Synth

TO froze, their ears pinning back and their hand tightening around the small welder as they felt their heart seem to squeeze tight in their chest. It was Kei. Could TO deal with a synth who passed the same training as TO had, but who was now far more volatile than they had ever been before? Would that new temper and rage hamper their hand to hand skills, or would it make them even more dangerous? Well, that didn’t matter; Kei had the gun. Unless TO could get the gun away from Kei without risking Lake, any question of superiority in combat meant nothing.

Not only did they have a gun, they had a civilian gun, the kind that shot solid bullets which tore through flesh and bone and organs, and splattered blood on the wall. It made TO nauseous to think about it.

“I said drop your weapon!” Kei snapped from within the storage room. “You have five seconds before I start hurting this one.”

“I don’t actually have a weapon!” TO said quickly, cutting Kei off before they could even start counting. “I lied. I don’t have a weapon.”

“I don’t believe you,” Kei snapped, “Your lying is characteristic. You could have lied about having a weapon earlier, yes, but you could be lying about this as well.”

“I really have no weapon.” TO said. “Don’t shoot Lake, he didn’t do anything-“

“This one has been supporting the insurgency and facilitating a plot to conceal and smuggle wanted criminals off planet.” Kei snapped, “It would be entirely within my power, and even expected of me, to execute him now.” TO heard the click of the gun again as Kei prepared the for another shot.

“Kei, I don’t have a weapon.” TO said. “I...” They clutched the welder in their hand. They could toss that to them, and hopefully, that would work. Of course, then TO would be in an even worse situation than they already were.

“Prove it.” Kei said, “Come to the door where I can see you. I want to see your hands up and empty.”

That was a bad idea, and TO knew it. The moment they stood in that doorway, Kei would shoot at them. Of course, even if Kei shot at them, they’d hit TO’s armor. It would hurt, yes, but it wouldn’t cause them serious injury and it wouldn’t hurt so badly they were unable to react. More importantly, it would give them precious seconds to assess the situation, to get a better view of Kei and Lake. If Kei shot them, they’d also have precious seconds between then and the next shot in which to act. More importantly, Kei didn’t have any armor on so if TO got close to them, if they had those precious seconds to get into Kei’s personal space, they knew that they could disarm them and take them down.

“Alright.” They said. They took the tool and slipped it into one of the storage compartments of their armor. It was small and could fit into the empty hostler where they had found it, but they didn’t want to take the chance of Kei looking into the holster and finding it. Once they had secured it away, they slowly walked to the door, their hands up and facing their palms towards Kei.

“See Kei.” They said, “No weapon, I-“

They froze as they took in Kei’s form. Their clothes were filthy and covered in a combination of that black sludge and Avery’s blue blood. The wet fabric clung to their body, which had grown nearly emaciated in their recent refusal to eat, and they possessed a nearly skeletal appearance with the thin clothing they wore.

They nearly felt bad for them, but the well-trained part of TO recognized that as an opportunity. They were in a weakened state. Their muscles had degraded. Their aim would be off, and they wouldn’t be able to fight as well.

Lake, who lay on the ground next to Kei, seemed almost worse off despite Kei’s appearance. Lake was awake, but their own blood–which was blue like TO’s, but thinner and more transparent–dripped down the side of their face and onto their white shirt, mixed with a stream of tears running down their face. He had a gag in their mouth made from what looked like an old towel, which seemed to hold their mouth open at an uncomfortable angle. They whimpered around the gag, though if the sounds were mere whimpers of fear or if they were trying to say something TO didn’t know. They shook all over, and strained against the series of zip ties which held Lake’s legs together at the joints.

That was bad. Tying limbs together at the joints could cause damage. If they had to restrain civilians, there were certain ways they were supposed to do it in a way to cause no long-term injury, but at the end of the day if they had to restrain someone and had limited resources... Well, it was more important to get the job done, to complete the task than it was to worry too much about injury to a single civilian.

“What do you want, Kei?” TO said. They had to get Lake out of here quickly, had to get them somewhere to get those zip ties off. “I can send you directions out of here. I can send you the whole map if you want. We’ll be gone soon anyway, and you’ll never see us again, so-“

“I don’t need direction!” Kei snapped, “I know very well how to get out of here.”

“If you know how to get out of here... why are you here?” TO asked, frowning under their helmet in confusion, “You could have been gone by now!”

