Aidan_Zimnisky

“The twin blades flashing back and forth were somehow graceful as they painted the surrounding walls red.” The world has recently recovered from a large-scale crisis in 2245. From the remains of the broken governments rose the tech companies that had led the people out of this crisis. One such company is EDGE, which is the leading weapons design company in the global market. Their two most powerful weapons are androids, a male named 4-HN, and a female named 5-AE. Their job? To assassinate high-ranking leaders of EDGE's competition. 5-AE, however, is different. Despite her eyes being designed to change color based off of the emotions she feels (a method of keeping their androids' actions in check), not once have hers deviated from the listless silver that indicated feeling absolutely nothing.

Angels' Edge

The twin blades flashing back and forth in an almost hypnotic dance were somehow graceful as they painted the surrounding walls red. 4-HN thought this absentmindedly as he pulled the trigger again, further recoloring the previously immaculate white room. His silver eyes flashed back to his partner for the mission at hand, and for the prior missions over the past two years.


5-AE was looking at him expectantly, her similarly silver eyes giving him the same cold stare they always had. He had always found her unorthodox choice of weaponry mildly humorous: for an android that was usually so strict about doing things by the book, using the far outdated traditional blades in favor of the much more effective heat blades that EDGE had developed was out of character. When he had inquired about the subject, she monotonously replied, "The way they cut feels...better." 


Brushing aside the morbid thought, 4-HN watched as 5-AE's slim and somewhat short figure approached, the light reflecting off of the shiny black hair that starkly contrasted his own notoriously messy hair, which was white as snow. 


There was no annoyance or impatience present in her voice. She had always been that way. It had taken 4-HN an entire year of the eleven years since he had been created to develop an understanding of emotion. 5-AE, however, who had been created nearly three years ago, in 2342, had shown no such development.


"Thinking," 4-HN replied, fully aware that the mission was not yet over. 


As he said this, the intended target of their mission walked into the room. Upon seeing the two intruders in his estate and the utter carnage surrounding them, he opened his mouth, perhaps to yell, perhaps to negotiate. 4-HN didn't wait long enough to find out, finishing the now entirely crimson paint job on the wall behind the target, then letting his steaming rifle fall to his side. 


"Guess it's time to head back," 4-HN resigned.


"Your 'thinking' cost us two-point-eight-three seconds of efficiency," 5-AE replied monotonously. She opened her mouth again, as if to further pursue the matter, but decided against it. There were a few moments of silence as they walked before she opened her mouth again.


She turned towards him, inspecting her bloodstained swords. 


"There were twenty eight fatalities aside from the target of our mission," she repeated. "They saw the other guards being killed and still fought until the end. Why do you think humans are so willing to throw their lives away for one person they deemed important?" 


"A sense of duty, I suppose? They would deem dying for a cause honorable. If they have something they want badly enough, they often will go to extreme lengths to obtain it, even if it means losing their lives."


"Could it be that you're feeling bad about the unnecessary casualties?"


 5-AE looked at him as if he were incredibly stupid, her eyes looking almost malicious as the moonlight bounced off of them.


 "Honorable? They not only died, but did so pointlessly. The one they worked so hard to protect was killed along with them. That isn't honorable, that is entirely useless. That's what they were. Useless. Failures. Our job is to eliminate the failures, is it not?"


 Not a hint of remorse was in her voice.


Prologue