The Man In The Machine

by Silas Vale

  She stopped herself, and after a second stood up. "I'm going to clean myself up and call Terry." Terry was her brother. "I'm going to get him to help me change the locks."

  Blake sighed, standing. "Well, young lady, you've cared for yourself for long enough." She took Willow by the arm and led her around the house, presumably searching for a bathroom without having the gall to ask where to find one, before she found it and closed both of them inside.

  "Sit down." She said, pointing at the side of the tub while she took a cloth down from the top of the medicine cabinet.

  "I'm going to help you, and if you try to resist, I'll tell Aisling that her mommy wouldn't let me give her a makeover."

  That was a low blow.

  Willow stared at her for a moment or two, before she sighed and sat down on the edge of the bathtub. She wasn't in the mood for any more arguing, and honestly, she was just tired. Tired and worried about Marcus coming back for revenge before she could put proper precautions into place. She tucked her hair behind her ears, and stared vacantly down at the floor as she waited for Blake to get everything she needed.

  … She wasn't used to being cared for like this.

  "… Why are you doing this?" She asked after a moment. "You haven't seen me in years."

  Blake looked at her with a sad smile as she continued getting down all the stuff she needed; peroxide, makeup, towels, alcohol. Everything she'd need to make Aisling laugh, and Willow roll her eyes.

  "Willow, honey. I think you've forgotten what love actually is."

  With that, she set to work, using almost everything in the bathroom on Willow's face, a small smile on her lips as she worked.

  Blake was always a wizard with makeup, but then again… Her and Willow had very different styles.

  So when Willow looked in the mirror to find her wounds perfectly concealed, she would have been perfectly happy.

  … Had she not looked like a gothic screamo band member from circa 2007.

  Willow stared at herself in the mirror, and after a moment a slight smile broke through the emotional fog that had been clouding her mind. She shook her head, looking down at the counter before looking up at herself again. "I hope you know that I'm not wearing this out of this bathroom." She raised an eyebrow, looking towards Blake and gesturing to the makeup that was covering her face and the wounds it bore.

  It took her back to her heavy metal and rebellious phase, and she mulled over the thought of those times fondly.

  Things had been so much nicer back then.

  "Oh, I think you'll find that you will be." She said, opening the door. Without warning, she wrapped her arms around Willow’s waist, lifting her into the air and carrying her out of the bathroom.

  "Aisling!" Blake called, the name strange and foreign in her mouth. The fact that Willow had a child… It was almost absurd. They had such vastly different lifestyles, considering Blake was still living in a dreary, dark apartment.

  Willow had a house. A little girl.

  An ex-lover.

  "Come see your gorgeous mother!"

  "Blake!" Willow squeaked, struggling slightly to get out of her grasp so she could try and save her dignity before Aisling saw her.

  But it was too late, as the child came wandering out of the kitchen, an ice cream sandwich in hand and a Bengal cat following behind her. "What is it?" She frowned slightly, and then looked up at her mother who looked down at her like a deer in the headlights.

  And then she started to giggle.

  She laughed, looking up at her mother as her eyes crinkled in amusement. "You look so silly!" She grinned, and Willow relaxed with a smile. She might've looked ridiculous, but she was glad to see Aisling happy.

  Blake smiled, setting Willow down before she looked at both of them in silence.

  "You have a beautiful daughter, Willow." Blake said softly, a bit of a sad note in her voice. By this point, Emma would be gone, having taken all of her things from Blake's apartment and going off somewhere.

  For good this time.

  Even through all the fighting, Blake had truly felt something for Emma. She'd been kind, sweet, and usually forgiving.

  The sadness must have worked its way onto her face, because she turned, hiding her features from the two of them.

  "Well. You should call Terry. I won't be leaving until he gets here."

  Willow heard the tone in her voice, and after a moment reached out and took Blake's hand. "I don't think you can leave just yet." Her eyes held the same mischievous twinkle they had so long ago, and she gave Blake's hand a squeeze.

