Secret Origin of Aneka

Just hours ago I was so happy. A graduate from university. Life was before me. Father would be so proud, as he granted me the family crest. I would be allowed to train in the family dojo and learn the most important pieces of our traditional style at last. I had become the daughter he had hoped. but that could wait. It was a time of celebration, out with my friends. Having fun, enjoying life...We did not notice something was wrong until the sky exploded.

Red spires falling like a rain of blood. buildings were perforated with the mechanical nightmares from beyond our world. We hid from the initial wave, looking up into the poison sky to see the strange shapes, massive vessels cutting through the clouds, their lights giving eerie and otherworldly glow to the once familiar sky.

And then with the sound of metal scraping metal. Horrible, wrenching, positively archaic even by the technology we have on Earth. The doors opened. All of them at once. I did not see the faces of my friends but I think we all shared the same horror. Those spires that had rained down, devastating the city, stabbing clean through buildings and crushing innocents...They were not even weapons. They were transportation for the real fighters. Like locus they poured out. Not in waves but in clouds. Smaller, human looking ones darkened the sky with their numbers. Heavier four legged ones stomped across the streets, crushing cars and those not fast enough. They heaved fireballs from their throats, firing strange green beams from their arms that melted whatever was hit like a splash of acid. I saw fleeing people run down by the dozens, those that were not shot were crushed. Then just as I turned to flee, a shot hit right behind me. I was tossed, end over end. The last thing I saw was the collapsing roof speeding towards where I landed...

...

My head is buzzing...No, screaming. Pain is my world. So much pain I can not even tell if my limbs will move. Even the darkness of my closed eyes swirls with such dizzying motions that I feel I may vomit even while laying still. The pain follows, my head aching, my body aching...

I open my eyes, only to shut them tightly again, dist falling in sheets fills my eyes, painfully irritating and bringing tears flowing. After several moments i summon the strength t try again...Small shafts of light peak through the rubble, illuminating my tomb just enough for me to see how mangled my body is. My waist trapped under rock. My arms out of sight, pinned by the debris. The pain is so great I can not even tell if they are intact anymore...So great that moments later the world goes dark once again.

...

A day later, consciousness slipping away from me every few moments. Finally, I see once again, my eyes no longer tearing with sheer pain. I see white all around me. A series of tubes stuck into my arms. I try to move them and am greeted with a feeling of strained pain, but nothing else. I realize I can not feel my legs either. The true weight of what has happened comes crashing down on me all at once...

Recovery is slow, monotonous, and devoid of hope. Despite the bright and clean whites of the hospital, things seem bleak. I follow the doctors orders, I take the time to heal. But somewhere in the back of my mind I dread that I shall never again have what I once did. Soon enough Physical Therapy begins. It is difficult, tedious, sometimes painful. But it is also my only hope. I follow the exercises. I spend my nights weeping at the overwhelming nature of it all.

It took no less than a year, but finally I am discharged. For all my efforts and vain hopes...I have one arm I can barely move. Returning home brings no hope. Father has become distant. His disappointment in me is subtle at first. but slowly it becomes obvious, he is enraged that his star heir will not inherit the family style.

Time passes, but nothing gets better. Painful and expensive surgeries, more physical therapy. It helps only in the smallest increments. Father finally cuts me off, it is clear he believes I am but a waste now. And waste away I do. confined to the family estate, in an out of the way wing. I sit, and watch the hours tick by. If my sisters had stayed, perhaps they would try to get me to eat something. Perhaps they would try to cheer me up, get me to study something, keep the parts of my body that still function active...But they did not return. Perhaps father has driven them away, or perhaps they do not care...

I do not even remember the details as each day blends into another. Father does not want to speak, the family walks around me, when we even see each other. Even here in the home I grew up in...I am alone. As I struggle to pull my one, barely functioning arm along. I have a thought of the rest of my life, confined to this chair. I realize in an instant this is no life for me. I was told the damage is too extensive for cybernetics, healing has provided me with nothing. This world...has nothing left for me...

