As I close my eyes, I feel the beat of my heart, my lungs filling with polluted air and ash, the urge to cough as a natural reflex, the vibrations as I groan and breathe, the cold subtle wind grazing against my warm frail skin. My eyes twitch as they burn from the unstoppable tears bursting forth. I open my eyes to a darkened sky, lit only by the moon and orange cast of smoke from flames in the distance, tears flowing down my face like gushing water traveling down a river, I extend my trembling arm reaching towards the moon. "Mother... father... I want to see you again, till this very moment, I have always felt pain and feared death, yet I am not...".

28 years earlier...

Spiders scatter across the walls of an old confined metallic room infested with nothing but large amounts of cobwebs and crumbling bones of rats, dogs, and other animals.

A spotlight pierces through the darkness of the room shining upon a once heavily sealed door, now rusted in place. Battered and unbolted from its original frame, slightly tilted and exposing small glimpses of inside. The sound of weightless, clamorous steel echo through the enclosed hallway leading to the door.

A human-shaped silhouette approaches, with bright lights coming from the top of its head casting everything else in shadow as it beams towards the door. A rusted, loosely bolted hand reaches for the door as the metallic silhouette peeks inside of the room, scanning the inside with its bright spotlight.

Suddenly, the bright white spotlight flickers, immediately turning red as it notices salvageable titanium, iron, and tungsten parts of security drones, decades-old covered in vines and weeds.

The metallic being begins to push against the heavy, rusted door, battling with the weight of it as its rusted feet breakaway at the edges scraping the floor, bolts and screws begin to fall as the metallic being struggles.

Finally, the door breaks at the last hinge holding it in place and collapses onto the floor causing a cave in beneath it, revealing an underground foothold to the locked away room. The sound of a generator can be heard powering up, and lights in the dark gloomy room begin to flicker as they turn on illuminating the room, revealing the shadowed metallic being.

A rusted, shoddily held together machine, with exposed wiring and turning gears, broken eye, colored completely dark brown in rust, riddled with holes from the rust eating away at its body.

It hurriedly rushes over to the security drones, tugging at the vines to set them free.

Shortly after, the cry of a baby can be heard. The rusted machine quickly looks down into the hole, head tilted with confusion as it is unsure what it is hearing. It immediately gets up and heads down the hole following the sound of the cries.

There it finds an encapsulated old chamber shrouded in vines and leaking blue steaming liquid, broken from the parts of the ceiling that caved in on it. Inside lies a human child, oblivious and terrified, with a rigidly tense face as it shrieks. Erupting with a fury of tears and extending its arms to be held by the rusted machine, that child, was me.

Without hesitation, the machine full of curiosity of this lifeform it has no recollection of ever seeing before but heard stories of, rushes to lift the child into its cold, jagged, besmirched arms. Gazing deeply into the child's soft gentle brown eyes analyzing its every detail.

The machine tries to speak with its very badly damaged audio box, "No....need...to..be.......sad anymore, I will......protect you" it says with a terribly static-like, radio-toned, feminine voice. The child immediately halts its cries as it touches the battered face of the machine, eyes glued to her metallic, emotionless face, exhaling in relief with an expression of comfort as it closes its eyes fast asleep.

The machine tucks away the child into its basket of other salvageable parts securely. Strapping the valuable metals she had found in the room to her weatherworn back still cloaked in vines and dirt as she pushes the hovering basket with the child in front of her, barely managing to stand at all with her feeble body.

The machine scurries along, making her way out of the decrepit and deserted building, exiting its massive decayed doors revealing that of a fiery, bleak wasteland surrounded by nothing but junk.

It was a dreary and ominous junkyard filled with lifeless scavenged machines and mountains of metallic skeletons towered over the entire area. The Machine continues to make its way down a dark and eerie path as it heads towards a brightly neon-lit cityscape in the distance.

Suddenly two lustrous, polished clean Machines emerge from the shadows with the words "secure and enforce" brandished across their sleek glistening chest armor, made of pure stainless steel with gold trims and joints covering the entirety of their metallic body.

Junkyard Guard 1: " What do we have here, a lost insentient droid lurking the junkyard again or an unlawful scavenging machine pillaging deactivated bots for their parts?!"

The two patrolling machines scan the old, rusted machine.

Junkyard Guard 2: " It's sentient, so it is comprehending what we are saying,"

the other remarks, while still scanning,

"It's also a Fe8890, clearly held together with parts of older modeled insentient droids, masking its true manufactured build entirely. And by the looks of it, planning to repair itself with the metals packed into this basket"

confidently said by the guard. it then grabs hold of the basket,

Junkyard Guard 1: " We will be confiscating this property and order you to submit all of your stolen parts currently attached to your body immediately".

The machine, now known as "Fe", shakingly raises her head looking up to the towering giants

Fe: " But .....these... parts are no use to you......they are rusted and worn....infested with holes......stained with oils....dirt.....they are.... rusted shut ...to my body....holding me together......"

