Upon realizing that Avery had actually released Kei, TO’s first feelings weren’t of anger but of panic, and their thoughts revolved entirely around how to keep Avery from being locked up for the rest of their trip. They leaned forward in their chair and pressed their palms against their eyes as their mind raced, thinking of a way to make this be ok. “Alright.” They said, more to themself than to Avery or DH. “Everyone is going to want to know what happened, and we can’t lie to them. Well, we can’t lie GiDi, or to Pearla.” They took a deep breath, “And of course we can’t lie to Flit or Snout-“
“Wait.” DH said, “How could Kei lie?” They frowned as they looked from TO to Avery. “I mean, you’re sure you asked them clearly like that, right?”
“I’m certain.” Avery said. “I really thought they just wanted to stretch! I asked them!”
“And their ears didn’t show any sign of deception?” TO asked as their thought process split in two. “None at all?”
“Not at all.” Avery said, “They looked scared. Maybe panicked and angry, but they didn’t look like they were lying.”
“Alright. That’s its own problem.” TO murmured, sliding their hands down their face and clasping them in front of their mouth, “But it might work to solve another problem.”
“You mean, how we tell the others what happened?” DH asked. “How we tell Tham and the others without having them think they can’t trust Avery?”
TO released a held breath and nodded “Right.” they said, “Tham and some of the others already think that Avery was complicit.”
“I was.” Avery said. “They’re right.”
TO shook their head, “No, you weren’t complicit. Kei lied to you, and somehow their ears didn’t show it.” They sighed, dropping their hands from their face, “Maybe they found some way to stretchy the truth in their head, so it didn’t feel like a lie to them?”
“I was precise.” Avery said. “I asked them clearly. I had them repeat to me what I wanted to know, and they just…” They leaned back, shaking their head, “Maybe… Maybe I wasn’t clear. Maybe after everything that happened, my memories aren’t accurate.”
“Either way, you weren’t involved. Kei just used you.” TO said.
“Yes, they did!” Avery said, “And I let them use me!”
“No, they tricked you.” DH said. “Honestly, I think if we tell everyone what happened, tell them about the ear thing, about how it didn’t look like Kei was lying, they might understand that.”
“Maybe.” TO said, pressing their lips together. “The important thing is to keep Avery from being locked up again.” TO glanced at the chains that now held Avery to the bed: chains, not the hefty straps that held Kei down. TO knew they could break them, but that wouldn’t help Avery in the long run.
“You’re not listening to me!” Avery said. “It’s my fault that Kei escaped! it’s my fault that you all had to rush around to get off Arkane, it’s my fault that Mark died, and-“ They stopped, their ears dipping as they looked over TO, their eyes lingering at the stump under TO’s knee. “…and it’s my fault you lost your leg.”
As much as TO wanted to say it wasn’t, that Avery wasn’t at fault, a part of them felt like it was and now that the initial worry over Avery had relaxed, a spark of anger rose up. They didn’t want to feel that, and even now they didn’t think that Avery was a danger to them like some of the others thought they were even without knowing what had happened. Still, if Avery had listened to them, had kept away from Kei and believed TO when they said that the synth was dangerous, then the awful events of that day wouldn’t have occurred.
Idly, TO rubbed the spot just over their knee, wishing they could scratch their missing leg.
“… That’s what I needed you to understand.” Avery said as they watched the way TO’s ears flicked back, “You were so busy blaming yourself, you didn’t even realize that you’re not at fault here. I am.” They looked down at their hands, turning the now empty cup in little circles. “I… don’t know if there’s some kind of procedure for getting rid of your Ankrya, but-“
“We’re not doing that.” TO said, their ears flicking back for a moment as their gaze snapped up to Avery.”
“But I’m a terrible Ankrya. I didn’t take care of you, or DH, or GiDi, and I thought Kei-“
“Kei tricked you.” DH said. “You asked all the right questions, and given everything you knew, it should have been safe.” DH squeezed Avery’s shoulder before looking over to TO. “Right?”
