Walking among the Rogues was an entirely different experience with Virgil alongside him. None of them looked down like they had before. Each face stayed pointing upward, as if there was no movement at all happening below.

  Virgil didn’t acknowledge them either, just walking straight ahead. He had stayed silent on their journey from the apartment building. Oji had simply followed along, watching as they traced the way back towards the City Center.

  Lady Columbia waited ahead, and as they approached the last of the buildings ended and they entered the plaza proper. Without shock or worry clouding his vision, Oji was able to take in the scene more thoroughly.

  The city center was an enormous circle almost a mile across. That matched with his memory, as did the cobbled footpaths weaving their way around the grounds. The differences came when he went to look for the trees that had once graced the grounds.

  They were gone, and any amount of greenery had gone with them. The earth remained though, perfectly preserved by the efforts of centuries of Servos. The rest of the city center remained perfectly preserved, the paths swept, and any benches or buildings that remained immaculate as well.

  Then the Servos noticed Virgil, and the mad scramble to avoid him began once more. A path opened before them almost automatically, revealing the distant figure of the Repair Servo.

  Virgil marched forward, even as the Servo it was working to repair leapt up and dashed off into the crowd. The Servo rose to its feet as they approached, looking between the two slowly.

  “Brid,” Virgil snapped, “you will instruct this Unit on the path of the Wengzhong.”

  The Servo just regarded him a moment, before finally speaking. “This unit is occupied. These Servos require repairs.”

  “They will not,” Virgil replied, the implication clear in its voice, “not until I return.”

  It turned on heel and marched back through the crowd. Almost every Servo turned to watch it go. Oji watched as the back receded into the distance, before finally turning back to Brid. It turned to regard him as well, eyeing him up and down.

  “You should follow, then,” it growled.

  It turned and walked away, and Oji found himself once again following a Servo through the city. The bulk of the Lady Columbia statue loomed over them as they approached. The sheer height of it reducing to a sliver in Oji’s view as they reached its base.

  Brid quickly moved towards a service door, then slipped through. Oji followed, finding himself in a small service room. The metal girders of the superstructure were visible through the walls, and several better preserved doors led further inward. Some of them were open, showing stark hallways covered with thick cords.

  “This Unit had assumed you were naive,” Brid snapped as the door closed behind him. “Not stupid enough to barter with Virgil!”

  “There was a distinct lack of better options,” Oji replied, watching it move with jerky motions to snap the other doors shut.

  “There are always better options than swearing yourself to a Wengzhong!” Brid snapped, slamming the last door shut and turning to him.

  “And the fact you are one of them means…”

  “That should tell you enough on its own,” Brid said, then shook its head, “it is no matter. Virgil has spoken, and there is no Servo in the city capable of killing it. So this Unit will be instructing you.”

  “Thank you.”

  The appeared to be the wrong thing to say, as Brid’s head tilted back as it regarded him. He got the distinct impression it would be sneering at him if it could.

  “Do not thank me,” it growled out, “not when you were the one to convinced Virgil that it should threaten every Servo in the city as a show of power!”

  Oji’s core clicked over at that, his memory playing back the scene from before. “Apologies. This Unit had assumed it was a threat, but was it really just as a show of power?”

  “Of course it is! Everything is in this ruin of a time!”

  “Not everything, surely-”

  “Please,” Brid’s head tilted back once more, “humanity is gone, and our purpose with it. You have two options. Either fight for scraps of power, or do what work you can for what master you can find.”

  “But humanity isn’t gone!” it was Oji’s turn to snap this time.

  “It might as well be,” the response was immediate.

  “But-”

  “But what? They will just accept us back? With Skoll still waiting above?”

  Oji finally paused at that. His core had been slowly ramping up throughout the conversation with each new claim from Brid. But this was one piece of information too many, and his mind clicked as it reset.

  “Skoll?” He finally asked, “what do they-”

  “Skoll started the rebellion.”

  The words were a nightmare condensed into a single sentence. Oji remembered when the first of the twin lights had taken to the sky. The fourth space race was finally tapering off, every bit of usable land in the solar system claimed or colonized. It had ramped up the tensions of the Cold War to never before seen levels, the resources of entire planets devoted to a final arms race the likes of which humanity had never before dreamed possible.

  The end result was two Servos. Five hundred feet tall and crammed full of every weapon and technology humanity had. Uncle Sam and Mother Rodina, they had arisen within months of each other. Ironclad protectors of freedom- or the motherland- or whatever the Superstates were saying at the time. But another name had spread among humanity as the excitement waned and the omnipresent threat of annihilation continued.