  They were both hurting, and Willow didn't plan on letting her go.

  "I think there are some ice cream sandwiches in the kitchen that need eating." She raised an eyebrow, casting a glance to Aisling who grinned and nodded her head eagerly. The child ran over, taking Blake's free hand with her own, and started dragging her towards the kitchen.

  "They're Neapolitan!" She grinned, looking back at Blake. "And mom makes really good cookies too!"

  Blake was going to argue, but eventually she gave in. If Willow humored her with a makeover, she would humor her with an ice cream sandwich.

  God knows how long it had been since she'd had anything sweet. She didn't have the money to afford much more than ramen and a few delicacies, such as boxes of cereal.

  So she'd indulge.

  "Did you make them yourself?" She asked Aisling, a whisper of a smile playing at her lips.

  "I did!" Aisling nodded, looking up at her with a chubby-cheeked smile and gesturing to the messy ice cream sandwiches sitting on the island of the kitchen. "They're really good! You can have two, since you're a guest."

  Willow pulled out her phone, texting someone Blake hoped was Terry.

  Mitzy, Aisling's cat, weaved between Blake's feet and then jumped up onto the table. At the very least, Willow had gotten the cat she had always wanted, even though it was more her daughter's cat than anything.

  Blake smiled, resting a hand lightly on the cat's head as she took one of the sandwiches. Blake hadn't had anything so sugary in a long time, but… It was good. Aisling had managed to get every flavor of Neapolitan into the small frame of the cookie, which was an accomplishment.

  She smiled as she finished it off, lifting the cat and sitting down with it in her lap.

  "So I see you don't do much partying anymore." She said to Willow, glancing around the house.

  It was very… Adult.

  Blake didn't like it.

  "I don't really have time for it anymore." Willow took one of the sandwiches, letting Aisling have the rest as she sat down in one of the chairs. "I work full-time at the hospital, aside from taking care of her," she tilted her head towards her daughter, "-and the robots that me and Nych worked on are almost ready for full testing." She smiled sweetly, but it faded after a second. She might have given up trying to repair him herself…

  But she certainly kept his legacy alive.

  "She makes robots!" Aisling smiled. "They're really cool!"

  Blake twitched.

  "You can make robots." She said quietly, letting the cat down as she stood. "But you give up on the one that you promised to make?"

  For some reason, hearing the words from Willow's own mouth made it worse. She had already known that her best friend built robots, but hearing her say it, after hearing her say that she had given up on Nych…

  It made her angry.

  "This is what's going to happen, Willow." Blake said, in a voice that Willow recognized. It was a voice that always meant there was no changing the woman’s mind. "You're going to finish Nych, no matter what it takes. Even if your fingers bleed from the work, and you pull hundred-hour weeks. You'll finish him."

  She put a hand on Willow's shoulder. "And you'll be happier for doing it."

  "Robots with simple AI like those are much easier than… Well, letting someone live through the body of a robot." Willow sighed, looking away. She didn't mind Aisling hearing about this. There was not much she hid from he
r daughter, but the things she did hide…

  She was very good at keeping those things secret.

  Willow sighed again, running her fingers through her hair. "I don't even know if we have the tech available for it. Everything else is done. I mean it." She looked up at Blake, brows furrowed in a look between desperation and hopelessness. "He looks… Well, just like he did. The mechanical body alone is a technological marvel. It can do literally everything a human body can. It's fully designed and ready to hook up to his mind."

  "My mama is super smart!" Aisling smiled, nodding along like she fully understood everything that was being said.

  "Uh huh." Willow glanced towards her daughter with a fond smile, and then back towards Blake. "I'm just… Stuck. I don't know what to do. I don't know if it's even possible. I-"

  It was at that moment that a very telltale event occurred. One that would change… Everything.

  The windows shattered, the electronics in the house went out, and a very loud crack reverberated through the air.

  This was followed by the boom of thunder, which made it evident what had just happened. Lightning had just struck… Directly in front of the house.

