It had taken a solid half hour more for DH to truly be themself again, and another half hour for Avery to wake up, come to their senses, and get checked over by DH. Once DH pronounced Avery had suffered no injury beyond a minor bruise from falling over, they put a very unhappy, bound Kei on the wagon and covered them and the cage with the folded up tarp before they continued on their way. The trip back to the underground took longer than it had before, as the three synths were still a little unmoored, and Kei was making things as hard as they could, thrashing as much on the wagon as their ropes would allow.
When they finally got back to the more familiar, main hallways illuminated with old hanging lights,Goretta was waiting for them along with two larger civilians from the group they had taken from the underground; one with a long tail, the other with a set of ten tentacles, both slightly shorter than TO, and both much stockier.
“They’re on the wagon I take it?” Goretta asked.
“Yup.” Tham said as they pulled the tarp back. Kei glared about, trying to look as imposing as they could considering their situation.
“Alright. We got them.” She said, nodding to the two with her. They both went up to the wagon.
“I should go with them.” Avery said as the lady with the long tail hoisted Kei in an undignified manner over her shoulder and carried them down the hall. They took a step towards the quickly receding figures, but TO gently reached out and took their arm.
“Stay with us.” They said, “Please?”
TO could see Avery start and cancel several thoughts in a brief span of time. Their mouth opening, the first syllables of a thought leaving their lips before fading away, unfinished. They looked back at Kei once more, their ears sinking low as they watched the other synth struggle against their ropes.
“... Ok.” Their ears were still low, but they pinned back slightly, and that single word was so firm, it surprised TO. Avery turned away from Kei, and looked to DH and TO, “Where are we going.”
“I’m taking you to Vik.” Tham said, “They’ll explain what happened.”
Avery nodded and fell in line next to TO and DH as they walked down the hallway. They walked in silence for several minutes before Avery spoke again.
“... They swung a pipe at me.” They said, Their voice shook a little and when TO looked their ears were back further than they were before.
“... Yeah.” DH said. “They did.”
“... It wasn’t a real metal pipe, right?” Avery asked as they looked at Tham, “I mean, they wouldn’t. Without armor, if they hit me in the head, it could have really hurt me. It could have killed me. It wasn’t a real pipe, right? Just a plastic pipe or something. Right?”
Tham was silent for a moment longer as they walked along and TO wondered if they were even paying attention. However, they finally spoke, their voice soft as though they regretted what they were saying.
“Yeah.” They said, “It was real.”
“But don’t most buildings use PVC pipes now?” Avery asked, their ears twitching and their hands twisting about one another.
“They do.” Tham said, “That building is old though, and they had metal pipes for certain liquids that were too strong for synthetic pipes. They used to repair a lot of ships there, and even some spacecraft when the need arose so it’s not odd that there’d be old metal pipes.”
“But… You can’t be sure that one was-”
“PVC doesn’t rust.” Tham said flatly. “And that pipe had rust all over it.”
“Oh…” Avery fell quiet for a few more minutes as they walked, but the mood about them changed so suddenly then, it was scary. TO could almost feel the pressure coming from Avery, and when they looked again at their friend they could see how their ears had slowly flicked back.
“... Avery.” TO said, gently setting a hand on their friend’s shoulder.
“You were right.” Avery said. They turned to TO, their eyes wide, their ears back. “You were right! They could have killed me!” their wings puffed out, their hands balled into fists, and TO realized that they had never seen Avery so angry before. It was like all the sorrow that had been in them since they came to the underground was a gas, and Kei’s attempted violence towards them had been a spark that lit it all on fire. “I’ve been kind to them. When they wanted to be left alone, I left them there. I tried to think about how they felt when we were coming here. I tried to help them here! I stayed with them all the time when they were recovering, when they were healing up, I tried to talk to them, to help them, and…” They stopped, and turned to TO. “... Their mind is fixed now, right? But… they could have killed me! And when they swung that thing at me, they didn’t even seem to care! They didn’t look worried, or surprised even! They looked angry!”
They had all stopped now as TO, DH, and Tham watched Avery who practically vibrated with rage now.
“... I'm sorry.” TO said. They had no idea what else they could say to their friend at this moment.
“... They didn’t even care.” Avery said. “And they… They were actually aiming for me. If I hadn’t moved out of the way, they would have killed me! Why?”
TO had answers. Well, they had their own answers at least. Kei didn’t care about anyone. Kei wanted to escape, and would have done anything to do so. Synths didn’t kill other synths, but a synth that turned on King Decon was supposed to be some horrible thing so it was likely that Kei no longer considered them synths.
They tucked that away in the mind, saving it for later. Maybe that was the only important difference between a synth and a Chilacian.
“... Because that’s just who Kei is.” TO finally said. They wished they could have said that they didn’t know, that maybe Kei was just scared at the moment. But the shaking of their voice back when they told TO to stay away from them had seemed more like anger than fear, and TO no longer had their cap on, so their lie would be obvious.
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“... I thought we were friends.” Avery said, their voice suddenly growing small. “At least, I thought once this was done, once they could feel friendship…”
“... I’m sorry, Avery.” TO said again.
