[The Nexus] Chapter 5 - Devola and Popola (I)

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A sphere of white light appeared between the hands of both twins, and wisps of light surged into Nadia’s injured arm, closing the wound at a speed visible to the naked eye.

‘That’s definitely magic! But. . . how? Are they, perhaps, human?’

He brought his arm discreetly to his waist, to the wand holster hanging from his belt. 

‘Homenum Revelio,’ he chanted mentally. 

It was the incantation for the Human Presence Revealing spell. However, his spell did not detect any humans in a radius of 30 metres around him.

The two girls were not human. They were androids.

 

⁂

He was so startled by seeing the two girls perform magic that he didn’t realise that Malik and Jim grabbed him by the arms until he found himself being dragged forth and made to sit on the bed. 

Harry sighed. “Okay, I get it; I’ll let them have a look. You can let go of me now.”

They did let go of him, and, for a brief moment, Harry entertained the idea of Disapparating right away. But the thought of leaving his friends and disappearing from their lives made him hesitate. Even now, he was still hoping that there may still be a way to salvage the situation.

The twins bowed deeply in front of him. 

“Thank you so much for your help. But you shouldn’t get involved next time. It would only cause you problems.”

“I couldn’t just sit back and let him treat you like that! I don’t even know how the rest could watch and do nothing!” he said and turned to give his friends a pointed look. 

“That’s because we deserve it,” said the other girl. “This is our atonement.”

“Atonement for what?”

Instead of replying, they bowed again deeply and spoke at the same time:

“We’re sorry. We apologise.”

“What are you apologising for?” 

“We are grateful. No one ever stood up for us. But truly, it would be best not to get involved again. We . . . we don’t want others to suffer because of us again. But if you ever need anything, just let us know. We will repay this kindness.”

That entire interaction was confusing him to no end. What the girls said, however, gave him an idea. 

“If you want to repay your gratitude, I could use your help now.”

He wasn’t the type to cash in favours and demand things from people in that manner, but he just didn’t have a choice. 

“Definitely. What can we do?”

“Could you come closer? It’s a secret.”

The two girls exchanged a glance before leaning closer to Harry so that he could whisper in their ears. 

In the meantime, Harry's friends exchanged amused glances. In truth, nobody was blind to how beautiful the two healer-type androids were. 

“Look at him. Is he flirting with them?” said Nadia, chuckling. 

“He’s got game, I’ll give him that,” said Malik. 

“James, you dog, are you trying to ask them both out?” Reiner started laughing.

Had it been in any other circumstances, that joke would have made him sputter in denial, but now he actually leaned into it.

“Uh, yeah, I am. Any problem with that?”

His frank admission made his friends baulk at him, and the two red-haired girls became red in the face as well. 

Unbeknownst to Reiner and the rest, however, reality could not be any farther than their delusions. 

Beckoning the embarrassed girls closer, he said in a whisper that only they could hear:

“I need you to keep your calm. Could you promise me that?” 

His serious voice snapped the twins from their flustered state of mind.

“What do you mean?” the girl with wavy red hair asked. 

“Once you check my physical state, I’m certain you’ll freak out. I need you to keep your composure. No matter what you see, I need you to stay calm. It’s extremely important for me to keep this secret. Please!”

Although bewildered by his request, the girls glanced at each other before replying.

“. . . Okay. We can do that.”

“Yes, we’ll keep your secret.”

He let out a relieved sigh. 

“Thank you,” he said, his voice filled with gratitude. 

He had not told them directly that he was a human in hopes that the twins would not notice the fact that by themselves, as small as that chance may have been. But in case they did notice his real identity, he made them promise that they would keep his secret. 

The twin raised their hands, and spheres of golden light appeared in their palms again. 

Harry did not dare breathe as they worked their magic on him. 

Alas, his hopes and expectations were shattered when the twins let out a loud gasp and the spheres of magic in their hands shattered into myriad particles of light. 

Under the effect of their magic, Harry’s transfiguration spell had come undone. His brown hair turned raven-black, a lightning-bolt scar appeared on his forehead, and his eyes became a vibrant green.

“This. . . This can’t be!” the girl with straight red hair shouted in disbelief, her voice quivering. 

Her reaction was not to the change in Harry’s outward appearance but to the data that her diagnosis spell collected. Her sister’s face also morphed into an expression of shock, and she stepped back, bringing a hand to her mouth. 

“What happened?!” 

“What’s wrong??”

Reiner and Jim asked at the same time, anxious because of the girls’ exaggerated reaction. 

