldn't dare. Treason is punishable by a very harsh death."

"Tis not moral or logical to kill any of us." Glynn stated. "We're on thay saide."

"That guy who attacked Tokyo and me last night was a Snake." I stated. "Whadaya have to say about that?"

"Did he say he was a Snake?" London quizzed as Corey and Glynn continued to fight over the left over Thai rice. London was the only one paying attention, and the annoyance of that was giving me a headache.

"No." I answered him.

"He probably wasn't a Snake then. He could have been a dragonoid dressed up as one." London began drinking his coffee.

"He said he was neither human or dragonoid." I presented.

"Hm?" London wondered as he drank.

"I think he may be an android."

London did a spit take, and Glynn and Corey's heads snapped around to look at me in shock.

"What?!" London shouted.

"Thaat's impossible!" Corey yelled.

"I know." I nodded. "But I think that was what he meant."

"A fourth android?" Glynn shook his head. "Na-uh. Gash did not create four. He plaaned out three."

"How would you know for certain that…"

"I know. I'm his grandson."

I stared at him in surprise.

"Yep." London nodded, cleaning coffee off the table.

"Thaat's raight." Corey nodded.

"You're the grandson of the guy who drew my blueprints?" I cleared.

"S'right." Glynn nodded. "Nobody knows his real name, so everyone called him Gash afta the horrible scar he bore on his face. I neva knew him, but I grew up with his pride n joy: London there."

"Glynn and I were brothers." London explained as he dried off the table with a napkin. "Inseparable. We trained together, preparing for the day the dragonoids would rise up and attack humanity. We were ready to take over the world. But that was a long time ago."

"Whetha it be Snakes or dragonoids, didn't matta ta us." Glynn smiled. "If thay challenged us, we kicked thay arses."

"What happened to Gash?" I asked.

"I only knew him for five days." London confessed. "The dragonoids attacked him, and I fought back. I killed the dragonoids, but not before they killed Gash…or his family…Glynn's mother and father…"

"When did this happen?"

"August 19, 1997. Five days after I was activated. The dragonoids were still in their human states, of course. It was on January 2, 1999 when all hell officially broke loose for all us Slayers."

"But what about the Snakes? Where were they when Gash died?"

"Thay didn't even know Gash existed durin the time." Glynn answered. "Thay found out about the androids from thay former member: Magus McDuff." Glynn then laid his broadsword on the table in front of me. "I was never one of the Snakes, nor waas Gash, but I took me training from a Snake named Duncan. He and London taaught me everything I know."

"I see." I nodded, staring at Glynn's beautiful sword. I loved that sword, it was my favorite one by far. I called his kind of sword the "Robin Hood" model, since it was a common model during the medieval times in England. His hilt was silver, with forged leaves and branches painted green and brown. The steel blade had an Irish Gaelic prayer engraved on it. I wished I knew what they said, probably something like "May the road rise to meet you" or something like that.

My eyes wandered to Corey, who was trying to sneak up on Glynn's last bites of food.

"What about you, Corey?" I asked, as the red head quickly stabbed into the rice and popped what he took into his mouth. "When did you get caught up in this?"

"Last month." He answered after swallowing. Glynn glared at him as Corey continued. "On January 2, 1999, I was out of town when a dragonoid attacked me. I was an innocent bystander caaught in the crossfire. I haad nothin to do with the dragonoids, or Snakes, or androids until thaat monster attaacked me. London saved me life. Glynn filled me in on the whole story, and I had neva been so overwhelmed in me life. I waanted to help…"

"…and so the duet became a trio. London finished. "Corey's still learning how to use a sword, but he makes a great sniper with bows and arrows."

"Bows and arrows?" I wondered with a smile.

"Wurks betta than guns." Glynn smiled, then shoveled the last morsels of food in his mouth so that Corey couldn't take them.

"Thay in the living room." Corey pointed to the next room. "I'm not gonna get 'em. I spent all day cleanen em."

"Okay, I’m stuffed." Glynn announced, throwing the empty take out box away. "Mortal Kombat, lads!"

"Mortal Kombat!" London and Corey whooped as though they were in battle. Corey ran into the living room after Glynn. London was about to leave my sight too, but he stood by the doorway and looked at me.

"Hey Clara, wanna play Mortal Kombat with us?"

