[The Nexus] Chapter 10 - Réunion

Golden footsteps that only he could see appeared on the ground, and Harry broke into a run, doing his best not to slam into any other people in his rush.

Following those footsteps, he took a turn into a side alley, and he suddenly found himself face-to-face with the barrel of a laser gun.

“Who the hell are you?” Jackie asked, her index finger right on the trigger. “Why are you following me around?”

Harry froze like a statue.

‘Should I jump to the side? Or try to go for my wand?’

If it were a regular human pointing a gun at him, he might have tried that. But this was an android. Their reaction time, decision-making quickness, and aiming capability were incomparably better.

He raised his hands slowly so as not to startle her.

“I don’t have any bad intentions, I swear,” he said, doing his best to sound calm in spite of how hard his heart was hammering in his chest. “I overheard you talking about Yorha in the pub-”

“You were eavesdropping on me?” she said, her eye narrowing as she pushed the barrel of her laser gun into his forehead. 

“Eavesdropping? Lady, you were shouting loud enough for half the Bazaar to hear you,” Harry snapped at her in annoyance, surprising not just her but himself too.

“So? Why were you chasing after me?” the woman asked, not taking her finger off the trigger.

Androids were forbidden from using their weapons inside the city unless it was in the arena, against the machines. Whoever started a fight with weapons would immediately find themselves apprehended by the proctors or even killed on the spot. The androids weren’t messing around when it came to order and discipline. When all was said and done, they were all members of the military, and they lived as such for the most part.

Nevertheless, with Jackie’s unstable emotional state, Harry didn’t want to bet on the possibility of her not actually going through with her threats. He only had one life. With the barrel of a laser gun aimed at his head, his mind went into overdrive.

“I’m an archaeologist,” he said quickly.

“You’re a what now?”

“Humans of old had a profession dedicated to studying the past based on ruins, relics, old tech and other things they found,” he explained. “As an android, I’ve always wanted to understand more about our Creators. I’ve dedicated centuries to studying humans, their culture, and their history.”

It became apparent then why the Sorting Hat had wanted to sort him into the Slytherin House several years ago. He lied as easily as he breathed.

She narrowed her eyes. “Are you one of those nutters with too much time and not enough directives?”

Harry didn’t even seem to register her insult. He pressed on with his story and the real reason why she followed her:

“I believe that YoRHa is the closest link to the humans. I want to meet them. If there’s any way I can meet the humans, it has to be through them.”

The woman let out a sigh and took the gun off his forehead. The relief after brushing past death was so great that he almost lost the strength in his legs.

“So you want to meet YoRHa? Just like that? What are you going to do even if you meet them? Are you just going to walk up to them and say hi?” she asked.

“I’ll even sing and do a handstand if I get to meet the humans through them.”

Jackass snorted. “Alright, Mr Archaeologist. You said you studied humans, didn’t you? Answer me this: what’s a swimsuit for?”

Momentarily, he didn’t answer; he looked at her dumbly, not knowing if she was being serious or if she was messing with him.

“Is that all that your centuries of research on humans amounts to? You don’t even know what a swimsuit is?” Jackass mocked him.

“...No, I was just expecting you to ask a harder question. Swimsuits were for sunbathing and swimming.”

She let out a snort. “Show off. Well then, you wanted something harder, right? What’s a hammock? And what was it used for?”

“It was a piece of fabric tied between two posts. Some humans used to sleep in them, especially those who travelled by sailboat.”

“You do know your thing. . . alright, one last question. What is a piñata?”

Harry didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry. The female android was acting as if the questions she had just asked were supposed to be tough to answer, as if it was some niche information that most androids had never heard about.

Once he gave a perfect answer to that question as well, Jackass studied him for a few moments before finally putting her gun away, back in its holster.

“Well, I’ll be damned. You’re not lying… or at least you’re a damn good liar.” She said, crossing her arms to her chest. “Look, I can’t get you in contact with them. My channel with Commander White is one-way. She contacts me only when she feels like it.”

“Damnit”, Harry muttered, more to himself than her. “Almost got my brains blown up, and I have nothing to show for it.”

Sensing his deep disappointment, Jackass let out a sigh.

