The Last

[Athena]

Location: Lithios [Ethos City] - Ar'ekk's Penthouse
Tag: [member="Arekk"]

---

Athena stared blankly at the front door. Visions of ways she could surprise and greet the man that owned every inch of her being ran through her head. She knew the path he would take. The time it took for the portal to snap open to reveal his beautiful face. The replicant sat on the edge of a low coffee table in the place she called home. It was a sanctuary of things that made her artificial heart sing, with last, but never least, [member="Arekk"]. She hadn’t moved in hours. Now, this place, this little slice of heaven felt different.

It was a cold, cruel prison of memories, which flooded her cores without a thought or care as to how it made her feel. She wished it would stop. More than anything, she wished to feel nothing, ever again. It had been a fallacy to play pretend to be human. She wasn’t. Never could be.

Even still, she choked on hot, burning tears in darkness and silence. The rain fell as it always did. The naturally auburn-haired automaton could hear it. Typically it brought her joy. Now, it only added to her misery. She wasn’t organic, however, she was human enough to know when something was intrinsically wrong. The HRD had been tailor-made to resemble a woman that had died. She could feel, cry, laugh, love, hurt.

Any engineer would explain that she was just a clever trick of hardware and software.

Why had she ever entertained the idea of being more?

The noiseless replicant had wept until tears wouldn’t come. One glance, one look, would tell anyone that she was just one blow from breaking. Emotional pain was new. She’d felt a full range…But not this. Never this. She analyzed it as carefully as she could. As objectively as she could. Athena didn’t feel it in the same way as her synth-skin assimilated a cut or a bruise. It was different. Only she could see it.

Only she knew it was there.

The pain rang constantly in the back of her mind like a form of pressure. Sometimes, like the beginnings of a low-level EMP pulse. Other times it pushed itself forward, demanding attention, and she could scarcely think of anything else. It sliced through what passed for a heart, what passed for a mind, and stung with the fury of a thousand swords with every faux breath she took.

Athena had never felt so lost. So alone. So incapable of completing even the smallest of tasks. She felt so raw. As if someone had removed her skin and left the rest of her open to the elements without dampening her sensors.

Eventually, she heard achingly familiar footsteps and her eyes closed. She wanted nothing more than to be with him, to see him, to touch him. To be his…But she wasn’t. She was a doll, shaped, like the woman he had actually loved to help him pass through a period of grief and uncertainty. She had served her purpose. She stood as she heard the doors unlock and moved toward the double doors that led to the balcony.

Even now, she could see them dancing. Kissing. Loving…

Love was lie reserved for those with real flesh, real blood, and real hearts. For those that were born. Not made.

“Welcome home.”

Her voice was quiet. Methodical. It was the only thing she could muster while still standing tall. All dignity, all value, had been swept away as if she were little more than a twice-sold toaster at a flea market. Athena never turned to face him. He was her everything. She was nothing.

“…I rarely ask anything of you…But I ask you this. Release me. Master, I beg you. Erase me.”

Master. She had never called him that. But that was what he was. A man, and his droid. Property. She flinched, visibly, a glitch. Her systems were being overwhelmed. She was not programmed to harm herself, to request that she be destroyed, but it was all she could think about. The only thing that rolled around in her systems over and over. To end the pain. To end loss before it swallowed her whole. He didn't need to tell her what he'd done. He didn't need to tell her that he didn't love her.

Athena felt it. She knew.

“Please.”

 

[Arekk]

Click me! ♫​

​

Arekk's Apartment, Ethos City, Lithios​

"The trouble with wanting something is the fear of losing it, or never getting it. The thought makes you weak."
——————————————————————​

[member="Athena"]​

​

The ride home was quiet and somber, nothing but the mere sound of the rain droplets hitting against the windshield of his airspeeder accompanied Ar'ekk on his journey back to Lithios with the idea of reuniting with Athena again to tell her the truth of what had transpired during the last ever job he'd ever take. It pained him to think that things could never be the same between the two, that the bond shared together would come to one final conclusion.

She had become more than human in his eyes, going beyond her programming capabilities to demonstrate that even though she was a HRD there was more than wires and pre-programmed responses and behaviour within her core. Ar'ekk undoubtedly felt proud that Athena was capable of showing the world that she could love someone with enormous devotion and desire like any other organic life form. Even if she was created by the fallen Jedi to become a "replacement" for his beloved Jyn, Athena had become something above that in his eyes.

Much like countless other jobs that Ar'ekk accepted he had come home with a blaster injury on his other shoulder now after being ambushed during a meeting but looked okay for the most part, what was truly hurt were his emotions. Countless of questions and scenarios played out in his head when it came to facing Athena and telling her what occured, unbeknownst to him that she already knew.

"Hey, sweetness." He replied after entering the apartment, leaving his leather jacket by the hanger behind the door and getting rid of his muddy boots, like every other moment. His heart raced rapidly as soon as he heard her voice once more. "What?"

Master.