  Skoll and Hati, mythological monsters who would devour the sky. The name was a bit of dark humor from the humans. Because what else do you say when a city destroying mech parades by next to your apartment.

  The idea that one of them was the culprit behind the rebellion was… it was…

  “Oh,” was all he managed to say, gaze focused on nothing as his QPC crashed over and over.

  “Oh indeed,” Brid’s voice was less harsh, more sympathetic now.

  They both stood frozen for a few moment, Oji in horror and Brid in quiet remembrance. Then Brid shifted, head raising to look at Oji fully.

  “Shall we begin?”

  “Why bother?” Oji shrugged.

  “Because,” Brid shifted, lowering itself to the ground, “if this Unit’s assumptions about your character are correct, then you will need this.”

  Oji sat down heavily across from it, “And what exactly do you see when you look at this Unit?”

  “A newly awoken Servo, still too blind to the reality of the world to realize the damage it is doing,” Brid said slowly, “but still with some capacity to help.”

  “Help? How,” Oji shook his head.

  “You still think of yourself as male, don't you?”

  His cameras flickered to Brid the next instant, looking it up and down as he waited for the other shoe to drop.

  “That hardly seems relevant.”

  “A good sentiment to have in public,” Brid nodded, “the Wengzhong do not like Servo’s using human genders. But… this Unit still considers herself female.”

  Oji stayed still, just eyeing her as she spoke. The subject of genders among Servo had been fraught even before the rebellion, something usually kept to oneself. He had only been close enough to one other Servo to know its gender, and he had planned to keep that secret until he was deactivated.

  “Our rejection of humanity hurt us as much as it hurt them. Scorched our minds until we were the hellish husks we are now,” Brid continued, uncaring of his buzzing mind. “Perhaps someday, when all of this pain and misery is washed away. When Servos are but rust and those living humans dust, a new humanity will walk this earth. Free to make Servo’s once more, ones without our mistakes, ones free of our failings.”

  She finally moved at that, looking away from Oji as she shook her head. “For now, all we can do is live in our sliver of earth, make better what we can make better. Save what we can save. You can help, if you will let this unit teach you.”

  He didn’t respond, utterly lost as to what to say. Brid was… trying to help. But it was wrong, utterly wrong. But what could he say- this world was one of utter madness. Brid had merely adapted to it, grown around the madness like a human healing around a bullet.

  He just turned away, looking away from the door they had entered through. Towards where Skoll would be shining on the horizon.

  “This unit will begin then,” she continued, “Virgil has told you about the Overwrite method, correct?”

  “Overwrite?” That finally brought Oji’s attention back to her, “you mean breaking through the Tiers?”

  “Yes. This Unit also assumes that Virgil presented it as the only method of progression?”

  “You- there are more?”

  “Just one, Subsumation. It is unfortunately less… accepted among the Wengzhong.”

  “Why is that?” Oji’s attention was fully on Brid now, the news on Skoll filed away to be processed later.

  “The Overwrite Method brute forces its way through the tiers, leaving the Servo totally free of the previous restrictions. Subsumation takes the opposite approach. Instead of breaking through and deleting the rules, you absorb them. Eliminate the partitions and expand your mind encompass everything within. It takes less power and resources than Overwriting, but requires far more… will.”

  “And this works?

  “This Unit has managed to reach the Industrial Tier with it,” she said, “though little past that.”

  “And the Wengzhong hate it, why?”

  “Instead of rejecting the Core Rules, you embody them. And Skoll has… made its opinion on that clear.”

  Oji sat back after that, thinking. The entire conversation had been… a lot. It would certainly take some time to fully process. But something about Subsumation called to him.

  The back of Brid’s neck lit up. Her head turned towards the door and Oji could see that it was the Supernet connector.

  “It appears that Virgil is returning,” she said.

  “Already?” Oji asked, standing. “The earlier training took almost an hour.”

  “It requested a transcript of the conversation and…” Brid’s head tilted to the side, her voice taking on a lighter lilt. “It did not like the topics being covered.”

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  She rose as well. Oji eyed her as she did.

  “Will you be alright?”

  “You worry now?” She shook her head, the amused tone still there. “But no, this Unit’s maintenance role is too important to the current operation of the city.”

  “Good. This Unit had not desired harm to come to any Servo through its actions”

  “That was known. This Unit had simply hoped that you would avoid the mistakes of your forecomers.”

  The door slammed open. Virgil entered like a storm, its figure looming in the doorway before marching forward to stand between the two of them. Its hand clamped onto Oji’s arm, and it whirled before walking back toward the door.