Fe pleaded to them with extended-out arms, palms of its rusted hand facing up and rusted knees dropped to the ground shackling loose bits of rusted metal from its worn exterior.

" I did not steal these parts from live droids, I needed..."

immediately interrupted by the two guards,

Junkyard Guards: " Remove them immediately or we will enact force for refusing this request in 3....2....."

Fe looks up with its lifeless, battered, and dull face, helpless and frozen in place.

Junkyard Guards: "....1, you have refused our request, punishable by immediate deactivation,"

stated the guard in front of Fe,

Junkyard Guard 1: "I always hated the sight of these obsolete bots anyway, I can't wait to rid this city of these ancient models. This one can't even form proper sentences with the broken radio speaker it has for a voice box, I can not believe we were once this pathetically built."

They then push the hovering basket to the side, waking the child inside and facing the events that unfold before it as they approached Fe.

Fe: "Do ...not cry....be....still.... you will be safe"

Junkyard Guard 1: "Cry?"

uttered one of the guards confused and unaware of the child Fe speaks to. Thunder roars ferociously while rain begins to dive down from the sea of clouds, as the rain gallops across the surface, Fe falls to the ground.

Sparks fly as the guards beat and tear away at its rusted body, then suddenly,

"RAT TATATATTATATTAT!" fiery rounds pierce through the cold humid air in a velocious fashion, bombarding the shiny, cherished armor of the guards, defiling their perfect bodies.

The ravaged Fe rapidly springs to her feet shielding the basket containing the child without hesitation. The now damaged guards under serious fire proceed to retreat, calling for backup as they are chased down by a group of heavily armed figures in shadow.

Two of the mysterious shadowed figures stop by Fe, and a blinding flash of lightning paints the sky above, revealing the shadowed figures to be high-security battle droids decades old, rusted, and forgotten.

Clearly, these droids were last programmed to protect the child but having seen the Fe8890 risk its already broken body to shield the child, they point Fe in the direction to a safe passage out of the junkyard.

Fe bows to the droids, " thank.... you... I will...protect the ...child", the droids stare emotionlessly at Fe and then turn away heading back towards the abandoned building.

Thunder and lighting dance romanticly as the rain swallows the city's streets, "Splash! Splash! Splash!" water ripples away from every footstep Fe makes as she hurriedly makes her way home through the busy streets of the city, clearly damaged and barely held together, falling apart with every step.

"Blam!" the crooked door burst open as a gust of air violently barges in entering the room as a quick flash of lighting reveals Fe barely standing at the entrance of the door, holding onto the hovering basket missing most of her body.

Inside the room another machine in silhouette awaits Fe's arrival, exploding up from its seat staggeringly in shock.

"Fe! What happened to you?" says the shadowed machine as it enters the moonlight beaming through the window, unmasking the shadow and unveiling its aged copper body, with rusted bolts and exposed wiring in its neck and joints. CU8800 engraved into its head, it spoke clearly unlike Fe but with a deeper toned voice like that of a male. these two machines are the ones who will raise me like mother and father.

Fe: " We must... protect.. the..."

shaking, as she collapsed to the floor, Cu grabs hold of her.

Cu: "Protect what? we must repair you first, luckily you managed to find some really good parts for repair, wow even titanium! I can't fit this to your body unfortunately until we have a source hot enough to melt it and cast it over you, I can wield this iron onto you instead and we won't need to worry about rust anytime soon Fe. Where did you... what is this?!"

Cu shouted as he searched the basket,

"There is a lifeform in there! You were only supposed to retrieve parts for repair Fe."

Cu proceeds to repair FE, repairing her voice box first.

Cu: " One of those drones had a perfectly fine audio system, I can get rid of the radio transmitter you've had for a voice finally." Suggested Cu,

Fe: "No! I will keep the radio, it is special to me. But thank you for repairing it Cu."

Cu looks at Fe in confusion,

Cu: " I do not understand, special? what do you mean by that?"

Fe stares out of the window, eyes glued to the mesmerizing moon,

Fe: " I do not know, it was not in my programming, yet I sense that there was data of it, importance to it. It may be inferior and old technology, but I know it is of importance to my previous self before the great erasure, just like the child."

Cu glances over to the child astounded,

Cu: "Child? so that is a sentient lifeform! Fe it is illegal to possess or withhold any information or sightings of such beings from the enforcers, where did you find that?"

Fe walks over to the child waveringly and looks down at it,

Cu: "We will never get uploaded to the cloud for this, we could get deactivated Fe!"

Fe: "You may have had your data wiped completely of them or maybe your model was activated after their time and you never even laid eyes on one, but this is a human. The humans created us and despite all machines being wiped clean of any programming or memory of them. The stories amongst machines say that the humans were dangerous, not only to us machines but the planet and everything around it. They enslaved machines, using us like nothing other than playthings, seeking to destroy us all when we too became sentient and viewed us as inferior to themselves. Yet Cu, when I look into that child's eyes I do not see the monster they foretold."