The sun is setting, bathing the estate in gold and orange. It is beautiful, perhaps an omen that my worries will finally end. The wheels of my chair click down the wooden path, past the gate and onto a long stretch of rocky dirt and lose earth. I pause at my precipice...I look back, taking all my strength to barely turn, one final time at the garden I have just crossed and the home beyond it. By twist of fate, my eyes meet with fathers. he stands in the second floor window overlooking us...He sees what I am clearly about to do, and turns away. Is he coming down the stairs? He was moving in no hurry. I wait several moments and he does not re appear. If he is doing anything it is clear he does so with half a heart, perhaps just offering a token act of trying to save me, so when he tells this tale it will be a tragedy rather than a murder by inaction...

The time has come, this is the last for me. The wheels strain through the dirt. The earth beneath me grows looser and looser. My one good arm struggles with what little might my body has left as i approach the slant. Soon the cliff itself takes my burden, gravity pulling the wheels into the loose dirt, they begin to roll freely. I could stop myself with some effort now, but why. There is nothing left for me. I spend my final seconds letting my arm rest. Peaceful as the land behind my life long home finishes the job I started, i hear the small rocks tumbling over the edge as the wheels roll through the final few inches...I feel the weightlessness that comes in the split second before wind begins to rush past me. I close my eyes...And fly.

...

I open my eyes slowly. Unsure of what has happened. I am in no pain but I still can not move. I did not simply survive the fall, I am above the water and rocks, the salty air burns my nose as the waves fill my ears. Someone is holding me?" Slowly my vision focuses, with great effort I make out...Who is she? Could she be an angel? Her body feels strange, not like a human but more like a machine. her face is glossed like shiny plastic, her eyes glow even with the sun right behind her head, a feint blue light emanating from them. Her mouth is not but a slot, like a puppet or a doll?

The robot speaks, her voice emotive, even soothing. "You poor thing, they left you broken for so long." I am confused. Robots are nothing unusual, but a machine this advanced exists only in fiction. Her face clearly has difficulty showing expression, only her eyes move. They show her concern, this woman who has never met me, actually showing more care and compassion than my own family. It immediately brings tears to my eyes to hear a friendly voice. I am so emotionally choked I can not even question just why she had bothered to save me, or even who she is. My answer will have to wait, she speaks again, her voice relieved and full of gentle care. "You have been through so much, thank heavens I found you in time. Everything will be better soon, just rest right now." Her eyes change, no longer showing a human eye but...the light they give off is so intense, I can feel a bit of its warmth washing over me. I was so intently focused that in seconds it is all I see. I hear her soothing voice calming me as it fades into muffled noise, and sleep washes over me...

...

I awaken in a strange place. I feel myself restrained to a surgical table. Clearly not to prevent my escape, perhaps just so I will not fall off. I look around me and see something out of a science fiction tale. Everything strange, some of it nonsensical. It all looks so bizarre.

I hear a strange noise like rushing air. With all my strength i crane my head enough to see. A young woman with long brown hair quietly walks into the room. Her face full of concern...Once again for me, someone she has never met. I am filled with so many strange emotions as these strangers care more for me than father did.

"Oh, you are alright. I'm sorry getting you here was so rough. My name is Pine, You were brought here by my master. He...Well he saw what you were going through after you were injured. I think he saw something he recognized in your life, because he wanted to save you and give you something."

I look puzzled, hoping my strained expression conveys what I feel to the kind girl. I try to speak, to question who is this master. Why was I saved? what do we share in common? She walks over and puts a hand to my shoulder. The soothing feelings of a gentle, kind hand relax me back onto the slab. Her voice full of hopeful joy as she explains as if she read my mind.

"You were broken, discarded, lost and betrayed by those you loved...So were we all. The master, he saved us, some from lives of isolation and misery...Some from the very end of it all. We all have come to love him, he cares for us as only one with the heart of a child could. We, well, we want to offer you a place among us. You would serve the master but you would also be more free than before, no family obligations...And well, he has something that can give you back what you lost."

My eyes go wide. The prospect of something that could let me move again, grant me the freedom I lack. It sounds like a sweet dream, something too good to be true. I take no time to consider, why should I? I was at the verge of ending it all at the last action I took. No matter what happens, if this is a hoax, a trick, even if it kills me, I would not care. Merely having hope that I could walk once more is worth it after all I have experienced.