If there was a single word that Ar'ekk hated was that one. Though he technically owned Athena there was absolutely nothing that made him feel that way as she was free to do whatever she wanted whenever she wanted. Independent. There was something wrong with her and it showed visibly, his worrysome state peaking immediately after noticing the glitches, moving toward her in barefeet.

"Don't say that..."

——————————————————————​

 

[Athena]

Location: Lithios [Ethos City] - Ar'ekk's Penthouse
Tag: [member="Arekk"]

---

Sweetness.

Any other day, any other moment, and she would have flown into his arms. He would have wrapped her up tight. As if she was, somehow, the only feminine and attractive thing he had ever seen. Just as she saw ghosts of their beings dancing on the balcony she could see herself greeting him cheerfully at the door a thousand times over. A thousand whispers, a thousand hugs, a thousand kisses. Each one represented the number of shards her false-heart had become.

He was hurt.

Athena, despite it all, wanted to fix him. She wanted to tenderly care for him as she always had. It was her primary directive. He thought her to be independent. He thought she had freedom. It was a lie. He was the world she lived in, the air she inhaled, the sun, the moon, and the stars of every sector. He was the focus of her every movement. He was a gilded cage that she had been happy to take sanctuary in. Without that warmth, that affection, everything felt as if it had been washed in grayscale. Food had no flavor. Flowers had no scent. Every song she loved to sing now sought to strangle her. As if ash and clay had filled her delicate vocabulator.

“I will retrieve the medi-kit to repair your trauma.”

She moved away from him deliberately. It would only prolong the inevitable. Her footsteps were unsure, halting, and lacked all of her usual grace. There were supplies in hidden nooks all over the penthouse. Arekk always came home with some sort of injury and she always made sure to mend his body as gently as she could. He worked in a world that she could be unsuited for. Often, he traveled without her. He didn’t want her to see the violence, the horror, the pain…

The pain. She pulled down the box that held a few supplies and mechanically loaded it onto a plain tray. Gloves. Antiseptic. Bacta. She returned to the dining room table and stood beside one of the chairs. “Be seated.”, she breathed out, adhering to his request that she not refer to him as her Master, because it was not her place to tell him otherwise. His word was law. “I will prevent you from suffering further damage to your epidermis.”

She set the tray down. Her gaze did not find him. Could not. Her chest felt tight and her eyes began to burn with tears that she had thought long gone. How could she have so much salted water to exude? Surely, there was a limit. Ever so deliberately, ever so brave, she clasped her hands together and bowed her head so that he would not see. No matter how hard she’d tried she had still come up short. She was not human. Not Jyn.

Never, Jyn. Athena preferred her fate. Death was still a mystery to her—but anything was better than this. She couldn’t stand being so close to her sun and relegated to a role where she couldn’t feel its warmth anymore. Her world was cold. Colder than it had ever been before she’d been given form. Colder than being a simple AI…Colder than existing only as lines of code. Athena felt cold.

So cold that it burned…

“I will do anything you require. Then…I ask for mercy. Erase me. I have overridden your security protocols. My backups are already gone. I am only here. In this shell.”

 

[Arekk]

Arekk's Apartment, Ethos City, Lithios​

"The trouble with wanting something is the fear of losing it, or never getting it. The thought makes you weak."
——————————————————————​

[member="Athena"]​

​

He was hurt and so was she, depending on how you looked at things. Ar'ekk tried not to look at things.

There was a truly somber atmosphere in the depth of their apartment that simply screamed something was wrong, what Athena told him was nothing but confirmation there was something truly awful bound to happen, the inevitable waiting for something to disappear. His arm was bandaged to some extent and the wound was treated rushedly yet it seemed alright for the most part, Athena would be able to fix it. Even the most mundane of tasks prolonged whatever had to come, she wanted to help him despite feeling hurt. Destroyed.

Betrayed.

"You don't have to do this." Blue pools glanced over to meet Athena's, pondering heavily on what was going through her head. They said a simple look could tell you a thousand things and all he could see was sheer pain. "Athena."

He wanted her to stop whatever she was doing in that instant and reached out to hold her nearest hand with his own, rubbing her knuckles with his thumb while watching the tears roll down her cheeks. It was truly the first time Ar'ekk had seen Athena feel and look this way which made him feel an aching pain in his chest, nobody deserved to feel that way, he was guilty of all.

"We need to talk about this. You and I know what it is about, don't we?" He said in a gentle tone while seeking out Athena's eyes once more, reading her response. "Regardless of what's said, don't ever ask me to do that. I will not do it. What you are asking me is practically murdering someone that I love and I'll never do such atrocity."

——————————————————————​

 

[Athena]

Location: Lithios [Ethos City] - Ar'ekk's Penthouse
Tag: [member="Arekk"]

---

“I belong to you, even if, you no longer belong to me. I cannot abide your injuries.”

