"The full moon cast its pale blue glow upon the mountain, and all the woods were still and white with fog, while the Blue Knight approached the tower on his faithful steed, the tiger's sword in one strong hand and the witch's shield in the other."

While Kara spoke - quiet and suspenseful, a mysterious gesture in the air and a knowing smile on her face - Alice, Lee, Luther and Jerry all sat with their eyes wide and mouths open, entranced by every word.

The light of the campfire cast Kara's face in a haunting red glow. "Up and up he climbed while the undead grasped at his heels, and he carried on through the sting of the roses' biting thorns, until he could see the dragon's tail swinging down out of the darkness above." Kara raised her hands as a call for stillness, and the children didn't dare breathe. "He paused high on the spiraling stone, saw the tail just out of his reach … so he held his breath, and with a powerful leap he flung himself out over the long endless drop, his arms outstretched, hoping the dragon wouldn't choose that moment to move -"

*RING-DA-DING-DA-RING*
"They're back!"
"Are the supplies ready?"
"Clear the way!"

The warning bell clanged long and loud, and Kara raised her head to see past the running shapes and hurried voices, while Alice grabbed Lee's hand and bolted to her feet. "They did it! They did it!" she gasped through a grin, and she rushed off with Lee stumbling and tripping behind her.

"Don't get in the way!" Kara's voice carried after them, and Alice zigzagged through a forest of moving feet, scanning for the new rescued androids and for the heroic return of Markus and North and Simon and Josh -

"You knew and you didn't say anything?!" roared North, and she snarled close in Simon's face.

"It wasn't important!" Simon insisted, and though he held his ground and curled his fists he wobbled as if he were made of straw.

"It's kind of important," Josh admitted. He kept quiet and stood out of North's way, arms folded in defense.

"At least I deserved to know." Markus stared at Simon with a betrayed furrow in his brow.

Simon sighed, his shoulders sagged. "Okay, okay! I'm sorry." He raised his eyes to Markus, pleading. "I didn't want anyone to think differently of you, just because you're the same model series as Gray-Suit."

(Hidden behind a stalagmite, listening, Alice and Lee looked at each other with big curious eyes.)

Markus quirked a smile. "I understand, and I appreciate -"

"What is the RK series, then?" North interjected, turning on Markus with a glare of suspicion. "I assumed you were just some cheap one-off model -"

Markus winced. "... Thanks?"

"- but if the RK800 is hunting down our people like a wolf after the flock, what does that make you? Where do you really come from? How did you end up as a nurse for some old guy in a shack?"

"That old guy has a name." Markus' voice was like ice. His eyes pierced cold.

"I don't give a shit," North spat, stepping closer in challenge.

Josh raised his hands in a gesture of peace, looking between them in alarm. "North, just back off …"

North sneered, her eyes never wavering from Markus' face. "He's a human. As far as I'm concerned, he can just -"

*WHAM*

North's back hit the wall, Markus' fist clenched trembling in the collar of her shirt. Their LEDs matched flashing red. "He can just what?" Markus hissed, low and threatening.

North watched him steadily, searching his mismatched eyes. "Whose side are you on?"

Markus sneered, released her with a shove and a sharp glare ... then turned his back and stormed away into the dark beyond the firelight.

Josh grit his teeth. "He didn't even know, North!" He flung a hand in gesture after Markus. "He's from a time way before CyberLife - when Kamski was still running the tower! He's on our side!"

"He's not just a caretaker!" North snapped. "What else is he hiding?!"

Josh threw his hands up. "Oh I don't know, why don't you ask him instead of throwing accusations around loud enough for everyone to hear?! What the hell is your problem?"


While North and Josh continued the shouting match - their voices amplified, bickering, in the sharp stone ceiling - Simon trotted softly after Markus. He walked alongside him, watching Markus' scowling, downturned face. "She has a lot of emotional stake in the Eden Club," Simon offered gently, his hands in his pockets. "Things didn't go to plan, we had to leave some of our people behind, and she's looking for someone to blame. She doesn't really mean it."

Markus heaved a sigh, willing his processors to cool down, and the light at his temple whirred yellow, then stuttering blue. He leaned back against the wall, in the shadow of the sculpture of RA9. "What if she's right?"

Simon squinted at him. "What?"

Markus raised his head, and he stared out over the firelights at the bright paintings that hung along the walls. "What if I really don't know who I am?"


"They're fighting…" Alice whispered, her eyes gleaming with unshed tears, while she watched Josh and North scream in each other's faces. "What's wrong with them? They're supposed to be heroes!"

"Some heroes," Lee muttered, squinching his nose. "They ran away from the bad guy and they didn't even rescue everybody. I bet they're just gonna give up now."

