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Author's note:

Late! This chapter just refused to get written and I had to scrap it 3 times before I got the flow I wanted out of it. Sorry about that. I'll try and post another chapter tomorrow to make up for it or something. Friday still has a chapter.

If you find any mistakes or misspelling, please let me know about it!

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Reading Notes:

SOUND EFFECTS

"RADIO CHATTER"

'MIND CHAT/TELEPATHY'

"CHANGE IN VOLUME"

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== Vadeem Hospital ==

== Dante ==

As we are left alone in the room, Beatrice contently clings to my arm while she curiously watches the others getting up and stretching their legs. Well, I say "stretching their legs" but they all start out wobbly like I did. I suppose that's a given since we we're all bed ridden for a week.

Suddenly, I feel something grabbing hold of my other shoulder. I turn to find the girl that named me 'Joseph' clinging to me while she is bent awkwardly out of balance.

"Haha, sorry! I got too eager trying to stand. Lend me your shoulder a bit okay? Oh, you can call me Gemma by the way "Kitty." Haha!" She laughs loudly and I sneer at her. Which just causes her to laugh even more.

I roll my eyes, and turn to watch the others get used to their own legs and start walking. They then start to gather around Beatrice's bed. I'm not sure why they did. Maybe it's because I was already there and Gemma is using me as a support pole, but everyone forms a circle around the bed and we start discussing among ourselves.

"So she has it worse than us huh..." One of the other guys say.

"Apparently." I shrug.

"W-what kind of virus causes us to just... Lose it?" A girl with short brown hair ask. She seemed to be the smallest one among us.

"Who knows. I just hope it was a one time thing." Gemma answers beside me.

"Okay, but what if the doctors are manipulating us?" Another person ask.

"A better question is would they be sending us to our deaths?" And another ask.

"Probably not? We're not caged or anything. Hell, there's an open window right there that leads to a garden. They made it sound like we're valuable people. Not expendable experiments.”

"Maybe there's an alarm if you go out or a force field?"

"I already stuck my arm out before. No alarm or force field."

DING

All heads turn to the door and drop the discussion. A cylindrical droid enters the room. It reminds me of the round mail boxes used by a certain country in the old era. The country itself is no more, but I vaguely recall it being famous for kings and queens and a lot of tea-time posh.

The droid itself has a simple design to it, having a body as wide as a persons, with it's lower part painted blue, and the rest of the body was white. It moves itself by rotating dozens of small spheres at the bottom. The tip of it's head is wider and displays a screen. The words "Delivery~!!!" rotates around it in bright yellow words. Other than that, the droid has no other noticeable features other than a simple hatch at front of it's body.

"Think we can talk to? We're anDROIDS after all." Gemma says beside me, causing a bunch of us roll our eyes at her.

Once the droid entered, it was followed by another one. And another, and another, and even more! There are about a dozen of them in the room already and they wheel themselves at the edge of our circle. It stops right before one of the guys and the hatch slides upwards, revealing trays and trays of food stacked up.

"Damn! That smells good!"

"Are those waffles!? I call dibs!"

"I want the chicken!"

"Everyone grab the beds and form a circle for us!" Gemma announces beside me, and the others grab 3 other beds and move it around Beatrice's, forming a 'circle' that looked more like a diamond. Everyone sat on the beds. Some cross legged, while the others, such as most of the girls, were very mindful of their robes and sit very ladylike. Gemma was one that doesn't seem to care and sits cross legged. I haven't checked it myself, but it's pretty breezy down in my crotch. I'm guessing none of us are wearing any underwear. As that fact dawns on me, a battle between reason and desire is waged in my mind.

"Here, Dante." Someone calls me from the other side of the bed, interrupting the war. I turn to see a girl with her raven-black hair swept to one side her neck, revealing her pale ear and slender shoulder on the other side. She has a warm smile which brings the word "Motherly" to my mind. She's holding up the stack of trays to me. Apparently when everyone else was moving beds, she went ahead and grabbed the whole stack of food and I got first pick.

"Oh. Thanks uh..."

