[IC] Half Alive(Heartless and Thinker)

[AHeartlessNobody]

Castille had killed so many humans. Just like the one in front of her now. A quivering women sat on her knees in front of the Android, begging to be let go, saying she had a child to take care of. Kind of stupid of the woman. All that did was give her another target to go after, especially with her communicator in her ear and her creator giving her orders. The moment the robot said to shoot, Anna shot. With the woman laying dead in front of her, blood pooling from her head, Anna felt something inside of her that she always felt. She didn't know what it was. She had talked to others about it, but many of the robots just said it was the human side of her still. Slowly she had gotten used to the feeling, just it still stung, like someone had just punched her in the chest.

Her creator told her to search for the child that the woman had spoke of. And she found it. A little boy, around the age of six years old. He was hidden under some pieces of scrap metal, shivering and eyes wide with fear, probably more shaken by the sight of his mothers death then the fact there was a gun pressed to his forehead. Anna had killed many humans of ranging ages, but she had never done away with a human child before. Humans hardly had children anymore. There were to many dangers that the younger one could get hurt or killed by in this world. The adult humans knew better. Well, at least most did.

She looked down at the child for a long time, watching him sob under grief and fear. Her finger was on the trigger, ready to kill as her creator order her to. But....she couldn't. No matter how hard she tried, her body would not allow it. She dropped the gun, moving her hand to make sure it was functional. It was. So if it wasn't her metal bones locking up, then what was it? She looked back at the child, and though her creator was in her ear, shouting for her to terminate the young human, she didn't. She just looked at the child, and the child took the opportunity, seeming to understand his chance, and ran.

Bending down she silently picked up her gun, putting it back into the bag that was over her shoulder. She pulled the communicator out of her ear so that she didn't have to hear the robot anymore, and turned. She took on look at the dead woman and almost got sick. She didn't know why she was feeling this and now. She had killed so many, seen so many dead bodies. She didn't know why this seemed so different. But it was. She had to look away from the woman, a hand over her mouth.

She ran. Fast. She wasn't really running from anything. Nothing was chasing her, but she knew soon something would be. That made her stop, trying to sort everything out in her head. What was she doing? That was still unplanned, but she wasn't going to go back to the lab she was created in. They'd terminate her for disobeying orders. Where was she going to go? She didn't know, just away from this robotic wasteland. And then what she going to do when she was away? Still another question unanswered. One thing was for sure though. She had to keep them from tracking her down.

The scanner bar on her arm was thing that had to be taken care of. Not only was it always scanned for identification, but under it was a chip used to track all robots and androids. Robots had it lucky. They didn't feel pain or bleed. But as an android, she was still half, if not mostly human, and this was going hurt. She brought the knife she carried out of the bag over her shoulder, she looked at it for a moment before she slowly made a deep cut all the way across the bar code. Then, she dug the knife in, blood pouring from it, and managed to grip the chip with her fingernails, pulling it out. She crushed it immediately.

Not even bothering to wrap up the bloody sight, she left it as it was, and ran some more. It was almost instinct. She didn't know where she was going still, but it lead her from the city. She ended up in a desert. And though in her whole year of being in the elimination team she had never been here, it was all so...familiar. Her feet took her in a direction and she didn't even worry about getting lost. Soon it grew night, which was a good thing to her for a while as it meant getting out of the sun. That good feeling though only lasted for about an hour because even sooner she felt the freezing air piercing her skin through her clothes, making her feel like she would freeze. But she kept on moving like her feet told her to. She was so close to collapsing from both thirst and exhaustion when she found...a cave? Why had she come here? She was so confused, but took it as shelter and walked toward the entrance. She was almost at the mouth of the cave when she felt something at the back of her head. There was no mistaking that cold roundness for anything but the barrel of a pistol. Then, in that moment, there was a huge commotion. Her bag was stripped from her, and rope was tied around her body and arms, as well as her legs. She struggled but it was no use.

One of the humans lifted her over their shoulder roughly, then once inside and in a lot of the humans view, she was thrown painfully onto the floor, and looked up with fear in her eyes for the first time in a long time, as a gun was pointed at her head. She couldn't help but think about how this must have been how all those humans she had killed in the past year felt. Maybe she deserved to die just like they did. No, she probably deserved worse.

[Thinker]

Kenji sat down, the wooden chair creaked softly at the weight. His hand slipping over his short brown hair and then neatly trimmed facial hair, he had never liked facial hair before her disappearance. He couldn’t find the heart to shave it off. He shifted his combat boots covered feet under his chair and dropped his snub nose semi-automatic gun on the table. He took it everywhere with him, it was like his pet or third hand. Some people in the community thought it was a little strange. Most didn’t care as long as he didn’t use it on them or himself.

Nightmares were trampling his mind harder than usual tonight and his connections between metal and bone were aching with the shift in weather. The metallic brown fleshless fingers picked up the pack of cigarettes without crushing them. Every day he was gained a little more control over the new additions to his body. He tapped one out and tossed the pack on the table, he flicked his lighter and held the flame against the end of the hand rolled cigarette. He took a long drag the nicotine jolted his system and gave him a slight buzz. He blew the smoke from his nose and grabbed a half full fifth of whiskey and poured himself a shot. He leaned back in his chair ignoring the silent figure across the table from him. He drained the shot glass in one swallow and sat the tiny glass on the table.

“Wrench has been in her workshop for sixteen hours straight,” Geir said returning to his rifle he was assembling after a good cleaning. His habit to do after a long day of patrol, it relaxed him.

Kenji peered at the man with a robotic eye that illuminated the left side of his face in blue light. The war hero had lost his eye during the first wave of robots and lost his commission in the armed forces dubbed as useless to the military. With Geir came Wrench or the other way around. Either way, the two had joined their little band of resistance shortly before Castille’s stunt at the hospital. It was Wrench that had attached the cybernetic eye with targeting enhancements to Geir’s lost optical organ, shortly after he had lost it. Wrench was crazy smart with all sorts of doctorates and degrees under her belt. Since her arrival, Wrench’s work had given a lot of people their mobility and independence back, Kenji’s included. No one knew the relationship between the two, they barely talked but had a strong bond of friendship. “How is that unusual?”

Hurried footsteps, caused Geir to slap the rest of his rifle together with practiced efficiency, a skinny and very dirty kid rushed to their table. “Incoming,” she said breathless, pointing the way she had come. “South side.”

Weapons were grabbed and the two were on their feet and hurrying through the tunnels that opened to the south. Geir dropped to laid on his belly and set up his rifle on a low profile tripod and peered through his scope with his flesh eye. “One,” he said, his finger slipped over the trigger and he shifted his body to place his robotic against the scope. “Searching.”