“I can’t call the YoRHa for you to talk to them. . . but I could tell you where you might be able to meet one.”

When he visibly perked up, she added:

“Don’t expect me to just give this information away for free. Anything Yorha-related goes for a crazy price.”

“You want Gs? How much?” he asked, readying himself to take out his electronic device for transferring currency.

“I don’t want money,” she said, waving it off. “You said you’re an archaeologist or something, right? Give me information about humans. Things that you can’t normally find in Memory Hold’s database.”

Harry thought about it for a few moments.

“Memory Hold’s database is vast. . . But I do know something that doesn’t exist there. Have you heard about that human monument that the androids discovered in the Indian subcontinent?”

“I seem to remember something about that. It was a few decades ago, wasn’t it?” Jackass replied. “But they couldn’t get inside. Even our tech couldn’t open it. Afraid of destroying it by mistake, the Council of Humanity decided to cease all operations.”

“Yep, that’s the one,” Harry confirmed, “But I found a way in. I managed to open it not long ago. I found hundreds of coffins with human remains and other creatures that our database never had.”

“. . . Holy shit, are you for real?”

“I swear. You can always go there and check for yourself. Hell, we can go together if you want, as long as you have a private plane or something.”

The androids could not travel around easily. As previously stated, they were all, technically, part of the Army of Humanity. All androids were assigned to a particular city or to strategically positioned camps and participated in one way or another in the war against the machines.

“As a matter of fact, I do have my own plane,” Jackass said, a hint of pride in her voice. She had been alive for centuries, and she was also great with tech. She loved to experiment with machines and weaponry. “But I have to ask. . . why didn’t you let the Council of Humanity know?”

If news that a monument filled with human remains and other relics from the past had been discovered, the androids would have been thrown into a frenzy.

“You could have been promoted. You could have earned a position of leadership or even become an operator or other non-combatant position.”

“Sit at a desk and not be able to explore the world in search of things that humans left behind?” Harry countered and shrugged his shoulders. “No, thank you. Now, it's your turn. Where can I find the Yorha?”

She scratched her cheek, seemingly in thought. “We haven’t verified if your information is true just yet . . . but the situation is a bit more urgent on your side.”

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“If we go to confirm the veracity of your intel first, you may not be able to meet with Yorha anymore. They are gearing up for a major operation tomorrow.”

Harry leaned in slightly. “Where?”

“Réunion.”

“...Where is that?”

Jackass looked at him strangely for asking that question, but she answered nonetheless.

“It’s an island east of Madagascar.”

Harry may not have heard about Réunion before, but he had heard about Madagascar. It was one of the biggest islands in the world, and he remembered it because it looked like it had been broken off from the coast of Africa.

“How the hell am I even supposed to get there?” he muttered. 

He didn’t know the exact distance without looking it up, but he was sure that he would not be able to reach Réunion in time.

‘Even if I were to Portkey back to Egypt now, there’s still like 4000 kilometres or more. . .’

He could not Apparate or Portkey to places he had never been to before. That meant he would have to either Apparate at the edge of the horizon hundreds of times, or he would need to get there by flying on his broom. The flying broomstick he had created, however, was not meant for long-distance travel, and it wasn’t that fast either. It was incomparable to the Nimbus or Firebolt broomsticks from his time.

“I know that look on your face. Don’t even think about it. I may have a ship, but I’m not crazy enough to fly you into the heart of the machine territory,” Jackass said. “But I could put you in touch with someone who does this for a living. . . it will cost you quite a bit of money, though. And I will need your word that you’ll keep your mouth shut about it.”

⁂

A group of 16 flight units, four-metre-tall, highly advanced mech suits capable of flight and equipped with sophisticated artillery and a long plasma blade, flew out for the Bunker’s docks, the large orbital station serving as the Yorha organisation’s headquarters.


(the Bunker)

Girlish sounds of awe could be heard on the radio line shared by the flight unit pilots as they approached the Earth.

“Whoa!”

“Is that the ocean?”

“It’s so beautiful!”

“I wonder, how is it on Earth?”

“It will be like in the simulations, won’t it?”

“I’m so excited!”