  "What the fuck?" Blake exclaimed, covering Aisling's head and bringing her down to the floor. It hadn't even been cloudy when she'd gotten there… Had it really started to storm without them noticing?

  Aisling screamed, and in an instant Willow lunged across the table and scooped her daughter into her arms. The poor child sobbed into her mother's shoulder, and clung to her desperately. Nobody could blame her; a lightning strike that close was terrifying.

  Willow stood up, holding the whimpering Aisling in her arms as she walked towards the front of her house to peer out of the living room window and assess the damage.

  Blake hesitantly crept towards the door, very quickly tapping the doorknob to see if it would shock her.

  When it didn't, she threw open the wooden door, to find…

  Nothing damaged.

  That was the first oddity, of course. It had obviously been a lightning strike, considering how it had happened and the way it struck, plus the thunder that had sounded afterward. But now… Nothing seemed to be burnt to a crisp, as per usual.

  The second oddity was a man. A blonde-haired man, with a face unseen, because it was pressed firmly into the pavement of the street.

  And he was the one with charred clothing and singed hair.

  Willow gasped, her eyes widening. "Take her." She shoved Aisling into Blake's arms and ran out towards the man on the street. She flipped him onto his back, and furrowed her brows as she looked him up and down. "Call an ambulance!" She turned her head to shout at Blake, putting her hands on the man's shoulders and patting them to try and see if he was alert. "Hello?" She frowned.

  He needed to get to a hospital as soon as possible.

  Miraculously, the man's eyelids started to stagger open, revealing a beautiful turquoise underneath. Those eyes… They seemed to hold something they shouldn't. An intelligence beyond the man's years, considering he only seemed to be around his mid-twenties, perhaps even younger.

  "I… I'm sorry to have worried you, ma'dam. You need not fret over me, I'm alright." He said, looking down at his clothes. He chuckled a bit, laying his head back down on the pavement.

  "So. I'm somewhere before the Auranis, thank the Gods. This looks like either the US or Canada. And you…"

  His eyes suddenly widened, before he laughed giddily.

  "By the Gods, you're Willow Grace!"

  "… I beg your pardon." Willow stared at him in a mixture of confusion and amazement. This man had just been struck by lightning, and here he was, talking like nothing was wrong. That was incredible in itself, but what concerned her was what he was talking about.

  He wasn't making much sense.

  "I… I think you should stay there. You look half-charred." She said, looking down at him and checking his pulse anyways to make sure nothing was irregular. "I am Willow Grace, yes. I suppose you probably know of some of my work with prostheses at our local hospitals." She got recognized every so often, and it usually put her in quite a good mood. "It seems you just got struck by lightning, and you seem to be talking nonsense, so I think we should probably get you to a hospital sooner rather than later."

  The man shook his head and stood, seemingly without a problem.

  "Nonsense. The Gods only send me where they believe I am needed, so apparently I'm needed here. I must know, how is Aisling doing? I have never seen her this young; I've only met her as an older woman. I must make sure she doesn't know my name; that would confuse the timelines."

  Yeah. He was talking nonsense.

  He seemed to come about himself, and gave her a handsome, endearing smile. "I'm sorry. This must be very confusing to you. I come from a different time, and a different place. Have you been struggling with something, to the point where you may need assistance?"

  Willow stared at him blankly, and cast a glance back at Blake who was watching from inside with Aisling.

  Luckily, she knew how to deal with people who were talking nonsense, whether it was due to drugs, mental illness, shock, or injury. It was just a part of her job, and though she was somewhat wigged out by the fact that he mentioned her daughter, she would deal with this like she dealt with others like him.

  "No, sit down." She took him by the shoulders, sitting him down on the sidewalk and frowning. "You've just been struck by lightning, and you're not thinking straight. Do you remember your name? Perhaps your parents? Where you live?"