Kenji grabbed the binoculars and found the running figure, the black haired male was bloody, shirtless and with and had pistols in each hand. He glanced over his shoulder. The action caused both men to look at what the male was running from. A robot with bullets riddled over the harden outer case, one eye was hanging out by the wires and one arm was limp at the side. Geir pulled the trigger and the robot crashed into a heap. The male stopped and stared then looked around wildly before diving behind a small rock barely large enough to protect his head.

Kenji rushed down the steep embankment and held his gun to the new arrival. “Give me one excuse,” he said. “I’ll pop you faster than your friend there.”

The robot’s tracking device was removed. “The device has been disabled, we are golden.”

“Check him,” Geir ordered as he approached.

“I’m human,” he yelled as he was manhandled checking for the barcode and other signs of the android species. “Ouch, those are my nads. Stop touching my nads!”

Kenji cocked his gun and the black hair male fell silent, empty hands rose in silent surrender. “Name.”

“Ning,” he said, his dark eyes shifting from Kenji to Geir a few steps behind him. “We were in the east, a terminating android wiped out my colony and I have been on the run since.”

Geir picked up one of the altered pistol Ning had been carrying. “I’ve never seen anything like this.”

“My own…ouch. Design,” he glared at the human still searching him. “You going to buy me dinner or what?”

“He’s clean,” another said glancing at the robot. “We will take that to Wrench.”

“Damn,” Kenji said taking a drag on his cigarette as he lowered his weapon. “I was hoping to kill him.”

“Maybe next time,” Geir said holding out a hand to the new addition to their colony. “Welcome to Piss and Moan.”

“What sort of name is that?” Ning took the offered hand and was on his feet a few moments later. He scooped up his other gun and the three of them returned to the safety of the cave.

Geir shrugged a shoulder. “It works.”

Seven Months later…

Kenji stepped in front of the struggling android, the bonds appeared like rope but was flexible metal cord that could pin down most robots and their flesh counterparts. Her barcode was found, still bleeding. “Tracker is missing.”

“Take it inside and get Wrench up here. She can take the thing apart.”

The android was hefted by one of the humans that had his left side replaced by robotic parts and could pick up any amount of weight with ease. They moved down to the common area and she was dropped unceremoniously to the floor. Wrench came in the room, her goggles up on her forehead causing her brown hair to stand in weird angles. She used a scanning device over the woman. “She has many sound parts I can use.”

“Good,” Kenji sneered. “Make the damn thing suffer.”

Wrench glanced at him. “When have I ever cared for their pain?”

Kenji snorted and patted his shirt pockets. “Where are my damn cigarettes?” He found them in a pocket in his cargo pants, he wiggled them out and the pack went flying and landed beside the android. He knelt down and picked it up, he glanced at the face the enemy wore and froze. “Cassie?”

Everyone froze and stared at the android then at Kenji. "Shit," Wrench whispered. "Get Geir in here before he does something stupid."

The shirtless Geir entered the common room blinking his human eye as he tried to wake up. It was so silent, the tiny motors to the eye could be heard as the mechanical eye shifted and focused on the android. "What is that thing doing here?"

"Cassie," Kenji whispered again reaching for the android.

Geir yanked Kenji away from the bound woman. "She is not that person anymore. Look at me. Kenji." Geir turned. "Ning, get that whiskey." Geir forced the shaken Kenji to sit a drink was pressed in his hand. "Think very carefully about this."

"It's her," Kenji repeated several times.

"She is a machine with face that you recognize that is all. She isn't Cassie. There is nothing inside that noggin of hers would prove otherwise. We have to destroy it." Geir shook Kenji so hard the amber liquid in the glass the male held splashed. "Get a hold of yourself and think of the community."

[AHeartlessNobody]

Castille wasn't sure what these humans were going to do with her, but she didn't think it was going to be good. Something about...taking her apart? Her eyes widened at this, but she knew struggling was no use. Somehow she just knew these humans had tricks up their sleeves. And at the same time, even if they didn't, with the exhaustion from traveling through the desert there was no way she would stand a fighting chance if she did. She was lifted by one of the human and found it strange how this human had part of his left side replaced with machinery. Outdated robotics for sure, but all the same, she found it unusual that the humans would have even that high of a technology. And more importantly that they had used it on themselves.

She supposed now she could guess why they planned to take her apart instead of just killing her. If they had parts like this they had to be taking it from somewhere. And that somewhere was from robots and androids. Somehow, she felt like she heard of something like this happening before? Had some of the robots or other androids mentioned something about this? No, she didn't think so. If they had spoken about it and knew about it, that would mean they would have stopped whomever was doing it, and clearly these people were still here and still thriving.

She yelped slightly in pain as she was thrown onto the floor, her unnatural white hair covering her face as she layed there on the floor, still bound as the humans went to fetch who would be taking her apart. She could just hope that maybe her being taken apart wouldn't be painful. Maybe they would put her unconscious, or even kill her first before taking her apart. But, that didn't seem likely, as when the person to do the procedure walked in and stated they could use some of her parts, someone told he woman in a dark sounding voice to make her suffer.

She layed there on the floor, still as can be, when something was flung over and dropped beside her. She lifted her head slightly so that her white hair moved from her face, her blue eyes, that reflected the dim light in the room as an iridescent pink as her eyes now did with all light, looked at the packet of cigarettes before her eyes gazed up at the man who had dropped them. When her eyes locked with his, her eyes widened at a sudden.....feeling. Feeling? Was this an...emotion? Yes. But, she wasn't supposed to have emotions. No Android was. What the feeling was, she didn't know, but it was strong and familiar. One that made her feel warm and one that craved.

For a moment. Just a moment, a image passed through her head. An image of this man, smiling down at her with such gentleness. Where had that come from? This was her first time seeing this human, was it not? But yet, why had she thought that. No. Not thought. Was it....a memory? Impossible. That was insane. She didn't have any memories any more. This wasn't supposed to be happening to her! These were human traits! She was no longer human!

He said her name. Cassie. Even though the robots had always referred to her by a number, the number on her (now cut)barcode, she somehow knew. Cassie was her name. The one she had been given when she was born as a human. It was what she was meant to be called.

She continued to look at the human wide eyed, and with a small about of recognition, at all of these new things he was causing with in her, only to have him jerked away when he reached out toward her. The other humans were speaking to him, trying to convince him she was not who was before. Who had she been before? She now knew her name, but besides that small amount of information and that quick image in her head, there was no remembrance of the old her. Of who she had been as a human.