Joanna stared at Harry’s face in disbelief and so did Malik too. He looked almost identical to the large graffiti portrait of the human they had seen in the city not that long ago!

“Please. Keep it between us!” Harry begged, unaware of the fact that his disguise was broken and that his secret was already revealed. 

“Impossible. . . this is impossible!” the twin with straight hair said. Her eyes were wide, and her pupils dilated to the extreme as she walked to the bed with her hands raised in front of her as if she were in a trance. 

“After all this time? How can this be?!” 

Freaked out by their reaction, and due to his previous experience with the fanaticism of the first group of androids that he had met, Harry lost all his composure.  His hand went to his belt, and he drew out his wand out as quickly as possible. Wrapping his fingers around the handle of his holly wand, time seemed to slow down in his perception. 

The full length of his wand had just left the confines of its holster when the two girls’ eyes widened as if they had received an epiphany and threw themselves at him. 

Seeing them suddenly jumping towards him, his brain overclocked as he cast the fastest Disapparation spell he had ever cast in his entire life. 

Unfortunately, he had been a split second too late. The androids' reaction time was faster than his. Just before the space twisted and his body was sucked away, the two girls’ arms reached his chest. 

Reiner, Nadia, Joanna, Malik, Jim, and the dozen androids who had been waiting in line for their turn to get their wounds looked at all watched in shock as the space appeared to twist and Harry and the twins vanished into thin air. 

 

⁂

 

He grunted as he landed on the sand with a thud and then let out a yell of panic as an extremely heavy object crashed into his chest. 

It was so heavy that he couldn’t breathe. A choked scream of pain came from him as he felt his ribs creak and his sternum being pushed into his heart. The pain was so terrible that his sight turned white for several seconds, and his face turned an angry shade of purple, his eyes bulging almost as though they were about to leave their sockets. 

Fortunately, two seconds later, the immense weight pressing on his torso was lifted, and Harry gasped for air like a man who had almost drowned. 

It took him nearly ten seconds to regain his senses after almost being crushed to death. Finally taking note of his surroundings, Harry realised that he was outside the underground Android city, at the foot of the tallest Pyramid of Giza. 

But he was not alone. Two red-haired twin girls were holding one of his hands each, staring at him in a mixture of joy, disbelief, and anxiety. They had been pulled into the Disapparation, together with him. 

Holding his hand with both hands, the wavy-haired girl asked:

“Are you-, are you truly human?”

He tried pulling his hand out of her grasp, but the girl’s dainty hands were like a vice. He could not budge. Moreover, his wand was on the ground; he had dropped it after Apparating, and the heavy weight fell onto his chest. 

He realised then that the weight that had fallen on his chest and had almost killed him was the bodies of the two sisters. After all the time he had spent together with Reiner, Jim, and the rest of his friends, Harry knew that all androids, with no exception, were well over 100 kg. The average weight of an adult model android was around 150 kg. Between the two of them, despite their slender and petite appearance, the twin redheads weighed nearly 300 kg. 

“You are human, aren’t you?” the other sister asked too, making him turn his attention to her. 

The desperation he could hear in her voice could not be faked. 

“Yes, I am human. . .”

It was too late for him to play the fool now or to lie. 

‘Would the Memory Charm work on Android?’ he wondered.

But he gave up on that thought right away. 

‘No . . . I’ve never practiced this spell on anyone else before. They could turn out like Lockhart, or worse.’

As much as he wanted to keep his identity a secret, he could not risk destroying their lives like that. They had no fault. 

He bit his lower lip in distress. 

“Could you let go of me?"

The two girls trembled at hearing his request. 

“Don’t go away. Please.”

“Please, don’t disappear.” 

The girls begged, looking like they were on the verge of crying. It was as though it hurt them physically to let go of his hands. 

“I won’t disappear,” he said. 

Since the cat was out of the bag already, it was too late to cry over spilt milk. 

When they still didn’t let go of him, he added:

“I promise. I give you my word.”

Reticently, the two girls let go of his hands and then watched anxiously as he slowly moved to get his wand from the floor. However, for some reason, they made no move to stop him. 

He sighed in relief when he wrapped his hand around the handle of his wand and felt the familiar warmth of its magic connecting to him. This was a time when he needed his wand more than ever. Losing his wand in this world would be no different than a death sentence. 

“See? I didn’t disappear,” he said after grabbing his wand. “Now. . . Should I take you back to Memory Hold?” he asked eventually. “There were still many people waiting to be treated.”

Never taking her eyes away from him, the wavy-haired girl replied:

“We won’t leave you for anything in the world!”

“What about the injured?” he asked. 