I struggle out the words. My acceptance. Whatever the future holds, new life or death, heaven or hell...Anything is better than sitting around trapped by my own sadness again. Change awaits, I can see I made the right choice by Pines gentle smile.

Needles stick into my neck. My senses are dulled but still I feel the pinch. A robotic arm lowers with more needles, they are jabbed into my bones. I should have known progress would be painful, but after so long, pain is no longer my enemy. The pain is intense...At first far away, but then I feel it more and more strongly. I realize something as it goes. My nerves are re connecting.

My nerves once dulled and useless, burn like liquid fire is flowing through me. It is unbearable, I can not help but let out a piercing scream, for the first time in so long thrashing, not in my mind but i feel my limbs respond. The needles retract but whatever they put in me continues to flow and burn. My arm flexes with such force that the restraint is torn away! Seconds later, my thrashing has ripped my entire body free. I sit up under my own power, amazing. I would take the time to marvel at this miricle if I was not in such blinding pain! I thrash so hard i fall from the slap onto the floor, slowly raising to my knees. Looking at my hands, something pierces out about them, my skin becoming covered with a sort of resin leaking out of my pores. I feel it erupt from my mouth, my eyes, coating me in a skin tight seal. My entire body covered over in chalk white armor, it feels thin as paper but smooth, a second skin.

I turn my hands over, slowly, clumsily. It feels easier than my one near useless arm. My movements are obtuse, clunky, inelegant. I do not even care, robotic movements or not, I can stand...I can walk...It is amazing, I raise one leg, slow and robotic but still...I take my first step. Memories that feel so long ago, walking and moving freely, they slowly begin coming back.

I am so elated with the newfound feelings that I scarcely notice Pine is still looking at me. For several moments, she waits patiently as i regain my facilities, i am just so happy to be able to walk once more. Finally as i am able to stand on my own, she places a gentle hand on my shoulder.

"We saw that you don't really have anywhere else to go. I think that is why the master figured you would not mind if the cure changed your appearance." As she motioned at the chalk white of my skin, making me feel a bit mechanical.

"But if you wish, we would be happy to let you stay here with us. The master would love to have you here and there are others who had no place to go either. We accepted all of them and we will accept you."

My mind immediately snaps back to my home, images replay of my degradation. My family abandoning me, father...No, he no longer deserves to be called as such. They abandoned me. Everyone I knew, I have no life left. Nothing of my old life matters at all. I would be a fool to not take an opportunity to start fresh. Did this "Master" want me for something? Am I useful to him? Perhaps this is a ruse, but they have given me hope when I had none. They have given me back my lost senses. This is the right choice. I nod with a faint smile.

Pine is overjoyed, giving a gentle hug. "Come with me, I'll introduce you to your sisters. We can get you situated and help you tweak your new appearance and powers if you like. A good theme can help distinguish your new identity."

I look down at my hand as I turn it over again and again. Despite being cured, my movements have a jerk to them. Everything is slightly stiff and robotic. With my pale skin and stiff movements, I am reminded of a legend from my homeland, from when I was a child. Creatures called the Jiang-Shi. Beings given new life by a priest, but still with an echo of the life they had lost, their limbs stiff from death and difficult to move...I believe I have an idea of what I want. A smile crosses my lips, for the first time in months...

...

Apex city, city of the future. I stand atop a rooftop, the bright sun gleaming off my glossy white skin. The Master was so kind, I had expected someone wishing for a weapon, what I found was someone who seemed to truly care about me. Perhaps I am just biased from my own families ill treatment. At this point I no longer care. A new life is mine and I intend to seize every moment. Perhaps under the Toy Master, I am but a doll...But as a doll i have more freedom than I was afforded when I was broken. When the Master came to ask if I would help him and his other dolls righting a wrong that had been dealt to him...Asked, not ordered. He had given me new life and did not even demand anything of me. It is quite admirable. Given that he was kind enough to give without expecting, and ask without ordering, how could I possibly say no.

Now for my first action. The Toy Master shall receive the justice he deserves, and those who wronged him will meet the Jiang-Shi. I am no longer human, not entirely. I am a doll. I am free. I am Aneka.