As the small group continued to try and calm the man down, another man with blonde hair that stuck up everywhere, as well as a robotic leg, walked in casually, "So, I heard you guys caught another one, anything useful?" Though, right after he asked that, he could tell something was wrong, the way Geir and Ning was practically trying to show whisky down Kenji's throat, which was odd considering Kenji usually was pretty goo at doing that by himself. A confused look on his face, he glanced over to see the Android laying on the floor, looking at the small group with wide blue eyes. Toni gasped, dropping the cup he had in hand from shock at the sight of seeing his sister. Changed a little, but still his sister. At least in his mind anyway.

Looking over at the others, his mind racing, so many questions forming in his head, "H-how? How did she get here? Where did you all find her?"

[Thinker]

Geir turned to Toni, his mechanical eye blasted a little brighter just for a moment when his anger flared, when the blond recognized the android as well. “It,” Geir said coldly. He had seen this happen in the old colony he and Wrench had been a part of. An android happened upon them that was a lover of a guy and he thought he could change the programming. Long story short, Wrench and Geir were the only ones to walk away from that blood bath. No one knew about that little part of the history, Wrench didn’t talk much other than her high tech babble or when she was forced to exchange words with another, like with Kenji. Geir wasn’t the type to sit around and hash out his personal history in some strange way to bond with other people. “It is not your sister, it is a machine. A killing machine one that destroys life. Our lives!” He rose, wanting to slap some sense into the lot of them. “Am I the only one with a half a brain in this damn place? She wouldn’t hesitate to murder all of us right here. Right now. She is programmed by her robot gods to kill us. To terminate us until we are no more. They use their faces to soften our defenses.”

He pulled out a pistol and aimed it at the android. “I am not going to stand by while this thing kills everyone in this place.”

“No,” Kenji shouted dropping the glass, the whiskey splashed over his boots. “No,” he repeated a little calmer. “Please, give her at least one day here. Maybe I can get her to override the programming. One day, Geir, it is all I ask. If she tries anything, I will…” He looked at the albino. “I’ll put a bullet in her head myself.”

Geir peered at the spilt alcohol, Kenji would never have done that before. Drink was the way he coped with the nightmares, guilt and whatever else that rambled inside his head. He slowly released his hold on the trigger and replaced the safety before shoving it back into the holster on his belt. “One day, Kenji. Twenty four hours and the cords are not to be removed or I will shoot you myself.”

Kenji nodded his agreements with the terms. He moved back to the android and knelt in front of her. “Cassie,” he whispered touching her cheek, he peered at the metallic fingers on her pale skin and pulled away. Fighting an internal battle. “Say something.”

“I don’t like this,” Ning whispered when Geir stepped beside him. “I don’t like this one bit.” Unlike the quieter older man, Ning was not shy about talking about the horrors that happened to his colony. “Those machines are getting sneakier. How did it find us anyway? Maybe that tracker in that robot following me wasn’t fully dead after all. They know they cannot penetrate by force so they send in android.”

“All possibilities,” Geir answered backs softly. “The removal of the tracker worries me. It had to put it somewhere close knowing we would scramble our location and destroy it. It’s buddies are more than likely on the way while Kenji tries to get the thing to speak.”

[AHeartlessNobody]

Toni wasn't sure what to think about this whole situation. Geir had a point on how Cassie was programmed likely to kill them. But at the same time, this was his sister. He din't care what Geir said about that. It was her body, her mind, just with a few enhancements. And he'd be damned if he let Geir kill her without even trying to coax her out of this programming that had been placed upon her. He was ready to step up and fight Geir from shooting his sister when Kenji shouted, dropping his glass, causing the whole room to go silent for a quick moment. This was so unlike Kenji. Kenji, after Cassie had been taken, had become a hard man who always seemed angry. It was rare for him to show emotions as he was doing now. It was obvious how desperate the man was to get his lover and fiance back. And Toni didn't blame Kenji one bit for acting as such. Even now with it being his sister Toni wanted to help her. And if it had been Jodie and not Cassie, he would likely be even more so desperate to help her, just as Kenji was being with Cassie. Geir seemed hesitant at first to allow Kenji this one request, but finally the older man gave in, allowing them one day to see some kind of improvement in the girl, or else she would be killed.

Letting out a small sigh of relief that his sister was safe for now, he moved forward with Kenji, standing a couple of feet back as the man knelt down in front of Cassie, practically begging for her to say something to him. In hearing Geir and Ning talk quietly a little ways behind them. It annoyed him how they were coming up with all bad possibilities. But he didn't feel like arguing with them right now. Right now his focus was on his little sister and Kenji. The look on Cassie's face was one he hadn't seen on an android before. normally androids all had blank stares or sometimes glared if they were attacking. The look on Cassie's face though, was one of confusion. Like she wasn't sure what was going on. It gave him hope. Maybe his sister was somewhere in there after all.

Castille listened to the arguments going on between the small group of humans debating over what to do with her. Two of them seemed to want to keep her alive, while the rest just wanted to kill her. She continued to lay there in the cords, listening to see what her fate was. They said they wouldn't kill her just yet. But she somehow knew she couldn't trust what that one human said. He had been so quick to want to kill her, even having the nerve to point that gun at her head, that she wouldn't want to believe anything he said.

She shifted slightly where she layed as the human approached her, lifting her head to look at him with confused blue eyes once more. The human reached out and touched her cheek and to her own surprise, she made no move to pull away. The gesture of this man doing that was so familiar...yet, it felt different all the same. It was both something she was used to somehow and something she had never felt before.

When he pulled his hand away, she stared at his metal hand and arms for a moment before looking back up at his face when he asked her to say something. He seemed...pained. Like something was hurting him. But, she hadn't hurt him. She couldn't physically hurt him. So why did he look like that? She looked up at him with confused bright blue eyes, an unsure look upon her face. That same image of him, the one of him smiling down at her, ran through her head once more, but this time, was linked to something. A sound. A laugh? It was something she hadn't heard before. Not since she woke up as an android. It was something she never thought she would heard and to hear it int he memory was just as strange because she was so sure she had never hear anyone make such a sound. So...was this memory she continued to see....was it truely from her past? From her human years? It made sense and at the same time, did not. That part of her was blocked by the chip, correct?

Her confused eyes stared up at him, and finally, she slowly opened her mouth, hesitant to speak and when she did, her voice was soft, nervous in away at these changes happening with her, "I......I believe I am....malfunctioning." She whispered, worry now on her face at that thought. She had been told by the robots if the chip inside her brain stopped working, she would shut down. She wasn't sure if this was true or not, as the robots were never known for being very truthful. If these emotions and memories were seeping through her mind, that must have meant her chip was breaking. These new things scared her, and it showed on her face as she looked at all of them.

[Thinker]

Geir knew that human women of childbearing age was scarce. It was the robots back up plan when the first wave failed to wipe out the human race. If they couldn’t destroy them one way they would take out the means of their reproduction. Geir had seen the robots shooting women and leaving the men wounded or untouched in the second wave. It left a bitter taste in the back of his throat. It was exactly what he would do if the roles were reversed, hit the enemy where it counted and let nature take its course. After that, they reverted back to their prime directive when the humans were not curling up and dying liked the robots had predicted.

