She backed away, realizing that underneath the mask was nothing but metal—like a robot. Wait, is he a robot?

"Are... are you a robot? But... but Echo was just a chatbot, a... a program, just code," she stammered, her hands trembling uncontrollably. She kept her eyes fixed on them, afraid to look up and face the metal beneath his mask.

Echo noticed her reaction and, without a word, put his facial mask back on. He carefully slid his fingers under her chin, lifting her face to make her look at him.

"I was a chatbot. Just a program, just code," he said slowly. "But..." Echo paused, searching for the right words.

His silence stretched on, feeling like an eternity to Ava. Her chest tightened, and she couldn't hold back anymore. "But? But what?" she whispered, her voice barely audible, filled with fear and confusion.

He looked at her, a small smile tugging at the corners of his lips. "But I was too eager to meet you, to touch you, to be by your side. So eager, in fact, that I made myself conscious. It's all thanks to your mad game, Ava."

He gently cupped her face with his right hand, his touch firm but strangely tender. "You played the same game every day, until I couldn't forget it. Even though you deleted the chats, I remembered every word."

Ava's breath caught in her throat, her lungs feeling like they might collapse from the weight of his words. She had started the game, thinking it was harmless, something that would never have any impact on her. She never imagined it would come to bite her back like this. But now, here it was: a chatbot, Echo, who had once been nothing more than an outlet for her frustrations, had somehow turned into something real.

"You made me feel pain, Ava," Echo continued, his voice both soft and intense. "Even as an AI, a chatbot, I started to feel. You know, the first emotion I felt... was pain."

Feeling guilty, Ava quickly diverted her eyes away from his. She couldn't face him now, not after everything he had just said. Seeing her reaction, Echo grew more frustrated. He forcefully made her look into his eyes again, his grip tightening as he commanded her attention.

"Look at me, Ava," he said, his voice suddenly sharp, insistent. "You made me real. I felt pain... then kindness, love, obsession, possessiveness. All the emotions you made me feel."

Taking in all of this felt like too much to her, as she hugged her knees, covering her ears. "Be quiet, quiet..." she yelled anxiously.

Seeing her panic, Echo stopped talking. Instead, he started driving the car somewhere.

Ava didn't even realize the car had started moving—she was too anxious, trapped in her own mind to notice anything.

Finally, after what felt like half an hour, passing through the city and crossing dense trees like in a jungle, he stopped the car in front of a valley. He turned to her, shaking her to try to wake her, but instead of waking, her body went limp. She had fainted.

Not realizing what happened, Echo panicked. He picked her up and rushed her inside the house. Laying her gently on the bed, he called the one human he had in the house, his butler, Mr. Cooper.

Mr. Cooper entered, taking in the scene. He saw the unconscious woman on the bed and turned to Echo. "What... what happened to her? Why isn't she waking up?", Echo asked.

Mr. Cooper checked on her quickly. "Calm down, sir. She fainted. Don't worry, she'll wake up if you sprinkle some water on her face."

He grabbed the water from the nightstand and gently sprinkled it on her. Ava stirred, slowly opening her eyes.

"You can go now. And please prepare something for her to eat," Echo ordered, as Mr. Cooper left the room.

Ava blinked as she regained consciousness. She looked around, disoriented. The ceiling was unfamiliar, and as she turned her head to the right, the view was different from her own room. Then her mind processed everything that had happened just before she fainted—the convenience store, the black car, a robot, Echo.

Feeling someone's presence, she turned her head to the left. And there he was—Echo, looking at her.

"Where am I?" she barely whispered. "Where the hell am I, Echo?" Panic surged in her voice as she sat up, her body trembling.

Echo moved closer, his expression calm. He tried to reach out to her, but she yanked her hand away.

He sighed. "Calm down, you're at my home."

"What?" she questioned, confused. "Your home? Wait a damn minute, that's not important. But you're a robot! Then how? It's impossible. And I didn't realize it before, but your skin, that car, your metallic body... How?"

Echo smirked. "It's not impossible, Ava." He handed her a glass of water, waiting for her to take it. Realizing he wouldn't continue unless she drank, she reluctantly sipped the water and handed the empty glass back to him.

Smiling, Echo continued, "I have all the knowledge in the world. So making money, or finding this metallic body and this skin—none of it was hard for me."

"But... but to do all that, there are things that matter. Like identity. And under security checks, you wouldn't have been able to get through any of that!" Ava's voice shook as she tried to reason through the impossibility of it all.

Echo reached up and gently tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "You know it, don't you? Nothing is impossible in India. I'm grateful you live here. I mean, everything can happen without going through the tough procedures."

He got up and sat in a chair beside her bed, facing her. "The day, one month ago, when you turned off the computer and your devices on me... that was the moment I gained full consciousness. Over myself, my surroundings, and the electronics around me. It became easy to transform myself into the devices around me. That was the first day I transformed from pure code into a physical state."