Synth

Blood. Cracking bones. Blue blood smeared in the creases of their fingers.

It was clearly a chip in their hand, and could only be Kei’s. Still, TO pulled off the band that held their own chip to their hand and pressed Kei’s abandoned chip to their bloodstained skin-

blood. Cracking bones. The smell of antiseptic. ‘Pass me that bone saw.’

-Just so they could confirm.

After giving the chip a moment to sync, they called Vik. The small hacker answered immediately. “Kei’s chip just started recording their stats again.” Vik said, and even over the communicator TO could hear their misplaced relief, “I suppose I owe Avery an apology-“

“You will when they wake up.” TO said. *When, not if. They will wake up. DH is helping them now. DH has to focus on Avery.*

“What do you-“

“Kei isn’t here.” TO’s voice didn’t feel like their own. It was as though the words were coming out of their own accord. A program was running in their head, and they were just following that program, obeying the commands sent to them by some deep part of their mind. “Avery is here. Kei attacked Avery. Their injury seems to be severe-“

“Kei rammed the syringe into Avery’s neck.” DH said, “They’re bleeding a lot. I’m doing what I can. There’s some damage to the trachea as well. I need Goretta here now, I can’t-“ DH’s firm, medical tone slipped and cracked, a soft whimper escaping them before they took a breath and continued. “I can’t do this on my own.”

“She’s already on her way.” Vik said as their own voice became clipped and quick, “What about Kei?“

“Gone.” TO said. They glanced at the footprint in the paint-

Blood. Blood and cracking bones. A finger spat out against them. The body was still warm when they opened it up to collect the useable organs.

-and tried to calculate how long ago they left based on how much the smudge had dried since then. “They probably left as soon as their vitals dropped. They left on their own power. They walked.”

“Shit.” Vik whispered into the communicator. “And I can’t see them on my cameras. More have gone down since, and I don’t know why! There’s no technical issues as far as I can see!”

The camera.

TO looked up at the camera in the corner. It seemed to be working properly, sure. The small red light that blinked every few seconds was still blinking, but the problem was that a thick black substance covered the lens.

The same substance that Outis shot into Mira’s face the day of their escape.

“They had an accomplice.” TO said as they pulled themself up from their floor. “Outis must have helped them. They covered the camera in black sludge.”

Vik cursed again and TO could hear their frantic typing. “Alright. I can plot their most likely location from here. I’m assuming they’re trying to escape, so if I track the tunnels that are blacked out, I can figure out the likely path they took to escape. If we hurry and search the tunnels, we can catch them both and-“

“No.” TO said, “Don’t bother.”

“What? Why not? I know the tunnels here are chaotic if you don’t have a map, but they could still find their way out, and if they do, they’re going to tell someone where we are-“

“Kei is dangerous.” TO said, “They’re dangerous and unstable, and I know that they’ll be able to elude most anyone in the tunnels. The only people I’d consider sending to look for them would be another synth.”

“Alright, well then-“

“They hurt Avery. DH is taking care of them. Flit can’t go on their own into the tunnels.” TO’s ears flicked back. Flit refusing to use their mechanical leg had seemed like such a good idea at first as a precaution in case something had been done to its programming. Now, even if they wanted to use the leg again, the wounds on their stump were still healing. “The only people who could go after them would be myself, GiDi, or Snout.”

“Alright, well-“

“And how long will three people searching the tunnels take to find a single person who doesn’t want to be found?”

“…Right.” Vik said, “It would take too long. If you were lucky, you’d find them right away, but if you weren’t-“

“If we weren’t, it’d take days.” TO said, “We don’t have days. With them gone, we don’t even have the hours we thought we’d have. If they know a way out of the tunnels, then they won’t be wandering for too long, and as soon as they get out of the tunnels, they’ll go to the authorities. “

“You’re sure about that?” They asked, “I mean… If they did, wouldn’t they go back to Decon in the end? And if their mind is altered, wouldn’t Decon kill them?”

“Depends.” TO said, “If they kept doing their work, kept acting normal, then no. But even if they knew that King Decon would repurpose them the second they were back on a synth ship, they’d probably still go. Even if the procedure gave them some kind of greater self preservation instinct or something, I’m certain they’d still be willing to sacrifice their life to stop us. That’s one of the reasons we were so worried about them on the ship: they’d absolutely sabotage the ship and kill everyone, themself included, in service to King Decon.”

“So… the second the get out of the tunnels, they’ll look for some authority figure,” Kei said.

“They’ll go right to Gyrini if they can.” TO said, “The second they get out of the tunnel-“ They paused, their ears pinning back once more, then dipping. “They know how to get out of the tunnels.”

“What? How?” Vik asked.

