"Why have you brought my interaction unit here?"
"So I can explain something, Guardian. Properly."
The robot's 'eyebrows' beetled, and its 'mouth' curled into a puzzled frown.
"I do not understand," the draconic-anthroform robot stated, as the pair settled on the grass of the hill.
"I didn't expect you to," the other, an anthroform dragon, stated, leaning forward, "Not without explaining, at the least."
"At the least?"
"This isn't just something that can be put into words or statistics. Not truly. The view will help."
"It is noon. The sunset view will not be available for five point two more hours."
"Not the sunset, Guardian."
Confused, the robot turned to look at the dragon beside it.
Sensing the gaze, he looked the robot straight in its optics.
"Look at the view. Tell me what you see."
"I see the town."
"And?"
The hill overlooked a town, and it was currently lively with lunchtime activity. There were men and women frequenting various cafes, children in the playgrounds, teenagers hanging out on the highschool grounds, and at a construction site, they could see the tradesmen enjoying a quick break and a hot drink.
"I see people. Men, women, and children. Unique beings…"
"Good. Now, three weeks ago, just after you learned your name, you asked about your purpose. Why you exist."
"You are stating known facts, Jaxamar."
"Bear with me, Guardian. I told you then that I couldn't properly explain without showing. You saw the laceration I received when Strayed was damaged. Can you tell me what happened?"
"You self-repaired."
"My body did, but essentially, yes. But there's a limit to that, Guardian. Severed limbs don't just grow back. That's why Leo had to stop piloting. Why Andrew is missing his left eye. Like you, we organics have vital systems that let us function. A heart for our generator, stomach and lungs for our fuel tank, blood for our hydraulic fluid and electrical systems, muscles for actuators, a brain for our CPU. Skin or scales is our armour, and our skeleton is our frame."
"It is an efficient system," Guardian commented.
"But parts of it are delicate," Jaxamar chided, "And if the wrong parts are damaged, we stop working and can't be repaired. And even if the part still works, it might not work quite the way it used to. If the brain takes damage, we may behave differently, be impeded, or simply stop working altogether depending on what part and how much was damaged. And you've seen how many Mobile Suits take head shots because that's simply where primary sensors are. And even if we don't take damage, as time goes on, our systems start to wear down and eventually we die. It's the natural way."
Guardian turned to the view again, his optics roving across the school before settling on the children playing on the equipment in the schoolyard.
"People are intrinsically unique. Even identical twins have had different experiences. Even clones. Each is unique in its abilities, behaviour, past, potential, and so much more. A life is incredibly precious because of that."
And that… brings us to why we created you, Guardian," Jaxamar explained, "Look down there. See the boy and the girl talking on that bench next to the tree in front of the primary school?"
Guardian focussed in on them. Both were human, unlike the dragon sitting beside it. The boy was a slender mixed-race male with straight dark brown hair and a round face. The girl had hair a more stained-wood sort of brown, was slightly stocky, and just a tad on the chubby side. Both were wearing the unisex uniform of the primary school. Guardian was rather surprised that Jaxamar had been able to discern gender at such a distance, especially in children.
"I see them."
"Both of them hold nearly unlimited potential," Jaxamar explained, "They could become almost anything in ten years. They could become firefighters, deep-space astronauts, Lynx like myself, maybe even physicists on the level of Albert Einstein and Isaac Newton."
The dragon pointed to the high school.
"I can just barely make them out, but that young man with the roller bag and the young lady next to him. They've probably got an idea of their chosen path, but they've still got a long way that they can go. If they have the drive, they could take their chosen career into groundbreaking territory."
Guardian looked, and saw. The young man had a slightly scraggly brown beard and moustache, and had unruly brown hair that seemed to want to do everything but sit neatly; it seemed to go straight for about a centimetre or two, before curling tightly. The young woman had wavy black hair, a rather kind-looking face, and had a nice figure.
"Even that man on the three-wheeled motorcycle still had potential to become something more," Jaxamar said, pointing to a slightly greying, slimly-built man hopping off a three-wheeled Can-Am close to the base of the hill.
"And the elderly play a vital role, too. They have a lot of experience, so they often know tricks and bits of advice or wisdom you can't find anywhere else."
There was a moment of silence.
"You created me… to…" Guardian murmured.
"Yes. To protect that," Jaxamar said, with an emphatic nod, "To protect the innocent and save lives. I know… you won't be able to save every life. You won't have failed your purpose. But every life that you save from tragedy, every life that you protect from the likes of Blue Cosmos, you're fulfilling your purpose not just in letter, but in intent."
"But… to protect from the likes of Blue Cosmos, I am likely to have to take lives. I have studied the records and Blue Cosmos is not likely to listen to reason or be stopped by disabling shots."
"I know. It's something Kira and I have to face every time we launch," Jaxamar sighed, "But when we have to kill, we always think about what we're fighting to protect. Always remember what you're fighting for, or your risk losing yourself… and becoming a monster."
"Like how Blue Cosmos started out as a conservation group…"
"And ended up becoming the group responsible for the Bloody Valentine," Jaxamar sighed, "this world is flawed. But it's still worth protecting. Especially against madmen like Patrick Zala, Muruta Azreal, and Rau Le Creuset."
He stood up and looked out across the town again.
"Jaxamar," Guardian said, rising, "What is it you fight to protect?"
A long moment of silence met that.
"That's a rather personal question, Guardian. Still, it deserves an answer. It's true I fight to protect the innocent… but I also fight to protect those precious to me."
"Those… precious to you?" Guardian asked, "What do you mean?"
"Friends, family… Nakama. Because they're worth protecting. And a person is strongest when they have something truly worth fighting for."
Guardian shuttered its optics, mulling it over.
"I understand," it said eventually, opening the shutters and facing Jaxamar, "Thank you."
Guardian looked out over the town one more time.
It was at this point that he decided.
He would protect not just the innocent, but those who he treasured.
Because they're worth protecting.
Author's note:
This is something that's been floating around for a little while in my head, so I just sat down and wrote it. The town and the children are based a bit on some of my own memories. It's set in a new series I'm planning on making (which may fall through, having a little trouble with writer's block).
Guardian is an AI within an autonamous NEXT of the same name, to make things clear; the "interaction unit" is merely a remotely-controlled body the size and shape of an anthroform dragon (slightly taller than an average human), with facial systems intended to mimic expressions, in order to express what Guardian is actually feeling or thinking. This includes antenna-like devices to mimic eyebrows, shutters to mimic eyelids, and flexible tubing to mimic lips and mouth