The robots were not as easily controlled, they didn’t have genders or relied on such reproduction to add to their numbers. They needed metal, plastic, wires and power. Which was in abundance in any town, city or car sitting on the side of the road. He had never thought in a million years humans would be fighting the very devices they created and surrounded themselves with to ease their lives. The newest gadget with all the bells and whistles could now pull a trigger and blow out brains. Just flipping great. Geir shut his eyes for a moment when the android spoke, she wasn’t going to make this easy. If that wasn’t part of her trick to get unbound, he felt a spark of hope flare inside him for Kenji’s sake. The poor man had been through the ringer a few times and somehow managed to keep on ticking. Like that watch, Timex, that was Kenji in a nutshell.

Kenji’s gaze snapped to the android fear rolling over his facial features like a thunderstorm, he scooted closer. “Wrench, help her.” He grabbed Castille and pulled her close to his chest, his motors in his arms ground a little harder at the action and the weight of her and the cords pulled painfully on the half metal half bone joints of his shoulders. He could feel her soft hair against his chest where his shirt was open, his heart raced and his mind scattered into a thousand different thoughts.

Wrench peered at her scanning device and shook her head. “Everything is in working order,” she stated, her eyes latching on the scrolling read out for the chip in the androids brain. She wanted that with the craving of most would when peering at gold or a vault full of money. The only way to get it was to carve a hole in the androids head and start cutting until she reached it. If she had the delicate medical devices the robots had that put the thing in there she wouldn’t have to be so brutal. That chip was important to her research, she had two people with head wounds that could benefit from the reprogramming and installation.

Ning scratched his clean shaven chin, when Geir peered at the youth, clearly torn as hard as he was. Geir had thought Ning would have just sort of melted into the background of the community when he was welcomed in, the kid had a way of continually popping up and randomly destroying Geir’s carefully ordered life. It seemed to be a sick game with him and Geir had reached his breaking point a while back. The bruise around the youth’s eye was nearly gone where he had punched Ning. The blue eyed male had toned down his antics for a while when he was around Geir. Now, he felt Ning and himself were the only ones in this room that was actually worried about the community’s safety. He elbowed Ning, he gestured with his head toward the exit and the two moved out of the communal area. The older male stepped into his sleeping room to pick up his rifle and coat before they disappeared.

“It’s okay,” Kenji whispered mostly to himself, he was locked in the horror of the moment when he lost her at the hospital. “I am here. I am not going to let you go again.” Now she was here and wasn’t at the same time, it was like looking at a ghost and having it disappear every time almost had her. He couldn’t let her go, he would die first. Death would be a welcome comfort from the continual hell he had to wade in every second of every day.

[AHeartlessNobody]

A soft gasp escaped Cassie when Kenji took her into his arms, slightly tense at first, but as he pulled her close, she relaxed by just a little, again that familiar and comforting feeling washing over her. She still didn't understand why exactly this man seemed so familiar. The others in the room were familiar as well, but not quite as much as the man holding her. She glanced up when the human woman said everything inside of her was in working order. But....that wasn't possible. Her chip wasn't working probably! She was feeling things and thinking things androids shouldn't be. Remembering things as well(even though they were more of images from the past than memories). If her chip was working probably, then what was going on with her?

She rested herself lightly against Kenji. The cords around her where very uncomfortable, and in some movements, painful. But, she knew it was likely she wasn't going to be getting out of them any time soon, if ever. So, she just tried to ignore that and focus on what was going on around her. Two of the men left out. She wasn't sure why but she didn't trust them. There was something about them that scared her. The woman in there with them, the one who had been checking on her readings, seemed both annoyed and disappointed all at once. She reminded herself not to get to close to that woman if she could help it. There was a blonde boy, kneeling down a little ways from she and the man holding her. He didn't seem at all bothered by her presence. Happy she was there even. She felt a kind of bonding trust coming from him. At least she knew now if anything that blonde man and the man holding her wouldn't harm her. They were protecting her. She felt safe with these two humans. Surprisingly more safe than when she was with the robots.

The man holding her began whispering, saying it was okay and that he wasn't going to let her go again. Again. That word served to confirm that somehow she knew this man. Likely form before she had turned into an android. She looked up at him with her bright blue eyes before she glanced at the blonde man, carefully scooting closer, looking at her, "Cassie. How did you get here? To the caves. How did you know where to go?"

The girl looked at him, a little confused, because she didn't know how to explain how she knew where to go. It was difficult for even her to really understand. She glanced between the humans in the room, before she looked back to him, her voice remaining quiet and unsure, "I...don't know. I was running. Away from the robots. Something told me to come this way. It was.....was...."

"Instinct." Toni finished, nodding, then recalling something she said, looked back to her, "Wait. Wait a minute. You were running from the robots? Why?"

She paused, looking down. She knew her answer to this may have been strange for an android to say, and she was tempted to not answer. If she had told a robot why, they would have her terminated. But, these also weren't robots. These were humans. She wasn't sure at all how they would react to hearing such a thing. Slowly, Castille looked back up, “I refused orders. They told me to kill a human child and I wouldn't.”

This seemed to spark hope for Toni, and it showed on his face, grinning. He couldn't help but think how the old Cassie had been quite fond of children, even having told Kenji(who at the time reluctant to hear such a thing) she wanted kids of her own. It would make sense and would be a sign of the old Cassie returning that she refused to hurt a innocent child, “And...the chip?” He asked, nodding to the still bleeding cut on her arm across her barcode.

She looked down at it, “I cut it out. If my Creator found me I knew he would terminate me so I didn't want them following me.”

Toni grinned more. Even if she didn't have memories, living with her for most of his life told him this was Cassie, whether she was changed or not. They just had to work with her for a bit to bring the rest of her out. Standing back up, he looked to Kenji, “I think we should take her to get the cut stitched up. It's pretty deep.”

[Thinker]

Kenji barely understood the conversation between the siblings, finally he was able to pull himself out of his mental backwash enough to stop clinging so hard to her. He relaxed a great deal forcing his arms to gently hold her, his cheek rested on the top of her head. Fingers ran through her long hair of their own accord, it was almost like it had been countless times before. He just sitting with her in his arms playing with her hair while either one was talking about something, usually their dreams or desires for the future. He didn’t remember the conversations as much as just the touch he had craved, it was something he denied himself the moment she was ripped from him.