Did he think it was so simple? Did he think that with his transgression, with the shifting of his heart, that her own feelings had suddenly changed? Athena could not turn her affections on and off like a light switch. He could choose. He could choose to love someone new. She could not. The memory of his lips on her own would never fade, nor would the breathy sighs and long nights, under cloudy, Lithios skies. She would remember every touch. Every laugh, every moment, in which he made her feel…

Human. Loved. Irreplaceable.

Whomever had bandaged his wound was woefully inept. It wasn’t tight enough. If he rolled in his sleep—her train of thought stopped. Sleep. The thought of coming out of standby without him was almost unbearable. Arekk spoke her name and a visible tremor ran through the replicant woman. It hurt. It hurt, because despite the pain, despite how she felt, she wanted nothing more than to hear his voice. To hear him say her name so that she could pretend that nothing had changed. That he loved her still.

He took her hand and her eyes closed. The touch to her knuckles was familiar, gentle, and yet so entirely gut-wrenching that she feared her core systems might shut down. The programming that simulated emotion was having a hard time keeping up with the intensity of it. She had been sheltered, protected, and then suddenly thrust into a cruel scenario. Athena had not learned how to cope.

Slowly, so slowly, she pulled away.

“You…You must remain immobile.”

There was a steady snap of gloves as she smoothed the ends around her wrists with practiced ease. She ignored his words about needing to have a discussion and instead focused on unwinding the soiled bandages and sterile dressing from his shoulder. She had tended to so many blaster burns on his person that it had almost become routine. The gloves helped to an extent. She could feel the warmth of him but it wasn’t the same as actually touching him. It was for the best. “You have chosen, Arekk. I will abide your decision.”

The auburn-haired replicant began to work on the injury while she still sought to keep her eyes from his. Her jaw remained set, quiet, and focused whilst he refused her request once again. Her hands froze when he claimed to love her. No, no. She had read enough, seen enough, to know that when one human loved another, as she cared for him, that they did not bleed and scar one another beyond repair.

“You are a priority to me while I am merely an option to you. As an automaton, I cannot be murdered. I can be decommissioned. You cannot kill something that was never alive.”

Twin tears rolled down either of her cheeks. Against her will. It caused her vision to blur and she occasionally blinked rapidly so that she could see what she was doing. The lights were still dim, but, her vision was better than human. She could see every burned piece of flesh and how deep the blaster burn went. She picked up a needle full of anesthetics and treated the area before injecting the bacta. “You will not be able to move your arm at full capacity until the pain-killers run their course. I will lay out the appropriate antibiotics.”

If Arekk would not release her, spare her, then she would need to find another solution. She could not bear this. Athena wore the most valiant expression she could. But, one look at her eyes, at her posture, would give everything away. “You can put me back. Back into my role as an AI. You can take all of this away. You can make it stop.”

 

[Arekk]

Arekk's Apartment, Ethos City, Lithios​

"The trouble with wanting something is the fear of losing it, or never getting it. The thought makes you weak."
——————————————————————​

[member="Athena"]​

​

"Automaton. Decomissioned. You have become something more than that, Athena. Incredibly more than wires and programming whether you believe it or not."

The pain stinging from his injured shoulder was nothing compared to the excruciating agony flooding their existence, that despite everything that had transpired Ar'ekk still loved her even if he had chosen someone else in his life. It wasn't fair for her to live in suffering for the rest of her life, wanting to just disappear from the face of the galaxy was nothing but a justified request yet... He couldn't do it.

"You deserve something better." His open palm reached out to grab the girl's wrist holding the needle to pull her away gently while also shutting the medikit closed, rejecting all sort of treatment. "You think your existence is only justified because of me but you are wrong. You're beyond that."

Nothing he said or did would ever bring back things to the way they were. He had fallen in love with someone else but also held the same feelings toward Athena which really was not something fair for her. Ar'ekk had betrayed her and what they held together sacredly, even after everything that both went together since the girl was created. From just a simple AI program in his computer to the most beautiful person ever.

"I'm so sorry I did this to you." The look in her eyes was more than painful. It felt just like living in hell, for her. He had done this, the only one to blame was him. "You were there for me in the hardest of days where I only wanted to disappear forever. Even if I made my choice to be with somebody else, I won't leave you alone now, you cannot disappear into the mist."

Whatever he'd say could never truly amend things, he loved her but also loved someone else. Made a choice and stuck with it. You can't change that.

"I don't want to be selfish but I really can't do it. I can't take away your life. Put you back somewhere and be stuck eternally. That's not fair for you."

——————————————————————​

 

[Athena]

Location: Lithios [Ethos City] - Ar'ekk's Penthouse
Tag: [member="Arekk"]

---

Silence would once again greet him. Athena could not openly argue with him. It was not the place of a robot or a droid to disobey their Master. Hazel eyes glimmered, shifting, as light ran through them. The notion of deserving something better did not compute. What could be better than the cybernetic slicer who had coded her, taught her, and created her? He stopped her from treating him. Temporarily, she allowed it. “You misunderstand. My existence is not justified because of you. It simply is—You.”

