Act 6: Despair

"Don't ya worry, he'll be fine. If there is anyone who knows how to take down enforcers, it would be him." Zero's arms fused together under her butt, creating a perfect seat for Spes.
"Why that?" Her cheeks rubbed against the rusty metal parts as the mechanoid galloped towards the exit.
"He fought shoulder to shoulder with the human resistance, destroying hundreds if not thousands of mechanoids in the war for their survival."
"Is that what he meant when he said that his colleagues left him that weapon?"
"You have a sharp mind for being a kid." With a swift jump to the side, he avoided rubble in the middle of the way. "That's probably the AI part implemented in your brain. He has really changed since then..." Zero mumbled.
"What do you mean he changed?" Asked Spes.
"He secluded himself from the world and only came by when he needed some urgent repairs. But far worse than that is that sometimes he is ta-"
"Talking to himself?" Spes finished the sentence.
For a brief moment, Zero stopped in his tracks to look back at the girl's face.
"Yes..." He resumed his rush towards the exit. "Did ya see him doin' it?"
"Not just once." She tightened the grip around the metallic neck.
"Don't ya worry, Silus is a tough lad, he'll get past everything. Actually, he told me once about it. He thought that his human self was haunting him." Feeling the questioning stares on the back of his head, Zero elaborated. "His... or rather our creator tried to make him as similar to her deceased husband as possible, even going so far as to marry him later on. She was the first human who had ever married a mechanoid and we were the first with something that could be described as consciousness."
"Is that what you wanted to say the last time? That the both of you are programmed by Silus' wife and that's why you are different from the others? And is that also why you talk so strange, Zero?" Right in front of them was the turnoff to go back to the exit path, which Zero gladly took with a sharp right turn.
"After all those years, I had forgotten how curious children like ya can be." He clanked with his mouth, resembling laughter. "Yes, that's what I meant and yes, that's partially the reason for me talking this way. While Silus has been created as a fully functional mechanoid, I've been merely produced as a damn prototype, therefore the name Zero and all those little defaults that appear here and there including ma language program. But I like it so I never fix-"
"Silus!" Spes jumped down from Zero's back hurrying to a robot lying on the floor which barely resembled their acquaintance.
"What took you guys so long?" He was leaning against a ladder which lead back up to the surface, waving with his broken left arm, which he held in his right hand.
Spes immediately ran up to him crying rivers of tears, leaving a trail of darkened dots in the dirt beneath their feet. With open arms, she jumped onto him.
"I would like to hit ya but I'm afraid that ya'r body wouldn't be able to handle it." With a trained eye, Zero ogled at the damage done. "I can repair the disconnection in your leg," he pointed at the spraying sparks from a hole in his tight, "and the lighter scratches should be fine too. But I don't have the necessary parts to repair that arm. Dammit Silus, what the hell did ya do?!"
"I thought that might be the case." Silus said cold. "That's why I brought our little friend here." He pointed at an enforcer with a giant hole in its chest lying in the shadows.
"Are you stupid?!" Zero screamed, his voice echoing all the way down to the tunnel. "All enforcers obviously have tracking devices implanted in them! Just what were you thinking?"
The three of them sat in the small, empty room staring at each other's faces. Spes, as the only one able to show emotions didn't try at all to hide the worried expression printed all over her face. 
"Just leave me here and run with the girl, I will stall some time for the two of you." Silus grabbed the machinegun lying next to him. "My time should have come a long time ago anyways."
"Shut ya'r trap! Ya were just clinging onto the hope that the girl was a human and that she would give ya a reason to go living. And now that you know she's not ya rather die? Pathetic."
"No, I don't want to leave you! Can't we do anything Zero?" Spes looked at him and once more the tears were rolling down her red cheeks.
"Of course, I can, who do ya think I am." The claws, which Zero had instead of hands unfolded in all kinds of tools. "I will patch him up before those damn enforcers come."
"Thank you!" The girl rejoiced.
"Zero, I..."
"And ya shut ya'r trap and think about how to take care of the girl."
 At incredible speed, the small robot started screwing, soldering and hammering, bringing Silus' body back into its original form, even though he couldn't repair the skin layer. Even Spes helped with the repairs, by holding the enforcer's arm into place so that he could fix it.
"Zero..."
"I hear them, just a little bit more and I'm finished."
"Zero, we don't have time, they are coming."
"Just one more second..."
"ZERO!"
"It's done! It won't hold forever and it's not perfectly attached but it will do the job." He turned around, grabbing Silus' machinegun. "Now go ahead with the girl I'll cover ya!"
Immediately Zero started firing into the darkness of the tunnel ahead where the sound of metal scraping over the floor could be heard.
"Now, come up here already!" Silus screamed, already halfway on the ladder with the girl on his shoulder. "Spes, take my pistol and help him!"
"But I don't know how to fire this thing?" She held the oversized weapon in her little hands. "Just aim the tip in the general direction of the enemy and pull the trigger!"
He felt how her frail body trembled in his arms with every shot she took.
"Zero, Move!" Silus watched over his shoulder but the robot was still standing at the bottom of the leader with little to no cover shooting left, right and centre as the enforcers came closer. And then it happened, a purple bullet flew right toward the small robot blowing his leg into bits and pieces.
"Noooo!" Silus and Spes screamed both in synchronization.
But it was already too late, the enforcers closed in on him tearing apart his limbs, leaving his main parts untouched. A fatal mistake for which they would pay with their lives. In a last desperate counterattack.
"Zero... my old friend..., thank you for everything." Silus whispered leaving the tunnel behind them with the sobbing Spes in his arms.