“They can manage by themselves. We weren’t the only healer-type androids in the city,” the twin with straight hair answered. “They only came to us because we never charge them for our services.”

At her words, he ran a hand through his messy brown hair and sighed loudly. He wasn’t sure what to do next. 

“Let’s just. . . let’s just go somewhere else first, okay?”

He let out a grunt of pain as he tried to stand up from the ground. The pain only became worse when he got into a sitting position.

“I think I broke some ribs,” he said, his back and forehead breaking into a cold sweat from the pain. 

“Let’s take you back right away!”

“Yes, it’s not safe here! Let’s return to Memory Hold. We’ll treat you to the best of our ability!”

“Anything you want, you only need to ask!”

“Devola is right! There would be no higher honour for us than to serve you!”

“And not just us! Any other android! We would even give their lives for you!”

“Just don’t go! We need you! We all need you!”

Even a man with a heart made of stone would be moved by the two girls’ pleading voices, much less Harry. 

“Sorry. I won’t come back to Memory Hold.”

The desperate, crestfallen look on their face was so expressive that he could not help adding quickly:

“Listen, I don’t want to be treated like a god! I’m not a god! I don’t want you to worship me! I’m just. . . I’m just Harry. I’m just a guy. I didn’t create you or any of the androids!”

“Harry? Is that your name?” the girl with straight hair said in awe. It was as if she had filtered out everything else he had said and only heard his name. 

Harry felt like kicking himself. Caught in the moment, he had accidentally given them his real name. 

“I heard humans used to have two, or three, or even more names. Do you have any other names?” the twin with wavy hair asked, filled with excitement. 

A strong gale started blowing at that moment, and the three of them saw a massive brown cloud darkening the horizon. A big sandstorm was coming. 

‘We can’t stay here. . . but I can’t go back to Memory Hold after everyone saw me teleporting.’

Knowing that they had to find shelter before they were buried alive by the sandstorm, Harry had to make a decision, and he had to make it fast. 

‘I could just Disapparate now.’

However, his bleeding heart wouldn’t let him abandon the two girls after seeing their desperation. The strangeness of their behaviour was also far beyond that of the first group of androids that he had encountered. 

“What are your names?” he asked. 

“I’m Devola,” the girl with wavy hair said. 

“And I’m Popola,” the other sister also introduced herself. 

“Um, it’s nice to meet you. Devola, Popola, we have to leave before the sandstorm arrives. . . I gave you my word that I won’t leave you behind, so. . . I’ll take you with me. Grab my hand. I’m going to take you to my home.”

 

⁂

 

There were nearly 5000 kilometres between Egypt and Switzerland, where Harry’s home was. He could not possibly Apparate over such a long distance in one jump. He had to Apparate more than ten times. However, being squeezed through the Apparition spell so many times while his ribs were injured was no different from torture. 

By the time he finally made it home, his clothes were soaked with sweat, and he was exhausted from the pain.

Nevertheless, now that they were in a safe place, in no danger of being attacked by machines or being found by other Androids, Harry allowed himself to relax. 

Devola and Popola gawked at the interior of Harry’s cabin like mortals who climbed Mount Olympus and stumbled into the abode of the gods. But the wooden cabin was no work of art, nor was it crafted by the gods. It was just a simple cabin made from logs by a young man who had never built anything in his entire life. Magic did make everything stick together and looked rather nice at first glance but the lack of experience could be seen at a second glance. 

But to the twins, everything looked amazing for the sole reason that it was made by a human. 

Once they laid him on his bed, Harry cast a Bubblehead Charm on his head. A relieved sigh came from his mouth. It was not as though he would asphyxiate without that spell—he had spent many hours a day for several weeks together with his Android friends without the charm—but it was much easier to breathe with it. 

“What is that?” asked Popola curiously. 

“Not now, Popola. We’ll ask questions later. We have to treat him.”

“You’re right, Devola. I’m sorry.”

The girls sat on the edge of Harry’s bed, one on each side, and their hands lit with a golden light as they manipulated the maso in the atmosphere to heal him. 

He sighed in comfort as their magic washed over him and the pain in his chest vanished. But it didn’t stop there. A prickling sensation appeared in his eyes, and, in the next moment, Harry was shocked to realise that he could no longer see clearly through his glasses. 

Half an hour later, he sat up and took off his glasses. 

“Whoa!”

Not only had his chest injury disappeared, but, for the first time in his life, he could see the world clearly. It couldn’t be compared to wearing glasses. 

“We noticed you had a vision impairment, so we fixed that too,” said Popola, smiling when she noticed the change in his facial expression. 