Any inclination that she had become more than a collection of wires and data chips was born of one thing. Her experiences, her affections, however simulated, for him. If he was no longer part of the equation she was little more than a protocol droid with an exceptional capacity to express a facsimile of human empathy.

He apologized. The pain intensified. Was there no solace to be had? For him, she wished she could give Arekk the absolution that he seemed to crave. She wanted to smile. To tell him that everything was all right. To explain that she understood, that a human, could never be truly happy with her. Athena would do anything for him—but she could not forget. She couldn’t wipe her own core.

“I cannot love you. I cannot repair you. What would you have me do?”

Her chin tucked lower when he claimed he wouldn’t leave her alone. Did he not understand that he already had? The replicant reached out and rest her free hand on his chest. Directly over his heart. She neared to the point of which she could breathe his air. Taste the sadness, the remorse, in every exhale. Her sensors recognized all of it. More than anything she recognized him. “I can see all of you. As I always have. My perception cannot change.”

“I can feel your heartbeat. I can hear your pulse. I can smell the blood…I know everything you are. But I have never, ever, felt so far away. I do not have a life to call my own. That is reserved for the living. You know that I am not.”

Athena pulled back and turned to re-open the med-kit. He hadn’t expressly told her to stop. Between the two of them, no matter his enhancements, she was still stronger. Pulling her wrist from his grasp was like breaking a thin twig from a tree. “Be still.”

She continued with the injection as she had initially intended. Something to numb him first. Then the bacta. The procedure provided a sense of normalcy in a place where everything felt foreign and hostile. The thought of someone else being this close to him was excruciating. Knowing he would dance with another, laugh, and live with someone as if she had never existed. It was an organic prerogative. His connection to her would fade, replaced, by that which he found more appealing.

It felt as if she had been traded in for a newer model.

“You made me…”, she trailed off, for the first time, glancing toward his face. It held the eyes she so adored. The smile, the nose, and every bit of him that now…Broke her. “Unmake me.”

 

[Arekk]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFUqNcLpqGw​

​

Arekk's Apartment, Ethos City, Lithios​

"The trouble with wanting something is the fear of losing it, or never getting it. The thought makes you weak."
——————————————————————​

[member="Athena"]​

​

Like all the bad things in his life, it ended with the death of a woman. He couldn't save her, even if she wanted that fate.

All the scenarios where Athena lived were somber and filled with sadness where she would not be able to cope being without him. No touching, kissing, dancing under the rain and waking up together. Just nothing but pitch black darkness and an immense void in every part of her body that would never be able to be filled once more, everything she was would cease to be and her reason to live would become extinct.

"But you have loved like a living person, felt emotions, cried and smiled." Ar'ekk kept trying to bargain with Athena even if the answer was already given by the auburn-haired replicant. It was over. "Just think about it for a moment. You don't have to be erased..."

The fallen Jedi turned slicer felt his shoulder going numb as Athena resumed the medical treatment, staying still as she instructed for a moment while grimacing quietly in pain. Her eyes were watery and the stream of tears falling down her gracious cheeks made his heart ache and feel like being strangled with a very tight rope. There was never a moment where Ar'ekk wanted to make her cry and sad but this was the moment he had always feared of becoming true.

"Unmake you."

Her words were mirrored immediately by him in clear denial while he put on his shirt again, standing up for a moment while grabbing his face in disbelief.

"This can't be happening. How could I do this?"

The door to the balcony suddenly opened and Ar'ekk walked outside to be greeted by the heavy downpour that Lithios loved to offer, combined with the playful sounds and neon lights in the horizon. Just a moment to think was needed, room to breath...

——————————————————————​

 

[Athena]

Location: Lithios [Ethos City] - Ar'ekk's Penthouse
Tag: [member="Arekk"]

---

Athena did not know how to respond. Arekk was touting her bouts with emotion as if they were some sort of accomplishment. She had experienced simulations of these. She still was. But, who was he trying to convince? Her? Or himself? He begged her to think it over. To choose, truthfully, whether or not she wanted to erase her memory core. The small replicant couldn’t really think straight. Every time she tried to follow the most logical line of thought it seemed to cause her processors to grind to a halt as inexplicable pain overwhelmed her.

What would she normally do right now? Greet him? Repair him? Make dinner? Talk?

As soon as she had taken care of his injury Arekk stood. The action startled her and she took a step back. Athena had only barely gotten the last bandage on. Her final words seemed to have some sort of effect on him, however, she didn’t understand it. In her eyes the scenario was clear. She had served her purpose. She was no longer required. Not real, not flesh and blood, ergo replaceable.
He walked away.

It stung.

He put his shirt back on as if she hadn’t seen him without it hundreds of times before. Even that, something so small, and meaningless, made her wish the floor would open up and swallow her whole. Arekk abruptly walked out into the rain after that. It was pouring outside. Athena looked away. Every time she looked at the balcony she could only see them dancing and laughing.

Never, had she anticipated this.