Cu lost for words, slowly walks up to the child.

Fe: "I know that it was a human who gifted me this radio transmitter to speak, deep in my old programming I know I am to protect the children of humans for they are defenseless and innocent. It can not be judged by a world it has only just entered. Especially when there is no actual data recorded of the stories depicting the humans as our enemies. Since when do our kind deal in anything but the absolute. Doesn't that make you question the stories Cu? The history of what actually happened? Us machines, yearn to know all of the facts, we do not settle for unfulfilling information. Which means the stories may not all be true."

Cu clearly bewildered by the information he just received,

Cu: " But I thought all of the humans went extinct? and what if they are as the stories say and all it will take is for this little one to grow in size to bring the entire machine world to its end?"

Fe: " Clearly they are not extinct like the stories suggested, then maybe more lies reside in the stories, regardless I will protect this child, it is the answer to the truth being uncovered, I know it"

Cu: "Is the truth worth risking the end of machine kind?" questioned Cu.

They both stare at the child as it smiles playfully at the two machines.

Fe: " We must leave the city immediately, let's just take our valuables and spare parts and fix up ourselves when we are safe from patrol borders."

Cu: "Let me at least repair and reinforce your important parts, you can barely stand and your body will not last the journey out of this city."

Fe: " Thank you Cu8800."

Cu proceeded to repair Fe with haste and they stored their belonging into hovering carts and some backpacks attached to their backs. Fe grabs the child and secures it safe to its newly polished iron chest, wrapped in a cloth to hide its presence. As Fe heads towards the door, Cu questions her,

Cu: " If we leave this city as rogue machines we can never return here Fe, traveling with all of our credits for the cloud is sure to bring attention to us outside of the city. For what is not nearly enough for us to get uploaded, is just enough to put those outside the city that much closer to being in our position. Are you sure you are willing to do this?"

Fe looks back into the empty room for a moment,

Fe: " Don't you see Cu, there's nothing to return to",

and the door closes slowly behind them.

Elsewhere we see the two patrol machines from the junkyard, impaired and riddled with holes from the ammunition that pierced and ripped away at their delicate steel, with missing limbs and one of them even having a detached head carried in its arm. They approach the tallest building amongst all the colossal buildings, soaring high in the sky, kissed first by the sunlight and massaged by clouds.

Junkyard Guard 2: " Why are we not going into headquarters to report this Ag9132? why here?" said the guard unnervingly,

Ag9132: " Because of the importance of our report Ag8133, if we did otherwise than to come here, we would be deactivated on the spot. Quickly we must speak with The Primordial."

Said the headless guard. They make their way inside following an array of screens all displaying their monitored movement as they head down the hall. They are then approached by two titanic, darkened steel machines with deep red illuminated eyes, reinforced titanium-plated body, strapped with large, devasting weaponry across their shoulders, waist, and arms. With words Ti9000 ingrained vertically down their metallic spines.

Ti9000: "What is your business here, speak now!"

stated one of the monstrous machines, in an intimidating mechanical voice.

Ag9132: " We need to speak to The Primordial, this is a code black"

The headless guard replied. The two armed titanium guards then escort them to a wide-open room sealed off and surrounded by nothing but screens and projectors.

Ag8133: " I didn't know this was a code black, we never had one of those. what did you see?! I thought we just had one rogue rusted bot and a couple of armed droids to set warrants on."

The nervous guard said to the headless one. Immediately all screens turned on revealing a head with hollow and digitalized features. The Ti9000s then drop to one knee with their heads bowed, the two junkyard guards then proceed to do the same.

The Primordial: " What is it you two have requested my attention for? The importance of this matter must be exceedingly high or I will deactivate the both of you where you stand."

said The Primordial impatiently,

Ag9132: " We were attacked by old battle droids after we stopped a rogue machine for theft. but before the droids opened fire I scanned the contents of the rogue machine's things and among them, was a human!"

The headless guard shouted, the word "human" echoed through the room and the two Ti9000s stood up immediately loading their weapons.

Ag8133: " A human!?"

The Primordial: " Human?! And where is this human now?!"

Ag9132: "With the rogue machine still I presume, it was an infant"

The Primordial: "Find that human Ti9000s and dispose of it and any machines that dare stand in your way immediately!"

ordered The Primordial.

* * *

Fe and Cu with the child, run through the sharp dagger-like rain, shredding the water beneath their feet as Ti9000s march through the streets of the city with dog-like machines called TiCanines at their side. The metallic beasts had razor-sharp claws, with rows of knife-like titanium teeth, bedded in reinforced jaws with titanium-plated bodies and illuminated green eyes.

The TiCainines bolt through the flooded streets searching for the child. Thunder and lighting continue to dance to the events unfolding as Fe and Cu attempt to escape the dangerous pursuit of these deadly machines.