In the near silence of the hallway, TO’s keen ears could pick up almost every subtle sound. They could hear the padding of their shoes against the floor, the trickle of nearby water, and even the sound of pests crawling in hidden spots behind the walls.
More importantly, as they approached the end of the hall they could hear breathing; Kei’s breathing. TO wouldn’t normally have recognized Kei’s breathing from anyone else’s, not like they could DH, but they knew there was only one synth down there, and they knew that style of breathing.
======
The instructor they received after Flit left wasn’t nearly as interesting; They were an Overseer who had learned most of what they knew from instruction, not from experience. There was a certain awkwardness to their movements when they tried to teach them combat, lacking the fluidity that Flit possessed despite their missing leg when they showed a technique.
Still, when combined with the simulations, it was effective enough. The Overseer taught more than just combat though; they went over basic survival skills and multiple emergency procedures.
“In the case of capture, you do not speak.” The Overseer said, “You do not converse with your captors, You do not eat the food they give you, or drink the water they provide you. You give them nothing.”
This bit of instruction hadn’t sat well with TO. As they stood in the line of other synths, DH at their side, TO hesitantly raised their hand.
“Your enemy may try to act friendly towards you, to act as though they wish to help you. Rest assured this is an act and-” They turned, and caught sight of TO’s upraised hand. They looked at it for a moment as though they simply couldn’t understand why it was there, as though it was some strange creature that simply appeared in the training room. After a moment, their eyes trailed down their arm and landed on TO.
“You. Yes, what?”
“Overseer.” TO lowered their hand, “How long do we refrain from eating or drinking?”
The Overseer looked over TO again, noting the number on their uniform. “Until you escape, are released, are rescued, or expire.”
TO frowned, “But, depending on temperature, stress, and overall health–none of which may be ideal in such situations–the longest one of us could survive with no water is-”
“Two days.” The Overseer said. “But in most cases, it will be less than that. I suggest you create your escape plan as quickly as possible.” They turned away, “Now, in the event that you are captured-”
“But… wouldn’t it be better to take some of the food or water after a short time?” TO asked. “If it’s a choice between starvation or poisoning-“
The Overseer gave TO a cool, steady look. “What if it’s a choice between starvation and betrayal?” The Overseer snapped. “What if your captor puts something in your food to loosen your tongue, to make you babble about anything that comes to mind, or make you more pliable to their questioning? Would you be willing to betray King Decon to simply avoid starvation?”
DH quietly nudged TO in the side, and though TO had several other questions they fell silent.
“Now then,” The Overseer said, “As I was saying, in the event that you are captured, your captors may use a variety of techniques on you to make you cooperate with them; the simplest of which is isolation. Extended isolation can have negative mental side effects. Two ways of preventing these side effects is to either clear your mind, or occupy it. The former is far more difficult, but more effective. At any rate, practiced, focused breathing will accommodate this. Breathe in for five seconds, hold for five seconds, release for five seconds. Do not keep track of your breaths to keep track of time. It is best to ignore that time exists in such a situation.” They looked around. “Now, for the next hour, you will breathe in such a way, and either occupying your mind with the numbers of pi, or keeping your mind empty and blank.”
======
TO hadn’t been able to keep their mind either on the numbers of pi, or keep it blank. Their mind raced and fought for stimulation and eventually fell to just focusing on the sounds of all the synths breathing around them. They tried at first to just listen to DH, to feel them close, but their mind heard Hundreds of synths all breathing at the same time. Their breaths eventually synced up, creating a disturbing sound that made TO feel uneasy. Breathing practice, which was often done at the end of a class, always disturbed TO from that time on, and the sound lingered in their mind afterwards.
Now that it was only one synth doing that unmistakable focused breathing, but the sound still made them uncomfortable. After a moment, they even felt their breath start to sync to the rhythmic breathing.
TO quickened their pace, rushing and breathing a little faster just so their breath wouldn’t sync up with Kei’s.
