It was only a five-minute walk from their room to the common room, but TO made it there in less than three, taking long, angry strides over the uneven stone floor. Stopping themself just as they reached the door to the common room, they took several long breaths to cool their temper, to push back the memory of DH’s hurt at Vik’s involvement with the failsafe. Yes, they wanted to deal with this, to confront the rodent-like creature, but they didn’t want to risk their anger getting the best of them. The image of GiDi, snarling and baring their teeth when Pearla was in a risky situation had stuck with them and they didn’t want to scare Vik like that, didn’t want to give the insurgents any reason to think they needed a failsafe.
They also didn’t want to lose their temper and draw their claws. DH and GiDi weren’t here to hold them back now, and TO knew that any encounter between their own claws and the diminutive hacker would be absolutely fatal to the small creature.
A final deep breath, a reminder that getting angry wouldn’t help them, DH, or Avery, and they opened the door and walked into the common room with cold, placid restraint.
As they suspected Vik was at their computer, his little hands working away on the tiny modified keyboard he had made for himself. They glanced up and did something TO hadn’t expected; they stopped typing. Not only did they stop typing, but they also turned away from the computer to face TO directly.
“Dee.” They breathed the nickname with a sigh of relief, “I was so worried you wouldn’t show up, I-” They paused as they looked closer at TO, as the extra moment of observation allowed Vik to note the distinct lack of a scar on TO’s face.
“Not DH.” TO said, their words snapping out of their mouth in a quick and angry staccato, “And not Avery either. Can you only tell us apart by our scars? Should I spread my wings for you?” It was a relief to spread their wings a little, the anger they were holding back wanted to puff them up, but TO had been resisting. Spreading them now so that Vik could see the series of scars on the membrane of their wing felt like they were giving into that anger, even if it was only a little.
Vik froze, their eyes going big, their ears suddenly perking upright and twitching with random, jerking movements. They remembered what Tham had said earlier once they realized Vik had disappeared after telling them about the failsafe. “I don’t plan to eat you.” TO said, their nose wrinkling up at the notion. “I don’t even like looking at blood.”
“I never said anything about you eating me.” Vik said, though their voice was strained, their tail was lashing back and forth behind them. They went back to their computer, fingers on the keyboard, eyes to the screen even as their ears twitched about. “And… I expected DH to show you. Not you. The three of you look alike. Sorry it took me a minute.”
“My ears are far more narrow than DH’s.” TO said, “And their jawline is more rounded. They’re also shorter than I am.”
“Right.” Vik said, “Sorry.”
TO huffed and crossed their arms before leaning against the now closed door. Though their wings were now relaxed, they didn’t bother draping them over their shoulders again. “What did you want?” They asked.
“... I wanted to talk to DH.” Vik said without looking up.
“DH is asleep.” TO said, “And frankly, they probably want to talk to you less than I do.”
The typing slowed, the constant tap-tapping winding down as though it was run by a battery that was quickly running out of power. “... Yeah, I know.”
“So, what did you want?” TO said again.
“It’s nothing.”
“You sent DH a message in the middle of the night, and from your reaction I’m guessing you wanted them to meet you here. That’s something.”
Vik continued typing, the lethargic clicking of keys the only sound in the room.
“Fine.” TO said with a shrug when it became clear Vik would not start talking. “If you don’t want to talk, then I will.” they pushed away from the wall and walked towards Vik, their steps slow and purposeful, their ears pinned. They had to press their lips together twice to make sure they weren’t baring their teeth, and their fingertips dug into their arms. Keeping their arms crossed right now was probably the best idea. “I don’t think you understand how much you’ve hurt DH.”
“I do!” Vik said, turning back to TO, “I do, I-”
“No. You didn’t want to talk before, so now, you listen.” Another step forward. They were close enough that Vik had to look up at TO. Their eyes were bigger than TO had ever seen them before, their tail a ceaseless whip behind them. TO wondered if Vik noticed they had gotten to their feet, their body tense and ready to flee. “You have no idea what DH has been through.”
“They told me… They told me about losing GiDi.” He said, their eyes flicking from TO’s face to their hands. “They told me they were worried about being separated from you.”
“Oh? Did they tell you about a synth we called Q10?” They demanded. “A former ‘friend’ of DH’s who broke their heart. Did they tell you how Kei had a hand in that? Did they tell you how Kei told any synth that got close to them to stay away? That DH broken somehow? That they were dangerous to be around?”
“... No.” Vik said, taking a tiny step back on their desk. “No, they didn’t tell me that.”
“We spent thirty days in that training center before we met each other.” TO said, “Thirty galactic days. Forty galactic hours per day.” They did the calculations in their head. Galactic hours were longer than Arkanian hours, as were the days. It took only a moment for them to calculate things. “Over two months.” They finally said, “Two Arkanian months, with no family and no friends, just constant rejection and betrayal from anyone they thought might be a friend.”
