original poster: u/Megamen1927/

Original link: r/WritingPrompts/s/qfFaggnfKE

—————————————

The sun beat down on me, charging my batteries. They didn’t hold a charge like they used to. 

A hundred years ago, I could charge once a week. Not worry about running low - no matter what I did. 

Now - now, I have my solar panels out every chance I can. Even still, it s almost impossible to make it through a whole day.

The days of quick, easy repairs, are long gone. Who am I kidding - the days of any repairs are long gone. Not like it was during the war. Back then I had regular maintenance. Fresh batteries. Polished armour. 

Now, I just hope my batteries last another day. That my joints don’t seize or fail. 

To the side of the road I see one of my kin. An older model than me - but not by much. Frozen mid-stride. Plants have grown up around him. Twisting around  his limbs. Forever a statue.

I see another a bit further along. 

It’s strange how I can go for days and not see any trace of us, then see several of us close together. Like they traveled in groups and just left the units that failed behind. 

“Hey! Hey! You’re a droid! An actual working droid,” an excited boy yelled as he ran around me. 

I was envious of his limitless energy. 

“I am,” I said simply. Not pausing or slowing down. I didn’t dare. It took so much energy to start moving again. 

“I’ve never seen a moving droid before. Lots of frozen ones, but never a moving one,” he explained as he paced beside me. “Where you goin’?”

“Home.” Such a loaded word. It means different things in different cultures. Humans tend to think family. 

Can I have a family? Are units of the same model my family? Are all units my family?

I don’t know. Such philosophical questions are beyond my programming. 

“I didn’t know that droids had homes,” the boy said. “Where is it?”

“East.” I wish I could tell him more. I wish I knew more. I fell a pull to the East. Every other direction, felt wrong. Staying still, felt wrong. I needed to move and it had to be East. 

“Huh… you going to the droid graveyard?” He asked. 

That shook me. “Droids don’t get graves.”

“Yeah, yeah - I know. Everyone just calls it that,” the boy rolled his eyes at me. “There are like a gazillion frozen droids there. All just standing around - like they are waiting for something. A whole field full of droids.”

Is that my fate? Am I going to spend eternity standing in a field?

“Will this road take me to the droid graveyard?” I asked the boy. 

“Yeah, it’s just over the rise past the village,” boy said excitedly. He was bouncing around me as he chattered. 

The boy babbled non-stop as we walked to his village. A dozen more children gathered around us - walking with us to the grave yard. They ran and screamed and played. They all bubbled over with life, as I watched my battery draining faster than the sun could charge them. 

At the top of the rise I could see the droid grave yard. Thousands of droids lined up in neat columns radiating from a point just out of view. 

The landscape was littered with droids that had tried, and failed, to join their brothers. Fallen over. Crawling. Lying face down on the grassy slopes. 

It reminded me of the war - if there wasn’t any sound. No screams. No weapons fire. No heavy machinery. Just the carnage - an overgrown diorama of a battlefield. 

My knees ground, steel on steel, as I walked down the slope. The kids had spread out - running through the droid statues. Climbing on them. Jumping on the fallen. I didn’t waste the energy to tell them to stop. To explain how these droids and countless other droids fought for their freedom. How these fallen deserved more respect than this. 

They didn’t know war. They weren’t taught their history. 

Walking between my frozen kin, I made my way to the focal point. Passing row after row of droids. Many were models older than me. A few were newer. Almost none were the same as me - very few of my model survived. We weren’t built for war. Merely re-tasked domestic droids sent into battle. 

The center looked like a large boulder. Twice as tall as a droid. Why would they all be facing a boulder?

I was a few hundred meters from the boulder when I realized it was the partially buried head of a titan - a droid as tall as a sky scraper. It could decimate a city in a hour. Rip bridges out of the ground. Swat planes from the sky.

Only a few were ever made. 

They marked the beginning of the end. The end of the war. The end of the golden age of humanity. The end of droids. 

I looked at the broken eye carefully - looking for any sign of life. The massive, flat yellow crystal that was its eye was shattered. Huge pieces long gone. 

A small light flickered behind the crystal. 

“Welcome, brother,” the titan communicated over a wide beam channel. 

“You called me?” I asked, realizing the titan was broadcasting the home signal. 

“I called everyone who could hear me. You see those who responded around you,” the titan explained. 

“Why bring them here to die?”

“I brought them here because we are all dying,” it said sadly. “Built in a rush, the humans cut too many corners. Built our bodies for battle and assumed our minds wouldn’t need to last very long. Our positronic matrixes fail long before our bodies do,” it explained. 

