She was so delicate. Birdlike. A Human person, baseline human, as she'd said when we'd met.

My fingers roamed. Her face was sharp. Soft and new. The skin taut like a ripe peach. Her warm breath in my ear. A long neck supporting a skull with short, curly hair. Big round ears. Her sobs were fading, but the pain in them would stay with me until I died.

Lux was built for suffering. Quite literally. And I was here to watch, assuming they turned my eyes back on. And I'd be watched.

Humans.

There are certain things I've never done. I've never killed anyone. I've gotten into fights, of course. Lost a lot of them, but those guys felt it and never started another with me. I've never outright wanted to kill someone. Beat sense into them, sure.

But put a bullet into someone's head? No. That person might be an asshole but he's got a family. Why hurt his family?

But right now it seemed quite reasonable.

Another thing I've never done? Had a nearly naked woman in my lap. Never. And I've always been open to the idea; it just never worked out.

And this one was a friend. And she was crying over something I did. Something that caused her pain. Something I could have found a way to avoid.

Everything was my fault. Idiot, as Lux had said.

"I…am I supposed to eat?" Lux asked miserably. "When is eating happening? And then is pooping like, instantaneous or is there a week or more? Humans are one big…bowel." And she started crying again. "I'm just a poop machine!"

"Shhh, Sweetie." I hugged her head to my chest. "It'll be okay. It will."

"HOW?" She shouted. Her head lifted. I knew she was looking into my hacked eyes, her angry breath (morning breath) heating up my nose. "HOW will it be okay?"

I frowned, gave her the truest answer I could. "Violence."

"Oh." She thunked her head on my chest again. "Okay, that's on-brand."

"Tell me what happened to you. Tell us all about it." Because the Pingsters huddled around us were clearly listening. Huge bat-ears the size of cereal boxes rotating and tracking the conversation.

"I was … existing. It's hard to even remember. I was me. The real me. Then I was this. I was in a place, lots of… liquid. Dark. I had this. These." Her arms moved. Her hands brushed my face. "Hands. Fingers. Hard to see around the back of my head. Almost impossible."

"Do you know how to walk?"

"Yes…I…Yes. This body comes with the basics. I can talk, obviously. I'm not a baby. I'm…I'm able to do what a young adult person does. I can…walk, I can move and breathe, even. Breathing is a lot, it has to always happen, you know? If I don't do it, I feel weird. Well, weirder."

"Do you have a soul? I don't, it turns out."

"Yeah. I had one when I was…before. It came over. I'm me. I'm me, in this."

"Can you do anything to get us out?"

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"Look." She pulled the gown over her shoulder. I felt her do it. "See?"

"No. I'm…they shut my eyes off."

"Oh. Owen. Oh." She hugged me. "And here I've been…it must be bad."

"Eh. Just not used to it yet."

"Anyway I have a rune on my arm. No Magic. Otherwise I'd have…everyone here would be…" her voice broke. Thunk, the head on my chest again.

"I'm so sorry. It's different when it's just me. I…go crazy. I kind of enjoy it because it's just me. I…I'm so sorry, Lux."

"No," she said, raising her head again. "No. I think it was always supposed to be this way. Their little plan. And that Pingster they wanted you to kill? No. No. She was someone's mom. No, Owen."

Tears from me again. Just hearing it from her. I wiped them away. "Sorry. Sorry."

"Stop," she said. "Don't. They drink it in."

"Okay."

We waited until dark. Were the cameras rigged for night vision? Of course, that was my fifty-years-out-of-date way of thinking. The cameras very likely had lidar and sonar and heat vision and meat vision.

I expected any minute Todd would show up. Gloating. Maybe a teleconference with the President. I had fantasies of defiantly reminding him that the Stargate movie was awful, man. Just stupid.

But Lux was here. They wanted to hurt her, to hurt me with her pain. What would they do? What would their audience demand? A rare experience in this day and age, right? Watching the suffering of someone you hate while feeling none of it yourself. It's what Humans used to do all the time, basing entire cultures around it. Entire economic philosophies.

They would hurt this delicate bird of a person. And it would make me want to die.

Violence.

The lock on the gate clinked. The pen shook as the gate opened.

I said nothing. But Lux: "Oh, hello again. Who's this? She came back, Owen…It's her, I can tell by the marks the ropes made. She's…got a friend. A lot of friends!"

"Who?"

"The one you didn't hurt! The one you turned loose! She…wait a minute!"

Searing, cutting, burning from my upper arm. Quick, precise, unavoidable. I yelled in surprise and pain. "Ow dammit did you bite me? Lux did you bite me? I said I was sorry!"

"Idiot! I don't even know how to use my own teeth!"

"Wasn't her," said a voice. It was recognizably Human, but vaguely mechanical. Familiar? "Sorry. Had to disrupt the pattern. You'll be okay in a few."

"I'm bleeding! Who are you that you just bite a blind dude? Party foul, man."

But I knew.

"Some things to explain," said the talking Pingster. You know about the tanks? The ones they hate here?"

"Of course we do! I'm an AI in this …bag of intestines!"

"Easy, gorgeous. Goodness. Heh heh. Hands up, Walsh. Feel my face."

I did. It was a Pingster face, full of nooks and crannies, wrinkles, smooth fur where no ear or nose were growing. Teeth teeth teeth. A little metal disc on a cloth collar. It vibrated when the being spoke. "Okay so, what if you didn't care whether or not you were Human, right? What if you just wanted to disappear, because people were looking for you?"

Lux was impatient. "I get it, you're a Human in a new chassis. Why are you…did she go get you? The Pingster lady from last night on the stage?"

"She did. She said you saved her and tried to rescue her, to get her and her family away from this place, but they caught you. Did this to you. I didn't know it was you, but here we are. Makes sense, you grandstanding dork."

The voice shifted subtly, speaking to Lux. "Did he make a speech? Sic semper tyrannus and surf's up, brah!"

My hand clapped back over the huge scrape in my arm. It wasn't deep, but the skin had been flensed nearly away. "Have we met?" But I knew.

The Pingster's mechanical voice cooled. "Mom died. The world had to suffer for it."

"Correct." I held out a hand for it to shake. It did, its knobby inhuman fingers holding mine in a very Human manner. "Co. Rect."

"Idiot! Who is this?"

"Another version of me," I said. "He's better lookin, though."

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