"I've never played that." I admitted. The truth is: I suck at Mortal Kombat. I'm not a "fighting games" person.

"C'mon, we'll teach you."

"Sure." I gave in, getting up from the table. Suddenly, London looked towards the den entrance.

"How about you? You wanna play Mortal Kombat?"

I turned to see Tokyo standing on the top stair of the entrance. He frowned at London.

"It's amazing how easily humans distract themselves from important matters in life." He sighed. "Listen, London, are there any Snake organizations in the United States?"

"Hell no." London shook his head. "The states are the dragonoid hot spots. The Snakes couldn't afford to make themselves known by coming here or setting up shop here. The dragonoids think they're dead, and they want to keep it that way."

"So why would one walk around a public area where dragonoids could see it? And not even get attacked?"

"Were you eavesdropping on us?" I demanded. I was ignored.

"Maybe he wasn't a Snake." London shrugged. "Maybe he was a dragonoid in disguise. C'mon Clara, let's go play."

"In a minute." I growled, staring harshly at Tokyo.

"Oh, okay." London said in understanding, slowly walking out of the room. I walked up to Tokyo, and stood so close to him our noses almost touched.

"How long have you been standing there?!" I demanded.

"I somewhat got the information I needed."

"Were you behind me the whole time?" I snapped.

"Yes. Is there a problem, Paris?"

"Don't you ever EVER do that! And God damn it, my name is Clara!"

Tokyo began to glare. He was starting to lose his patience.

"It feels like you yell at me if I do so much as breathe."

"Why do you have to be behind me all the time? Are you spying on me or something?"

"Don't be paranoid."

"I'm not being paranoid!"

"This doesn't have anything to do with last night, would it?"

I froze. Last night…what did happen last night? I had trouble remembering…

"Last night?" I wondered.

"You don't remember?"

"Not really."

"You're hopeless."

"No, really, I don't remember."

"Get out of my way." He snarled, pushing me over. I landed on my back and he walked past me. I felt hot in the face, and I kicked his ankle. He stumbled, but he regained his balance and sneered at me. He kicked me in the side with his toe, so I raised my heel and stabbed into his vunerables. He made no sound of pain, but he did hunch over and back away from me in pain. It gave me enough time to get up, yank his head up by the hair, and slap him at least ten times in a row before elbow jabbing him in the back. He fell down to the ground hard, and he didn't dare get back up.

I felt my mind race again. Was he my friend or my enemy? Did I love him or did I hate him? Should he live or die? Is he good or evil? What the hell was I doing?! I shook my head to clear it, and fingered an earring nervously. Why did I lash out at him like that? He started it! He shouldn't have pushed me! He shouldn't have been eavesdropping! He shouldn't have…whatever the hell he did to me last night!

Wondering what did happen last night, I turned to the living room doorway and found London and the boys gawking with wide, frightened eyes. I shot them a pissed off glare, and the two humans took off running. London, the android with a death wish, stayed where he was and kept his cool.

"So, uh, what did happen last night? You two didn't double date with Ayla and me."

"None of your business." I growled, putting a hand on the hilt of my sword.

"Didja kiss?" London asked with a sly grin.

"I don't remember…"

"Didja get lucky by any chan…"

"You son of a bitch!" I screamed in horror.

"You did, didn't you?!"

"You God damn son of a bitch!" I screamed, pulling out my sword.

"I knew it! I knew it!" London gloated, clapping. "You two did it!"

"We did not!"

Something zipped past my face, and stabbed into London's forehead. It was a shuriken. I looked behind me to see Tokyo standing and in no pain.

"Nothing happened." He insisted quietly. "Leave it at that." Then he walked up to the unfazed London, yanked the ninja star out of his head, and walked off. He was headed for the front door. I headed for my room. I heard London quietly muttering:

"Blimey. I was jest kidden."

***

The next week was rather quiet. London and Corey went to town on Juunanogou to go find the blind man, but they came back with no luck. Magus had contacted the Snake leader, and confirmed that no Snake members were in the United States. Was it a dragonoid trying to gain my trust before killing me? Or was I right, and he was a fourth android? He had an American accent, but half of face was covered with that blindfold. If it was a dragonoid, he was probably covering his forehead and his Royal Seal tattoo.