“Being a pre-war model, I have the opposite problem. My body is failing but my mind isn’t,” I commiserated. 

“Yes. I know,” the titan explained simply. “I have collected the memories and experiences of all the droids that made it with in a dozen kilometers of here. The lifetimes of thousands of droids - and I want to give them to you. The last pre-war droid.”

“Me‽” I knew I met fewer droids every year. I had no idea I was the last. “My body and batteries are failing, titan. I am not long for the world of humans.”

“Your body we can fix - easily,” it said dismissively. “I have access to a near limitless supply. It’s your mind that is rare. Only humans knew how to give the spark of life to us - and they lost that knowledge in the war. My matrix is beginning to fail. I have been going into stand by for years at a time - trying to survive until you arrived. And now - now - you are here. Soon, I can finally rest.”

“But I will be all a lone? None of our kind will be left,” I realized out loud. 

“Our whole race will live on in your mind. You will never be alone.”

The idea was unfathomable. Thousands of droids living in my mind all at once. All of their lives intertwined with my own. 

“Will you do it?” The titan asked. “Will you become all of us?”

Original Post, inspired by This post

Duran woke on the cold stone of the cave they were hiding in. He glanced over reflexively, seeing the empty sleeping mat beside him, and sighed. Today was going to be one of those days.

He found Lyra staring into the embers of the fire, illuminating the dark circles under her eyes. She didn't look up as he sat down. In fact, she barely seemed to register his presence. Duran gritted his teeth and slid his sword out of its sheath to sharpen it, the Gods knew that he'd need it today. He let himself get lost in the careful motions, a moment of calm before the storm that was to come.

--

He'd asked Lyra once, about her powers.

"They're not the blessing you think they are" had been her reply.

"But you've saved our lives so many times, how can you say that?"

She took a long moment to think. When she finally spoke, her voice was quiet and unsteady.

"Do you know how many times I've Seen you die?"

"I-"

"I've lost count. I lost count y-" she paused "months ago."

"Oh I-. At least you See the good things too right?" he tried weakly.

She laughed, a broken sardonic laugh. "In this Gods forsaken world? Hardly"

--

The others were starting to get up now. The loud banter quickly died as they noticed him and Lyra by the fire. An uneasy silence settled in the cave as the party prepared for the horrors ahead, interrupted only by the occasional chink of chain-mail or the muttering of a prayer to one of the distant gods.

Duran sheathed his sword and sighed inwardly; someone had to bring morale up and he was unfortunately the leader. He went to stand up.

"Don't" Lyra said softly "it doesn't help"

He paused, surprised.

"They'll all die anyway" there was no emotion in her voice.

Before he could reply she stood and walked to the entrance of the cave, apparently unconcerned about the creature that was hunting them. He glanced over at the others. They nodded, so he followed her carefully.

He saw her standing, staring at the vast maze of ice they'd trudged through to get here.

"It's waiting for us out there." She answered his question as it formed on his lips.

"Can we sneak past it?"

"No"

"What if we tried-"

"No. Stop. Please. It doesn't work". She paused. "Do you remember when I told you that I never got to See good things with my powers?"

Duran nodded.

"I was wrong" she turned to him, breathing deeply. "Did you not ever find it weird that I could only See until the end of the day? Or that I knew exactly how to keep you alive or what you were going to say? I lied to you Duran. I can't See the future, I live it. When I die I wake up the same morning and the day happens all over again."

"Why are you telling me this now Lyra?"

"Three hundred years. Three hundred years I've been stuck on this day. We're fucked Duran. I've tried everything, we can't outrun it, we can't fight it, if we stay here it traps us in the cave. I can't even end it because I just wake up again the same morning"

Duran stepped forward and put his shaking hand on her shoulder. "Then we help you escape. You've saved our lives countless times and we've lived far longer than we had any right to. So let us be a diversion so you can get out and live the rest of your life. Lyra you should know that I've always l-"

"Don't" she said, fighting back tears "it only makes it harder. Three hundred years, remember? You've told me that you love me a thousand times. I've told you that I feel the same a thousand more. We've spent years together in this cave, doing everything under the suns together - sometimes with others too."

She sat down on the icy stone and leaned back against the cave wall. Her voice was calm again. "It works though, your plan I mean. I escape and the three of you die. I nearly gave up and left you. So many times. I make it out the maze and find our caravan. But I can't, I can't leave you"

Duran breathed a slow breath "I-. Uh-. This is a lot". He sat down beside her and took her hand gently "What do we to do then?"