“Absolutely.” TO said, “And Avery?”
“Yes?” Avery looked up at TO, their ears low in a gut-wrenching mixture of shame and sadness, their fingers clutching at the suddenly still cup.
“I don’t care if you’re our Ankrya or not. That doesn’t matter. You’re our friend. Family.” They wanted to get up and embrace their friend despite the fact that Avery wasn’t as physically affectionate as others, but they couldn’t because of the chair. “And nothing you do or say will stop that from being true.”
Avery’s ears dipped as their eyes grew blue-ringed and big. “But you lost your leg. Mark died. Kei could have killed-“
“Shush.” TO said, their ears flicking back once more, “If it helps…” They paused, clutching at the fabric of their pants which sat pinned just over their knee. “If it helps, then yes; I think that was *utterly moronic*, and I wish you had listened to me when I said that Kei was dangerous!” They closed their eyes and took a deep breath. “… And I also know that no matter what I said, you would have tried to help Kei because that’s just who you are. You were careful, you asked them specifically about their intentions, and you only went there because you were worried about them. None of us had any idea that they could lie like that and if we did, then you wouldn’t have let them go.” TO looked up at Avery’s pale face, the eyes looking darker than normal in contrast, the blue around their eyes more vivid than before as they stared at TO in silence. As their own ears relaxed, TO shook their head and said, “I can’t blame you for making the best decision you could with the information you had…. And even if you had done something even more stupid, you’re still family, still our Ankrya if you want to be.”
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
Another moment of silence, tense and tight as a suspension wire hung in the air before it snapped with a stifled, choking sound from Avery.
“It’s OK,” DH said as they put their other hand on Avery’s shoulder, giving them a quick embrace from behind. “We still love you.”
With that, Avery shattered. They pressed their hands to their face and quietly sobbed as DH held them from behind. TO willed their chair forward, again wishing they could hold Avery as well. They couldn’t, so they got as close as they could so they could reach up and scratch the back of Avery’s neck.
Was this a couple’s thing? A family thing? TO didn’t know what it was in proper Chilacian culture, but at that moment it didn’t matter. They weren’t proper Chilacians, anyway. Not Chilacians, and not synths. Right now, the only thing they were was Avery’s family, and this was the only way they knew how to comfort them.
======
TO, DH, Flit, Snout, and GiDi all sat around Avery, watching Goretta as she took in the information they had given her. The octopod doctor was still half asleep; the illness that had spread among the civilians was taking all her attention at the moment and between dealing with that, treating complications, and studying the brain scans, she was left with almost no time for lesser concerns such as sleep. As she listened to Avery recount what happened, she sipped on a very strong cup of coffee, her cloth facial mask hanging around her neck.
“… so, from what I understand, the whole lying ears thing is mostly neurological.” She said. “It’s an interesting phenomenon, and one I’ve not been able to map out.” She sighed as she pulled out her tablet and opened a video of scans. It showed a synth’s brain lighting up at different moments. “if we still had them here, it would be useful to compare Kei’s brain activity to yours. Perhaps I could discover a way to disable that reflex-“
“Why would you want to do that!” TO said, their ears flicking down, “To let us lie? Why?”
“Being able to lie like that would be useful.” Flit said, “As Kei has proven to us.” They huffed and leaned back, crossing their arms. “Training and living under King Decon would have been easier if we could lie.”
“In some ways.” Snout said, leaning gently against Flit. “That aside, why did this happen? How did it happen? You used our brains as a basis for the repairs to Kei’s, right?”