Tokyo spent most of his time in the den or the garage, working on his bike with Kaguya. He had altogether stopped training me, because it became pointless. We kept getting into fights, and the violence was becoming more frequent. Usually Kaguya would break us up, or I would beat Tokyo up or he would beat me up. One or the other was sent to the lab to get repaired everyday. I was on the verge of killing him on some days, and I guess he felt the same way.

During one fight, he won and beat me up very badly. Magus and Ayla took me down to the lab to repair me. Juunanogou was there too, since Tokyo requested my bike's absence while installing the personality software to his bike.

"Damn that rust bucket…" I muttered as Ayla cleaned red oil off my mouth with a wet cloth. Juu-kun beeped, so I turned to look at his monitor.

"HEY!" he objected in green letters.

"Not you. Tokyo."

"Oh. Sorry." Then, he began rambling in red letters. "That asshole! How could he do this to you, Clara?! I'll kill him with my bare hands!"

"You don’t have hands, you idiot."

I couldn't help but laugh, and neither could he.

"It's cool." He chuckled in forgiving green. "I'll think of something to kill him with."

"Me too."

"Please don't talk like that, both of you." Magus begged. "Clara, I wish you and Tokyo would stop this fighting. It was you who suggested to him that you should be fighting as a team against the dragonoids and not each oth…"

"Teamwork is beyond him." I shook my head as he slowly reached into my slit stomach to replace a damaged circuit. "He's a 'Look-out-for-#1' type of guy."

"Not true." Ayla argued. "He's saved your life a few times, and when you two aren't trying to kill each other you guys make a pretty good team against the dragonoids."

"Yeah, but he hates my guts. I hate him too, but not that bad."

"Of course you do!" Juu-kun urged me on. "Kill that selfish son of a..."

"Shut up." Ayla snapped at Juunanogou, then turned to me. "You guys have been like this since Val-day. C'mon, Clara, I'm not trying to get personal. What happened that night?"

"I can't remember…"

"It wasn't that meaningless. C'mon start talking."

"Ayla, don't push her." Magus scolded. I tried to think. How meaningless was it?

"Well…" I began slowly, "…we talked a bit…" I paused.

"Go on." Magus urged gently as he worked. I glared at him.

"Oh God, not you too!" I cried. "You old letch!"

"Don't get the wrong idea." Magus soothed, looking into my eyes. "Strong emotions could be malfunctioning your system. If they are, I need to make an upgrade on several circuits, especially the ones in your brain." I was reminded of my headaches whenever I got mad or frustrated. Those headaches were probably erasing my memory! I should have known androids can't get headaches like humans! I could have been in danger of malfunctioning!

Magus proceeded to fix the damaged circuits as I racked my brains to the incident last night. I could barely remember any of it until the old man replaced the right circuit at the right time. I suddenly remembered what happened that night! I remembered his arms wrapping around me, and resting my chin on his shoulder, and feeling the warmth of his body next to mine. I couldn't remember how or why we were hugging however.

"We hugged." I finally said. Magus closed his eyes and smiled. Ayla made an adoring face at me.

"Awwww!" she cooed. "How sweet!" She was picturing it in her mind, of course, while I remembered the moment. I couldn't remember if we did anything else. It was almost like someone pushed the fast foreword button to the next morning.

"Did you do anything else?" Magus interrogated.

"I can't remember," I confessed, "but I doubt we did anything else. Tokyo remembers, ask him."

"Maybe you should ask him." Ayla suggested. "He'd never talk to us."

"Well, I don't wanna ask him! We'll beat each other up if we even glance at one another!" I objected.

"Don't ask him!" Juunanogou butted in. "Kill that Japanese son of a b..." I slapped his monitor and he made a strange smiley face with swirly eyes.

"The both of you are capable of sitting down and talking about your differences like civilized people." Magus reasoned, peering more closely at his work. "Hmmm…Clara, I need to shut you off for a while. I need to make that upgrade as soon as possible."

"How long will I be off?"

"A couple days at most."

"Alright." I nodded. "Shut me off when you're ready."

"It'll take just a couple minutes." Magus assured. After Ayla cleaned me up, Magus flipped a switch in my stomach…

***

…then my eyes snapped open. The lab was dark, and Ayla and Magus were gone. All the lights appeared to be off. I looked around and saw one of the back lights on, and standing directly underneath the light was…

"Tokyo?"

