Emmett sat in the garden, basking in the sun, with Valorie and Giles. Giles had opened up his back and was fixing something. Emmett stared at them.

"Valorie, why do you hate your own team?"
"I don't." He replied.
"But you left them for us."
"I only hate Lucifer. If they throw him out, I will go back to them without second thoughts but I know they won't since our prince is the strongest afterall."

"You should be happy you have a strong comrade."
"I don't consider him a comrade."
"Weren't you good friends? I heard you both were close."
"Yes and there is a reason why we are not anymore."

"What is it?"
"Ben didn't tell me he is an X-DROID. I felt so betrayed when I accidentally found that out."
"But he is still the same person."
"He is not an ANDROID--That's what matters. Why is he even a part of us? Anyways, people don't know about it. Ben told me that it must be kept a secret."

"Valorie,"
"I will put an end to this myself."

Lucifer stood at the balcony of his room and sipped beer from a can. Jimmy entered his room through the open door and stood beside him, in the sun. His blonde hair shimmered under the sunlight as his blue eyes turned towards Lucifer.

"Why are you here?" Lucifer asked without batting an eye or sparing a glance at him.
"I need some sun. I've heard the sun cures depression."
"You're reading some reddit bullshit again."
"It's true!"
"Go do it in your room."

"I don't have a balcony in my room. We only have balconies on this side of the bar."
Lucifer took another sip of the beer.

"Are you still mad about that?" Jimmy looked at him through his eyelashes.
"Is there a reason I shan't be?" Lucifer said.
"I shouldn't have said that. I'm sorry."
Lucifer smiled and turned towards him,

"How easy it is. You throw up all the poison you hold within onto someone. Then, you simply say sorry and everything is okay. But that person isn't okay. You can never undo the pain you made someone go through, no matter how nice you are to them later."

Jimmy stared at him, "Then, what should I do?"
"You can't do anything, all you can do is shout at people." Lucifer rubbed his temples, "Leave before I'm any more annoyed."

"No."
A strong gush of wind stuck Jimmy on his chest and he almost fell.
"You're lucky. Everyone won't be so nice. Just leave."
Jimmy stood before him, "You want me to take you on?"

Lucifer stared at him for a while, then he smirked slightly, "I have no mood of seeing a corpse currently."
"Everyone makes mistakes. You did too-- You ended a nation. Don't you feel any guilt?"

"After a while in this line of work, you learn to ignore the guilt."
"Don't act like you don't care."
"We have to learn how to not care. Robots are mentally fragile-- Because of the goddamn emotion chip."
"Can't you remove it?"

"Ben said we have it for a reason-- So that we know what to protect.
Strong emotions like love, guilt, sadness or hatered can destroy our minds. Have you see sparks on Asselyum's ear? It's her emotion chip-- It does a lot of physical damage to us. So, if we fall in love, we are putting extra pressure of emotions on our emotion chip."

"Is that bad?"
"I guess. None of us has ever fallen in love so I don't know how the consequences. But looking at Asselyum, I guess it begins with physical damage like sparks."

"Asselyum?"
"It's so obvious she's likes that peasant cunt."
"Slaine?"
"You know him well."

Meanwhile, Asselyum was at the skatepark again. Evelyn and Riley stood at the top of a ramp. It seemed as if Riley was teaching him something. She grabbed Denis' board and ran towards Riley.

"Let's go find Slaine." She grabbed his arm amd they went down the ramp, speeded up to the streets.
"You are getting better at it." Riley said.
"I guess. You surprisingly didn't resist to come along" They went downtown and cruised across the streets.

"Well, I guess we are pretty much friends now so I don't have any reason to resist."

Asselyum had caught up quite some speed. "Slow down."
"How?" She turned back and asked.
"Look ahead!" She crashed into a pole.

"Are you okay?" He asked as he stopped beside her.
"What do you think?"
"I was worried about the board. Thank God it's okay."
"Skateboarders have no soul."

"Slaine does, though," Riley smirked.
She looked down, "What? Just his name makes you blush now?"
"I can't blush,"
"There's no human out there who can't blush. You ain't a brute,"

"No, but I am..."
"You are a?"
"Nevermind, come,"

They skateboarded for the rest of the day. Finally, when it was dark, they stopped near the Central Park. Asselyum got down from her board and looked at Riley. He looked at him awkwardly. Her gaze was intense and got him nervous.

"Asselyum?"
"I'm a robot."

He broke into a giggle, "Sure." And she suddenly projected a hologram of Ben assembling her in his lab, "I'm here from the future."
Riley stopped laughing.

"You said we are friends. I thought I shouldn't be keeping secrets from you in that case."
Riley didn't say anything. He looked confused.

"I'm here to kill a diseased group."
He looked at her. She got a bit anxious.
"I'm still me though--"
"I know. Calm down." He said. It was quiet. They could hear the voices of bell ringed insects from the park.

"I've kept a secret too." He said and she looked at him, "Well actually, I'm bisexual. Nobody knows it though. Once they do, I wouldn't be able to hang out with my homies anymore. So, you have to promise me to keep it a secret too."
Asselyum nodded.

Slaine escaped New York and took a train to New Jersey. As soon as he stepped into the train, he saw some police officers walk out of the same door. One of them had "Beatrice" tattoed on her arm. She looked at Slaine and he looked at her as they crossed each other.

He went ahead while she turned back and looked at his shoes. The doors closed and the train left. "Who wears shoes and clothes like that in this day and age, kretchy."

(Kretchy// A slang in the future used for people who like dressing up in 21st century clothing as a way to pose and attract attention.)

He reached New Jersey within five minutes. He was surprised to have travelled 9 miles in five minutes. He got down the train and walked towards the city. It was the opposite of New York.

There was no curfew there and people were out on the roads, buying things or eating food. Everyone had a weird accent which he found difficult to understand and equally annoying to listen to. He walked by asking for directions to the address in his head and finally he reached a huge mansion.

"Yes, what is it?" The watchman asked.
"I want to meet Mr Vincent."
"What is your name?"
"Ben."

He called someone on his phone and the doors opened. A blue light lit up the the hallways.
"Follow it and you will reach Mr Vincent."

Slaine followed the light and finally reached the door. He opened the door and looked at a man, standing and looking at the sky through the huge glass wall.

"Welcome Ben." He turned back and was dumbstruck, "Who are you?" He sounded cold.
Slaine sat before him, "I want to ask you something."

"But I don't want to answer anything. Get out before I call security."
"Do it." Slaine smiled, "And I'll tell everyone who was the foster parent of Gotham."

"What nonsense are you sprouting?"
Slaine smiled, "I knew you won't come clean." He pressed a picture of Gotham and Mr Vincent cutting a cake on the table before them. The latter began sweating profusely thereafter.

"Who are you?" He asked.
"Have a seat. Let's have a long chat."

-To be continued

Asselyum
5500 Rebellion