“They didn’t say that.” Vik said, looking back down at their computer. “But… I didn’t tell them I wasn’t… wasn’t their friend-”
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“You put an off switch in their head without telling them.” TO hissed, “They thought you were their friend, thought you trusted them. They trusted you!”
“I know!” Vik said, “And… and I wanted to tell them. Not I first, I mean, I didn’t know them at first.” They looked up, “Look, I didn’t have many friends either, you know! Getting kicked out of school so young, being the family disappointment, being the person who people are careful not to bring up at parties? I didn’t have friends until I ended up down here, and even then-”
“This isn’t about you.” TO hissed. Maybe in the morning they’d have more sympathy for Vik, but right now they had none. Right now, they could only think of DH’s sobbing after a ‘friend’ had betrayed them. “I know you didn’t trust us at first but by this point, you’d think that you would have told them!”
“I wanted to!” Vik snapped back, standing upright and making tight fists out of their tiny little paws, “I wanted to…”
“Then why didn’t you!”
“It wasn’t my place to!”
“Oh, really?” TO snorted, “It was your place to mess with the chips, to put the failsafe in, but not your place to tell them? Whose was it then? Tham’s?”
Vik fell silent as they glanced back at their computer. “It… it just wasn’t my place to tell you.”
“Whose was it then?”
“Look… T-this wasn’t my idea in the first place.” Vik said. “I just… made it happen, right?” They rubbed their arms, “I just… filled a need. I fixed a problem. It’s what I do.”
“What problem? The problem of us existing here? Of us being allowed out of our rooms and, you know… Helping you all?”
“The problem of nobody trusting you!” Vik said, “Myself included, at first. The problem of trying to convince people it’d be ok. It was same problem you had, actually!” They pointed their little finger at TO, “The problem of letting Kei out of isolation and letting them help us. I’d say it all worked out pretty well in this case!”
It had, yes. And it was true that TO was concerned about Kei. Still, that didn’t change TO’s mind, and didn't soothe their anger. “You never once told me you had a failsafe in Kei’s chip.”
“No, and we didn’t tell most other people!” he insisted. “Only the three of us knew!”
There it was; some truth. “The three of you, hmm?” TO peered at Vik, returning his stare until the small hacker looked away. “What three. There’s you, and there’s Tham. Who else was so well informed.”
“Look… Look, that's not important now.” Vik said as they sat back down, “I only called DH here to apologize, To talk to them so maybe…” He sighed and shrugged, “So many they wouldn’t hate me.”
“You want to apologize?” TO hissed, “You want to say you’re sorry? You think you can just say you’re sorry and undo the hurt you’ve caused DH?”
“... I know I can’t.” he said, “But I want to try. I… I like DH. I’ve never had a friend like them.” They looked up. “I… I know this isn’t about me, I do. But, I’ve never had friends before I came here, and I never had a friend like DH. I never had someone I could talk to.” They gave a weak chuckle, “The other kids my age… Well, I skipped some grades, so I didn’t talk to them. The kids I was in school with weren’t interested in talking to me, the ones who lived around me thought I was boring and weird… and by the time I was old enough to curb some of that weirdness, they had kicked me out of school and their parents were warning them to stay away from me.” They glanced back up at TO. “I’ve… never had a friend like DH before. Keeping this from them made me feel sick to my stomach.”
“But you still kept it from them.”
“I... didn’t want to hurt them more by telling them.” They whispered.
TO stepped closer and crouched down so they were eye to eye with Vik, “Look.” They hissed. “You want to be friends with DH? Alright. Maybe they’ll forgive you. Right now, they’re not interested. Right now, they’re angry, they’re hurt, and your apology won’t fix that.”
“I know-”
“And I think nothing will fix that.” TO said, “But… We are concerned about who else was in on this. Who else knew, but didn’t tell us.” Their eyes narrowed, “And from what you just told me, there was at least one other person who knew. So tell me who it was.”
“Please, that’s not… helpful.”
“It will be.” TO said, “It’ll be a start to fixing things, if they can be fixed.” If Vik told them something, told them something that might help them, maybe TO could convince DH that Vik was on their side. If they could feel certain that Vik wouldn’t hurt DH again, maybe TO would even help things along. Anything to see a smile on DH’s face again, to take away some of the hurt.
Vik hugged themself, looking about as though searching for someone to save them. Finally, they looked back up at TO, “If I tell you… You can’t tell them I told you.” Vik said, “Please…”
“I won’t.” TO said, trying to soften their voice as much as possible. Of course, their ears still signaled the anger they were attempting to hide, but hopefully Vik wasn’t paying that much attention to them.
“Do you promise?” Vik asked, watching TO carefully, “No matter who it was… You can’t tell them I told you.”
“I promise.”
He looked down, silent, rubbing his little arms. Was he still considering what he was going to say? Were they planning a lie? TO wouldn’t be able to tell if they lied. Civilians were so much better at it and lacked the ear movements to prove or deny their veracity.
Vik took a deep breath, and then said in a voice so low and soft that if it weren’t for their Chilacian sense of hearing, they would have missed it.
“...GiDi.”