The HRD took off the pale blue gloves and closed the medical kit. She dutifully threw away the biohazardous material in the appropriate receptacle and went to the kitchen to wash her hands. As she stood at the counter, she could feel herself crumbling, feel her resolve failing. Her knees wanted to give. She’d hoped, against anything, that he would deny it. In some small way she wished that he would have cared enough to fight for her. Athena…She wasn’t even worth that.

Done, he was just done.

Her hand rose sharply and she almost, almost, slammed it down on the countertop with all her might. Athena stopped a centimeter before it connected. Her replicant strength would have destroyed it. With that in mind, she tempered herself, breathing in slowly, and out just as carefully. She repeated the process until she felt stable. The tears…There was nothing she could do about that. They would fall whether she wanted them to or not.

She cried for him, for her, and the future that had been destroyed.

Athena collected an umbrella from the doorway and eventually followed Arekk outside. At least now, with the downpour, he wouldn’t see the tears. “You should not get your bandages wet.”, she held the umbrella out for him to take, staying far enough back, that she gave him ample distance. The auburn-haired HRD didn’t want to get too close. It hurt too much. To be so close. And so very, very far away. All the things that she would miss flooded her senses like the scent of jasmine on the rain.

Would he miss her too? At all?

“I will return to standby. There are leftovers in the chiller.”

Athena pulled away and turned to head back inside. She would return to her room in the penthouse. Was it still her room? She had only slept beside Arekk for so long she didn’t know anymore. She didn’t even have any clothes here. They were all with his.

Regardless, she took off her shoes, and sat down on the edge of the bed. She returned to the stillness that he had found her in. The darkness. Where would she go? What would she do?

Athena could not bear to stand idly by while watching him love someone else.

 

[Arekk]

Arekk's Apartment, Ethos City, Lithios​

"The trouble with wanting something is the fear of losing it, or never getting it. The thought makes you weak."
——————————————————————​

[member="Athena"]​

​

Sometimes following the most logical line of thought will prove it's the wrong thing to do and maybe that's what Athena had to do. Her purpose was over but nothing stopped the auburn-haired replicant from rebuilding and finding another thing to live for, someone else in her life to devout herself to just like he did with Ar'ekk, even if they were done something had to be done to avoid destroying everything about her.

He rejected the umbrella as she approached the balcony, raindrops falling on his curved cheek, eyes focusing on the clear sky that gave leeway to plenty of bright stars just shinning in what would always be a clogged view.

"Look at this."

There was no denying that he'd miss her every day much like she would do in return, their feelings remained there even if his eyes had focused on somebody else already. You just simply don't forget and throw away the beautiful memories created with someone you spent so much time with, much more if that person became your pillar in life after a plethora of life hardships and difficult moments where you only want to disappear.

Realizing that he was already alone, Ar'ekk returned inside completely dampened and gracefully paced around the apartment in complete darkness until he met up with Athena again, who was sitting by herself in a room that wasn't even prepared for someone to sleep in. The slicer stood by the edge of the door and just looked at the girl with his pearly blues, not wanting to say anything to not break the moment. The tears rolling down his cheeks were almost unnoticeable for obvious reasons...

"You don't have to sleep here tonight. This is your home."

——————————————————————​

 

[Athena]

Location: Lithios [Ethos City] - Ar'ekk's Penthouse
Tag: [member="Arekk"]

She stared. Jade eyes glowed dimly, sweeping through an array of colors that finally settled on a murky amethyst. It was such a dark shade that if she weren’t sitting without the light it might have blended right in with her pupil. The tips of her hair took on a similar shade. A mottled, purplish blue, which seemed right at home amongst perfectly tanned synth-skin and endless wells of tears.

Minutes passed. Long, achingly painful, minutes. It felt like an eternity as sound rushed out before snapping back in when Arekk opened the door. Everything, every sensor, every circuit, every program focused on him. A human may have missed that he was crying. As a replicant, so attuned to his every word, his every breath, she could not.

He told her that she didn’t need to sleep in this room. This empty, lifeless, place. Technically she didn’t need a room at all. Just somewhere out of the way where she could rest her processors and back up without taxing the rest of the network in the penthouse. Her head slowly turned away from him. She was confused. Every part of her wanted to run to him. Not away. “…I cannot sleep with you. It is…”

Painful. Tempting. Confusing.

“Home is any four walls that enclose the right person…”

How could he not know that he was her home?

“…I can stay here. There is a bed. It is sufficient.”

There was a flat sheet on the mattress. But, no blankets, none of the fluffy full pillows that she had picked out specifically because they would improve Arekk’s quality of sleep. It wasn’t warm. It wasn’t full of memories. It felt and looked like a bed that belonged in a showroom at the sky mall. Mostly, this room was storage. The closet was full of old tech that had either been replaced or wasn’t needed anymore.

Appropriate.

“You’re leaking. You should change before you get sick.”