Kenji finally left his stupor, he removed the cords from her feet and legs allowing her to sit comfortably. He eased her to sit up realizing the awkward position he was forcing her into, the words she had spoken sinking into his brain. She didn’t remember him. Those words were like nails to his heart and here he was, a complete stranger to her, clinging to her like an idiot. He rose to his feet and raked his artificial fingers through his hair. The task of having her remember to the point that would convince Geir she was not a threat loomed over him.

“I’ll get my kit it will be easier to move that then it would be her.” The older woman left the room for a few moments and returned with her medical kit. She pulled on some medical gloves, gave the android medication to numb the area before she cleaned the wound. Once the numbing agent kicked in she sewed up the flesh with practiced ease. She cleaned up after applying a bandage to the area and took her things back to her workshop to be sanitized and restocked.

Kenji sat on a ratty green and gold stripped couch watching the process, he grabbed the fifth of whiskey and took a swig out of habit. He corked it and sat it on the floor. “What are we going to do? We have to get her to remember in a day.” The stress started prickling the back of Kenji’s mind. His hands slipped over his face, his mind milling over what she had implied and Toni finished for her. Instinct brought her here. It was a strange thing, he wondered how many other androids started to remember their old lives like that. It was scary to think, memories bringing those killers back to the roost. More or less.

Geir and Ning moved around in a pattern around the caves searching for any sign of the transmitter. They used the small scanners more than their eyes, the chip could be stuffed in any crack and they wouldn’t see it not in a month of Sundays. Geir stopped for a few moments glancing up at the darkening sky. It was not often he had time to just gaze into the star filled sky, not when his eyes are usually planted on the nearest rocks and trees waiting for something to leap out and end their lives. Life was difficult and things were not getting any easier. He had been hinting at the need to relocate, all the places around the area were stripped of any useful thing. He hoped to use this android’s stumbling on them as another leverage piece.

His eye snapped to Ning who stopped suddenly and ran a hand through his messy hair before turning clicking off his small scanner and letting it drop the device hit his thigh and bounce on the tether that held it on his belt. “I don’t see anything in the area.”

“Perhaps they have upgraded,” he said with a frown.

Ning chuckled moving toward the older, stopping to where his shoulder brushed against Geir’s. “Not too hasty to admit that she might actually be running from the robots.”
Geir scanned the area and shook his head. “I am not going to admit anything until the shit starts falling.” He turned when Ning’s hand rested on his shoulder, the younger male was smiling at him. It was playful, teasing and a little annoying.

[AHeartlessNobody]

Cassie didn't mind at all being held so tightly by this human. Nor did she mind him holding her close, placing his cheek against her head, or stroking her her. It was comforting. She enjoyed it. It was familiar. It felt safe. It was something she craved. And she couldn't help but frown slightly when he shifted her slightly. She was relieved to have the cords around her legs taken off, but when he had her sit up she was displeased and the displeased look on her face made Toni chuckle slightly.

As Wrench began work on his sister, Toni flopped down onto the couch beside Kenji, sighing as he leaned his head back an unsure look on his face, “I don't know. I mean, surely Gier can't expect her to remember EVERYTHING in one day, right? Maybe if we get her to remember some things. Just enough to give as proof. Maybe he'll give us longer?” The twenty eight year old looked over at his (almost) brother in law and frowned, “But we still have to try our best to get her to remember as much as we can today. It's our only chance to keep her alive and safe.”

When the older woman put the numbing agent onto her arm, Cassie winced, it stinging at first, before she blinked in suprise to find all of the pain in her arm had gone away. She looked over, watching as Wrench cleaned the wound and began stitching it up. She had to look away for that part. Watching thread enter her sin was a little....strange. She looked away and over to the two males talking quietly to one another. She enjoyed seeing these two humans. Even though she didn't remember these two, she undoubtably cared for them.

The woman went to go take her kit back and when the woman left it was quiet for a moment before fast pitter patting could be heard until a little boy, no older than five or six, dashed into the room, looking about excitedly, “Where is she?! Where is she?!” Then, in spotting her, the boy ran forward, throwing his arms around the android, “Auntie Cassie!”

He hugged her tighter before a young woman, about the age of twenty five came in quickly after, looking at Toni worriedly, “I'm sorry, Toni, I tried to stop him but when he heard 'Auntie Cassie' was back he ran off before I could grab him. Is is safe...?”

Laughing, Toni stood, shaking his head, “It's okay Jodie. She's harmless.”

Cassie looked at the little by, seeming to study the happy little boy hugging her before she spoke quietly, “You....you're......Toni's son?” She looked at Toni from confirmation.

In hearing Cassie say that, Toni blinked in surprise and stood up, “Yes, he is. You remember that?”

Cassie nodded hesitantly looked from her brother down at the boy again, “You're name is Jacob. Is it not?”

The little boy laughed happily and hugged himself to her more, “She remembers me! Auntie Cassie remembers me!”

After a moment of having the boy hug her, Cassie had a look of slight pain on her face and Toni quickly moved forward, shooing Jake back to his mother before kneeling in front of his sister, “Cassie? Cassie? Are you okay?”
The girl seemed dizzy for a moment, leaning into her brother, “My head....it hurts...” She looked very close to passing out, blinking.

Toni looked over to Kenji, “I think we've over exerted her. She probably needs rest after everything that's happened.” He looked at Cassie before lifting her up in his arms and handing her off to Kenji, “Why don't you take her to your pallet. You two used to sleep there together anyway. It might be good for her to rest there for a little bit.” And, even as he spoke, Cassie had her head rested against her fiance's shoulder, her eyes closing as she fell asleep.

….

It was only an hour later when Cassie began stirring and she felt herself curled up against someone. It felt nice to be against this person. Again that familiar feeling washed over her and she felt comforted. A small yawn escaped her as she smiled, snuggling her head against his neck, taking in his smell. It was sweet, like peaches. Finally when she was awake enough to open her eyes, she looked up to see it was, as she thought, this Kenji man, that was holding her. Lifting her head, she looked about. They were in a small room in the caves, a rough version of a bedroom, with a curtain for a door, which was pulled, and a pile of six of seven blankets for a bed, the only light coming from a gas lamp sitting off to the side.

Moving her eyes back to him, she looked back up at him, a curious look on her face, “Where are we?”

[Thinker]

Kenji shook his head. “Not everything, I would hope. I am sure he has some sense about memory loose. But something that proves she has her humanity still and will not kill us on a whim.” He shook his head, Geir was fickle and his mind was his own. Kenji had stopped trying to figure on what Geir would do in any given situation. “You are right about that.” He snorted peering at the woman he had lost, amaze that she was alive for the most part. Finding a way to jumpstart her memories was going to be the hardest part for him. He had troubles with his own mind and had little idea of how to get her to remember anything.