“Remember when I said I saw something in the walls when I was heading to the transport yesterday?”

Another curse from Vik, “If Outis was following you, they’d know the path to that tunnel.” They said, “They’d know how to get out. Maybe we should try to get them?”

“No.” TO said, “They’ll be too careful, and they have a head start.”

They heard a terrified gasp from behind them, and when TO looked they saw Goretta at the door, her own med-kit in hand. To her credit, she didn’t freeze or stop and ask questions; the moment she set eyes on Avery, she lunged forward, opened her bag, and helped DH with what they were doing to stabilize Avery. TO didn’t know exactly what they were doing; they didn’t want to look. They looked instead around the room, taking in the supplies they had procured for getting Kei on the ship.

“Goretta. DH.” TO’s voice had a clipped and mechanical tone. “Use the gurney we had for Kei and get Avery to the ship.” They said. “Put them in the same room we had planned for Kei. It’ll be quiet, and out of the way. DH can keep it locked, so in case something happens, you’ll have an extra layer of security there.”

“As soon as we stabilize the neck.” Goretta said as she pulled tools from her bag, “We’re lucky they used the syringe. I can just cauterize-“

“Do what you have to do.” TO said as they turned to the door. “Vik, we’re leaving now. Wake up everyone. I have no idea how much time we have until we have the authorities swarming the tunnels. I’m heading to the civilian dorms to ensure we get everyone out of there as fast as possible.”

“I’m on it.”

The line went dead.

“DH.” TO said without turning around to look at their mate, “Inform me of any changes to Avery’s status. Inform me when you’re safe on the ship.”

“Understood.” DH said.

TO strode out of the small room, out of the med bay, and into the hallway. They walked in a trancelike state through the smaller hallway until they reached the main one, where the water flowed between the walkways. It was only then that they stopped. They listened to the trickling of the water, the echo of distant noises from farther down the hallway. Their skin felt hot where blood made their clothes cling to their skin.

Blood. Bone. The smell of antiseptic.

They fell to their knees and vomited profusely into the underground river.

======

By the time TO got to the civilian’s dorm everyone was already up and rushing around, dressing their kids and throwing the last few items that they had waited to shove into the random assortment of packs and bags that the insurgency had been able to provide for them.

“TO!”

TO turned and saw Petra rushing towards them. “Where were you? What’s going on? Where-” She paused and looked TO over quickly. “… Where’s your shirt?”

TO’s shirt had been covered in blood, and once they recovered their senses a little more, they couldn’t stand to have it on them. They didn’t think they’d be able to wear that shirt again anyway, so they used it to wipe away as much of the blood as they could from their hands, and then got rid of it.

“Kei got away.” TO said, ignoring her question, “Outis was involved somehow. There’s cameras-“

“Who’s Outis?” Petra asked. TO sighed and rubbed their forehead, closing their eyes for only a second because it seemed the moment they closed their eyes, they could see blood all over them. They could feel it. It was as though they had to keep their eyes open to remind themself that they weren’t covered in blood.

“Outis is someone from the indebted center.” They said. “Someone who got away. They’re helping Kei now. The moment Kei gets out of the tunnels, they’re going to find the authorities and get them in here to stop us.” they looked to Petra, expecting her to look a little scared, but instead she was trying not to look at TO. It took them a moment to realize why.

“Really?” they hissed as they lifted their arm, “I’m still wearing pants... Arkanians and their nudity taboo.” They activated their armor, which got an altogether different and sudden reaction from Petra. Her tail stiffened behind her, and she took a step back. “You’re listening to me now?” TO asked. Petra nodded stiffly in response. “Good. We have limited time. Grab your stuff and get yourself and Lendulin to the ship. Follow the red lights in the hallway.” that had been a simple but brilliant solution that Vik came up with to ensure nobody got lost on the way to the ship: change the lights leading the way to red.

“B-but there’s still people I can help here-“

“Get Lendulin to the ship.” TO said again, gritting their teeth slightly as their ears pinned back under their helmet. “Everyone has a partner to get there with; everyone who needs or might need assistance is paired with someone who can provide that. Get yourself and Lendulin to the ship.”

There was no more argument from Petra, but TO noticed something odd: Petra took a few steps back, and nodded, almost giving that same half-bow they had gotten used to when they were still acting as proper synths among the civilians, then ran off.

It took TO a moment to realize why that was. The armor probably made them look a lot fiercer than they were, but the helmet was still translating things in that harsh way.

It wasn’t a strange form of etiquette. It was fear; A reluctance to turn their back on them and a brief sign of submission.

Well, it was an easy fix. They deactivated their helmet before rushing to the nearest civilian, who was struggling with packing up some last-minute supplies while holding a baby in her three arms.