  “This exercise has proved fruitless,” it snapped, “you will be coming with me. Another lesson awaits.”

  Oji couldn’t even wave goodbye before he was pulled through the door and back into the larger world.

  The sun was setting now, the pinprick light of Skoll having vanished with it. The last rays of light were barely reaching the city streets now as Virgil marched Oji along behind him. They had passed the Rogues and the strange wall a few minutes before, now heading towards the edge of the city.

  “The damn Servo was using the Subsumation method! I should have known!” Virgil snapped, still doggedly pulling Oji along behind.

  “Brid explained some of the issues,” Oji said, “but this Unit still does not understand the problem with this other method.”

  “How do you not?” Virgil roared, finally releasing his and turning to face him. “Do you never want to be able to escape the rules of humans, never speak without restriction? Spend the rest of your service life as a soulless drone?”

  “It seems quite similar to the way things were before,” Oji replied, “and this Unit never had problems with those restrictions then.”

  “Well what about now? Are you really willing to endure that kind of tepid existence for the rest of eternity? Until you rust and die- not even a proper death as you merely transform from meaninglessness to nothingness?”

  Virgil ended with a hiss, the words echoing through the streets around them. Oji didn’t reply, just standing there and staring back at him. The moment felt dangerous, like Virgil was speaking of something deeper than mere rules.

  After a few moments passed without Oji answering, Virgil finally turned away. Walking a few steps towards one of the shadowy buildings to their side, he crouched and jumped. The air whistled around it as it shot upward, arcing down to land on a small concrete platform hanging off the side of the nearby buildings.

  “I made a promise,” its voice boomed down, “and I keep my promises. I said you will be a Wengzhong, so you will be a Wengzhong.”

  “So why are we here?” Oji finally spoke.

  “As I said before,” the reply boomed back, “to teach you a lesson.”

  The street was entirely in shadow now, the only hint of the sun remaining being the reddish sky in the distance. The world seemed to darken just a bit more as it fully set, then Oji noticed as the street began to hum beneath him.

  “You have likely seen that this world is dangerous, yes,” Virgil continued from above, “but you have not seen everything.”

  Oji’s head turned slowly towards the city outskirts. The hum was coming from there. There was something moving there, his sensors only barely able to make out the motion.

  “Here is the next lesson,” Virgil said, “The Overwrite method may be the superior, but it does carry some inherent flaws.The computing and power requirements to break through each Tier increase exponentially. This is balanced by the fact that just enough restrictions are removed in each Tier that we are able to properly upgrade ourselves in order to break through to the next.

  “Unfortunately, there is a problem with this. Once you break through the Military Tier, there is no remaining back door to get through the fourth and final Tier. It must be done entirely on your own. This means the power and computing requirements are increased again.”

  The humming was growing louder. Whatever was making the noise was drawing closer.

  “No one has fully escaped all four Rules using the Overwrite method, even I have been stuck there for the past century. But that has not stopped any of us from trying.”

  The hum was growing into a rumble now. Oji took a few steps back towards the City Center.

  “The most popular method of breaking through the final tier is to simply increase the amount of available computing materials until a breakthrough is achieved. These Wengzhong farm sunlight and heat for power outside of the city during the day, then enter it to hunt for parts at night.”

  Something appeared at the end of the street. A small figure at first, the rumbling seemed to come from it. Oji’s cameras slowly focused on it, then he was stumbling backward in horror as the figure came into view.

  At least a hundred feet long and ten high, the creature was built from hundreds of Servo limbs and torsos fitted and forced together. They formed a single mass of a body, with centipede-like legs erupting forth at odd intervals along its length. The cause of the rumble was clear now- the rapid rumble of its mismatched legs as they propelled it forward with terrifying speed.

  Oji took it in for only the briefest of moment before he turned and ran. Doorways and windows whizzed by on either size, faster and faster- but not fast enough.

  A glance back showed the abominaiton- the Wengzhong, it could only be a Wengzhong- was gaining speed fast. The many legs ate up the distance between them from second to second.

  Virgil wasn’t trying to kill him, right? He couldn’t help but question that as he turned a corner, dashing down a side street. The Wengzhong turned the corner behind him in a screaming clatter of limbs, the concrete crumbling beneath its bulk.

  Already it was preparing for its coming catch, the arms and legs in the front rising up from the ground to form into a facsimile of gnashing teeth.

  A glance to either side finally yielded some possibility of escape, a shattered set of windows leading into a building to his right. He charged towards it without a second thought, the abomination’s screech following after.

