Someday, he’ll get out of here.

Vince digs his artificial nails into a man’s neck. He listens to his enemy’s scream, before hot blood drips onto his gloves, and Vince finds himself forced to let go.

The now-cadaver drops to the floor with a dull, unsettling thud. The runaway wishes he could wash off the red that has tainted his dark leather-wear; though, he doubts he could find enough water to do that, anytime soon.

From the corner of his eye, waiting cross-armed against the wall of this dark alleyway, his comrade-in-arms and lover—Vince’s dearest Leander—waits, watches, as he observes the scene in silence. Vince always envies him in times like these, for Leander does not have to bear the burden of wearing such suffocating masks, just to breathe.

Perhaps, it is silly that he should envy his own creation, but, he cannot help it.

“Come on,” Vince tells him, with a swift, motion of his head. “We should get going. They’ll find us if we don’t.” He steps over the man he’s just killed.

Leander follows suit without any further arguments. “He felt pain, yes?” he asks Vince, who greets his question with a laugh.

The runaway shoves his hands deep into his pockets; he ignores the weight of the hidden blade that brushes against his wrist.

It is raining. Even so—many have found their way outside, into the slums of Xen’s rundown, ancient  city. “I don’t doubt it,” Vince tells Leander. “Maybe, even you’ll feel it, one day,” he mutters, as they both slip into yet another dark corner, overshadowed by a flimsy building. Its structure is hugged by various ivy. It is close to decaying, and beginning to fall apart.

The two pause as a scream makes itself known in the vicinity, and Vince takes minor pride in how well he has programmed Leander—never in his life could he have asked, for a better partner in crime.

They both take their time in investigating their surroundings—Leander, immediately so; and Vince… only once he has had a chance to activate the night vision across a thick glass, that keeps his eyes from coming into contact with the toxic air and fumes around them.

Once it is clear that nobody is lying in wait, to trick them into meeting death a little too soon, Leander and Vince march on, behind a large pile of garbage. Leander is quick to grasp the trash bags with his fists without much trouble, then violently throws them onto the nearby ground. Vince would reprimand him for needlessly putting too much strength into it, but… he likes it. It gets him going. Gets him hard and wet—just what he needs, at the end of another shitty day like this one.

Vince knocks over a decaying sewer plate, that he shoves to the side with his boot, before he descends deep into the gaping circular void, that he is unable to find inviting, no matter how many times he has done this before.

Leander joins him. The android shuts the hidden entry to the sewer behind their shadows, that completely disappear, once the plate is over their heads again. And Vince finishes the job, by recalling the garbage bags Leander had thrown—with a wave of the magnets hidden deep within his gloves—until the pile of trash comes back, over their heads.

Then, the two agree that it is time to leave, as they both turn their heads to stare at each other, then give one-another a single, silent nod of understanding.

Soon enough, the odd pair Vince and Leander make have taken many turns throughout these corridors resembling a labyrinth—turns, they could likely find with their eyes closed, if need be.

Vince and Leander stop before a steel door. A secret entryway Vince built, when he first arrived here in Xen city, many years ago. “After you,” Vince tells his beloved android, who obeys him; as always.