“We’re in the middle of an operation,” came the Yorha Commander’s cutting voice from the Bunker. “Stop the idle chit-chat.”

But, as they got closer to the planet, their merry chatter came to an abrupt end as a hail of massive laser beams broke through the sea clouds. Many of them didn’t even have time to scream. They were obliterated instantly.

Those who survived the first wave of guided laser attacks engaged in evasive manoeuvres, but the anti-aerial artillery of the machines was relentless. Lasers and missiles were being fired continuously. At their Commander’s orders, the Androids deployed their energy shields and also brandished their flight units’ long plasma swords, cutting down any missiles that slipped past their shields. Things seemed to stabilise for a short while, but an EMP bomb followed afterwards.


(flight unit)

It was hell.

The operators and the commander in the Bunker could do nothing but watch and listen to the androids’ death throes scream as their flight units were destroyed one by one. The girls, who had been chatting excitedly about their first descent to Earth only a few moments ago, were being killed ruthlessly by the machines.

⁂

When No 2 opened her eyes, the scene in front of her made her think she was having a nightmare. As far as she knew, androids didn’t dream, but nothing else could explain the situation in front of her eyes.

Wrecked flight units were strewn all over the place from their violent crash against the ground. Moreover, her comrades were lying on the ground lifelessly, some of them unrecognisable. Even the strong and reliable No 1 android, their captain, the one whom everyone in Yorha respected, was also dead, her eyes wide open but empty, and the lower half of her body was missing.

No 2 looked around herself in a stupor. Even the black blindfold she was wearing could not hide the shocked look on her face.

“Get your shit together, No 2!” another girl’s shout startled her.

No 2 glanced at her, still out of it. The girl had long purple hair, which was tied in a bun, and, just like every other Yorha model, she was wearing a black blindfold too. She was Number 16, a Gunner. 


(YoRHa Type G No.16 - or, in short, G16)

“Status?” No 2 somehow found the presence of mind to ask.

“They got half of us before we could land. Only seven are still alive, of which four are doing well, including you. The other three are near death.”

“What about the Number 1?” No 2 asked. 

The Gunner led her to No 1’s corpse, showing her the mutilated remains of her body. No 2 bit her lip, on the verge of crying. No 1 had been the cream of the crop, the best out of them all when it came to both battle and tactics. No1 had been their captain; she had never expected her to be among the first to die.

“What should we do, Captain?” asked No 21 as she closed their dead Android's eyes.

No 21 was a girl with shoulder-length brown hair, a generous bust, and a serious face. Unlike the other Yorha units, she did not carry any weapons. She was a Scanner model.


(YoRHa Type S No.21 - or, in short, 21S)

No 2 was startled when No 21 addressed her that way.

“C-Captain? Why me?”

“With the death of our captain, Number 1, the title of captain has been transferred to Number 2.”

“Oh, but I-” No 2 tried to refuse.

“Then I’ll do it,” the Gunner said. “I have higher combat capabilities.”

“We can’t just do that!” the Scanner shot down her proposal. “We have rules and regulations for a reason. Number 2 has to do it.”

“What are we going to do now?” Number 4, a girl with very long silvery hair tied in a ponytail, asked. She was an Attacker type, just like A2, but, unlike her fellow Yorha units, the blindfold she was wearing only covered one of her eyes.


(YoRHa Type A No.4 - or, in short, A4)

“And these guys, too, what are we going to do with them?” 

No 2 switched her attention from the bickering No 16 and No 21 to the three Androids who were lying on the ground, barely breathing, and groaning and moaning in pain.

Momentarily, No 2 did not know what to say. She was still frozen, overwhelmed by the situation. She had never thought that she would have to become the captain of their squad. Number 1 had been such a skilled and reliable captain that No 2 had never expected her to die and leave everything on her shoulders. Compared to her, No 2 considered herself average in every way. Her mentality was not as good as that of No 1, nor were her tactics and combat skills.

However, at the sight of her dying comrades, No 2 gritted her teeth and gathered her resolve:


(YoRHa Type A No.2 - or, in short, A2)

“Yorha soldier, Attacker Number 2, confirming transfer of the Captain’s right. I will continue the operation with the seven remaining units.”

