The only thing more perplexing than Zed wanting my help, was my immediate willingness to hear him out. There was just something about a lonesome renegade android on the loose, and the strangeness of it all, that made Zed impossible to resist. 

I swore it had nothing to do with the way he looked. No matter how much I pictured Alan rolling his eyes and scolding me for thinking with my dick -- telling me how Zed was made from plastic, metal, and oil. 

My brother was right, of course. As usual. 

Also as usual, I didn't listen to well-meant warnings. 

I glanced over my shoulder, realised we'd sooner or later be caught by security drones if we stayed outside, and finally gestured Zed to come along. While cautiously keeping an eye on my environment I lead Zed to the entrance of our apartment complex.

He came to a halt on the doorstep. "Where are you taking me?" 

I sighed, wondering about the same thing for different reasons. This was insane. "Look, we can't stay here," I explained. "I'm taking you to my apartment's storage room first. You wait there until I say the coast is clear, got it?" 

"Okay, got it."

Zed wrinkled his nose at our dirty, dusty storage room, but stepped inside without complaint. 

"Stay here and don't make a sound," I warned him one last time, before running upstairs. 

The apartment was empty as expected (Alan wouldn't be home for hours knowing him), but we'd left quite a mess that morning. Or rather, I'd left a mess and Alan refused to clean up my shit. I hastily kicked some dirty laundry underneath the couch and brought a used plate to the kitchen while making my laptop dial Alan's number. 

"What do you want?" Alan grumpily answered the call. 

"Just checking if you want me to save you some dinner. For when you get home in say... a few hours? You are going to stay at the university for a while, right?"

There was a silence on the other side of the line. "What?" Alan finally deadpanned. "What did you fuck up this time?"

"Nothing!" 

"Then what are you going on about, saving me dinner?" 

"I'm doing it just because!" I bristled. "Do you want me to save some or not, dickwad?" 

"...Alright, save me some. I'll be home around ten." 

The suspicion had hardly left Alan's voice when the call ended. He was right to be suspicious, but at least he was going to stay away for a while. That was all I needed to know.  

I found Zed with his arms wrapped around himself in our storage room. He looked genuinely relieved that I'd returned, and was quick to dart out of the room when I gestured him to come out. I guessed nobody liked being alone, locked in a dark space. Not even androids. Ava had done a perfect job, making him human.

We hurried up the stairs and I was grateful we didn't run into Ned or any of our other neighbours. The fewer people who saw Zed, the better. 

I breathed a sigh in relief once I had ushered Zed into our apartment and closed the door behind us. It was a very short-lived sigh of relief as Zed scanned our living room and then grinned at me. 

"Love what you've done with the place," he remarked. His sparkling eyes lingered on the dirty socks and underwear which were still accidentally poking out from below the couch.

I scoffed and turned away to hide my embarrassment. "You want me to hear you out or not? Sit down."

Zed did as I asked, a small smile playing on his lips. I watched him make himself comfortable on the couch, and for the so-maniest time it struck me how bizarre this was. There was a fucking war android, which wasn't even supposed to exist, sitting on my couch. In my apartment. In my living room. 

I cleared my throat and sat opposite him. "So, what do you need?" 

Zed pulled his legs up in a cross-legged position. "I woke up from a twenty-five year slumber to a new world. A world in which people like me are only a memory. I want to keep it that way. But before I can disappear, I need to do one more thing. For that, I need access to a system that's located in Lenora's university."

I frowned.  "You already gained admin rights in Lenora's system. There are no others. If there were, Zekiye would've told me about it." 

"There is one more," Zed corrected me with a shake of his head. "Ava's system."

"Ava... as in Ava Claes? The founding mother of humanoid robots?" I searched Zed's face for any trace of aggression or distress. I found none, so I went on.  "Zed, she's dead. Has been for a long time."

"Her body is dead," Zed corrected me, again. "But her memory remains in the university campus." 

"What do you mean? Like, they tried to upload her brain? Experimenting with that is against the law."  

Zed shook his head. "No, no, nothing of the sort. It's a copy of key memories, not an attempt at a full transferal of conscience from one body to the other. I'm talking about the gyndroid model of Ava. It is kept in Lenora's other vault. Not the digital one, but the physical vault. The large strongroom below the laboratories. I wish to free her as well."

I gaped at Zed. "What? A-- a gyndroid version of Ava with her memories? Shut the fuck up. No way."

"It's true!" Zed persisted. "I know, because I was there when they powered her off and put her in there. I only managed to escape termination because she hid me. It all happened here, in this state, in this town. As you know, Lenora was founded before the war, and it was one of the few universities in this state which wasn't destroyed during the war... and thus the institution most closely tied to the research and destruction of androids. " 

"I can't believe this," I muttered. 

History lessons taught us universities became a target for the renegade androids. Many were bombed and the remaining few abandoned out of fear, but Lenora was special. Underground labs, and inventive students creating signal scramblers so they went undetected, made it possible for work to continue even during the war... and after. 

My mind boggled, but I had to admit it was possible a gyndroid was stored in the strongroom. None of the students had ever looked inside, after all. None of us had the authority. 

I took a deep breath. "Zed, are there more down there?"

"Not functional ones, no," Zed replied, looking down at his hands. He hesitated. "That is why I needed the information from Lenora's electronic vault. To confirm Ava's memory was still kept at Lenora's.  I want to free her. She doesn't deserve being kept powered off in some dark, underground room, just as all the other humanoid robots didn't deserve to be destroyed after the war." 

Wanting to free Ava still did not explain why Zed wiped all the information so obviously and in plain sight. His story sounded plausible, but I had a feeling he wasn't telling me everything. He was still acting irrationally, not like a super spy. Giving me all this information without knowing I was on his side was naive. 

"Aha!" The living room door flew open, revealing Alan on the other side. He pointed his index finger at me and narrowed his eyes. "I knew you weren't cooking!"

I jumped up from my chair in a panicked reflex. I stood in front of Zed, but that obviously didn't stop Alan from seeing him. "Alan! What are you doing here?" 

"I live here too. I know it's hard to remember for you sometimes." Alan sniffed derisively, then glanced at Zed. "For fuck's sake, Camilo. I told you not to turn our apartment into a hook-up shack. How often do I need to say this? Take your one night stands somewhere else. Bring someone here when it's actually something serious for a change." 

"This is not my one night stand!" I protested, though, I was for once grateful Alan had jumped to that conclusion. "We were just talking until you came barging in and started yelling like an idiot." 

Alan gave Zed another once-over.  "Alright," he said in his normal tone of voice. "I guess I believe you. He's pretty far out of your league."

Zed beamed at the compliment. Then he turned to me and winked.

"Baby," he said, his voice jokingly low and sultry. "I should go. Find me when you're done thinking about what we just discussed. I'll be staying nearby." 

I swore Zed was purposely swaying his hips more than usual as he approached me. I nearly recoiled when he leaned in. But all he did was press a kiss to my cheek, as if we were just ending a date. 

Except, usually, my dates didn't end up hiding in my basement as I was fairly certain Zed would do. That's what he meant with staying nearby. 

I also didn't usually marvel at how realistic a kiss felt. Pretty damn realistic. Enough to make my cheeks burn with embarrassment. 

Alan grumbled under his breath while Zed let himself out without looking back. 

"I bet you didn't even do groceries," he nagged once my 'date' was gone. "And you didn't call Mom and Dad yet." 

"I will, in a minute," I promised just to get him off my back. 

But after what Zed told me? Doing the groceries or calling Mom and Dad was the least of my concerns now.