“Thank you. Truly! This is brilliant.”

“No, it wasn’t much,” Devola and Popola said, glancing down, flushing in a mixture of elation and embarrassment at being praised. 

“I can’t imagine why the other androids would treat you like that when you’re so good at healing! And you were doing it for free too!"

“That. . . “ Popola began, only to trail off, unable to continue. 

“You don’t have to tell me anything if you don’t want to talk about it,” Harry said. 

As if to change the subject, he got out of bed and said:

“My clothes are soaked. I have to change. Could you give me some privacy?”

 

⁂

 

A few minutes later, Harry had not just changed his clothes; he had also taken a record-speed shower before going to the living room. 

Devola and Popola seemed to have not moved an inch from the sofa they were sitting on, waiting for him. 

“Give me a moment; I’ll prepare some tea.”

"Tea?"

"It's a drink that many humans enjoy. It was something everyone in my country used to like."

"Ah, no, we know what tea is. We just haven't had it in so long!"

"You don't have to drink if you don't want to."

"No, I want! I mean, I would be grateful to try it!" Devola almost shouted.

He inwardly cringed at their behaviour. Even someone like Ron would be able to tell how anxious the two girls were. 

He cast a Heating Charm on the kettle and then poured the boiling water into teacups. Then, he took out the dandelion tea from the cupboard and put two teabags into each cup before levitating them on the coffee table in front of the sofa. 

“This is dandelion tea. I’m sorry, I don’t have any sugar. My magic can’t create food out of nothing. Even these dandelion petals, I collected them myself before putting them into tea bags. Um, anyway. . . you can give it a try. Drink slowly, in small gulps, so that you don’t burn your tongue. 

After saying that, it occurred to him that they were androids and something as simple as boiling water wouldn’t be enough to harm them. He scratched the back of his head. 

“It smells nice,” Devola said. “And the taste-”

“It’s a little sweet. I like it. I like it a lot,” said Popola. 

But, to Harry’s surprise, the girl’s eyes filled with tears. 

“Popola. . .” her sister called out her name. 

“What happened?” he asked.

He didn’t understand what could have caused the girl to start crying. It made him remember his disastrous date with Cho Chang. He wasn’t the best at understanding what human girls thought and felt, to say nothing about android girls.

“Is something wrong with the tea?” 

“No, the tea is great,” said Popola and took another gulp. “It’s the best thing I’ve ever drunk.”

But then she started crying even harder. 

“Popola,” Devola said softly as she left her cup on the table and placed her hand on Popola’s forearm. 

“I’m sorry,” Popola apologised while trying to wipe the tears falling from her eyes with the back of her hand. “I’m so sorry.”

Utterly confused, Harry could only sit and stare, not knowing what to say or what would be an appropriate reaction. 

“Truthfully. . . you’ve shown us too much grace,” Devola said while glancing down at her lap. “Popola and I. . . we don’t deserve such kindness. We are sinners. What we did could never be forgiven.”

“Sinners? . . . What does this mean? What did you do?”

“It’s a very long story. But if you’re willing to listen-”

“I am,” Harry said. “So please, don’t cry anymore."

Devola nodded before starting to speak:

“It all started in June, 2003 AD, when two mythical beings fell from the sky, from another dimension, in Japan, Tokyo. They were an enormous giant and a red dragon. They fought to the death, and the red dragon emerged victorious. But their fight caused many deaths, so the government of that country launched an airstrike against the dragon, killing it too.”

At the mention of a giant and a dragon, Harry started listening with rapt attention. 

“But after the giant fell, its body disintegrated into tiny particles that spread into the air over the entire city. The number of deaths caused by the dragon's and the giant’s battle was nothing compared to what followed next. The particles from the giant’s body gave birth to the deadliest illness in human history: the White Chlorination Syndrome.”

“It was an infection that caused cell structure to mutate within subcutaneous tissue under the skin, resulting in ‘chlorination’ as the cells begin to transmute into sodium chloride. Eventually, those who were afflicted turned into creatures resembling statues of salt, and they either perished or became violent and started attacking their fellow humans.”

Devola paused for a few moments to take another sip from her cup of tea.

“There was no cure for this illness. It spread over the entire world; it was a pandemic like the Earth had never seen. It reached the point where Humanity was on the brink of extinction. Driven into a corner, people came up with an idea: ‘We can separate the human soul from its body. And when we are cured of illness, we can transfer the soul into a vessel created to look just like humans'. Those vessels were artificial humans bearing the appearance and genetic data of the original humans but not their souls. They were called Replicants; soulless clones whose sole purpose was to live while the souls of the real humans would be in hibernation, waiting for the day when a cure to illness was found. . . Humans named this concept ‘Project Gestalt’.”

