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Chapter 26: I dream of machinery

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After tossing and turning wildly all night, Alexander woke up in his room, sweat plastering his body. With a groan, he tried to sit up, only to flop back down onto the bed.

"Ugh, so thirsty," Alex moaned. It didn't take long for the door to his room to be thrown open, his mother striding inside with a glass of water in one hand, and a plate of medical pills in the other.

"Are you okay, Alexander?" A2 asked worriedly as she bent down beside him and pressed her forehead against his to check his temperature.

"Just a bad dream," Alexander replied, looking away.

"Here, some water to take with your medicine," the mothering gynoid said, handing her son the glass and plate.

"I don't know why I have to keep taking these, I feel fine!" Alexander lied.

"Jaqueline wants to be extra certain you won't get sick again, so she's whipped up this special pills full of vitamins and other things she says will help you," A2 replied, folding her arms. "Now, take them."

The last human on Earth sighed, but complied all the same, popping the bright colored pills into his mouth and quickly washing them down with the water.

"Blech! So bitter," Alex complained.

"It's for your own good," A2 declared, but she smiled and patted his head at the same time. "Now, can I get you anything? A book, perhaps?"

"Is Uncle Emil around? I wanted to chat with him about some questions I had about magic," Alexander inquired.

"No practicing spells until you're fully recovered," she reminded him, and Alexander bobbed his head in agreement.

"I know, I know! I'll only ask questions!" Alex promised his mom. She looked at him critically, as if checking to see if he was lying, before nodding.

"I'll check to see if he's awake yet." A2 then left the room, leaving Alexander to his thoughts.

He wasn't left alone for long, though, as a familiar skull-faced entity with the voice of a child rolled into his room. Alexander smiled at he saw his and Blue's teacher of magic enter. He was fond of the odd person quite a bit, as his wealth of knowledge rivaled Uncle 9S at times, especially with ancient history and magic.

Hard to believe he used to be afraid of the goofy guy, Alex thought, but 9S's home movies didn't lie! Hard to imagine he'd used to cry whenever Emil had tried to hold him.

The former Scout-model had become quite the shutterbug in the days following the formation of their little family. He'd found old cameras – both for videos and photos – and had made it his mission to record the growth and experiences of their family unit.

Alexander especially enjoyed the ones that showed him playing in the snow with Blue a few winters back. That had been a fun time, and the first instance they'd celebrated the old human holiday of 'Christmas.' The red and green remained firm in his memories, even to this day.

"Hey, Alexander, A2 said you had questions for me?" Emil inquired, and the last human shook off his thoughts.

"Yes, that's correct, Uncle Emil," Alex said.

"So, what is it?" the skull-bot asked, approaching his apprentice and nephew.

"Well, uh, this might sound weird, but what do you know about dreams," Alex wondered, giving the scooter riding skull pause.

"What do you mean by that?" he asked slowly.

"Do dreams and magic have any connection with each other?" Alex inquired.

"There were old beliefs among humans that dreams could often be prophetic," Emil said slowly. "Some believed dreams were capable of much, such as predicting events, or communicating with gods or mystical entities. And in some more recent cases, Replicants would dream of their previous lives if they encountered a large amount of magical energy regularly. But, as far as I know, magic and dreams tend to be separate. Why do you ask?"

"For a couple of nights now, I've been having weird dreams," Alex admitted after a long pause. "In them, I see this strange Machine Lifeform. It has a female voice, slightly older and more mature sounding than Blue's. She's covered in faded purple paint, and seems to have fused a bunch of other Machines together into some sort of giant walking palanquin-thing."

"Sometimes this Machine is in a dessert, other times she's in a city, or a jungle, or near a mountain range. But every time I see her, I feel… strange."

"Strange how?" Emil asked worriedly.

"As if I… know her?" Alexander said, trailing off a bit. "She's… she's insane, Emil. Calls herself a 'god,' and stuff. But at the same time, it seems like I have a connection with her, because I can… I can see her desires. Or feel them? She wants validation. She wants to be worshipped… to be… loved."

"I see," Emil said slowly. "And what does this Machine Lifeform call herself?"

"Purple Athena."

At Alexander's words, the skull-bot tensed, flinching ever so slightly.

"Emil? What's wrong?"

"Nothing," the magical entity replied, waving off his worry. "Tell me, Alex, you see her every night?"

"The first time I saw her, was when I was in the Bunker getting examined, I think," Alex said slowly. "The whole time I was sick is a bit of a blur, honestly."

"But, yeah, almost every night since. At first I thought I was dreaming of her because of Blue, but then she started appearing in my dreams even when Blue didn't come over to visit," he replied.

"…This could be a form of Clairvoyance," Emil muttered. "You might be seeing the future, and your magic is connecting to her for some reason. I'll have to look some things up to check. Has she seen you, or noticed you at all when you dream?"

"I don't think so. Most of the time she's talking to herself," Alex said with a shake of his head. "But recently she'd gained a follower. She's an android, dressed like a YoRHa agent, but some of her limbs are replaced by crude metallic prosthetics. And they talk to each other, I guess. I can't really hear what they're saying. It's all low and static-y."

"If you're seeing her at all, that means she's important to you, somehow," Emil said with a note of worry in his voice.

"Do you know her, Uncle Emil?" Alexander asked cautiously.

"…She might be my daughter," the skull-bot said hesitantly.

"Oh… so, she's my cousin?" Alex asked, confused as to how his skull-faced family member could have Machine Lifeform offspring, but was also excited at the thought of more family.

It got lonely, being locked up and monitored all the time. Sure, it was for his own safety, but it didn't mean it got on Alexander's nerves!

"I don't know if we should talk about her anymore," Emil said, nervousness audible in his tone. "If you have any more dreams about her, write them down when you wake up. Keep track of them. If you really do have a connection to her, I feel it'd be best to know how and why."

"Is Purple Athena dangerous?" Alexander asked.

"…I don't know," Emil admitted. Alex frowned, but nodded eventually.

"Okay, I'll keep a dream journal," he promised.

"Good!" the skull-bot said cheerfully. "Now, do you have any other questions for me?"

"Well, I guess I did have some comments about the Theory of Energy Conversion you spoke of a while back. How can mana transmute so easily into other forms of magic?"

"Excellent question, Alex! Mana is, at it's most simple, energy, which means it can be used in place of other kinds of energy, which is basically what spells are…" Emil began to lecture his young student, who lapped up the knowledge eagerly.

Worries about being connected via dreams to an insane Machine who called herself a god were pushed to the side for the moment. After all, there was magical theory to learn about!