“Yes, I could have.” Kei said, their ears pinning back, their eyes narrowing, “And that’s what you’d do, isn’t it? You’d have just run away. You would have just left, forgetting about King Decon, forgetting about everything they trained us to do, forgetting-“ They winced, their fingers tightening on the gun as their free hand clutched at their head. They took several deep breaths to soothe themself until their ears relaxed a little. When the moment passed, they glared into TO’s eyes. “I am not like you.” They hissed. “I am better than you.” They scoffed, “I’d say I’m a better synth, but as I already stated, you are no synth.”

Somehow, even though TO didn’t quite consider themself to be a synth anymore, that statement stung. “So what now?” TO demanded. “What do you want?”

“Is Avery alive?” Kei demanded.

“What, now you feel bad?” TO hissed, “You stabbed them in the neck with a needle. What do you think?” A low growl escaped them. “Why were they even there with you? How did you get out of the straps? What did you tell them-“

“Silence.” Kei snapped, “Is Avery alive?”

“...Yes, they are.” TO said after a long pause. They wanted to tell them that Avery wasn’t, just to see their reaction, but even saying that Avery was dead felt like a risk. “Why?”

“I don’t believe you,” Kei said. “You’ve already proven you’re willing to lie. You have a habit of that, don’t you?” Their ears pinned back again, “More and more like a civilian. How did I not see it before? How could I have possibly thought that you could serve King Decon? that you’d be a benefit to him?! That-“ They stopped again, grasping their head as they took long shuddering breaths.

“... You’re in pain.” TO said, coming up with another idea, “Do you want help with that? If you come with me-“

“I’m not going anywhere with you.” They snapped again as they aimed their gun at TO, “I am fine! I need no help, not from you, not from Avery, not from any insurgent or sympathizer!” They looked up again, their hand shaking as it held the gun in the air. “Remove your armor.”

“No!” TO said, “I’m not an idiot-“

“You’re many things, TO, but I agree, you are not an idiot.”

“Then why do you think I’d remove my armor? If I do that, you’re just going to shoot me.” They looked to Lake. “And you’ll likely kill Lake as well.” Not only that, but if they went down the hallway, they’d also find Mark and Constance, and might kill them, too. What if they went all the way up to the ship? Would the ship be gone before Kei got there?

“Remove your armor.” They said again. “I have no interest in killing you at this moment. Right now, I just need to see your ears, and I need to hear your voice without the interference of that helmet.”

To TO’s surprise, Kei’s ears were giving off no sign of a lie. Still... the idea of being without their armor before Kei, who had a gun, seemed like the stupidest of ideas.

“Remove your armor,” Kei said again, “Or I’ll shoot the civilian.”

“Lake.” TO said as they glanced down at the arachnoid. “His name is Lake.” One of Lake’s eyes had turned entirely blue from a burst vein, and the blood on his face made TO’s stomach churn, but even so the look of desperation, the fear-born tears streaming through the blood on Lake’s face and the pleading sounds they whimpered from around the gag was worse in that moment than the blood itself. They looked back at Kei.

“You swear you won’t hurt me?”

“As I said, I have no interest in killing you at this moment.”

They weren’t lying, that much was clear, and Lake was so scared and in so much pain, it tore at TO’s heart. How tight were the zip ties? Were they cutting off circulation? how long could Lake last before they suffered real damage in their limbs?

“If I remove my armor, you’ll let Lake go.” TO said, “Promise me that, Kei.”

“Fine.” Kei said, “I promise, I swear to you, if you remove your armor, I’ll let this one go.”

They weren’t lying. Everything Kei was saying was absolutely true. “... Fine.” TO said. If Lake was gone, then TO would have more freedom to move, and a better chance to deal with Kei. Maybe they could still deal with Kei on their own! They kept having those bouts of rage and pain, so many that would help.

Maybe they’d disarm Kei, and they’d fight with just their bare hands, so they could show them that despite what Kei thought, TO was the superior Synth.

TO deactivated their armor.

The moment they sent the command through their chip, signaling for the armor to dissolve into particles and condense itself back into the bracelet around TO’s wrist, they realized their mistake. They were still in the process of realization as Kei’s gun sounded and the bullet rushed through their knee.

It’s cold. Why is it cold? It’s supposed to hurt.

Time slowed as they fell to the ground, their thoughts speeding up their horror as the realization of their own stupidity hit them. Kei said they had no interested in killing TO and promised not to kill them. They never said a word about not shooting TO.