The realization that the Youngling Jupiter held the memories of the Queen of old was unsettling. But L-0182 also understood that it went a long way into explaining Jupiter's starling calm reaction to them in her life. Children tended to be the most accepting, L-0182 had observed in their long life. Many of their favorites had been very young. They had been awed or scared, curious, or wondering at their appearance. But Jupiter's reaction had been much too calm, they could see in retrospect. That had grabbed L-0182 attention at first when they had bent the rules to gather her DNA for the system, to approach the child when she was awake. That is how they lived their life, constantly going around the rules to the letter, but not the spirit. A small rebellion they had been reluctant to call it- instead to them, it had been a compulsion of the aftermath of the Great Experiment, where the Terristials in their lives were not just live-stock. It had just been small interactions at first but had escalated throughout their life. Jupiter had been their greatest interaction, their greatest step into disobedience. Seeing the girl in the Cafeteria through the video feed, L-0182 had realized that their justification to themselves had been excused. If the sweet girl was found, there, they knew that their existence would be wiped from her memories. The thought of the youngling not knowing them had been too much to bare, so L-0182 had taken an explosive that was far too advanced for the Earth, and set it off on the fifth floor. There were renovations happening there, and they knew that no one would be hurt if they did it then, when it was time for the noon-time meal. The sweet smile, closed-lipped, that Jupiter had sent them had been the second. Now, L-0182 found themselves examining every interaction with the youngling, and understood that her calm and curiosity of them had been influenced by her greater knowledge of the Verse...

It also made her clear affection for L-0182 a little more startling, and strange. Not many would see the memories of an Entitled and understand the very real cruelty that happened. Most would simply see the luxury, or perhaps the wondrous sights of the Verse. L-0182 had no idea if Jupiter had seen particularly frightening memories of Seraphi, or if her brief upbringing on Earth had colored her opinions on the worth of others. They knew vaguely that Jupiter's life had been a difficult one, from eavesdropping on the nurses' gossip. Something about her not being a legal citizen until her father's Elder had come in to rectify the situation. The look of her mother's hands had implied hard physical labor, and this visit was the very first time Jupiter had been to the hospital.

"You have remembered all your life of Queen Seraphi?" L-0182 asked, quietly, after what seemed to be too many moments of silence.

Jupiter sighed, rubbing tiredly against one of her eyes with a hand. She nodded, slowly.

"Yes. It was just moments. Planets. A party... The taste of a food or the smell of a flower that doesn't exist on Earth... But when I had my accident I- I remembered how Seraphi died."

L-0182 shuddered.

"Was it painful?" the memories of the majority of their Brood's love of Seraphi brought to L-0182 to ask. The Entitled had been trying to change the Verse- trying to make it better. And many of their Brood had believed in that. The Death of Seraphi had killed them all, in some ways, and even L-0182 had felt sadden before the Cleansing had begun and their anger and fear had overwhelmed their feelings toward the Entitled.

Jupiter's face paled, and she looked at her hands, resting in her lap.

"Yes."

L-0182 forced themselves to breathe, their pores sucking in a large bit of air to dispel the tightness they felt. No official way of death had been told to them- why would it have been? But many of their Brood had suspected something wrong with the entire thing. Entitled simply didn't die. Even one who had stopped taking Regen-X would have taken more than two-hundred planetary cycles to die.

"How did it happen?"

"She and Balem had a fight over her actions concerning Regen-X. And it escalated."

So I was not completely off. Lord Balem did indeed murder his mother. And in the wake of it did his damndest to reverse all that she had tried to change. My Brood died because of his actions, it always comes back to Lord Balem. L-0182's anger, long suppressed and squashed by their fear, burned, hotter than ever. They had always suppressed it. They had just wanted to live when it was all said and done. But for near two hundred cycles they had grieved the loss of their Brood. Become more and more reckless in their actions when it came to he livesto- to the humans, they are just as human as the Entitled, was that not what Queen Seraphi wanted everyone to acknowledge? Was that not what she and my Brood died for? For humans of all worlds to be called and considered what they were?

"The Great Experiment caused her death, then."

"Yes. But I think- I think it was also her own self-disgust. She begged her son to kill her. She wasn't strong enough to change the Verse in the end."

Jupiter's jaw clenched, and she looked up. L-0182 saw something in her face so fierce it froze their breath.

"I won't be the same. I will be strong."

L-0182 shifted and looked at the youngling.

"You will take up the Great Experiment again?"

Jupiter looked straight into their eyes. The brown and green blazed.

"More than the Great Experiment. I'm going to take the Verse and set it free. Seraphi was always so narrow. She thought of only humans and the Regen-X. But there is so much more in the Verse. If Seraphi had been in my position, she would have killed you regardless of what she thought needed to be done for the humans on Harvesting Planets. Because you think for yourself. You are your own person. And that meant you didn't fit into her design."

The knowledge of the Cleansing will break her heart.

Jupiter's face took on a slightly wistful quality.

"I asked you before if you have a name and couldn't respond… What is your name?" her voice is soft, the sadness in there even more evident to L-0182.

They did not even think they had ever been asked such a thing in their life. They were not even Splices, who were often named. They held no human DNA, their species a product of the nearest galaxy, their people had been conquered by the humans of Oros long before their own Brooding. Bred in mass as creatures of the soil, of the caretakers of any sort of livestock and produce. They were not given true names. The name of their own species had been lost to time, as far as L-0182 could guess. Perhaps in the History Sheaves of the Entitled, there was more. But it was not for Keepers to see.

"If we had such a culture, it would have been lost before I was Brooded. I am designated as L-0182. As far as I am concerned, my name is to be Grey, youngling."

Jupiter stared at them eyes wide, gave a helpless sob.

"That's horrible."

Grey, as they had taken to name themselves-How defiant- could only shrug.

"I have known no other way. Not… Not even when Queen Seraphi attempted to change things. You were right to say that she was not concerned with us. Only of those that were pure Human. What were Splices, and other creatures to one such as her? Nothing."

Jupiter shuddered. Shook her head and made her tears fly. Grey scooted closer. The youngling held out her arms. A question, they could see. An Entitled would not have bothered to ask. They would have only taken. Carefully, Grey gathered her close. She pressed her warm face into the junction of their neck. Tears still fell, and shudders still made her body tremble. But Grey was content to let Jupiter Jones cry.

With a wordless chime, Grey rocked the impossibly youngling in their arms.