“These guys too?!” No 16 asked in disbelief.

“I can’t abandon allies who are still alive!” No 2 shouted.

“We could leave them sheltered somewhere. You can’t expect us to fight properly while carrying them on our backs!”

“We don’t know where the machine lifeforms are coming from. We can’t do that!” No 2 retorted. 

Then, under everyone’s eyes, A2 grabbed one of the wounded Androids from the ground and put her on her shoulders before walking ahead.

“We’re supposed to go to the Snow Peak, but we’ve landed so far away. And we also have the injured to carry with us. Are we still going there? Shouldn’t we ask for reinforcements?” Number 4 asked.

“We’re going!” A2 said resolutely. “I will make a request for reinforcements to Command as we proceed. Please patch me up with Bunker,” she told the Scanner model.

“The EMP bomb severed our communications. I haven’t been able to make contact with the Bunker yet.”

As they walked with the wounded on their backs, heading towards Piton de Neiges, the androids couldn’t help noticing the beauty of nature on the island. The blooming flowers, the lush jungle with its enormous trees, and the myriad birds and insects flying everywhere. The paradise-like scenery was a big contrast to their hellish circumstances.

To make matters worse, at that moment, A4 called out her name:

“Number 2, these guys. . . they’re already. . .”

A2 bit her lip, unable to reply. She had noticed it too. She had also noticed that the person she was carrying had stopped breathing a while ago. 

“Number 2!” G16 shouted. 

No longer able to ignore it, A2 stopped and laid her lifeless comrade on the ground. Her other squadmates brought the other two dead androids and laid them down next to the first.

But they didn’t have the luxury of burying them. Not while they were in the middle of a warzone. Not when they didn’t know when the machines would attack them.

At that moment, a powerful explosion boomed, and the loud screech characteristic of machines echoed over the island.

“Sensing machine lifeform sources!” S21 said quickly. “A larger number than expected is heading this way. We have been discovered!”

“They’re going to be here any moment now! Number 2, snap out of it already!” G16 shouted while grabbing her rifle and running ahead.

“But-”

“We couldn’t save any of them. You understand that, don’t you? We can’t protect their corpses either. We have to go!” A4 also said while grabbing her long sword off her back.

“There are roughly 128,000 enemy units,” S21 informed her. “It won’t even be a battle with our numbers. They will surround us at any minute. What should we do? Captain!”

As they climbed up on a nearby hill, A2, A4, G16, and S21 became speechless at the sight in front of their eyes.

The entire slope of the mountain ahead of them was covered by a swarm of grey and brown steel. Hearing there were 128,000 enemies was one thing, but seeing them was entirely different.



“This is impossible. . .” G16 said in disbelief.

“I agree. We can’t complete the mission with just the four of us.”

“We should return to the bunker. This mission has failed from the start.”

At that moment, S21 spoke up:

“The laser communications are back online. Should I patch us through to the Command?”

“Yes, do it,” A2 confirmed.

“Command, this is Number 21. We are unable to continue the mission. Of 16 units, only four survived. We are facing an army of 128,000 machines. It is impossible to continue. I request the cancellation of the mission.”

“Command to Yorha,” came the answer from the Bunker. “Your request has been denied.”

“What?!”

“But we can’t—”

“This mission will succeed with minimum personnel.”

“But this is suicide! How can we go against 128,000 machines with just the four of us?!” A2 shouted.

“These orders are final. No future changes will be made to them,” Commander White said coldly. “Laser communications over and out.”

“Command!” A2 shouted, but the line was dead already.

“Goddamn it! Twelve units have died already! What the hell is Command thinking?” G16 shouted furiously as she threw off her blindfold.

“Number 16, you’re breaking military regulations,” A4 said. “You’re not supposed to take off your visor during the mission.”

“To hell with military regulations!” G16 shouted and threw her blindfold down. “And I don’t want to hear that from you, of all people! You have no room to talk!”

“But I am wearing mine. All I did was customise it so it only covers one eye. Plus, I wanted to have more hairstyle options,” A4 said, only for G16 to blow up at her:

“Hey! Are you being for real now! Do you even realise what sort of mess we are in right now?!"

