Dr Elune shook Ohara by the shoulder, "Wake up!"

Jolting awake, Ohara was panting and drenched with sweat, eyes wide as they took a moment to fully wake up, "I... Wh... Sam...?"

"It was just a nightmare. Calm down." Handing over a cold bottle of water, Dr Elune rested a hand on his arm, "They are still that bad, even now?"

Groaning as he sat up, Dr Ohara shakilly took a sip of water, "... Yeah. My memories of those times are so vivid... They come back now and then."

Sighing, Dr Elune leant back against the wall of the lab, everyone else over in engineering to discuss production methods. Feeling tired from the lengthy testing sessions, they had stayed behind, and decided a quick napo would do them good. Waking up to the sound of screams wasn't what they had in mind...

Grimacing, Dr Elune glanced at him, hesitating as they weighed their options. "What made... Uh, what made the dreams come back?"

"... The aniversary is coming up. Of when the wars ended... And the incident was put to rest. Maybe it has just been on my mind."

Or maybe AHOR was hitting too close to home. "I have... Um..." Fidgeting, the doctor was trying to choose their words carefully. This could go badly very fast, after all.

"What is it, Sam?"

"... Maybe... Alex reminded you of Mars."

Dr Elune jumped as Ohara chuckled, not what they were expecting, "What, Alex? No way. I'm not stupid, Alex is clearly not just a language interface. But, they are a long way off becoming... That." Dr Elune tried to keep a straight face, swallowing nervously, "And besides... They're a good kid."

"... What?"

"A lot of people make a common mistake about the Mars incident, survivors like me included... They forget that the consiousness's ability to choose works both ways. It wasn't it's birth that made it evil... It was the upbringing."

Gaping at Ohara, Dr Elune's mind had gone blank from shock. Ohara? A mars suvivor, talking like that? Maybe the doctor was still dreaming. "Uh, well, that was unexpected. I thought you hated AI."

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"Don't get me wrong, I am one of the biggest anti-AI activists out there. Here's the thing: AI are powerful. And raising a powerful kid gives people... Ideas."

"Hehe, I guess so. So if, say, Alex grew up with proper parents, you would let them roam free?"

Ohara went quiet, and Dr Elune kicked themself for straying far too cloe to the mark there. "Maybe. For all my talk... I have never met anouther like back then. A few oddities here and there, I even passed as a judge on a few... But nothing like Mars."

An awkward silence followed, and Dr Elune sighed again, hoping Alex had listened in so they could discuss this later, "The system is a weird place. Let's just hope us humans remain the weirdest part of it."

Ohara chuckles as they nodded, much calmer after talking it out, "Thanks for the water, by the way. It has been a while since I woke up like that."

"If you ever need to, come by my lab, okay? Just knock first." Smiling, Dr Elune pulled Ohara into a hug, "You don't know what you might walk in on, after all."

"Heh, yeah. I have, uh, heard weird rumours after all."

Dr Elune stiffened up, "Such as?"

Smirking, Ohara nudged them in the ribs, "Such as you and that Akasha girl. Or Laura for that matter."

"Hey, there is nothing going on there, with either of them! Well, not what you are thinking, anyway."

"Oh, I know what you have with Akasha. Had a little fun in that manor myself, before."

"... Wait, really? You don't seem the type."

"... No. But... Yuki was."

The awkward silence returned, as Dr Elune stretched out a little. What was with all the sore spots today. "Oh... I'll lay a flower for her... At the memorial."

"You have flowers up here?"

"Yeah... We use more Oxygen than we need vegetables, so we have a nice garden. A bit overgrown, though... Nobody takes care of it."

"... Nice. I'll get some flowers too... She would have liked that."

And so they sat, thinking back on all those years ago... And what had happened.