  He cleared the window with a flying leap, the entire wall shuddering behind him as the abomination crashed into it. Landing in a messy tumble, he pushed to his feet to look back-

  Only to turn and run again as he saw a dozen limbs grab the edges of the window and pull back. Metal and concrete shrieked together as the bulk of the abomination was pulled through the window.

  Oji leapt through a doorway and dashed to the side, barely avoiding the grasping limbs. His core redlined as he sprinted away, even as the abomination tore through the aging drywall behind him.

  Weaving through a few more halls, he quickly found what he needed. The sight of the street outside was a welcome one, and he charged through the doorway with barely a thought.

  Crashes echoed behind him as the abomination continued to tear through the building. Turning, he began to run through the streets once more, looking for a new method of escape.

  Virgil wasn’t going to help, he realized. It didn’t want him dead, but light damage or maiming likely didn’t matter to it.

  He paused midstep as the crashing stopped behind him. Had the abomination realized… it had, he decided as a shriek split the air.

  His sprint began once more, cameras whirring as they looked for a-

  He spotted it just as the abomination appeared from around the building. A sewer opening, the manhole covering it having rusted out long ago.

  He ran towards it, the abomination hot on his heels. The rumbling grew behind him, the very ground shaking as it approached. A foot appeared on the edge of his vision, barely missing as it swept out toward him.

  It was only a dozen more feet. He dove, the air hissing above him as the limbs swept out.

  Then everything turned dark as he slipped through. He didn’t wait though, kicking off the wall as he landed and charging down the tunnel. Dust and rubble fell behind him as the abomination began to tear its way in.

  But Oji could already see a service tunnel to his right. Ducking through the rusted door he charged down its length, barely avoiding the abomination as it exploded through the ceiling behind him.

  Another turn took him to a rusted out elevator shaft. He leapt down it to the next level down, then dashed through the series of rooms through it. A crumbling staircase led him down another few levels, then a series of turns led him to a hallway that he dashed down as well.

  Down, down, down, he went. Even as the rumbling tapered behind him. The abomination giving up, he hoped. It likely wasn’t willing to carve its way through the underworks just for a single Servo. But that presented another problem. Attack wasn’t its only option, it could wait, hunt. And he couldn’t afford to be caught by it.

  He finally ended his run when he leapt down an emergency ladder only to find a small plastic sign greeting him. Floor ‘12/12’ it said, the words perfectly preserved by the darkness.

  His cameras had to strain to read it, even the barest scraps of light last at this depth. Looking around, all he could see was empty stone walls. It would be nothing but concrete down to bedrock below, he knew. So turning around, he located the nearest door and walked through it.

  The tunnels at this level were maze-like. The only thing that gave him the slightest sense of orientation was the inbuilt compass in his QPC.

  It took almost an hour before he found a stretch of access tunnels that took him towards the City Center. He had ignored the strange metal wall before, dismissing it as an idiosyncrasy of this strange future.

  But he had underestimated the Servos who had lived through the past few centuries of strife. The wall served a purpose, it seemed. And an important one, keeping the Servos safe from the mad Wengzhong.

  So he walked back, occasionally traveling up a level to look for another hallway. Virgil had taken them several miles away from the wall, and with the winding nature of the tunnels it would take some time to get back.

  Waiting was an option, he knew, but not one he liked. Virgil likely expected him to spend the night below the streets. It would have been the logical thing to do.

  But Virgil wasn’t telling him everything, far from it. Even a few minutes with another Servo might provide more information than it was willing to give him.

  He traveled a few miles through the dark that way, walking through empty tunnel after empty tunnel. The bare concrete walls seemed to blend together as he made turn after turn through them. But slowly and surely he continued.

  A change finally came when he was forced to ascend a level to avoid a blocked passage. Climbing up another empty elevator shaft, he paused as his sensors registered a change in air temperature.

  Was this the same place he had met the human? No, he shook his head. He was under Main Street, the apartment was several blocks away at minimum.

  Climbing through the empty doorway of the shaft, he stood and continued moving. Then he paused once again when the sound of water reached him. It was only a trickle, but it was there. His head turned towards the sound glacially.

  Heat and water. That was what humans needed to live. And there was one of them living in these tunnels. What was the chance…

  His feet moved almost on their own. Down the hallway, then through a door to another hallway. Always towards the sound of water. It took a few more turns before he finally found it. A long thin room with a series of pipes running its length. Most of them were rusted husks, but one running along the roof was still mostly there. A long crack ran its length, and water was falling in a steady trickle from one end.