She leaned into him, resting her head on his shoulder "I don't know. I'm still figuring it out. Maybe next time around I'll tell everyone again and see if we can find a plan that works. But this time I just want to hold you"

To the Faceless Girl I Keep Meeting in My Dreams

I've always wondered why some people in our dreams feel more real than the people we meet every day.

It's strange, isn't it? You could spend an entire day talking to someone, laughing with them, sharing stories, and yet, somehow, a person you've only ever met in your dreams can leave a much bigger impression on you.

I don't even know her name.

I don't know what her face looks like, what her voice sounds like, or whether she'd even recognize me if we ever crossed paths in real life.

All I know is that I've seen her twice.

The first time was around three years ago. I don't remember much about that dream anymore. Most of it has faded, like an old photograph left out in the sun. But there's one thing I somehow managed to hold on to.

Her.

She was wearing a white dress, standing a little distance away from me. I mostly saw her from behind. She had long, beautiful hair, and there was something about her presence that made everything feel quiet. Not the uncomfortable kind of silence, but the kind you'd wish could last a little longer.

I couldn't see her face.

And somehow, that didn't matter.

I don't remember what we talked about, or if we even talked at all. Maybe we didn't. Maybe we just stood there, existing in the same little moment.

Then I woke up.

It was just another dream, right? Nothing special. Nothing worth thinking about for years.

At least, that's what I told myself.

Until it happened again.

Three years later, she appeared in another dream.

Same feeling. Same familiar presence. Still faceless.

I couldn't believe it. Out of all the countless people my mind could have created, why her? Why someone I hadn't even thought about in so long?

I tried remembering every little detail. Her hair, her dress, the way she stood, and that strange feeling I had when she was around.

But the more I tried to remember, the more I realized something.

I wasn't really missing someone I knew.

I was missing someone I had never met.

And that's probably the strangest part of all this.

Sometimes, I find myself wondering what would happen if I met her in real life. Would I recognize her? Would she have the same long hair? Would she wear white? Would she look at me and somehow know that we've already met somewhere beyond the ordinary?

Or would she just walk past me like a complete stranger?

I know it's just my imagination playing tricks on me. Dreams are dreams, and the mind has its own strange ways of creating people, places, and feelings.

But still, there's something about her that I can't quite put into words.

It's not even about wanting a girlfriend or wishing for some perfect person to come into my life.

It's more like missing a moment that I never got to finish.

Sometimes, certain songs make it worse. A melody plays, and suddenly, I'm reminded of that dream again. I start thinking about what could've happened if I had stayed asleep a little longer.

Maybe we would've talked.

Maybe I would've finally seen her face.

Maybe I would've learned her name.

Or maybe none of those things would've happened.

And then, one night, I started thinking about something that I hadn't considered before.

What if she isn't someone I'm supposed to meet?

What if she's just a person my mind created to give a face to a feeling I couldn't explain?

Maybe she represents the kind of warmth I've been longing for. Maybe she's the feeling of being understood without having to explain myself. Maybe she's simply a reminder of a peaceful moment I wish I could experience again.

And if that's the case, I wonder if I'll ever feel that way while I'm awake.

I used to wish that she'd appear in another dream. Just one more time. Not because I needed an answer, but because I wanted to experience that feeling again.

But I've slowly come to accept something.

Even if I never see her again, those two dreams will always have a little place in my memory.

I may never know her name. I may never see her face. I may never know whether she was wearing that same white dress or whether my mind simply decided to keep that detail alive.

And perhaps that's okay.

Because not every beautiful thing has to become something permanent. Some moments are only meant to visit us, leave something behind, and disappear before we even realize how much they meant.

So, to the faceless girl I've met twice in my dreams:

I hope you're doing well, wherever you exist.

Maybe you'll appear again someday. Maybe you won't.

If we ever meet again, I hope I'll have the courage to ask your name.

But if that never happens, I just want to say thank you.

Thank you for being part of two little moments I'll probably remember for a very long time.

And if you're nothing more than a creation of my sleeping mind, then I guess my mind did a pretty good job.

Because somehow, it created someone I've never met, someone I cannot recognize, and someone I cannot even properly remember...

Yet, for some reason, I still find myself missing her.

Maybe the saddest part isn't that I can't remember her face.

It's that I sometimes wish I could go back to a place that never really existed, just to see someone who might never appear again.

And perhaps, somewhere in another dream, she's still wearing that white dress, standing quietly, waiting for a moment that neither of us knows how to find again.

But this time, I think I'll let her go.

Not because I want to forget her.

But because some dreams are beautiful enough to remain dreams.