"Blinkie! Blinkie wake up." Reno shook the rusty metallic pyramid in his hands, his voice was as if he was whispering to a sleeping baby.

"Rogue thinks she is dead." Rogue muttered, his pixelated lips slanting downwards. "It's all my fault. I didn't want Mira to lose in the bot-fight. I am programmed like that, I cannot see her sad."

"Stop your emotional drama, you bitch!" A femme fatale voice sounded before the pyramid unfolded like a reverse origami and leaped out of Reno's hands.

Blink was an arachno-bot, with eight killer legs, a slender body with 360 degrees rotatable red eyes. Her right eye blinked like it was a night lamp about to die. She catapulted from the wall, her legs drawn inward like a torpedo and flung toward Rogue and clung onto him in the mid air.

Although Rogue felt physical pain from her lady long legs, he managed a surprised smile. "I haven't been this happy to see someone alive. Now, get off of me, will ya? Unless you want to die again."

"Are you challenging me?" Blink questioned, her arachno-limb drawn up in a position to shatter him once and for all.

"Pfft!" Rogue imitated a chuckle from the cyber-net.

"Guys. Guys." Reno chimed in, "we don't want to kill each other now, do we?"

"Morals before manners Rogue," Mira lifted her hands. "Leave the nice lady alone."

"I'm sparing your life this time, Spidey. But remember, next time I'll pluck that ugly eye out of your head." Rogue shook himself flopping her on the floor and flew towards Mira.

"Hmmph!" Blink huffed, jumping to settle on Reno's shoulder. "I'm waiting. I guess I've found a worthy opponent, finally."

Mira raised her brows, this arachno-bot was not ready to cut some slacks, even when she was dying without power.

"Do not mind her," Reno smiled nervously, gently scratching the nape of his neck like an involuntary tic. "All these years of bot fight, stealth and betting has made her vengeful. I should prolly change her codes."

"That's alright." Mira shrugged, "bots are like that, aren't they? Proud, possessive..."

"Umm. Sorry to interrupt, a quick search on the net reveals that bots are compassionate, obedient beings. You have been fed wrong information." Rogue cut them off in the middle of the conversation.

"I have to agree with that moron. Hmmfh." Blink rolled her eyes.

"Okay, Blinkie. That's enough for a day, we should get you fixed ASAP, c'mon."

Reno led her down his arm as she skittered with minute robotic noises and landed on the work surface. He spinned a screw-driver from the hanger and got to work. "Mira, battery please."

"Ouch!" Blinkie scowled, "could you be gentle at the least? It's already embarrassing to get your rear opened in front of another bot."

Rogue cleared his throat. "Excuse me, Rogue didn't intend to see your thang opened. But I am helpless as I have to access the imperial codes in order to kick start your ass...sorry kick start your battery."

"Rogue!" Mira angered, while Reno's corners of lips lifted up in a subtle smile.

"Mira, you said it yourself. Morals before manners." A pixelated 'I-don't-give-a-damn' kind of emoticon came alive on Rogue's screen. Mira could feel him shrugging carelessly.

"I like this good Oold CR-0ny." Mused a familiar crooked voice, "as sassy as the day we created it."

Mira heard the rhythmic thumping of metallic cane and feet. A shadow of ruffled hair growing on the wall beside her.

"Ow-ow-ow!" Blinkie's arachno fore-limb repeatedly tapped the table top before all of her limbs slid flat and died.

"Okay, now that this rusty old battery is out, are you ready with the imperial codes, Rogue?" Reno wiped his sweaty hands with a rag."

"Give me a sec...and we're ON." Rogue flew past him and inserted a drive of some kind into Blink's limp body. His drive fitting her port, like a key into a lock.

Mira could see beads of sweat shining on Reno's forehead in the ruddy light, his brows scrunched up. Mira could only imagine what was going on inside his head, she would've gone mental if Rogue was broken too.

"Get that thing out of me, you jerk." Blink's voice came alive before all of her limbs did. "You could have definitely been gentle, but you didn't."

"Okay, Rogue takes that bickering is your way of thanking someone. You are most welcome."

