A Call To Arms (A Crown The Empire Fanfiction)

are we just machines?

Jewel p.o.v

I wake up to the sound of breaking glass, and it sounds like its coming from the other room. I sit up and check the time on the clock on the table. It's 4:45 am.

I get up from the bed and walk into the hall, noticing the house it's completely dark. There's a shadow at the bottom of the stairs and my heart leaps into my stomach.

"Hey, go back to bed," Brent says as he hurries up the stairs. "Please, just go back to sleep." He takes my shoulders in his hands and he gently shoves me back into the room. I watch him as he scurries down the hall and into a room that showed light from the crack at the bottom of the door.

I follow behind him quietly.

I peek behind the door and see Bones standing next to his bed, not moving a single muscle, nor batting an eye. He just kinda stood there...

As I stood behind the door, I watched Brent hop up onto the bed on his knees, so that he's directly behind Bones. Then he lifts his shirt so that it's at his shoulders.. Whoa.

But what shocked me was the square engraved into his shoulder blades along with a small circle in a corner.

"God dammit," Brent mumbles and hops off the bed and opens a drawer in the nightstand. As he does this, he spots me behind the door.

"Jewel, I told you do go back to sleep," he tells me.

I step more into the bedroom. "What is that?" I point to the panel on Bones' back.

"It's.. its uh, it's complicated."

"Complicated how? What is he?!"

Brent takes out a drill-pen thing from the nightstand and returns to his spot behind Bones. "You can't tell anyone about this, Jewel." He drills into Bones' back and the panel pops off. Brent carefully removes it, placing it onto the bed.

What I'm seeing before my eyes gave me quite a shock. Behind the panel was a series of wires, metal plates, small flashing red lights...what is this?

"Bones is half human, half machine. He was a failed project from the Raven but he managed to fix himself and become whole again. His battery pack has a short in it. It's been doing that a lot lately."

He removes a giant metal box from the panel, and I move closer. It seems as if he's removing an organ.

"Get me the box from underneath the bathroom sink, would you?" Brent says.

I have to pry my eyes away from them to turn away. I make my way to the bathroom and fetch a large metal box from the cabinet. It's heavy as crap oh my god.

I return to Brent and give it to him. He puts the new battery in and hits a button. Bones makes beeping noises and then exhales deeply and is fully functional again.

"What the hell is going on Bones?" Brent asks him. He turns and looks at us.

"I'm getting old, that's all. Sorry I troubled you guys. You can return to your beds." Bones sits down on the bed and lies down.

What on earth...I look to Brent and he looks at me.

"Alright then, goodnight." He moves towards me and my heart speeds up, but he only takes my arm and leads us out of the room. After he closes the door, we just kind of stand there in the dark. His grip on my arm loosens, and his hand slides down to my hand. I start freaking out, and by freak out, I mean I can't breathe. Literally, I feel like my heart stopped, but I can hear it loudly in my ears just fine. He's so close I can smell him, just like how his blankets smell.