Their bickering came to an end as the spider-type machines all started crawling down the mountain, charging at them.

⁂

Several hours earlier, thousands of kilometres away from Réunion, Harry Potter just returned to his wooden cabin in the Alps.

He was alone. The two girls remained at the Android city in Japan, Steelgate.

‘Luckily, I didn’t have to struggle too much to convince them to stay behind.’

It appeared that the girls’ maintenance would take until tomorrow. It seemed like it wasn’t just a simple check-up. They said that they were going to change various body parts. It was only in moments like this one that Harry was reminded of the fact that the girls were not actual humans but Androids. 

He had left them both a Portkey that would take them home once their maintenance ended. He also told them he might not be there when they returned. He didn’t hide the fact that he was going to fly to an island on the other side of the planet to meet the Yorha, but he had conveniently left out the part that he was actually heading into a warzone.

‘I bet they would’ve left everything and insisted on tagging along if they heard what kind of place I’m heading to.’

It’s why he did not tell them the full truth. Their healing ability may have come in handy on a battlefield, but Harry did not want them to risk their lives.

‘If worse comes to worst, I can always just teleport away.’

Devola and Popola meant too much to him. In a post-apocalyptic world where he was the last human alive, the two sisters were like family to him.

Harry spent the next hour or so packing and preparing himself for his expedition. Seeing as he was heading into a warzone, Harry packed a good amount of food, his flying broomstick, several Portkeys, a GPS device, a change of clothes, and a few other things he might need.

Lastly, he went to check up on the Phoenix egg in the fireplace and renewed the Fire Making Charm in the hearth and the spell that prevented the fire from growing uncontrollably before Portkeying himself back to Steelgate.

⁂

Jackass’ contact, the person who was going to fly him over the Indian Ocean, was a tall white man with a sturdy-looking body. Most of his appearance was hidden by his thick camo clothes, headgear, and goggles, but from the sound of his voice, Harry got the impression that he was an affable person.

“I’m saying this again as a warning, but the place we’re going is most likely a warzone.”

“I heard you the first three times you said it; you didn’t have to repeat it a fourth time,” the Android said, groaning.

“Sorry, I just want to make sure you know exactly what you’re getting into. I wouldn’t be surprised if they tried to shoot us down the very moment we appear on their radar. We could easily die.”

Getting fed up with Harry’s nagging, the man said:

“Listen here, pal. I’m a deserter and a smuggler. It’s not only the machines who are trying to kill me, but the Council’s headhunters too. Both the machines and the androids want my head. But I’ve survived like this for decades. I know what I’m doing.”

Harry stopped annoying him and climbed up in the aircraft. It was a rather large but very modern, futuristic-looking aeroplane. A look of wonder surfaced on his face when he saw the aeroplane take off vertically. He had never flown with a commercial aeroplane, to say nothing of this incredible aircraft.

The young man’s surprise only increased when the smuggler piloting the ship pressed a button, and he saw the aeroplane’s wing becoming invisible.

“That’s the secret to my success and longevity in this field,” the Android said proudly when he noticed the look of amazement on Harry’s face. “Now hold on. Make sure you tighten your seatbelt, too. My ship is lightning fast.”

The android’s warning was not for no reason. Harry felt the air abruptly leave his lungs as the aeroplane suddenly accelerated at a crazy speed, leaving loud booms behind as it broke past the speed of sound.

Most of the trip was spent in silence, as it took Harry all he had just to remain conscious. Once they were within one thousand kilometres of Réunion, the smuggler began to slow the aircraft.

“As you asked, I’m going to drop you off in Mauritius,” the android started the conversation.

“Yes. I think it’s a safer drop-off point than Réunion.”

"I just don’t get why you’d want to come to this island of all places, especially if you’re so sure it’s crawling with machine lifeforms."

"I'm an archaeologist," Harry said, giving him the same lie he’d used on Jackass.

 "What the heck is that?"

 "It's a profession humans used to have. They dug up ruins and old relics to learn the truth about their history and where they came from. That’s what I’m doing too."

 "Is it worth it?" the android asked.

 "Of course. The more I study our Creators, the closer I get to understanding them," Harry replied, keeping up the act of a curious android fascinated by humans.