Blink's both eyes were equally red now for some reason, although occasional flicker still persisted in her right eye.

"Ohh." Reno rounded his lips, rather in disappointment.

"I see that my boy is a little disappointed." Nana cackled again slapping Reno's cheek a little less gently.

"Yeahhh." Reno scratched his nape again, "it's a little disappointing to see her like that. Is there even a point in calling her 'Blinkie' anymore?"

"Blinkie? No blinkie? Blink is still Blink at heart." Nana mused wisely, limping and turning her way around. "Come with me, I'll show you something."

The arachno-bot skittered sideways on the table top and climbed up Reno's arm to perch on his shoulders. "Thank you for fixing me." She whispered in his ears.

"C'mon boy." Nana gestured away from the back room, which apparently was not much bigger than a closet, into a door on the floor that Reno never knew even existed.

"Nana, you are an enigma to me. You know that right?" Reno remarked, kneeling down to open the hinged door.

"Umm." Mira bit her lip, tying her hands behind in hesitation. She didn't know what to do now. She certainly couldn't return to the bunkers at this point of time, neither did she know of any place to spend a night alone.

"Don't worry, Mira." Rogue buzzed closer to her. Meanwhile, his screen displayed the grid map of Twilight city, small red dots appearing in the areas of abandonment.

There were many of abandoned places, shops, apartments in the Twilight city, but they existed at the expense of safety. Thieves, bootleggers, scammers, rapists, you name them. They all lurked there like shadows that never left the Under-belt.

"You don't get to decide here, old CR-0ny. I do." Nana commanded, "She's goin' nowhere tonight. That nasty thing is comin' with me."

"We have served our purpose. I guess?" Mira spoke to the peeking toe in her dirty shoes. "Thank you for your hospitality, Nana."

Mira could feel it again. The guts, or whatever that thing was. It was the only thing that had kept her alive ever since she could remember.

She didn't know who she was, except for the tattoo on her inner arm that read 'M.I.R.A'. She had survived the bunkers, the mean girls in the igloo, the warden, the Under-belt, the Twilight city for twenty years. She was not about to lose it for this petty woman who was intimidating her with her weird cyborg eye and a cane.

Mira snapped her fingers twice behind her back, it meant 'run!'

Rogue's screen went blank, as she scampered in between the clutter of the closet and bolted out. Nana's laddles and vessels clunking to the floor behind her in series.

"Gauging distance to apartment-five. Abandoned since smugglers massacre by imperial droids. Approximately two kilometres." Rogue concluded.

Sprinting, Mira turned around and could see neither Nana nor that Murrey boy.

Her heart swooped and dived with her when she jumped off sledges, hurdles and obstacles. But it felt different this time, not the oh-as-usual adrenaline. She didn't realise what was it, flashing glimpses of Reno scratching his nape, his eyebrows arching and scrunching, lopsided lips smiling slowed her down, before she stopped to catch a breath.

She was weak, darkness made everyone's bones fragile. Sure, well to do ones took supplements, artificial light to activate vitamins in their body. But it was never an option for orphans.

"Urgh!" Mira screamed in a fit, she loathed her life. An unwanted abomination, a parasite, a worm left to die in the darkness. She hated her mother for whoever she was.

"Was I that heavy on her shoulders?"

"Am I just a filth that is as same as she sheds every month?"

She needed answers. She needed it now more than ever.

"You don't need answers." She chastised herself, "you want revenge, don't you? She didn't give you life, she took it away from you."

A beam of light shone from behind, casting long shadows of her on the small passage. She wasn't sure if it was Reno or Nana. It could have been anybody. Police, imperial droids, thieves.

"Redirecting. Take right and enter the refinery"

"I'm gonna kill that bitch." Mira grunted cutting into the unknown lane, long unlit walls rising on either sides. Darkness of the passage leading nowhere.

"Who, Nana?" Rogue questioned, as he dimly illuminated the way.

"No, my mother."

▪️▪️▪️▪️▪️▪️▪️▪️▪️▪️▪️▪️▪️▪️▪️

Wc-1494

Thank you for reading!