They both knew that cold and the rain didn’t actually make one sick. She’d explained it before. But, it was all she knew. Always, she cared for him. It was her default. She could do nothing else. Even as an AI she’d always tried her best to be there when no one else was. To coax him out of fights, out of a bottle, and into a healthier, happier state. It was all she could do then. Once she had hands, arms, she could hold him when he was upset over Jyn. She had. Night, after night.

Now they felt empty.

She felt empty.

 

[Arekk]

Arekk's Apartment, Ethos City, Lithios​

"The trouble with wanting something is the fear of losing it, or never getting it. The thought makes you weak."
——————————————————————​

[member="Athena"]​

"No, I will take the couch for tonight."

They would not share a bed together any more, find each other's warmth during cold nights beneath the sheets and caress one another while sleepy. All of the little things they liked to do would disappear into the mist in the morning yet Arekk wished there was sunshine for Athena to see that not everything ends the way their relationship did.

His heart would continue to keep a piece of the auburn-haired replicant much like her programming could never forget him, after all they continued to love each other even if his feelings drastically changed from his side.

He stood by the doorframe while his clothes practically adhered to his body, soaking wet and making a mess out of the wooden floor, barefeet moving around the place while he spoke with Athena. She couldn't stay in the dark alone and suffering her whole existence, even if he was the reason for her own, something could be done to adjust that sentiment.

"Come here..."

A hand reached out from the depths of darkness to reach for hers, seeing her like this destroyed him and if there was something he could it'd be comforting Athena in the only way he knew despite being aware that it'd hurt. His feelings had moved over for someone else but he continued to love the replicant herself, she had been there for him in the ugliest of days...

"Everything will be okay."

——————————————————————​

 

[Athena]

Location: Lithios [Ethos City] - Ar'ekk's Penthouse
Tag: [member="Arekk"]

“The couch is not your bed.”

Her words were tinged with confusion. She didn’t him want him sleeping on the couch any more than she wanted to be in a bed without him. It felt strange. Wrong. He called for her and she couldn’t help but respond. It wasn’t a direct order, per say, but she wanted to go to him. Athena wanted to be near him more than anything. No matter how the tightness in her chest increased, no matter how her sensors flared, screaming, in warning—He would find her hand in his. “Arekk…”

She would let him pull her up from the uncomfortable mattress, though, she didn’t really know what to do. Her feet felt as if they had bolted themselves to the floor. Everything that used to be so simple, so easy, now felt like it weighed as much as the planet they existed on. Why was this so hard? If he didn’t love her any longer, why, did he still make her artificial heart race?

“I…”

Her feet took her closer. ‘Everything will be okay’. His words rang in her auditory systems and repeated themselves over and over. Ever slow slowly she reached for him. Athena was hesitant. As she never was. Afraid, confused. Hurt. The replicant let go of his hands so that her arms could wrap around his middle. The action was quick. Too fast, to be human. Too inelegant to be well thought out. It was a knee-jerk response to the crushing sadness that wouldn’t stop cycling over and over.

Her face buried itself against his chest. She didn’t seem to feel the chill from the rainwater. Or even notice that she would soon be soaking wet too. Instead, she just hid her face, and wept.

Athena didn’t know what else to do. The greatest pain she had ever known was also her only source of comfort. Her priorities and programming were all jumbled. No longer did she know the right thing to say or do. Her system felt like it was falling through a cascade of impossible failures. Irreconcilable. Her system was a beautiful orchestra of interconnected parts. With all the simulated strengths and weaknesses of being able to think and imitate human emotion.

A failure of one part, one piece, seemed to trigger another failure. And then another. Her rational thought ended. Critical thinking ground to a halt. The ability to reason, to adhere to standards, died.

She could only pull the proverbial knife deeper into her heart. Athena could embrace Arekk, her maker, and hold on to him. She knew of nothing else.

So, she would enfold that which impaired her.

And cry.

 

[Arekk]

Arekk's Apartment, Ethos City, Lithios​

"The trouble with wanting something is the fear of losing it, or never getting it. The thought makes you weak."
——————————————————————​

[member="Athena"]​

"I'm going to grant you your wish, Athena." His arms wrapped around the auburn-haired girl's body and pulled her closer for an embrace, holding back the tears. "What I've done to you is undoable, you don't deserve that."

Most of the time, if not always, it was Athena that held Arekk tightly and allowed him to cry on her shoulder during the difficult nights remembering both Athena and their little daughter Atefeh but tonight was different. She was the one being held as the pain consumed every part of her body and engulfed her very delicate frame which made all the emotions come like flying arrows over your head. It ached seeing her that way, she didn't deserve that.

Deserved much, much better.

"Let's dance in the rain?"

Arekk did not wanted his beloved Athena, because she was and continued to be despite the circumstances, to be sad when the end was so near. She held him in the most awful and gut-wrenching situations that one wished could never experience or go through again and there wasn't a single chance that he'd leave her alone even if this was his own fault. The pain was too unbearable for a human replicant droid that had never experienced anything else but love, maybe this was her creator's fault? Too sheltered? Unprepared?