"Maria." She answers.

"Thanks Maria."

"Don't mention it. After all, you were the first to move to comfort Beatrice awhile ago. Don't forget to grab her share as well." I take 2 trays of food. Maria then turns around starts giving the others their share as well.

I turn to Beatrice who is still watching the whole thing with curiosity. "Hey, scoot over."

"Mu?"

sigh "I really hope you to start talking soon." I push her inwards with my hip, giving me the space to sit down next to her and place one tray on her lap. She looks at it curiously and tilts her head.

I slap my forehead in realization. 'Right. Since she can't even speak, I doubt she even knows how to eat!'

"My, my. Having trouble already?" It was Maria again, and she finished giving everyone a tray and held her own. I look around to see everyone already dining in on their meal without a care... Some without manners but that should be expected given we haven't eaten in a week. Maria scoots over to the other side of the bed and sits down besides Beatrice.

"Hello Beatrice. I'm Maria. Can you say Maria?"

"M... Ma...Ma- ma?" Beatrice tilts her head.

"Fufufu. Close, but not quite. Its Ma-rrrriiii-aaaa."

"Ma...Ma-ri-a?" Beatrice chokes the word out.

"Good girl!" Maria caresses Beatrice cheek, causing her smile brightly, loosening her grip on my arm, and warm feelings start flooding me through the android network.

"Maria!" Beatrice almost screams.

'Damn, she's good!'

"Dante, you can go ahead and eat. I'll handle Beatrice." Maria offers.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

"No way." I reject immediately. "What about you? How are you going to eat?"

"Thank you for worrying but I'll eat later."

"Rejected. You should eat too."

"My, your stubborn." Maria smiles. "Very well, how about we take turns? I'll get her to eat this and you finish as soon as possible."

"Deal." I look down towards my tray. It was half a chicken, baked golden brown and gravyed-mashed potatoes with a side of carrots. I start consuming my share of food so Maria wouldn't be bothered for long. I glance towards the others and some have already finished a tray or two. As soon as they did, another droid comes close to our circle, and out came more trays of food.

Three droids start collecting the empty trays and their display changed from "Delivery ~!!!" to red text "Returning." and exit the room. As they did, three other droids came in to replace them with a fresh batch of food. Just how much food did the doctors prepare for us?

I glance towards Beatrice and Maria, and Maria is feeding Beatrice her food, which are mash potatoes and a salisbury burger steak swimming in gravy.

"Say 'ah'!" Maria holds a spoon full to Beatrice.

"Ahhh- ahm." Maria places the spoon in her mouth.

"Good girl!"

I swallow the last of my chicken and I notice that I am still hungry, but I push the desire away for now.

"Okay Maria, your turn to eat."

She looks towards me, puffs her cheeks and furrows her brows a bit. I blink. I guess she was enjoying herself? She grudgingly turns to her own tray of food starts eating. Beatrice was already half way done through her plate when I take her spoon. She turns to me and tilts her head.

"Kitty?"

"Hora, its Dante. I may have just gotten the name but its better than Kitty... Here." I fill her spoon and offer her the burger. Which is a terrible idea. She takes the bite first, then tries speaking.

"Dafn-Phe?" Bits and pieces of food fly at me and I see Maria giggling at the corner of my eye, covering her mouth.

Grabbing Beatrice's sheet, I wipe away the mess she made and she looks at me with complete innocence. I try again and offer her food, but this time pull back just before she bites down.

"Say Dante first, hug-girl. Dan-te."

"D... Dan-te?"

"Good girl." I place the food in her mouth and she chews it happily this time. In 4 or 5 spoonfuls, she already consumes her tray of food.

"Good job, Dante." Maria says, finishing her own plate. "If you would kindly grab us another set of food please? Its unladylike, but I'm still hungry."

I nod in agreement with her and grab another set from the droids. Our meal continues on in the same manner. After about an hour and two dozen droids entering our room, a knock came to the door and it slides open.