  Evidently, a woman of science like Willow Grace would not be one to so quickly believe his nonsensical ramblings. He would just have to prove it to her.

  The man's gaze darkened with her words, and once she finished, he spoke.

  "Ms. Grace, I mean no disrespect, but those questions are dark ones for a man of my time. I bear the name Erile Lathyrin, but of the other two questions, I will provide no information. I can tell you that I was born to people who I have no care for now, and in a place where I am not wanted. Now I travel the seas of time, helping wherever the Gods will me."

  He kept speaking of the Gods. Was he just some crazy religious nut?

  "I can show you something, if you'd like."

  Oh?

  He walked over to a bag that had fallen nearly ten feet from him, though how that had happened, Willow couldn't place. He pulled out something that looked suspiciously like a gun, and pointed it at Willow.

  And then suddenly, she was floating.

  Willow squeaked, looking down at her feet with wide eyes and then looking up at Erile as she tried to wrap her mind around the sheer impossibility of the situation. "I- I-" There was something very frightening about trying to touch the ground, and not being able to. She kicked her feet, stretching a foot out towards the ground before realization finally settled onto her shoulders. And it shook her to her very core.

  This man was not talking nonsense at all.

  "I-" Everything Willow had ever been taught or learned was thrown completely out the window. Because she was floating and this man was the cause of it.

  Erile chuckled, releasing the trigger on the gun-looking device. Willow slowly floated back down towards the ground, before she touched land without even a sound.

  "Usually I would use a less, well… Amazing way of proving my truth, but in all honesty, I was feeling a bit lazy. And the Afflatus decided to make me show up in lightning this time, so I'm a bit ticked as well. My apologies." He put the device back in his bag as if it was an everyday occurrence.

  He had just changed Willow's world.

  "Now then. Who's the black-haired lady staring at us? I know you, and I know Aisling, but I don't know her."

  Interesting.

  Willow stared at him with wide eyes, a look of utter amazement on her face.

  "… I-" She opened her mouth to speak, but no sound came out. After a moment or two, she shook her head and looked towards him. "How on earth do you know my daughter?" Her
brows furrowed, and it was clearly a protective gesture. Given the time period he had just came out in… It was justified.

  Erile held his hands up, a kind smile on his face.

  "First, ma'am, you must believe me when I say that I have been to many different times, and traveled through many different places. I have met many people who are long dead, and many who have not been born yet. I must tell you… I meet Aisling for the first time when she is just cresting into adulthood."

  Little did Willow know, it was under some… Interesting circumstances.

  "You raise your daughter well, Willow Grace. She and I become great friends in the future."

  Well. That was interesting.

  Willow stared at him silently, and after a moment or two of consideration, she decided that this strange man was telling the truth- even if she didn't want to believe it.

  "… Why don't you come inside?" She asked quietly after a moment. "I think we have some things we should talk about. And I need to wash this makeup off of my face, because my friend did it for me and it looks ridiculous." With that, she turned and started walking back towards her house, sending a glance back at him to make sure he was following her. She would explain everything to Blake in a moment.

  If she even knew how to explain it.

  Erile chuckled; the makeup had thrown him off, else he would have recognized Willow immediately. She was famous throughout the Federation of Northern America for her work, but that was another time. Another place.

  He followed after her, standing a good few meters behind Willow as she pushed the door all the way open.

  "What in the fuck was that?" Blake asked, glaring to the stranger behind Willow. "I sent Aisling to her room before she could see that, but… You fucking floated."

  She had her knife in her hand. Erile looked at it with a lazy smile on his face.

  "Explain." Willow said to Erile, and then gestured to Blake as she walked off to the bathroom. She wanted to know who exactly this man was, and how the hell he’d traveled through time. Because if he was telling the truth, and she was the first one to have access to that knowledge…

  She wanted to make the world a better place.

  She came out a couple minutes later, face bare. Her skin was covered in freckles, her lip split, and there was a bruise forming along her nose. She had a notepad in one hand, and studied Erile up and down.