As they turned down the final hallway, they could see Kei sitting in the corner of their cell, their wings still around them as they focused on that deep breathing. TO could see that they weren't deeply into it. They didn’t have their mind in the right place as the old Overseer would say. The steady twitching of their ears told TO that much at least. Their ears were supposed to be relatively still if they were doing this right, and Kei’s were not. Kei’s ears continued to twitch and flick with all the thoughts rushing through their head.
TO walked right up to the bars and stood with their arms crossed, their wings puffing up slightly. “I know you’re aware of me, Kei.” TO hissed, “Your ears are moving too much for you to be particularly deep in the number of pi, or nothingness.”
It was odd enough to see Kei’s ears moving as much as they were, odder still to see the formerly stoic synth’s ears dip back, and take on the slightest flush of blue when TO called them on their lack of focus. They glanced up at TO, their wings stiffening around them as they stayed sitting. TO wanted them to get up; They didn’t enjoy looking down on them when they looked like this, with their ears low, their eyes big, and their wings so tight against their arms.
Still… Kei had hurt DH, had reveled in the fact that GiDi was taken away, and nearly got TO and DH separated. It didn’t matter if they were sitting on the floor looking terrified; it was still the same synth!
They were the synth who potentially sent Avery into a spiral of shatter-sickness.
“Avery used to ask me to be kinder to you.” TO snapped. “Said you had trouble adjusting once you were out of the training center. They were worried about you. They checked on you when they thought you were upset back on our ship, and in the port.” TO crouched down, their ears pinning back, their eyes narrowing, “They sat with you while you were recovering. They worried about you and considered you to be a friend. Avery hoped you would be a friend to them once you could.”
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
They waited to see some flicker of Kei’s ear which showed remorse, or some hint of sadness. TO could see nothing, and only hoped that their fear at the moment was overwhelming any remorse their ears could show.
“And then you attacked them.” TO’s voice lowered, tensed, and their words came out in a strained growl, “Have you any idea how that affected Avery?”
Kei didn’t move, save for their ears, they didn’t speak, and didn’t turn to look at TO. They simply stared at the wall, their breathing keeping that rhythmic pace.
With a growl, TO slammed their hand against the bars, “Speak!” They said, “Your protocol will not help you, Kei. I know the protocol. I know what you’re trying to do!” They scoffed, ignoring the fresh pain in their hand from where they struck the bars, “What, you think I’m going to torture you? You think I need information from you? I don’t need a single fucking thing from you.”
Kei flinched. In truth, TO flinched a little too, internally at any rate. They had never sworn like that before. Clearly, the civilians were rubbing off on them.
“I’m only here because something has to be done with you.” TO said. “In a few days, King Decon’s army is going to be here. A fleet of synths are going to show up, and they might just decide to destroy all life on this planet just so they don’t have to deal with the insurgency anymore.” They crouched down, getting closer to Kei’s level. “We have a way to get off the planet in a couple of days, and in that time we have to decide what to do with you. I have to assess how much of a danger you are to us.”
Kei finally looked up. As their eyes met TO’s, they narrowed, and their ears pinned back. “How much of a danger can I be?” Kei hissed. “I’m locked in a cage like an animal. They have locked me up for weeks.”
“There’s plenty you could do on the ship.” TO hisses, “And there’s going to be too many people on board for us to just take the risk with. So I need to figure out if you’re a danger or not.” They looked at Kei’s ears, observing them. “I need to know if you plan to hurt us.” TO said, “Me, Avery, DH, any of the civilians, in any way.”
Kei’s ears pinned back as they listened, and they held TO’s gaze as their eyes narrowed.
“You’re worried about me hurting the civilians?” They said, “You have kept me in isolation. My chip was removed. You forced me to undergo mental alterations-”
“Nobody forced you-”
Kei glared at TO, “Oh, I had another option then, did I? I had an option that didn’t involve starvation in isolation?” They glowered, “My options were to submit to that procedure for a chance of being relieved of isolation…or slow, painful death.” Their eyes suddenly went big as their hands went to their head. They clutched at their scalp, digging into the scabbed flesh. They whispered the next bit, but TO could still hear them, “You have no idea the horrors I suffered in the days after that awful procedure. I will never forgive Avery for convincing me…”
“Avery only wanted to help you!” TO snapped. “They wanted to fix your-”
“I was not broken!” Kei shouted.