He had hoped during the long time he was bedridden that if she had ever appeared again that everything would be right in his world. Things were right more or less, but the toll on his mind and spirit were not so easily erased. He had developed into a new person one much different than he would have if she had stayed. His eyes caught a hold of Jacob dashing into the room, when the five year old hugged the android he stiffed slightly to protect the young. His eyebrows lifted in shock and he rubbed his well-kept beard. She remembered him his name and his father. A very good sign.

Kenji frowned at the sudden shift in Cassie, recalling the past apparently fatigued her. When he wanted to continue to bring out memories to prove to Geir, Toni suggested he take her to bed. Was he completely insane? “Use to,” he pointed out. “Use to, Toni. I am a stranger to her now. Don’t you think that would be a little weird for her?”

His reasoning was lost on Toni and he barred his teeth at his almost brother in law as the pale woman was all but shoved in his arms. He closed his eyes for a second his mind and body at odds at this strange situation he found himself in. Her head rested on his shoulder and he was forced to carry the android to his room. He laid her down, took the rest of the cables off her and found a spot on the floor to sit with his back against the jagged wall. He drifted to sleep, during one of his half-awake moments he crawled into bed having forgotten that Cassie was there.

Kenji was asleep when Cassie woke, he jerked when she spoke and blinked at the android. “My room.” It wasn’t the one they had shared, that was on the other side of the cave. He couldn’t return to it after the hospital, he had no idea of Toni or his wife had done anything with the space or if someone else claimed it. There was hints that Ning had taken it over when he arrived, he hadn’t really cared enough to follow the ins and outs of the daily living of the community when it didn’t deal with killing robots or drinking.

Geir had stepped away from Ning and returned to the empty common room, he went straight to Kenji’s room and found him slumped over near the door while the android was sprawled on his bed. He growled his artificial eye brightening. Ning pulled the curtain closed and the older man glared at him. “Let it be for now,” he whispered. “Get some rest, I am sure this android will cause a huge disturbance in the community and you need to figure out what to do with everybody.” Ning touched his shoulder again those bright blue eyes searching his. “You can post someone at the door if it rests your mind.”

Geir nodded, he was annoyed even more than usual, a symptom of his fatigue. A guard was posted and the pair went to their own rooms to sleep the rest of the night. Sleep was slow in coming and he tossed and turned for a few hours before he peeled himself out of bed. His face hurt and he went to Wrench’s workshop. “The pain,” he said sitting on a chair. The woman set aside her work and grabbed a few tools to make minor adjustments to the implant. They didn’t ease the pain and she removed the front piece from his skull. She eased her goggles off her forehead and the headgear snapped on allowing her to see into the cavity and give her information on the small implant. She threaded a few of the long tools into the small cavity and turned a few adjustment screws.

Geir jerked and she reset the one she had attuned, she worked down the line of the fifteen delicate pieces until she found the one spurring the pain. She handed over the front piece and leaned on her table. Geir snapped his artificial eye back into place and his vision shifted back to one where he saw the world and the other scrolling information about his world his normal senses did not pick up. “The sensors are working again.”

“I will find a piece to replace that defective one that will be compatible with your system,” she stated turning to slip her delicate tools in the cloth sleeves. “It is interesting, don’t you think, that we humans are taking on more of our enemy. Using parts of them to enhance ourselves.”

“It is the only way to fight them on fair ground,” he said gruffly as he rose to his feet heading for the door.

“True,” she said, Geir stopped near the threshold. “Now we have a working android, I hope defective from her robot creators. Which we could possibly use to find robots and the pieces we need to get our people back up to one hundred percent.” She moved a few steps toward him and folded her arms in front of her chest. “You have done a good job keeping this community safe. There is a time in all wars when the defense has to turn to offense. This Cassie might be that key we need to turn the tide in our favor.”

“So you think we should just trust her?” Geir asked not turning.

“Trust? No not until she has proven herself like any other refuge. Ning had to prove himself that he wasn’t an operative of the enemy, as did anyone else. She is a tool that we can use one way or the other.”

He turned to Wrench. “What are you thinking?”

Wrench deactivated her goggles and pushed them up on her forehead. “A walking bomb if she proves to want to return to her creators. They use humans against us, I think we can use their androids against them. It won’t stop the war but it will give them something new to calculate. I can craft an explosive that would be undetected, if not their main factory, then some of those outposts they have laying around where the androids are trained. Anything to start bring the war to their front door.”

[AHeartlessNobody]

Cassie nodded when he said she was in his room and looked around, only then noticing that the cords from before were no longer binding her arms. She looked at her arms confused before she looked around once more to see them tossed a few feet away on the cave floor. Hadn't the man told Kenji to keep the cords on her? That he would shoot him if he took them off of her. She looked at him with worried eyes, "Shouldn't you put the cords back on before that man sees them off of me? I would feel guilty if he hurt you because you took them off." She said as she sat up on the bed, looking down at him. The way he layed there with his hair messed up from the sleep and him sprawled out on the bed, it made her heart flutter in her chest. Something about him like that was so familiar and so...so....she wasn't sure how to describe it but it made her feel warm. Made her feel like she wanted to curl up next to him and stay there like that forever.

The Android's pale cheeks heated up for a moment, turning a bright pink color as she looked at him before she looked away, confused as what that feeling was. Still she tried to push past it and reached over, picking up the cord before sitting down again. The cords felt strange in her hands. Magnetic in a way. She reached out, handing it to him, "Here. I don't wish for you to get in trouble."

[Thinker]

Kenji rubbed a hand delicately over his face and coughed, he wanted nothing more than to roll over and sleep for another couple hours. His brain had been pretty quiet for the most part during the new hours he did sleep. He blinked at her his brow knitting with confusion when she handed him the cords. "Don't worry about it," he stated with a dismissive wave of his hand. "Your in here and not running around the halls. It is just another thing to convince him that you are not going to blow us all away."

He pushed himself to a kneeling position close to her and took the cord from her hands. He tossed it away as a hand slipped over her cheek and rested on the back of her head. His desires were kicking logic to the curb, he leaned forward ever so slightly and brushed his lips against hers. "Do you remember me, Cassie? Anything at all?" All he wanted to do was those things he had not been allowed before. He knew it wouldn't mean anything if she wasn't there with him. It would be like making out with Wrench and that was a gross sort of thought.

[AHeartlessNobody]

Cassie frowned lightly when he tossed the cords away from her hands and instead moved his hand to her cheek. The touch felt so nice to her. Familiar. Warm. Loving. She closed her eyes and leaned into it for a moment before she felt the hand slide from her cheek to the back of her head. Unsure of this motion, her eyes blinked open and looked at him, a confused expression upon her face.

