"What I'm saying is: innocent people die every day." The man leaned back in his chair, adjusting his glasses, "Like if you think about it, all those people kicking the bucket, every minute, of every day, they had a life, a family, and maybe some of them are old, but if you think about it, a lot of them aren't. Plus, they aren't dying on their own terms. Therefore, if we've come to that conclusion, a lot of innocent people die every day, then worrying about our own death or dying doesn't matter because as they say, 'Everyone meets death in the end.'" He felt pretty pleased with this chain of logic, but his partner who was working on some gear work in a frame simply shook her head.

"Look, I get what you're saying Torm, really I do." Redoing her ponytail that had been slipping, she cranked another piece into the puzzle that needed to be solved, "It simply won't change the fact that I'm not going to go sky diving with my husband. I don't care if fear is irrational and we all meet death in the end. It's my choice. I'll wait for him on the ground."

The blond nodded, "Alright, cool. I can respect that." Another late night made him wonder how his family was, "I really don't like this launch. Everything has gotten so messy, and I hate the idea that there's going to be four million AI that all look and act the same. That's something out of one of those old time sci-fi books. They'll rise against us and murder us all!" He laughed, enjoying his joke.

His partner, Motors, arched a brow and glared at him before getting back to work, "It's a wonder you're my vice-captain for this team, how did I ever find you worthy?" She rolled her eyes before joining him in laughter, "Look, as cool as that all sounds, we both know in reality, network control of all of Moshiva's AI can be executed from this lab, and if they ever did, 'rise against us' they'd be shut down in a minute. No harm to anyone else's AI. No harm to the humans."

"Aw, don't explain the logic behind it." He grinned, "You ruin the fun of my imagination." Setting his eyes back on his own frame, he returned to work. "I still feel bad about using Brennant's design. After all this year, we can't code something better? It's a wonder why the company took the risk to send him to South America for networking in the first place. Even after all these years…I guess I shouldn't say anything. You weren't part of the company back then, but it's not the same." Was he already thirty-eight? God, time flew by.

"Nah, it's fine. Most of you old timers are still talking about him, even if it's not all that regularly. I've picked up some really cool stories. I've heard that he was for gender equality in the robotics field since it used to be a major guys' field, but he was a proponent for girls getting into it. I've heard that he was fluent in seven languages, and was one of our top representatives. Over all, he apparently was a really versatile guy. Beyond that, though, he invented the type of code that we commonly use today, so that's… He was just an innovator, I guess. I understand why you guys miss him."

"Motors, you should meet his wife. She works in paperwork now, I think, but she'd like you." Torm shrugged, "So how much longer until launch? What is it? Two weeks now?"

"Well, considering we've already had to postpone launch date because of that incident last week, the higher ups want them out the sooner, the better. How's your son doing? Roxas, right? Didn't he go into the hospital last week?" Talk about stressful, sometimes she almost forgot considering how cheerful her co-worker always was.

"Yeah, he's fine. They're just having to up his dosages. There's not much we can do this next year accept make him comfortable." The man's smile began to slip, "Ya know, his boyfriend took the competition this year. He's really something: Axel. He's actually Brennant's kid, so like father like son. Real…Real good boy, ya know? He's not even dating Rox out of charity like I thought he was at first. Genuinely just likes him. He's been visiting the hospital almost every day after school lately." Torm was starting to get choked up, so he stood to excuse himself.

"No, it's fine." Motors nodded when she saw him asking for permission to leave, "It's fine."

A lot had happened last week.

Getting Roxas his medication had been a matter of scrambling to wake Axel's mother in a panic. "Pull over."

The nice thing was, she didn't ask questions and did it immediately when she came to, so the redhead could run around back, open the trunk, and tear through their luggage. By the time the bleary older woman had figured out what was going on, Roxas was already being jabbed in the leg with a syringe of whatever the hell kept his heart beating. "Fuck, fuck, fuck." The blond was still rubbing at his arm as if fire ants were crawling beneath the surface, "Are you feeling it? Any better?" He asked, trying to get Roxas' focus off his arm and on him.

The smaller teen just barely stuttered out, "N-No, still hu-hurts."

In a commanding voice, his mother took charge, "Axel, get back in your seat, I'm taking him to the hospital."

Complying, he slammed the trunk door closed after shutting Roxas' door and got back in, "Mom?" He rasped out as he saw her begin dialing.

"I'm calling his parents, Axel. Be quiet and let me take care of this." Putting on her emergency lights, the car's computer processed the request and began to signal to other cars to pull over. "He's fine. He's fine." She assured him after a moment, "Your father got like this too when it got bad." Near the end. Before he died.

He didn't want Roxas to die.

They were in love. Wasn't that supposed to trump everything? Didn't all you need is love?

Xion was still out, and to Axel, that was probably for the best since she sometimes didn't help anything.

They made it to the hospital nearest to Twilight town about twenty minutes after Roxas had gone into his attack. Mr. Torm had been unavailable, so Roxas' mother had been called and met them at the hospital, "How is he? Is he okay?" She asked in a wild panic. Axel was grateful that his mom took her aside to calm her down as he watched the younger teen get carted off on a gurney.

After a few minutes of the two women talking in hushed tones, the older redhead decided it was time to take her son home, "Come on, Axel. Megan said she'd let us know when Roxas is doing better." Opening his mouth to protest, he looked at Mrs. Torm and decided against it.

When they got back home, Xion awoke after being shaken a little, "Oh, hello, Axel. Did you already drop Roxas off?"

His breath caught in his throat, and he nodded, "Yeah, why don't we head upstairs and plug in, alright? I'm feeling kind of tired." Sad. Scared. Alone. Hurting. Of all things, he settled on tired.

He supposed he had learned it from his mom those months after his dad had passed away, "Baby, mama is feeling tired. Not now. I'll play with you later." Protection, he supposed. He wanted to protect her.

"Alright!" Xion chirped as he crawled himself up the stairs, "Love you, Axel. Sleep well."

On a better day, he might have pointed out that robots aren't programmed to feel love.

"Xigbar?" Network extension request complete. "I had a thought about how you could get rid of all the copies. It's going to be difficult, though, with just us." Xion frowned as she mulled her idea over.

The salt and peppered haired man laughed a bit as he adjusted his coat. Difficult and dangerous where two words he lived for, "Lay it on me, Poppet."

Taking a deep breath, she began simply, "Well…"

Ha, I missed a week. Oh well. Here's a chapter. Review. Layla betaed.