TO felt their ears dip and their stomach drop. That anger, that rage there, and the words they used were too close to GiDi’s that day so long ago, when they were taken away.
“I was not broken until you decided to use me for that mad doctor’s experiment!” Kei snapped.
“Goretta is no mad doctor.” TO hissed. “And Avery convinced you because they wanted to help you; because they considered you a friend before you attacked them.”
“Their assumptions are not my concern.” Kei said. “I had never once given them any sign that I was interested in something as foolish as friendship, or that I saw them as anything other than an ally in King Decon’s service.”
“They had this strange idea that you’d be better when the procedure was done.” TO said, “That you’d be able to feel friendship.”
“And just because I might, hypothetically, be able to, they think I would automatically want to have them as a companion?” The sneer on Kei’s face took TO aback, and made them feel like they had said something utterly disgusting. “I could defecate in the open, I could lick the walls, I could allow some lesser synth to put their tongue all over me. And yet, while I could do these things, I do not because I am not some base animal. Why would Avery think I would be different simply because the potential was there?”
“They hoped.” TO said, their ears burning at Kei’s crude rendition of that disastrous, intimate moment between TO and DH. “They hoped you’d be different.”
“They hoped I’d be like you.” They said, “And for that hope, they pressed me to submit to a procedure to mutilate my mind so it would be more like yours.”
“It wasn’t to mutilate anything.” TO hissed, “My mind was never mutilated.”
“It was.” Kei said, “That’s why you were different, why you have such perversions.”
TO’s ears burned, “My mind could develop naturally. Yours was altered.”
“Why would mine have been altered! I- I was a good synth!” when they spoke the word, ‘good’ their voice cracked. TO could see the fall of their ears, and the blue around their eyes, and wondered if the other synth would start crying. A part of them wanted that to happen, but they wanted to see Kei cry for what they did to TO’s friends, and not for themself.
“I… was a good synth.” They said, “Created by King Decon. My mind needed no alteration.”
TO’s ears perked up as they realized Kei didn’t know yet. Nobody had told them the truth about King Decon, not yet.
The devastating, horrible truth of their so-called ‘creator.’
TO almost had a smile on their face as they leaned in. “King Decon didn’t make us.” They said, “He stole us, and butchered our minds to pacify us.”
Kei was silent for long moments, “How dare you.” They said, their voice cold and quiet, “How dare you speak like that of your maker, of your creator, of the one person who holds this galaxy together and leads us forward!”
TO leaned forward, mere inches away from Kei’s face. It was like all the rage that they had for King Decon condensed and became solid in that moment; coalescing in the face of one who still fawned over King Decon.
“King Dick is a fraud.” They said with an angry, shaking voice.
Kei jumped then, as though their anger had simply overflowed and they lunged at TO, claws out, grasping through the bars at them. TO fell backwards and pushed themself away from Kei, getting a little distance before standing up and checking over themself. They felt no pain, there was no blood, and it didn’t even seem like their clothes had been torn.
Kei looked up at them, their eyes narrowed, their claws out and leaving long lines in the stone. They were on their hands and knees, and gave TO the impression of some strange, cornered animal. A scrap of blood stained the floor, leading back to Kei’s hand. Clearly, they had caught their finger on an uneven piece of the floor, and tore their skin badly.
-bones cracking, the smell of disinfectant, scalpel through skin-
TO couldn’t look at the bloodstain. They looked away and focused their attention on the wall instead.
Suddenly, there was a sound that TO hadn’t expected; a cold, staccato sound that reverberated off the stone walls and multiplied into a chorus. TO looked to Kei again, and saw the synth cradling their hand, the blood seeping into their filthy uniform, their ears pinned back, twitching in a strange combination of rage and mirth.
The laughter that escaped Kei was scarier than any hiss or growl, scarier than any drawing of claws or baring of teeth. The manic sound that came from them seemed threatening and crazed and dangerous all at once.
Somehow, this laugh was a sign of danger, and chilled TO to their core.