Cassie felt her face heat up when leaned forward to brush his lips softly against hers. She slipped her eyes closed a moment, though the kiss was quick. But that kiss clicked something inside of her and a few images flashed through her mind. Kissing in dark rooms. Touching. Soft whispers. All of him and herself. When he spoke, she looked at him, and hesitated before she spoke quietly, her breath somewhat breathe at the proximity of the two, "I....it is difficult. You are very familiar. And, when certain thing happen, I believe....memories come forth. Such as when he look at me in certain ways, or say some things. But mostly when you hold me. Even when you just..what is it you humans call it...kissed me." She paused and looked at him, her eyes locked with his, "They are good memories. Very good. We..were very close, weren't we?"

[Thinker]

Kenji sat back on his heels watching her carefully as she spoke. Very familiar. Those words were like acid to his heart. It was like he would have to start courting her all over again and that prospect was very unpleasant. He had loved her with all that he had in him, more than himself and he was still not over the fact she had sacrificed herself without even giving him a chance to respond. It hurt, it still did even after all this time. It was great to love so deeply until something like happened.

He snorted as he rose and walked to the bed, the words that she used made him ache. Anger flaring, at the phrase 'you humans' tipped him over the edge. He paced by the doorway running his hands through his hair several times. They had been very close. They had been. She was everything to him until that moment. He needed a drink and a couple cigarettes to calm his raw nerves. He stopped and peered at her. "We had been close before," he grabbed the curtain. "I need a drink." He marched out heading to the common room, somehow he found his way to Wrench's workshop instead.

Wrench straightened and shut off the torch, glancing at the door then at Kenji standing there with his hands on his hips and his eyes on the ground. "You in pain?"

Kenji was but nothing she could fix at the moment. "No."

Wrench turned off the machine and moved the goggles from her eyes, glancing at the outdated calendar that she used on the wall. "You are not due for an adjustment." Normally, she had to hunt him down and drag him in for those. They were not pleasant for the patient but needed to be done to insure the mechanical, flesh, nerves and bone worked in harmony.

Kenji sat down on the examine table. "She says she believes she has memories that come forth. She believes," he sighed and squeezed his eyes shut for a long time. "She said, what 'you humans' call it." He snorted.

"That bothered you?"

"More than I can say." Kenji growled. "The only time robots use that term is before they threaten death or something equally stupid. It is like that book you tried to get me to read with those immortals always looking down their collective noses at mortals and using phrases like that to continually remind the mortals of their insignificances."

Wrench grabbed a fifth of vodka she had been saving for a special occasion and a couple semi clean cups and sat them next to him, she blew in them and wiped out the dust before pouring some in each. Kenji grabbed the offered glass. "She isn't human anymore, Kenji. When they took her to the lab, they stole that away from her. They took her sexual drive, her reproduction, and her memories in one swoop."

Kenji downed the clear liquid and made a face when it burned all the way to his stomach. "That doesn't make sense."

"They want the humans to die, they wouldn't leave her ability to bare children intact, especially when she would be around humans. Nor would they want their terminator to have to deal with cramps and bleeding every month like a normal female. It isn't sound, it sort of defeats their prime directive."

"Which is to eliminate us from existence," he whispered grabbing the near empty bottle and poured himself the rest. The shock of seeing her in those cords had tripped so many things in his head. He was acting on pure instinct from that moment until this morning. He was rational and clear minded which was putting a damper on all of those things he was telling himself last night. "What about her memories?"

"If she is having them, they are mere ghosts in her mind. I don't have data on android except for what I have gleaned from other chips, but it isn't in her favor. She may keep them but the chance of her relapsing back to her clean slate is greater. The robots are crafty, they don't their little soldiers doing a rebellious act."

"So she will just go nuts and kill us all?"

"More like just leave without telling anyone."

Kenji put a hand on his face as the buzz from the alcohol started tapping at his mind. He didn't know what he would do if she just up and left him again. Wrench eased the glass from his fingers and sat them aside. "I think you should lay down," she stopped him from plopping on the examine table and escorted him to her personal bedroom and eased him on her mattress.

[AHeartlessNobody]

Cassie looked on with a hurt and confused expression as Kenji left the room, saying he was going to get a drink. The way he responded to her question also hurt. He had said they were close before. It was almost as if he were saying they couldn't be that way again. Cassie was willing to try, but....but it wasn't looking as if he wanted to. Sighing, she slowly stood up, exploring about her small room. It had many familiar things here. But that familiar feeling didn't cheer her up. Not this time. Frowning more, she went to move back over to the bed when she heard someone whisper her name. She blinked in confusion, looking toward the entrance of her room. She glanced over doorway before she crept over to it, pushing back slightly the thick curtain that acted as a door.

And there stood at her door was young man, grinning down at her. She blinked in surprise, "Oh....um.....hello?...do....do I know you?"

The man feigned a hurt look before chuckling, "Cassie, It's me Hassle. We were quite good friends when you were human. Although, I'm hoping that won't change now that your not." He flashed her a charming smile, walking forward, giving her a side hug, "We've really missed you 'round here Cas. Hopefully now things were be even better ten they were before." The boy grinned at her and leaned against the cave wall now, "I just wanted to check on you. I know you've had it really rough this first day. What with just know how Kenji was acting. Kind of seemed like a bastard if you ask me."

Cassie had a slightly hurt look on her face at being reminded of the harshness of his tone and the look on his face as he left, but tried to shake it off, "N-no.....it's fine. I know its okay. We love each other."

Hassle gave a incredulous laugh, "Cassie....I know you're feeling very confused right now. I don't blame you for thinking that to be true." He stood up straight now, taking a few steps closer to her, "If he really loves you, then why did he run off on you like that? I heard what he said. You were simply just answering his question. If you ask me, what you said should have been a good thing. At least you're remembering some things. But it doesn't seem like he's happy about that. Surely if he loved you he would have been overjoyed you were remembering things about him, right?" The pain in Cassie's eyes was there and he could see he struck a nerve. This was all too easy. Stepping up in front of her now, with her back to the wall, he ran his hand over her cheek, his face inches from hers, "Castille, do you release how beautiful you are. As well as sweet. And smart. And yet...you let that man treat you like trash. Like the girl thrown into the corner to rot because she's been changed against her will." He moved his lips to her ear, "But with me, Cassie? You would be happy. I'd make sure of that. All you have to do is say the word."

[Thinker]

Geir stopped short outside Kenji’s room, the male voice was not Kenji. It took a while for him to realize who it was. Hassel? He was pressuring Cassie to be with him. He pursed his lips for a moment, concerned with only finding out what happened to Kenji. He continued down the hall to the common area, which was mostly empty except for a few people playing cards and eating breakfast. He checked a few different other favorite places unable to find Kenji. Only one person had seen Kenji on his way to the workshop.

He went to Wrench’s workshop. Wrench looked up from her work and setting aside the soldering iron. “You in pain?”