"Ah, good. You've all finished, right?" It was Dr. Arthur that asks and stepps into the room. "Good, good. Now all of you please follow me. We'll have you changed into your suits and then proceed with your fitness test.”

======

It took some time, but with the help of Maria and Gemma, we somehow manage to get Beatrice to walk on her own. It was difficult at first as she simply stomped her feet down, but I got the idea of using the android network and transferred the feeling of walking to her. After a few tries, she managed to walk on her own.

“Huh... How did you do that?” Maria ask.

“I'm still connected to her in the network thing. I just pictured “walking” and just.. threw the idea at her.”

"Dante, Dante!" Beatrice calls out as she grabs my hand. Her other hand holds on to Maria's.

"Eh... I'm jealous. I want to hold hands with Beatrice too." Gemma pouts

Beatrice, sensing this Gemma's woes, tucks my arm in hers and holds out her hand for Gemma.

"G-Gem!" She calls out.

"Oh Beatrice, I love you!" Gemma says and grabs her hand.

"Oi! Its hard to walk like this."

We are in the hallway now, making our way to an elevator according to what Dr. Arthur says. The four of us are at the back of the group as Beatrice was hell bent on holding on to us like we're her stuff animals. Somewhere a long the way I just gave up and just went with the flow.

As we reach the elevator at the center of the hallway, we find Dr. Arthur holding it up for us.

"If you four are any slower, I'll have to start writing my will and testament." He jokes and gets on the elevator after us.

12 people stood around in a rather spacious elevator. Dr. Arthur places his palm on a scanner by the door, and out slid a control panel with different floors. I glanced up at the floor display and we are currently at "G". The building itself wasn't so high, and only goes up to 8 floors.

However, going down is a completely different story

Dr. Arthur presses a B38 button and that wasn't the most bottom floor from panel. At that, the elevator starts going down, causing Beatrice to jump.

"Ahhh! M-M-Maria!"

"Shhh... Its alright." Maria strokes her head, trying to calm her down. Beatrice is facing the elevator inwards with her eyes watery at Maria.

"You guys should make her turn around. See if that distracts her." Dr. Arthur suggest.

"Alright..." Gemma starts and points to the door. "Hey Beatrice.. Uh.. Look over there?"

Beatrice turns to look at the elevator doors and on it, she sees our reflection on the chrome surface. She stares at it mouth agape and she releases our arms.

"Beatrice?" I call out next to her.

She turns to me, then back to the door and points at my reflection.

"Dante...?" She says in a question.

"Oh. You're confused about your reflection huh?" I conclude. I knock on the door, showing its solid. Immediately she does the same and presses both hands on it.

"Hey, how long is she going to act like a kid?" One of the guys ask at the back.

"Shh! Just let her be for now." Maria says, holding up a finger while intently watching Beatrice.

The action attracts Beatrice attention as the reflection moved as well.

"M... Maria..."

"That's right Beatrice." Maria smiles at her through the reflection.

Beatrice then moves towards Gemma's reflection.

"G-Gem..."

"Hey there~" Gemma waves.

Finally, Beatrice points to her self with a questioning look. I couldn't help it as she looks really cute at the moment, with her eyes wide with wonder.

"Beatrice..." I poke her cheek as she watches her reflection. She looks at me, then back to herself and pokes her own cheek.

"Be...a...trice... Bea-trice... Beatrice..." She repeats slowly.

"That's right." I nod and start patting her head. "You're name's Beatrice..."

Beatrice look wide eyed at herself and her eyes grew more alive. I can feel confidence flooding towards me through the network.

"Beatrice." She points to herself. "Dante." Then to me. "Maria." Then to Maria. "Gem." To Gemma. "Beatrice, Dante, Maria, Gem. Beatrice, Dante, Maria, Gem!" She repeats excitedly.

The child like excitement causes me to smile and everyone else in the elevator is the same as we look at the scene. I reach out and ruffle Beatrice's hair before the doors open.

"Nice to meet you, Beatrice."

"Dante!" And Beatrice shows her excitement the only way she know how:

By jumping up and tackling me in an embrace.

'Oh no. Not again.'