"You said Markus saved you from the butcher!"

Lee shrugged. He fiddled with the patch on his empty eye socket. "Yeah, well, I guess maybe he's not as great as I thought."

When Lee didn't look at her again, Alice turned her eyes back to North and Josh … then to Markus and Simon, who both seemed so hopeless and unsure that a shiver of doubt creeped into Alice's thoughts. "But if they won't save us, then …"

Lee huffed an exaggerated sigh and tossed a pebble against the wall with a surrendering clack. "We're just gonna be stuck in this cave forever, or until the humans find us."

"But what about Ralph?"

"He's in the tower, right?" Lee raised his shoulders to his ears and dropped them. "This isn't a story. It's real life. There's no Blue Knight to charge in there and - hey!" He shouted after her, but Alice had gone.


Alice sprinted away between the shadows, ducked behind North and Josh, snuck around the makeshift infirmary where Lucy tended to those injured in the raid, and she peeked through the seams and openings of the shelters until she found the big brown tent where the rescued androids were resting.

"What do we do now?" an HR400 sighed. The androids all huddled together, wrapped in blankets, some resting in stasis while others shivered in the candlelight.

"We live, I guess."
"For what purpose?"
"Nothing. Just nothing."

Alice crouched by the entrance of the tent, watching inside through her scanner, waiting for all of them to look away.

She reached inside, curled her fingers around the hilt of an untended sword, and stole it away in silence.


"How did we even get away?" asked Simon. He leaned back against the graffiti-bright wall beside Markus, and with tired eyes he looked out over the warm flickering lights of Jericho. "Gray-Suit is twice as fast as any of us - he could've easily followed us all the way back here - but I didn't see him come out."

Markus winced in confusion. "He just … stared at me. Like I was a ghost. I guess he was just as surprised to see my model number as I was to see his."

Simon shook his head. "Machines can't be surprised."

"He's not a machine." Kara approached out of the light of the campfire - her expression grim, her voice heavy with the implication of her words - while Luther and Jerry gathered behind her. Kara's steady eyes met Markus' gaze. "He's awake. Alice turned him in the woods outside the playground."

Simon blundered to his feet in shock. "Alice turned Gray-Suit?! He's awake?! But he's still hunting us!"

Markus, with a grave narrowing of his eyes, searched Kara's face for any sign of doubt. In silence she conveyed to him her unwavering conviction, before she spoke aloud: "We only managed to get away because he stopped for a few minutes … but he came after us again, and he fell into the rapids." She shook her head in regret that she hadn't said anything sooner. "We thought he was dead, so we didn't mention him."

"If Gray-Suit is one of us, that might explain why he let me go," Markus thought aloud, though his words were slow in skepticism. He couldn't imagine why an android would continue to obey such cruel orders if he was aware of himself and his actions. Such ruthlessness, he'd assumed, was a purely human trait.

"You're not the only one," called Ripple's voice. Luther and Jerry stepped aside and looked back, where Echo and Ripple stood at the edge of the campfire, eavesdropping on the conversation.

Once she had their attention, Echo scanned all their faces. "We were both goners," she said in a sharp voice, not quite accusing. "But a human named Hank told him to let us go, and he did." She raised her fiery gaze to Markus - whom she had seen fighting, whom she trusted to make a decision. "Gray-Suit's name is Connor."

Ripple sneered. "Name or not, he's still scary as shit. I'd like to take a crowbar to his skull."

Kara watched Markus' thoughts flicker across his face. She saw his hesitation, his guarded hope, the careful curl of his fist at his side. "You think he can be convinced," she guessed quietly, to the silent objection of a few around her.

Markus closed his eyes … but he felt all of them staring at him. Watching him. Judging him. Not all of those eyes looked on him kindly, and far fewer trusted his judgment.

But hope burned in his chest.

"I think we can help him," Markus said.

"Help him?" Simon squeaked.

Ripple bared her teeth. "He's murdering us!"

Markus drew in a breath, and while hostility ricocheted among the androids around him, he kept his eyes steady on Kara's face.

Somehow he felt she understood. She already knew.

"There might be a way to get through to him," Markus went on, certain of his words. "We'll start with Hank."


o - o - o - o


Outside, the moon shone bright and shivering blue on the leaves of the forest. Crickets chirred. An owl chortled. The stars sparkled overhead.

Alice crawled on her hands and knees out of the rabbit hole and into the chill Spring night. She clambered to her feet on the grass, adjusted the colander-helmet on her head, secured the straps of her little backpack.

She took up her stuffed fox in one hand and the sword in the other, and she scanned the forest for signs of enemies.

All was clear.

"C'mon, Mister Fox," she whispered, and she raced ahead through the fog. "We're gonna be heroes."