Goretta sighed and leaned forward, her tentacles twisting about her in tight coils as she rested her elbow on her knee and pressed her thumb and forefinger to her forehead. “I have an idea why this happened.” She said, “This kind of procedure isn’t an easy science. I compiled information from all your brains, and repaired neural pathways that were supposed to be there, but weren’t.” She replayed the video on her tablet, her black eyes reflecting the image back to them. “I have theories as to how your lying tick works, but I’ve not been able to look into it further since that’s something that remains unchanged in natural and altered individuals. Now, If I still had the subject here, I could run some scans and compare Kei’s mind to yours, but obviously I don’t have my subject!” She gave a low growl and glared up at Avery. “Why did you let them go? I told you they were unstable!”
“Avery had no idea that Kei could lie like that,” TO snapped, willing their chair forward to put themself between Avery and Goretta. “If they had, this wouldn’t have happened.”
“I said we didn’t know what to expect! Now I have an odd variable that just came out of nowhere. I have no way to run any tests, no way to learn what happened, to know if I did something wrong, or if there was an issue during recovery!” She sat upright. “You have no idea what losing Kei has done to my research!”
“Your research doesn’t matter now!” TO snapped, “It clearly didn’t work! Maybe it can’t work! Maybe, just maybe, once a mind is altered, you can’t change it back!”
“TO.” Flit said as they stood up from the wall, “Don’t-“
“No.” TO hissed, “We just found out that Kei can lie directly to us. If we knew that was a possibility, maybe things would be different! I lost a leg, Mark died, Avery nearly died, and all she’s worried about is her *research*.”
“Don’t bother trying to tell them anything.” GiDi said, their voice flat and their ears set at a chilling angle. “They don’t care unless it directly involves them.”
TO turned on GiDi, their ears pinned back once more as their own eyes narrowed, “Don’t you dare.” They hissed, “Avery is hurt. Avery was tricked-“
“Alright.” Flit said, suddenly standing upright with their hands clasped behind their back. Their voice suddenly had that tone it held in training, one of authority which did not tolerate being questioned or ignored. “This is not an ideal situation, but fighting among ourselves isn’t going to improve things. Looking for blame isn’t going to improve things. Lamenting over what’s done isn’t going to improve things.” They glanced at GiDi. “And sniping at each other is absolutely not going to improve things.”
TO closed their eyes and took several long breaths. “Right.” They said after a minute. “No. You’re right. It’s done.” They took another breath, but kept their eyes closed. Right now, they had to get back into the mindset they had back in training, to lay out the pieces of the puzzle without thinking about the people involved, without thinking about blame and guilt. “What we know: Kei can lie. Kei’s ability to lie to our face is what allowed them to trick Avery. Now Kei is out there somewhere, probably still looking for us.”
“There’s not much we can do about that.” Flit said. “Goretta, can you do any research to see how that happened?”
“Maybe.” She said. “The video recording and audio recordings are useless, but I do have the brain scans up until Kei got free. I can run some experiments to compare what I see. If there’s enough similarities, then maybe I can see how the ear twitching thing links up neurologically.” She coughed softly. “Though I don’t know if I’ll have time to do that soon.”
“It’s not overly important at the moment.” Flit said. They looked over at Goretta, and their ears dipped slightly. “Perhaps don’t worry about it. You’re working too hard right now, and I’m worried you’ll work yourself sick.”
“Can’t get sick.” She said simply as she downed the rest of her coffee, “too much to do, and not enough doctors.” She set her cup down and pulled the mask up over her face again. “Are we done here?”
“Yes, I think we are.” Flit said, “We know now what happened to Avery, and I think there’s no immediate threat, so-“
“But… I let Kei go.” Avery said, “They’re going to keep me down here, right?”
“You went to check on Kei, and they tricked you into helping him escape.” Flit said, “It’s not the first time they tried to trick us, it’s just the first time they lied outright. I don’t think anyone is going to have an issue with you for that.”
“If they do, I’ll talk to them.” GiDi said, “I will handle it, and I’ll make sure everything is fine.” They looked past TO as though they weren’t even there and focused on Flit. “Now, if that’s handled, I have other places to be.”
Flit signed and nodded. Before TO could think of anything to say, and before DH could get out the words they were stumbling over, GiDi was gone.