TO couldn’t explain it exactly, but it was like something broke. Avery’s ears dipped, their wings dropped, and an almost imperceptible shift happened in the way they stood and held themself. A moment later, they could see the tears forming, welling in Avery’s eyes.
“... I'm an idiot.” They whispered.
TO put another hand on their shoulder, “You’re not.” They said, “You… you’re kind. More than Kei deserved.”
A tear fell, and then another. Avery reached up to wipe away the tears, but all they could do after a moment was hold their hands to their eyes, their quiet breath shaking as TO pulled them into an embrace, their wings around their friend. Avery’s quiet, stifled sobs were more painful to TO than if they had been loud, racking wails, and TO didn’t quite know why.
This wasn’t fair. Avery didn’t deserve this. Avery had been nothing but nice to Kei; Nicer than Kei had deserved. They tried to help Kei, to get them out of isolation and to make sure they were safe, and in return, Kei had tried to kill them.
TO knew they’d never forgive Kei for how they treated GiDi, for the things they said back in training. They’d never forgive Kei for what they did to DH back then either, or for almost getting the two of them separated later on.
Now, they knew they’d never forgive Kei for what they did to Avery.
======
It was Avery who insisted that they see Vik once they had calmed down. TO suggested that maybe Avery could spend the night with them and DH, and they could talk to Vik in the morning, but Avery declined.
“I appreciate it.” They muttered as they wiped their face with a cloth that DH pulled from their med kit, “But… no. Let’s go. Let’s find out what happened.”
So, only a handful of minutes later they were in the common room, sitting around Vik’s workstation.
“I’m glad you’re all alright.” Vik said, focusing entirely on their screen, “That could have been terrible. Kei got the multi-gun, right?”
“He did.” Tham said, “And he was holding it to DH’s head. We were really lucky-”
“We were.” TO said, grasping DH’s hand as they thought of what could have happened. “But what happened? We all just fell over. I couldn’t even move, and afterwards none of us could hold a thought for longer than a few minutes!”
“Right.” Vik said, tapping his fingers on his keyboard. It was odd, but TO realized that at this moment they weren’t actually typing; their tiny fingers were just tapping on the keys all at once, with not enough force to trigger any input. “Yeah. Ok. So, that’s a medical thing. A prototype that a group of researchers on, uh.” He paused, frowning, “I’m not sure where they’re located. You know what? I can look it up-”
“It doesn't matter where it’s from.” TO said, “What is it?”
Vik sighed, “Right.” They said, “So, yeah, it’s a medical prototype. It was supposed to replace regular chemical anesthesia. You’d have to ask Goretta for the details on how it works, but uh… apparently, when you’re going under for surgery, there’s a couple of chemical they give you-”
“There are chemicals to paralyze the body, to inhibit pain, to block memory from forming, and to force the patient to sleep.” DH said.
“... If the patient is asleep, why would you need to have the other things?” TO asked.
“You try sleeping through having an eye replaced.” DH said, “No matter how deep you are, that’ll wake you up.”
“Right.” Vik said, “And those can have some effects for days afterwards. So, some researchers invented a more refined way to do this. A digital pulse to the brain that does all that in seconds.” They continued their anxious tapping on the keyboard. “It was useful, but it didn’t pass testing. The procedure was harder to control in terms of duration or something, so there was too high of a chance that people would wake up during the procedure. It’s not approved for medical use, but it’s still being worked on.”
TO leaned forward, their eyes widening. “That’s what happened to us, isn’t it?” They said, “Someone used this thing on us, and knocked us out.” Their ears pinned back, their wings puffed up as they considered all the potential people who could have done it; local authorities, Gyrini, or even a civilian who wanted to take all their stuff. The latter was less likely, but still possible. Of course, one thing still bothered them about this. “But there was nobody else nearby, not that we saw anyway. How close do you have to be for this to work? And if they got all of us at once, how did Tham avoid getting knocked out?”
“They’d probably have to be really close.” DH said, frowning. “I mean, I don’t know about the technology itself; we didn’t use it in the training center, and I never learned about it, but it makes no sense for any kind of medical implementation like that to have any kind of range. I mean, I think about it; if it had range, you could accidentally knock out the surgeon while putting the patient under. No, I think any medical tool like that would have to be used pretty close to the patient. Maybe even right against the skin.”
The pieces fell into place. Only the synths were affected, and such a device would have to be used right against the skin. For a moment, there was only disbelief as TO lifted their hand and rubbed the back of their neck.
“I’m guessing that a chip-system already implanted in a person’s brain might make for an excellent delivery method for this system.”
“I’d think so…” DH said, “I mean, for it to work, it might even be best to use an injection to go past the skin and-” DH stopped, their eyes going wide and their ears dropping for a moment before pinning back. At their other side, Avery stiffened, their hands clutching at their chair. They had caught what TO had already figured out.
“... Vik.” TO said, their voice low, their ears back, their wings puffing out slightly, “What did you do.”
Vik’s constant tapping on their keys stopped, his own large, rounded ears drooped. They took a deep breath and closed their eyes. When they finally spoke, they did so without looking up from their keyboard.
“... We took reasonable precautions.”