Zeel walked outside and started his own tour of the village…

This was a common observation technique – tour a place once with a resident, and tour the place twice by yourself…

There were bound to be some discrepancies somewhere…

If there weren't any discrepancies in your perception of the place, then that, in itself, was a discrepancy…

Usually, there was no need for Zeel to take a second and third look at a place since his nanites could replicate the area to perfection by using his senses alone…

Humans had Photographic Memory – able to almost perfectly recall a past memory…

Homo-Superiors had Palpability Memory – not only perfect recall but the ability to interact with the memory as if it was the real world, seeking out infinite possibilities…

Ever wondered WHAT IF?

Well, Homo-Superior's minds were entire calculations filled with WHAT IFS…

And though Zeel could not use Palpable Memory without the nanites, walking around the place once or twice could give him a 'sense' for the village…

Zeel walked as he recalled the exact route Mojdeh took to get home, and, using his Palpability Memory, Zeel could even recall the briefest of twitches in Mojdeh's muscle memory…

Like those untrained instincts that you could not help but show…

There were certain areas of the village the Old Man didn't want Zeel to know of, which was ironic since it was his reluctance to visit such areas that made Zeel notice them…

Halfway through the journey, taking several dusty roads that showed the darker side of the village, Zeel was already unsteady on his feet…

It came like a sudden shock of lightning…

The whisperings were getting louder and more potent, and though he could probe to figure out what they were, Zeel didn't want to do that…

There was no way he could open Pandora's Box without knowing it was Pandora's Box… so, unless he knew exactly what it was, Zeel was determined to keep a wrap on the new ability…

Eventually, the headaches subsided and Zeel took another tour around the village…

This time, he selected tactical positions, studied the soil composition, and smelt the old scents lingering in the area…

No information was useless information, especially without the nanites to process information for him…

It wasn't until his second time around did Zeel notice a slight blinking light on the phone he 'borrowed' from Stefan…

The phone was not blinking before, so Zeel was left to ponder about what changed…

And eventually, after another patrol around the village, what changed became obvious…

Across the street from where he stood, Zeel could see a new face amongst the villagers – a man that was definitely not from around these areas…

With trained, Draconic eyes, Zeel could somewhat make out the red skin beneath the many coverings the man wore…

The man was white, and definitely not used to the desert…

Even Zeel, as efficient as his epidermal layer was, had become a little browner since walking in the desert…

Zeel didn't even notice he had been staring at the man to the point the man flashed a gun in his direction as a quick warning…

Instead of paying the gun any mind, Zeel glanced down at the phone blinking in his hands and instantly determined that one of the nearby buildings had an outgoing signal…

Transmission capability confirmed two things…

Firstly, Stefan was probably a member of this group at some point, or at least, operated in the same circles…

Secondly, there were outgoing transmissions on the electromagnetic spectrum…

Not wanting to tip his hand in the middle of the day, Zeel turned around and left, finding his way back to Mojdeh's home…

There was no need to pile up bodies during the day when nighttime would be far more convenient…

Zeel pushed open the door to Mojdeh's home, and the man of the house, himself, was right behind the door waiting for him…

"You could hear me coming?" Zeel inquired, confident his footsteps were almost inaudible…

"Your smell?"

"My smell?"

Mojdeh frowned and rubbed the back of his head "How do I describe it… you smell like freedom at the end of the world…"

Zeel frowned, feeling a distinct frustration at being unable to quantify such a contradictory statement "Humans always say the weirdest things…" he murmured unconsciously "Are you trying to call me a bad person or a good person?"

"Why can't it be both?"

Zeel sighed and pushed past Mojdeh to settle on the Kitchen table "I am trying to leave all the bad behind…" he clarified, almost desperately…

Mojdeh didn't immediately sit down next to Zeel, instead, he walked towards a wall and pushed his hand into the nearby hole, grabbing hold of a wine covered in cloth…

Mojdeh took two cups, filled them with his most prized liquor, and slid into the seat next to Zeel, passing the Homo-Superior the cup like it was the most natural thing in the world…

Zeel took a sip of the drink, playing with the liquid in his mouth for a while, trying to determine if it was poisoned or not… it wasn't…

And it was surprisingly high quality for something made by human hands…

Zeel swallowed, smacking his lips a little, and then questioned "You have something to say?"

"There was once a kid in the village… a… boy…" Mojdeh started, weighing his words very carefully "This boy named Sam always told everyone he was a girl… from a very young age… he felt like a girl, talked like a girl, behaved like a girl, and never bothered anyone – the only thing wrong with him was the fact that he thought he was a girl…"

"And?" Zeel questioned, clearly unamused…

"He was a good kid and everyone knew that but they couldn't accept him as a girl… even I couldn't…" Mojdeh added with a bit of guilt on his face "So, we forced him to be the boy he was born to be… we were never disgusted by him once, but one day, we drowned the boy he loved in a well… it was an accident since we were trying to rid the boys of his demons but he refused to submit… this was a usual thing back then, and some would even say the kid was better off dead in Allah's embrace... but this broke Sam's heart and he started behaving like the boy he was…"

"The day Sam started behaving like a boy, was the day we grew disgusted by him…" Mojdeh admitted, a slightly pained smile on his face "Sam clearly wasn't a girl, but for some reason, it felt more authentic than him behaving like a boy… it was like his true self, deep inside, was not reflected by the body he was confined to…"

"And you think I am Homosexual?"

"No… I am saying you remind me of Sam…"

"A boy pretending to be a girl?"

Mojdeh shook his head "A Force of Nature trying to be good when there is no such thing as good or bad…"

Zeel sipped the last of his drink from the cup and laughed "For all the nonsense humans come up with – there is one thing they did not mistake…"

"What's that?" Mojdeh asked, genuinely curious…

"There is such a thing as evil in this world…" Zeel exhaled as he felt chains tighten around his soul, held at bay by an equally terrible monster "When you have seen true evil – not the kinds humans stories tell you of – but evil so potent you never forget it… then, you will realize that I am truly GOOD!"

With that said, Zeel departed the table and headed to the room he was assigned, not caring for the profound sigh that exited Mojdeh's lips at his departure…

------------------------

Nearly two hours later as the sunset behind the sandhills, Zeel laid on his bed of straw, staring up at the ceiling as if it had all the answers in the Universe…

Actually, he was deeply contemplating what Mojdeh had said – a Force of Nature trying to be good when there is no such thing as good or bad…

From a human's perspective, even an old one, Zeel could understand what he meant, but that would just bring more questions into his mind…

Philosophy in Homo-Superior Culture had long surpassed Human Perception, and in the end, The Homo-Superior Council was able to determine one thing – The Zero-Sum Equation…

Philosophically, Zeel's mind could only quantify all transactions in one fundamental way – anything gained by him must be lost by someone else and vice versa…

That was the Universal Law that governed the Universe…

Then, why was he so confused by a single statement from a Human that was probably a quarter of his age?

---KNOCK---

---KNOCK---

The world around Zeel slowed as he entered [Shallow Time-Zone] and opened the door, examining the female that stood outside, slowly in the process of performing another knock.

She was somewhat short, about peak five feet, and her dark hair did not match the dusty hair of Mojdeh and the others…

But her facial features, which showed relation to Mojdeh, told Zeel the Old Man was not nearly as virtuous as he pretended to be…

Zeel deactivated his Time-Zone and appeared in front of the startled girl, but instead of staying to explain himself, he simply brushed past her and headed for the kitchen…

Even from his room, Zeel could smell the unique dish being made in the kitchen, and needless to say, he was very hungry…