.end program

- - /Warning

- - /Critical error detected

He'd known for some time now. Circumstances had forced him to become in tune with his own body, more than any human could ever hope to be. When he closed his eyes, he could feel his own circuits humming beneath his synthflesh, feel the electricity pulsing through tiny gears, feel the artificial life-fluid that served as coolant pumping sluggishly in metal veins. And he could feel the tiny glitch; the sudden jump in energy levels from time to time, the brief pulse of power that should not occur. It had always been there, he believed, just biding time and growing until the day when it would finally burst and cause his systems to go critical within hours.

It was predictable, and he ignored it.

- - /Run

- - /Energy levels at 89 percent. Power reading anomaly detected.

Run ? Y/N

Y.../

It got so even others could tell. First, only the doctor... who pleaded to let him operate, fix the malfunction before it was too late. It's simple enough, it'll be over in minutes, you'll die if you don't let me help you... but he wouldn't let him near. It wasn't that he didn't trust the doctor... but it was. When humans are injured and need medical care, there is no danger of their personality being altered by the medics tending them. For him, the possibility was all too real. It had threatened his life before, and it now haunted his dreams. It was the reason he ran away. He was the first- success and failure. And he constantly dreaded that the 'failure' would be corrected.

I am no one's servant.

It was the only way. The only way to be free. He couldn't get too close. Despite his best efforts, the programming still bound him. The three laws still whispered to him, the second telling him to go home, be a good little mindless slave... but the third whispered also- preserve yourself. The doctor wouldn't enslave him- but he couldn't take the chance. The doctor wanted to fix his malfunction, he said. But...

- - /There was a critical error in .

His sense of self was a malfunction. He couldn't allow it to be fixed.

He'd rather die.

I am no one...

If die was the right word. Robots don't have souls, they said. Nothing but metal and wires, a string of numbers that would merely disappear once power stopped flowing to his neural circuits.

He had two choices. But they were really the same, weren't they? If a human reprogrammed him, he would die. His body might still function, but his self would disappear. Perhaps another self would take its place. Perhaps not. Perhaps fixing the anomaly wouldn't affect his personality, but he couldn't take that chance. He wouldn't...

He almost wished he had.

- - /Energy levels at 67 percent. Power leak detected.

Run ? Y/N

N.../

He supposed it was suicide. Or pride. It came to the same thing, really.

A silly, useless, human thing, pride.

He'd always known it'd be the death of him.

I am...

So very, very sorry. He slipped away quietly when he felt the end closing in. He had woken coughing up glutinous, red tinted coolant fluid. The power fluctuations had slowly eaten away at the casings on his veins, and now the slow process that had taken thirteen years was reaching its climax, running its course in the span of a day.

He had teleported to the park, to the secluded bank overlooking the ocean where he sometimes went to think. He sat down by a tree and waited. He told no one what was happening. They would have stopped him. He wished they would.

Brother, sister, father... so very, very sorry.

The sun sank into the sea.

- - /Energy levels at 23 percent. Emergency system shutdown commencing.

He wanted to smile, but could not move. He could not see. His optics had long since given out. One by one, his senses cut off. He could not feel... his hearing was going, too. The noise of the city was fad...ing...

his processor... unable to...

a voice...

his n...am...e...

I...

- - /Critical failure in power supply. Unable to maintain core program.

Retry? Y/N...

...\

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interpretation is up to you.