 "Bah. What use is that? What did humans ever do for us?"

Harry didn’t answer, and the android kept going.

“We’ve been fighting this goddamned war against the machines for thousands of years for humans to reclaim their planet . . . but it’s all for nought. Millions of us died over the years, but we’ve yet to win, and the humans have not even once shown their faces to us. They’ve never visited us. They’ve never spoken to us face-to-face. We’re sacrificing our lives for them, yet they’ve never shown even a glimpse of gratitude to us.”

He let out a bitter chuckle.

"I used to be on the front lines, you know? I was assigned to a Resistance Camp in the Indonesian Archipelago... but I couldn’t take it anymore. The war, the killing, the machines. About a century ago, our camp got overrun. We begged for reinforcements, but the so-called Army of Humanity ignored us. Never even picked up the call."

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Harry said in a subdued voice.

"My bad. I know this has nothing to do with you. I just don’t get many chances to talk about this stuff. That’s the price of deserting, I guess: loneliness. Still better than taking orders, though. I don’t regret it. That day, when the camp fell, I lost everything. I watched my brother get torn apart by the machines, and my wife. . . she shoved me out of the way of a laser beam. She died saving me."

“Those bastards from the Council of Humanity. . . From the beginning, we were nothing but sacrificial lambs for them. The humans don’t care about us. They left us there, all alone, to die.”

Silence settled in the aeroplane after the android finished talking about his frustrations. Time passed, and eventually, the island of Mauritius appeared below them.

“Whoa. . .” Harry let out a gasp of awe.

The island looked wild and untouched. Thick green forests covered the hills and mountains, their sharp rocky ridges jutting out of the ground. What stood out the most, however, was the beautiful, crystal-clear, blue water of the lagoons around the island. It was a sight like he had only ever seen on TV before.

However, at that moment, a feeling of danger washed over him. Was it because of his magic? Or maybe it was the sixth sense he had developed after all the times he had brushed past death? Whatever the reason, Harry suddenly shouted:

“Watch out!”

The smuggler had not noticed anything amiss, but at Harry’s shout, he reacted on instinct and yanked the controls. The plane rolled hard to the left just as a blinding beam of red light tore through the sky and sliced off the entire right wing.

“Fuck!” the android shouted as the ship shook violently.

Harry’s heart was hammering in his chest. If he had hesitated for even a second, and if the pilot had not listened, they would have been dead. That laser would have cut straight through the middle of the plane.

“We’ve been hit! We’re going down fast!” the android cried out as the aircraft started to spin wildly, the ocean below growing closer every second.

“Take off your seatbelt!” Harry yelled, gripping the armrest as alarms blared all around them. “Oy, you hear me? Take it off!”

Maybe it sounded too insane, or maybe the android just could not hear him over the chaos, but he did not try to unbuckle his seatbelt. Harry cursed under his breath, pulled out his wand, and cast a nonverbal Relashio on him. The seatbelt clicked open just before Harry pulled out from his pocket one of the emergency portkeys he had prepared ahead of time and threw it at the android, teleporting him away to safety, just outside Steelgate, in Japan.

As much as he wanted to keep his identity a secret, he could not just sit back and watch how other people died when he could save them.

A few moments after he teleported that android away, Harry took off his seatbelt, focused, and Disapparated from the aeroplane as well.

And it was not a second too late. Right after he reappeared in the air outside, his stomach twisted, and it was not because of the fact that he was in a free fall, several thousand metres above the ground. It was because another massive laser beam burst from the ground and tore through the aeroplane like a hot knife through butter, obliterating it.

‘Fuck, even my strongest Shielding Charm wouldn’t be able to stop that.’

Afraid that he would be next, Harry immediately Disapparated one more time, teleporting himself right on the beach below. Thankfully, teleporting had removed the momentum of his falling body, so he didn’t become a smear of blood on the ground when he Apparated.

Not wasting a second, Harry quickly jumped up to his feet and cast a Disillusionment Charm over himself, turning himself translucent, almost invisible. Then, he grabbed his flying broom from his charmed backpack and, after casting an invisibility spell on the broom too, he hopped on it and flew away from the island towards the sea.