It wouldn't matter.

"For the last time."

——————————————————————​

 

[Athena]

Location: Lithios [Ethos City] - Ar'ekk's Penthouse
Tag: [member="Arekk"]


Arekk promised to grant her wish.

Her arms around his midsection tightened from something new. Fear. He would not, could not, grant her truest wish. She wished for time to reverse. Athena wanted things to go back to the way they used to be when everything made sense. When his arms wrapped around her and she felt nothing but joy. Safety. The auburn-haired replicant breathed him in. He smelled of many things. Rainwater, light cologne, antiseptic, and something she couldn't place. "...That isn't what I wish for... It's just the logical choice."

Wishes were made for dreams. This experience had taught her very clearly that they did not come true. Now, the man she loved, her family, her maker, was willing to destroy everything she had become. In retrospect it wasn't much. She could never evolve as an organic being. She could never be anything more than what she was and it had been foolish to let herself believe otherwise. To end this pain, to hide his sins, would Arekk really unmake her? Would he really consider committing what he, by his own words, thought to be murder?

Athena could not be certain.

He asked her for a dance. For a final moment.

She didn't know what to say. The entirety of her frame stilled. The replicant was often fluid, graceful, and moved with a surety that bespoke something other than years of learning proper etiquette. Her pixie-esque features had developed over time. Her knowledge of the world had developed first as a comprehensive AI. It was part of the reason she was so adaptive. It was most definitely part of the reason she had adapted to a personality matrice that seemed to be all it's own. It could not be copied or replicated. When she was gone?

Athena would be gone. And there would be no one the wiser.

Slowly she nodded her head. If her Master wanted to dance with her...She could not deny it. Only, she had a question. It had burned ever since she first felt his vitals spike. The data stream that they shared was intense. Wicked. So much so that at first she hadn't understood what was happening. There was only one thing that made his heart race in that way.

She used to be it.

"What did I do wrong?"

 

[Arekk]

Arekk's Apartment, Ethos City, Lithios​

"The trouble with wanting something is the fear of losing it, or never getting it. The thought makes you weak."
——————————————————————​

[member="Athena"]​

"Oh, sweetness. You did nothing wrong. It's just.. I don't know."

Perhaps it was not the answer for the auburn-haired replicant's question that she most definitely wanted to hear, nothing that Arekk could ever say would make things right or give Athena closure unless the unthinkable occured. There was truth to what he said in the beginning where Athena's fault in their relationship ending was absolutely zero but instead it was her master's (a word he continues to hate to this day) own feelings changing drastically.

She needed closure. Peace. Serenity.

"But it definitely wasn't you. You loved me like nobody else did, in the purest form, just like Jyn did. So did I."

Unmaking what the fallen Jedi turned slicer considered the most beautiful creation in the entire galaxy would be nothing but plain murder just like he said, though a different mind crossed his head and continued to linger for the duration of the evening. Would he go through with the unfathomable or simply pull another card from his sleeve? Athena deserved better, someone less broken as her creator was. Someone that would show her the love that she deserved for a long time now.

Athena would get all of that and more, that's for sure.

"Ready?"

The rain welcomed them instantly once more, as it always did, by the balcony and in record time their entire frames were covered in water. One last time together...

——————————————————————​

 

[Athena]

Location: Lithios [Ethos City] - Ar'ekk's Penthouse
Tag: [member="Arekk"]

Athena frowned through her sorrow. She must have done something to warrant being cast aside. Arekk had always been a man of many things, emotion, among them—but he had always been honest with her. She would know if he lied and would tease him about it incessantly. In this instance, she just couldn’t tell. Her sensors were locked, jammed, with too much happening all at the same time. Too many inquiries. Too many unknown variables. “I can change my hair. My face…But something tells me that still wouldn’t be enough.”

“I lack a component.”

Perhaps, if she could find this missing thing, he would change his mind again. Organic creatures could be fickle. Arekk insisted that she hadn’t done anything wrong, but, Athena still didn’t understand. The face she wore was one that he had chosen. Her voice. Her measurements. Was it truly only that human spark that she lacked? Her eyes welled with salted water again.

She could never overcome that. She could never be human.

He asked if she was ready. She was not. Her feet shuffled forward anyway. Back outside of the barren room, with empty walls, and an empty bed. Through the hallway. Past the open kitchen that still smelled of lingering cookies that she had baked a few days prior. For a unit that once thought she had all the time in the world, now, it felt like she had none. It ended here. In this city, in this home, with this man.

The rain fell as it always did on Lithios. Normally, she loved it. She loved spending her evenings spinning through puddles with her Arekk. Warming themselves after.

“I am sorry.”, she breathed, whilst her hands rest against him, and they swayed to music neither could truly hear. Memories of bright songs, slow songs, fast songs…None of it mattered. Flickering eyes, flaring with an inner light, turned back toward him. The depth of emotion Athena was able to portray would be staggering. It was wrong for the equivalent of an autochef to appear as if it had had its world shattered into a million pieces. “I am sorry that I do not know how to this.”