The story sounded surreal, but after travelling ten thousand years into the future and seeing the ruined state of the world and the absence of any humans, nothing sounded impossible to his ears anymore. 

“Something went wrong, didn’t it?” he said. 

“Yes,” Popola replied this time. “We lost control of it.”

“It wasn’t us exactly,” said Devola. “There used to be many more models like us, bearing the same name, appearance, and abilities. We were just the newest model. All of us were created in pairs and ordered to supervise Project Gestalt, each pair being assigned to a city to observe.”

“But at some point, one pair became unable to control the Replicants that were created to serve Humanity. The Gestalts, the souls of the humans who were hibernating, also started losing their sentience, relapsing. As a result, Project Gestalt failed. . . Humanity went extinct.”

That last sentence came so abruptly that it caught Harry unprepared. 

“What do you mean by that?!”

Devola flinched. 

“It's as we said. . . The souls of the humans began losing their sentience, turning berserk, and, in turn, the replicants became corrupted. In the end, they were all annihilated. . . Humanity went extinct. And it happened because of that pair of Devola and Popola. Since then, only Androids were left on Earth,” Popola said. “The secret of humanity’s extinction was hidden but those of us who were of the same model as the pair of Devola and Popola who had failed became hated by all.”

“How does this make any sense? It wasn’t the two of you!” Harry said in confusion. 

“Even so, we have to atone for our sins!”

“I’m not following. What did you two in particular do? Did you fail that project?"

“We didn’t. But-”

[...]

⁂

 

Sitting on the porch of his wooden cabin and looking at the beautiful scenery around him, it was easy to forget that he was in a post-apocalyptic world dominated by machine lifeforms and androids. The sun shining in the clear sky, the snowy mountain peaks glittering like silver in the sunlight, and the chirps of birds created an almost magical ambience. 

But when his mind went back to the fact that two android girls were sleeping in his bedroom, he was broken out of his reverie and brought back to reality. 

‘Good grief. How did you get yourself into this mess, mate?’

The habit of talking to himself that he had developed during the long period of loneliness since coming to the future reared its head again. 

‘Humanity went extinct. . . then what is the Council of Humanity? If what Devola and Popola are saying is true, why do all the androids still believe there are humans on the moon? Are they all being manipulated in order to continue fighting the machines? Or are the twins wrong?’

The twins had not finished their tale because they broke into crying, overwhlemed from guilt and sorrow.

He let out a sigh and went inside. Although there were no actual nights on this side of the planet, it was late. It was time for him to get some rest. 

Seeing as he had insisted on letting the girls sleep in his bed, Harry went to the couch and, with a wave of his wand, he transfigured it into a single-person bed. He also conjured two pillows and a blanket for himself before getting in bed. 

But sleep didn’t come easy to him that night. 

‘I’m the last human alive . . .’

He could not stop thinking about it. After spending an entire year in loneliness and then hearing from his android friends that they had never seen a human despite being alive for centuries, deep down, Harry unconsciously began to prepare himself for the worst. 

Nevertheless, the difference between suspecting something and having it confirmed was enormous.

It filled him with an existential dread and despair. 

In an attempt to stop wallowing in grief about his bleak and desolate future, Harry willed himself to think about Devola and Popola. 

‘I don’t understand what’s wrong with them. They know that they aren’t the original pair who had been responsible for the failure of the Project Gestalt.’

‘They’re innocent. So why are they feeling guilty about what the other models did?’

‘Why are they beating themselves so much over it?’

It was to the extent that they would accept getting bullied and abused by their fellow androids without a word of complaint, only bowing and apologising at the terrible way the others treated them. 

'And why are the other androids treating them so badly if the secret of humanity’s extinction was hidden from them?’

‘What the fuck is wrong with this world? With these androids too? What kind of messed up reality is this?’

He twisted and turned in his bed for hours, unable to fall asleep. His spirit was too agitated, and his mind was a mess. 

‘Wait, what if Devola and Popola are just wrong? What are the chances that they are right while thousands of other androids are wrong?’ 

‘If anything, the two of them don’t sound like they’re mentally healthy.‘

‘Mhm. It’s better to wait until I gather more information. It's too early to give up.’

Maybe things weren't as bad as they seemed. Maybe he wasn't the last human alive. Maybe there were others out there too.

It was only after telling himself those words that Harry found a semblance of calm and clarity, and he closed his eyes, falling asleep. 


⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂

AN: Devola and Popola, screenshot from the anime