“Where’s Kenji?”

Wrench pointed to her chin toward her personal quarters. “I infused his system with high level of inebriation to allow him time to obtain REM.”

“Hassel is in with the android sticking his tongue down her throat.”

“That sounds uncomfortable.” Wrench said testing the joint on the robotic arm, even with power it was not working. She poked around until she saw some more connections that were severed. “Unless she is somehow altered from most standard issue android, he will be grossly disappointed.”

“Huh?”

“Androids have no sex drive. So sticking his tongue in her mouth might get it bit off. Replacing a tongue would be interesting though.” She turned to her work once again melting the delicate line of metal with the iron to strength the connections. “What of the android’s sibling? Have they come forward this morning?”

“No, I haven’t seen hide nor hair of them.” He glanced at the door. “I am ready to put a bullet in her head and end this insanity.”

“Don’t hit the chip when you do.”

“How long before Twinkle Toes wakes up?”

“A couple of hours at the earliest. Vodka never sat well with his system and the mild tranquilizer I added to his bloodstream when he laid down will prove to be in your favor.”

Geir nodded and left the workshop heading for Kenji’s room his hand on his pistol hilt. He didn’t care all the stuff Ning brought up last night, he wasn’t going to have a threat in his home. He planned to have a conversation with the android and if he didn’t like what he heard, he pulling the trigger. He pushed the curtain aside and stepped into the room.

[AHeartlessNobody]

"No." Cassie stated when this human stepped closer to her, putting his hands firmly on her cheeks, "I said I don't want you--" But he cut her off by pressing his lips against hers. As much as she had to admit the kissing felt nice, it was the wrong kiss. The wrong pair of lips. He pressed her back against the wall, which despite what he thought, she didn't like. At all. It made her feel cornered.

Turning her head she felt him instead move his lips to her neck instead as she spoke in a strained voice, "Let me go. I don't like this." Still he said nothing and even intensified his kisses to the point that it frightened her for some reason. Her hand called into a fist and drew back before she hit him hard in the face. He grunted in pain and stumbled back glaring at her now, "What the hell?"

She drew her hand back again as stepped toward her threatening, making him stop, "Don't come near me....I.....I'm warning you."

The boy took a look at the frightened and defensive android and knew if he got closer again, it was likely she would hit him again, something he didn't want considering he could already feel his cheek where she hit him already bruising and swelling, "You'll regret this Castille." Then he stormed off, leaving Cassie standing there against the wall shaking.

After a few moments of calming herself, she moved back into the room, and to the pallet, laying down as she attempted to rest, but didn't get much of it. Hearing the curtain draw she sat up, expecting to see Kenji, but instead saw Gier. Her eyes widened with shock and fear, quickly getting up and backing away, her voice shaking, "W-what are you doing here?"

[Thinker]

“Where is Hassel? I heard him in here.” He shook his head, he would deal with him later. He didn’t want that sort of male in this place. No meant no, especially when it came to women. It was the straw he needed to get rid of the insect. It looked like he was going to kill someone after all. He would be super happy to pull the trigger and see Hassel’s brains splatter, he would borrow one of Ning’s hand cannons solely for that purpose.

His gaze went to the cords on the ground and toed them. It strengthened Kenji’s argument that colony was more or less safe from the android. He didn’t like it, but there wasn’t much he did like lately. “This is my colony,” he said, not liking how she coward before him. The Cassie he remembered was strong emotionally, she stood with pride in herself and her god given right to live. Just another reminder that this creature before him wasn’t the woman he had known.

That aside, he had to deal with the android as she was now. He had to forget what Cassie had been in the past. In his mind, they became two separate beings and not a lot would convince him that they were the same. “It would have been Kenji’s if his girlfriend hadn’t disappeared. We were in the running, he and I, for the position, with his break down after the hospital I was voted in.” He moved in a few steps. “So I am here as the leader of Piss and Moan. Tell me what you are doing here. Why did you come to this colony? What are you looking for in this place?”

[AHeartlessNobody]

Cassie watched this man in front of her carefully, being sure to keep the distance between them. She didn't trust him at all. Right now she was wishing Kenji hadn't left her alone. Now here she was, face to face with a man who likely wanted nothing more than to kill her, and her being unprotected and unable to defend herself. Well, she could try to fight. She was strong. But, she was very sure he could probably put a bullet in her head before she got more than a few swings in. When he asked about Hassle, she spoke, trying to keep her voice even, "He left." She said simply. She didn't want to tell him about her punching him. That would only worsen her position. Besides he would be able to figure that out later when people would see Hassle's bruised and swollen cheek.

To hear that he was the leader of the colony wasn't much of a surprise for her. The way he had been acting and ordering people around, she should have known he was in some sort of leadership position. And as a leader, she supposed interrogating, and maybe even killing her, would be his job. She couldn't help but wonder which one of those things he was here to do. Did she even want to know? Not really. She could only hope if he was here to do the latter he would make it quick. Then again, from the way he had acted toward her thus far, that didn't seem very likely.

She looked up at him with her blue eyes as he moved a few more steps into the room, her fist balling up into fists in tension as he came in, demanding to know why she was here, why she came here, and what she was looking for. Truth be told, that was going to be a difficult question for her to answer. She herself didn't even know why she had come here. Sighing, she looked down, "I don't know. I don't know what I'm doing here, or why I even came here. I was running from the robots. My feet just brought me here. It felt safe, so I thought it would be. But apparently I was wrong..." Her eyes moved back up to him, her gaze slightly hard on his, "You're here to kill me, aren't you?"

[Thinker]

“No shit Sherlock or he would be here.” He snapped, he may have one eye but the other was working perfectly. Why did people have to answer with obvious? She was a mechanical mouse. He didn’t need that weight on the colony. He needed people that could stand up for themselves and this colony when the shit hit the fan.

He set that aside and watched her carefully, noticing the fists balling up. He didn’t take that as strength but just an involuntary reaction. Like breathing or spitting. The way her eyes dropped to the ground screamed shame or she was hiding something, more than likely both. Neither were positive to her case. Her answers were annoying. He gritted his teeth when she declared she didn’t know, people knew if not fully at least the motive of what was behind the action. Dribble.

There was no hints about Kenji, past or present. Didn’t even ask about his whereabouts another nail in her coffin. No reason for him to think that any of her memories were in anyway enforcing her actions to stay her hand against them. For all he knew, it was part of the trick for the robots until they knew how many humans were in the colony before sending more androids.

“Your feet brought you here? You felt you would be safe? How do you even know what that means?”

Geir snorted. “Yea, you were wrong. I don’t like your answers, whoever you are. They leave too much up in the air,” he pulled his weapon and clicked off the safty. “I was never a gambling man.”