Word Count: 1,116
Warning: Most of this chapter is spoken in metaphors and has a lot of foreboding packed into it. It's a little different, but I hope you enjoy it.

   A cigarette hung loosely out of Cardi's mouth, smoke floating from his nose as he exhaled. He sat on the windowsill, looking out at the darkened street alley beneath the apartment building. The wind flowed through the opened window, gently caressing Cardi's blonde hair that was growing a little too long. His cigarette smoke floated out the window, sometimes to be blown back in, and sometimes being blown away into the stillness of the night. Being blown off to collect in a haze that will blind some unknowing city. A fog of confusion and deadly silence being gathered to take the lives of so many.

When the smoke flowed back in, it didn't bother a resting Cardi. It caressed his hair and his eyelashes that belonged to closed eyes. His breathing was peaceful and shallow, his heart beating slow. The wind making cold chills come up on his skin that wasn't protected by his gray tank top. His skin looked gray as all the smoke coming from his cigarette blanketed the room, almost camouflaging the dim lighting of the randomly placed street lights coming in from the window.

        Aline (as she will go by instead of Ally since she's gotten used to being called Aline) sat on the couch, doing the same as Cardi. It had been forever since she had smoked a cigarette, though the stress from this situation had her nerves up. She had heard the conversation between Cardi and Kilyna; she had known he would try to get the chip out, and she had been scared she'd never see the light of day again. It had been so hard for her to contain her real self behind a chip, she hadn't seen the world from her own eyes since the hellish chip was implanted.

She felt like a new person, she was no longer a robot with no emotions; she was no longer numb. She felt the small bit of happiness she had, before she had been transformed, come back. Her happiness was restoring itself slowly. Though, she couldn't rest till her torturers were dead. Minka would be the first to die, from her own hands. Then every other government official that was left in the town of Oxygin would learn what a real human could do. She would show just how powerful she is without being controlled by their so called rulers.

Yet for now, she needed rest, she was extremely tired and weak. Cardi had fixed as much food for her as he had, and he promised to go out when the sun arose and get some more. He also promised to stay with her, just in case she needed someone to help her.

    "Cardi? What has happened to this place?" Cardi hummed in response, a confused fog had taken over his mind.

"What do you mean Aline?" His voice was hazy, three to four times lower than usual. He could no longer think straight after all that had happened. He opened his eyes and looked at Aline.

"This place. The world. What happened? What happened to the people, to the beauty of every step that you took? Everything is gone, it's changed. History... and in a matter of ten years." Cardi's eyes closed, him trying to reach a far away place in his mind.

    "Ten years.... you're thirty six, aren't you? And the world? It's always been like this. Sadistic, hateful, deadly. It took one person to reveal who people can really be, the ugly truth of the world we live in. The people haven't changed; they've only adapted to the sense of dread that lingers around in the streets, and they've adapted to the hatred behind the eyes of one another. The world was always the same, but once people stop caring... it's no longer a world. It's a hell. And everyone is welcome."

Aline's chuckle was sad, a chuckle full of hurt and hatred. Her eyes held many emotions as Cardi looked at her in curiosity. The difference between the robot that was Aline and the human that is Allison, they were practically aliens. Her eyes held so many emotions, so much knowledge and wisdom, she was one who could do anything if her mind was set to it. And yet, the chip made her an independent asshole that didn't give a crap about anyone but herself.

"Smoke... it clouded our vision. It clouded the violence behind the money, the hatred behind the eyes, the jealousy of one another. We let it cloud our perception of something so beautiful, and yet something that was always blanketed in a fog of dread and death. The people are blind; they don't see what we see. They can't see past the haze of smoke that has become so thick, and we have gotten used to clouded eyes, our perception of the world around us has became our hope. The hope of a better tomorrow and a wish of a burning past." Aline practically whispered, but Cardi understood her words held unfathomable wisdom. She may be younger than him, but she had lived for centuries in her own mind.

"The smoke of every cigarette, every building, all of that builds up. Making a world of darkness, blanketing us in a world of black and gray. They've left no room for us to fill in the lines, no white has been left, no pure has lived through the war. The light has been smothered in the haze that's been left untreated for so long. We're all under a blanket that we may never be free of... we gave up without a fight. And that's not how we should go down." Aline whispered to herself more than Cardi, but he could clearly hear her as a faint smile appeared on his face. The smoke from both Cardi's and Aline's cigarettes began to fill the room in an almost see-through fog. The dim light coming from the window shining off of it, making the room a sheen of gray-ish light.

"Aline?" Cardi called out as he looked to her, exhaling the smoke from his mouth. She looked over at him, a found determination resided behind her eyes. Then, like a sign of the times, they spoke their belief at the same time.

"It's time to fight back."

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What do y'all think?

I'm enjoying writing this, it's so much fun and I hope y'all are enjoying it!

I hope you have a great day and I'll see you in the next chapter!

~KennyandEmo~