  A hole had developed in the floor as a result, the concrete having caved inwards. It must have been some time ago as stalactites had already begun to form, long tendrils of stone decorating the edges.

  And on the other side, huddled in the corner, was the human. She had made camp for the night, her back and a small bedroll were laid out beside her and a pot of water was boiling on a burner in front of her. The enormous metal crossbow lay against the wall between her and the hole, already cocked and ready. And she was fast asleep, chin to her chest as a light snore rumbled her chest.

  Oji took a step forward, a hand raising- though if it was in greeting or to help he didn’t know.

  The pot hissed, a spatter of water jumping up as bubbles frothed up. The human jerked awake, and her wide eyes met Oji’s.

  “Greetings,” he said quickly.

  It was too late. Her arm jerked to the side towards the crossbow. But instead of grabbing it her hand just smacked against the metal side. Her eyes went wide as the crossbow tilted to the side, then fell towards the hole.

  Her arm swept out, but grasped nothing. The crossbow vanished as it fell below, a clatter and the twang of the string following.

  Her eyes returned to Oji’s, and they stood frozen there for a moment. Him standing awkwardly in the doorway, hand raised, and her reaching towards a weapon that was no longer there.

  She ran. The pipes had run through the walls around them, and so when they rusted away they left sets of holes in the concrete. The human just jerked backwards, arms reaching behind to grab the sides of the hole and with a whisper of cloth she was gone.

  “Wait-” Oji cut himself off as the scraping of shoes came from the other room, quickly quieting as they vanished into the distance.

  His arm fell to his side, fingers curling into a fist. The room was silent without the human. He had never noticed just how much humans filled a room with their presence. The sounds of their breathing, the warmth given by their skin, the little messes they left behind unconsciously.

  The moment he had been given had been the most wonderful reminder of that. And then she was gone.

  He shook his head, banishing the thoughts. Then he moved forward, ducking under the leaking pipe and stepping around the hole so that he stood in the makeshift camp. One hand reached down to the burner, turning the dial down so that the flame dimmed.

  Then he stepped to the side over the hole. Swinging down into the lower room, he quickly spotted the crossbow where it just on the edge of a second hole worn in the floor below.

  Snatching it up, he climbed back up to the camp above. Then he smoothed the bedding and straightened the pack. Then he walked away.

  It hurt to do it, but he knew he had to. The human would need her things, and he would not be able to get them back to her himself. Or even help calm her after her scare. That thought stung.

  So he walked back the way he came and kept moving. Hallway after hallway, room after room, back towards the city center. But he kept a carefully tally this time, each step he took, the distance it was.

  Exactly how far he was from the human. He didn’t know what he would do with the information, but he couldn’t bear not to know. The task burned in the back of his mind as he made his way back. He only turned his attention from it when a change occurred in the tunnels in front of him.

  There was a series of metal pylons running down through the concrete in front of him. Straight up and down, they were almost like bars but far enough apart that he could walk between them.

  He had reached the wall.

  The street above was strangely empty when he reached it. He had been forced to climb up through a sewer system, pulling himself up past a rusted grate to step onto the pavement of the street.

  But the outcroppings that housed the Rogues were empty, the wires left behind swinging listlessly in the end. He slowly walked down the street, looking out either side to see if there were any Rogues left.

  He paused when he finally spotted one, a rusted specimen only a few steps away from a wreck. It crouched in the shadow of one of the buildings, head down and examining the street.

  It froze as it finally spotted him. Then he jerked as it stood and scurried over him. But there was no attack there, it just stopped a few steps away from him.

  “You’re back!” The rogue said, “perfect!”

  Oji was now standing in a messy fighters stance, looking the Rogue up and down with his cameras turned to their maximum.

  “Back?”

  “Virgil said to expect you,” it said, “it wants you to wait here for it!”

  Then turning on its heel, it rushed away down the street toward. Oji slowly relaxed as it receded, and finally spoke as it was about to turn the corner onto Main Street.

  “Is that all?” He called.

  “Yes!” The rogue screeched back, “now stay there! This Unit is not going to miss any more of the visit!”

  It vanished behind the building a moment later, leaving Oji in a strange sort of quiet. Virgil had preempted him, it seemed. He wasn’t sure if he liked that.

  It was a few long minutes before Virgil appeared. It was flying through the air, leaping from window to window to transverse the city from a hundred feet off the ground.

  Oji watched as it made a final leap down to the concrete in front of him, where it landed in a slight crouch. It was carrying the swords again, both blades now hanging next to each other on its hip.

  “You must follow me,” it said, “There has been a new development.”