I look around the silent room,
     the Bertholdts too collapsed.
As well as Marcus and his crew;
     their bill for life elapsed.
And I alone sit on the floor,
     confused and ill at ease.
As I petition to the Lord,
     "Help me Father, please!"

The tears start, my eyes ablur,
     the images distilled.
Composed of simple shapes and too
     with basic colours filled.
My breathing spurts erratically,
     the pain too much to bear.
She lies there broken, limbs a mess
     amongst her onyx hair.

Why take her Lord? Why her, the girl
     who's life bore to much pain?
Perhaps that was the reason,
     so she could last be home again.
I hadn't yet considered,
     that her absence from this space,
could be an indication,
     that she'd found a better place.

Could I have made her happy here?
     Could I have kept her true?
Could I have been the soulmate,
     that I promised she was due?
The shape of girl I lovèd so,
     in centre of my sight.
Then glimpse intrusive colour blink
     a rousing ruby light.

I wipe my eyes, the tears stemmed,
     his wine my lips refuse.
A chance perhaps she's still alive,
     my love I cannot lose.
Her body lies in deepest sleep,
     hath death now claimed her so?
But hope I'm not prepared to yield,
     and my blood begins to flow.

I race to body lying still
     and find the source of light.
Dear God let her still be alive,
     this time I'll fight my fight.
Near top of shoulder ruby winks
     and glyphs under her skin
illuminate instructions
     in a lettering so thin.

"E-M-P detected.
     Cardiac arrest"
My eyes are drawn to crimson heart
     the trophy in her chest.
The case is strong, my fingers claw.
     I know what I should do.
Those hours spent reading in her base
     I learned a thing or two.

But little time I have right now.
     I need it to restart.
I have to open organ's tomb
     and fix her broken heart.
I study her. What have I missed?
     I know her I can save,
The Lord have gifted me a chance
     to show I can be brave.

And then I spy it. Only I
     would have the artifact.
The puzzle piece I know
     will fit the gaping hole exact.
Aside the case a slot
     I never had the chance to see.
A slot I know a perfect match,
     to unlock with my key.

I open hand, it's sitting there
     all innocent and small.
It cannot know it's purpose true.
     No inkling at all.
I take the key and into lock
     the key I doth insert.
And hope and pray my hunch
     the Lord will kindly now assert.

With infinite precision,
     the lock allows me in.
The tumblers turn freely,
     and my rescue can begin.
Inside the box her heart behind
     a membrane rests in peace.
As gently I coax movement,
     from where movement since did cease.

It gives. My own heart furiously
     brings caution to my act.
And all the while I pray to God,
     her memories still intact.
Slowly, e'er so gently,
     I play to Nature's beat.
Nurturing the rhythm
     till my mission is complete.

Celine, Yolanda, one and same,
     my love throughout the years.
Together we've faced everything.
     through happiness and tears.
Our world is so much bigger,
     and our every thread connected.
Decisions made in past,
     hath led to outcomes unexpected.

I cannot say how he and I
     can share design of face,
or how our memories differ,
     or the path our lives did trace.
Yet seeing her reactions,
     with love my answer lies.
Deep within the memory
     of the girl with cobalt eyes.

"Please" I whisper, "Please" I say.
     and then I cry out "Please!"
Her body chirps and springs to life
     with spluttering and wheeze.
She breathes in hard, then opens eyes,
     they stare me. She smiles.
I close the case upon her chest,
     the ending of our trials.

"How clichèd" she utters soft;
     perhaps in monologue.
"The literal key unto my heart"
     she coughs away the grog.
I kiss her lips they're cold to touch,
     my eyes are locked with hers.
But exit catches eyesight,
     and I speak what sight infers.

"So Marcus was an android too?"
     "You mean you didn't know?"
Ashamed at my naivety
     I shake and answer "No."
I sit her up she holds me close,
     engulfed in her embrace.
"I'm sorry Xav, for what I did"
     she says with upmost grace.

I smile at her, "OK" I say,
     "I guess I can forgive.
If you explain this crazy world"
     A gift I know she'll give.
She takes my hands, and swallows hard,
     and deep her eyes doth shine.
And starts her explanation of our
     garbled story-line.

Her father oft left her alone,
     and never had the time,
to get to know his daughter,
     when his work became his prime.
A gift he gave her, agèd six,
     a fake reality.
Inside he said she'd find a friend,
     that turned out to be me.

He used my mind to simulate a dream
     where she could play.
Where she could live out fantasy,
     and while the days away.
She spent so many hours there
     for months and years on end.
Overwriting memories
     as I became her friend.

She loved the sound of Shakespeare.
     We'd read at every chance.
A sonnet, a performance,
     as we lived a life of dance.
I loved her and she loved me,
     yet her feelings she suppressed.
For she knew I was a figment,
     but the truth she'd ne'er have guessed.

Then one day Devan's system broke,
     the Emote-X system failed.
She crafted key in memory;
     a key I oft detailed.
The key she claimed unto her heart.
     For her first love was I.
Despite the fact forbidden,
     was our love to human eye.

She thought I was a simulation:
     A product of machine,
and so she put our love to bed
     and moved to later scene.
She never made connection
     that I would be her love.
That in fact her George was human
     and a gift from God above.

It seems I once was Red Cell's own
     a monster formed from hate.
A beast inside a cage,
     kept at bay behind a gate.
Yolanda's love hath changed me so
     in ways I don't regret.
To think what once was Montague,
     is now a Capulet.

"You truly don't resent me?"
     her face of stark concern.
"How could I feel resentment
     at the fires inside that burn."
My life so far with sweet Celine
     I'd never ever trade.
I love the man I am today
     that she and God hath made.

The Lord gave me a second chance,
     before my run of sand,
Marches through the hourglass,
     in the midst of foreign land.
The strange gift of amnesia
     I'd ne'er before have sought.
Has heaped on me the lessons
     that I wish before were taught.

How does she know what came to pass?
     How can she be so sure?
I ask her this, and heed reply
     as doubts I now immure.
Her father made such references
     though never told her straight.
About her new companion
     who he'd scorn, deride, and hate.

A sacrifice he gladly made
     to destroy the mind of heir.
He used his only daughter
     in a manner so unfair.
"When you said my name, and used the key
     I knew just who you were."
Her long lost love, she saw straight through
     events that did occur.

We make our way outside the lab
     as sun begins to set.
The whitest peaks are melting
     and repaying hidden debt.
With Bertholdt gone, I'll never know
     events consigned to past.
I pray God for forgiveness,
     for transgressions surely vast.

The falling snow much lighter now
     drifts gently from the sky,
and shafts of light peek sweetly through
     and cast our shadows by.
Towards a future now we walk,
     aside with hand in hand.
To build a better future,
     and to fix this broken land.