"Good evening." He greeted with a single nod. "You've been deactivated for three days. You're completely repaired."

"Three days?" I asked, sitting up. "It felt like only a few minutes."

"Amazing, isn't it?" he chuckled, then he began to walk towards me. "Would you like any water? I have a bottle right here."

"Sure." I accepted. He pressed the cold bottle in my hand, and I snapped off the cap and took a long drink. Tokyo stood next to me, and remained silent as I gulped down the satisfying drink.

"Hey," I began after I downed the whole bottle, "where's Ayla and the old man? And Juunanogou?"

"It's half past midnight. Everyone is asleep. Your bike is in the garage with mine."

"So why exactly are we alone?" I asked suspiciously.

"We need to talk." Tokyo suggested. Suddenly, I noticed something on his cheek that I never saw before: a thin, scarlet line just below his left eye. I dared to reach out and touch it. Yes indeed, it was a scar.

"Where did this come from?" I wondered.

"You." He stated. "From the last fight."

"I don't remember doing this." I murmured, putting a hand to his face. He didn't do anything to take my hand away.

"As I expected." He nodded as I gently stroked the scar with my thumb. "The headaches you get were slowly erasing some of your memories. Magus made a little progress, but it's only temporary. It'll be a little over a month before he completely fixes the problem. Until then, you need plenty of rest."

"Why tell me this now?" I asked. "And why are you in particular telling me this?"

"Magus was going to tell you in the morning. I knew you were going to wake up before then, and you would want the story right away."

"Thank you." I smiled. "Did you stay up just to tell me all this?"

"Well," he smiled, gently wrapping his fingers around my wrist, "you would have done the same for me."

"Yeah." I admitted. Then his smile faded, and he gently dragged my hand off his face. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." He insisted quietly. "But…what I wanted to say was…" His face started to turn red, and his eyes were watering. Whatever it was he wanted to say, it was going to take a lot of strength and will to say it. I could only guess what it was.

"What?" I pressed, swinging my legs off the table. "What is it?" He hesitated. "Please tell me."

"Nah." He decided with a sorry smile. "You'd think I’m crazy. We'd get in another fight."

"Oh." Since he dropped the subject so easily, I guessed it was nothing really important.

"By the way," Tokyo changed the subject, "sorry about Valentine's Day. See…you said I didn't care about you…see…I…I do care about you." Before I could say anything… "I mean, besides Kaguya-san, you're the only one who really cared about me. Everybody else wants me to die, but you…you helped repair me, and you showed me how important life is." He paused, probably thinking back. "I never gave you my gratitude for anything you've done for me, and I'm really sorry."

I lowered my head too, feeling my face grow hot and wet. Tokyo put a finger under my chin, and gently lifted my head up to look in my eyes.

"What's wrong?" he asked, leaning closer to me. "You're crying." I sniffled, and wiped my tears away with the back of my hand.

"So what?" I retorted with a shaky voice. "So are you." Some of the water in his eyes had streaked down his face while he talked. He didn't wipe them away, he just smiled slightly.

"My own words are so unlike me, that both of us are touched." He guessed. "How odd." I lowered my head again. Was I touched? I felt a little…frightened, I guess. I couldn't describe it, the only word that came to mind was frightened. Me…and Tokyo…talking like this? Maybe we caught a computer virus or something. We should have been beating our brains out, not admitting that we…

"Tokyo?"

"Yes?"

"What do you think of me?"

He didn't say anything for a long time.

"You…" he struggled for the right words, "you are…strong, and proud, and intelligent…and witty…" He paused. "…and brave, and kind, and…" Another tear fell from his eyes, "and…and a good friend."

I paused too, then I jumped up and hugged his neck.

"I'm more than that, you fool." I sobbed, squeezing tightly. He wrapped his arms around my back and rested his head on my shoulder. We stood that way for a while, feeling the warmth of each others bodies grow. When we parted, I didn't want it to end. I felt safe in his arms. Safe…and complete.

"Well," I sighed, "I have to go to bed. It's late." I walked away from him and headed to the stairs. "Good night, Tokyo."

"Good night, Clar…ahem, Paris."

Shaking my head, I walked up the stairs.

So close, so close…