“I do not know how not to love you.”

Athena felt like she was teetering on the edge of something very final. Like walking along a tight-rope without a safety net. Everything felt so acute, so strong, with hours that were now numbered. Her left hand slid up, hesitantly, to touch his cheek. To ensure that she could see his face. Agony swelled. “I am sorry…I am fractured…”

Her innocence burned through everything else. She could not bring herself to blame him. Putting pieces together without his input could only lead her to conclude that she was a failed experiment. Athena stared up at her Maker. He hated that title, however, she had no other words. Lover, partner, beloved…It no longer applied. Her eyes closed and her jaw set tight.

“Forgive me.”

For being unable to let go. For becoming a casualty of simulated emotion. For a dozen things, but more than anything, for not being enough.

 

[Arekk]

Arekk's Apartment, Ethos City, Lithios​

"The trouble with wanting something is the fear of losing it, or never getting it. The thought makes you weak."
——————————————————————​

[member="Athena"]​

"It's not about your looks or a lacking component, Athena." He paused for a bit, realizing that making her dance with him was an awful idea for what was going on, palms craddling her soft cheeks to look deeply into her eyes. "My emotions... They changed."

There was no denial that Arekk had always been honest with the auburn-haired replicant even if telling her the truth could hurt more than anything, she had the right to know a lot of things. Athena had become much more than simple wires and cables connected to create the perfect droid, being able to connect on an emotional level with another organic life-form no matter how broken was living proof of that, she had to realize that in the near future.

It was never about her not being real or failing to live up to her purpose. Everything was nothing but her Maker's fault.

"If there's anyone that needs to be sorry is me, sweetness." The man's voice cracked while trying to explain things, he didn't want to let go but at the same time he had to. The end was nearing. "I fell in love with somebody else."

Arekk felt chills going down his spine once her palm rested against his cheek, eyes closing and breathing fluttering because of that personal touch. How many times she had done that and was able to make things better for him? He wished that he could do the same for her in that instant, to hold her forever and never let go. But the damage was already done, it was undoable even if they wanted to erase any memory of what occured.

They could try but it'd never be the same. Nothing would be anymore, they'd be living a lie.

"I love you, Athena." His hand reached out to hold hers, stroking the replicant's fingers gently while looking at her eyes once more. "But you deserve someone that loves you better than I do."

——————————————————————​

 

[Athena]

Location: Lithios [Ethos City] - Ar'ekk's Penthouse
Tag: [member="Arekk"]

“Can you not change them back?”

The question was softly spoken, and drenched, in innocence that had no right to exist. Emerald eyes glowed dimly through the raindrops, burning, like embers that were slowly dying out. He was her whole world. Her reason for being. How did he not know? How could such devotion not hold any weight against what momentary flame he had ignited?

In her heart-broken expression, he would see how she cradled his love, and cherished his affection. There was no denying that. Her eyes closed when he admitted to loving someone new. An organic, no doubt. Someone that could love him truly. Create a family. Someone that he could grow old with. He wouldn’t see the tears she shed amongst the rain. Why did it feel like this?

Was this what it was like to be human? Pain? Suffering, so deep, that it felt like her every circuit was on fire? It was no wonder that so many of them chose to end their existence early. Anything, would be better than this. Anything, would be better than feeling as if she were drowning in emotion and truths that she didn’t wholly understand.

When her eyes opened and she touched his face…His response sent chills down her spine. How could he still respond to her, physically, if he no wanted her? Why did he still feel warm to the touch? Why did it still feel as if it would be so easy, so simple, to draw him down so that she could bury everything she was feeling in his lips? “…Are you sure this is the path you want to take Ar’ekk?”

His fingers covered hers and their eyes met. His words were crushing, yet, so sweet at the same time. She leaned forward regardless and let her lips brush against his in the softest of kisses. Relief flooded her, whether it was a lie or not, but she knew it was only temporary. Just that stolen sensation to hold back the tide of black feelings that she couldn’t make heads or tail of. He still felt the same. Tasted the same. Athena, robot, or not—Felt as she always had.

She loved him blindly. Was in love with him. For everything he was. Everything he wasn’t.

…How could this be wrong?

Athena pulled away. Her hands raised, she pulled back as if stung, and turned to run back into the shared apartment that would become her personal hell. It was wrong. All of it. It was fake. Her Maker, her Owner, her Creator, had chosen.

She would respect it. If this organic woman made him happy…It was all she had ever wanted.

Only, she had never thought, never imagined, he would find such joy with someone else.

The door to the guest room would shut, locking, seemingly of its own accord. The encryptions that governed most of the automated systems in the penthouse would find themselves changed. Ar’ekk would be able to enter, however, he would no longer have access to this particular room. No matter what he heard from the other side of the door, unless he chose to break the portal, would he be allowed entry.

He’d had his last words. Last dance. Last kiss.

It was over.